<p>Bard not selective...29% is pretty selective...</p>
<p>I tend to think of it the other way, that true intellectuals are not interested in a "huge core curriculum" because they don't want to be told what to study, but instead want to follow their interests, whatever, and however many, they might be, to some level of depth, and in their own directions. I have always seen the alternative schools, Bard, Hampshire, Bennington, etc., where you literally create your own education, as being full of people who want to learn, talk about their work even at parties, etc. I also have known quite a few professors who feel that Oberlin has the students who are the best thinkers, not just grinds or grade grubbers.</p>
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Bard not selective...29% is pretty selective...
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You're right, they are more selective than the other two I mentioned. But at the same time they are very likely to take in a quirky/not necessarily high achieving student who shows great potential in other ways...ie. not selective in traditional ways, and therefore maybe appealing to the OP.</p>
<p>I still say it makes more sense to go to a diverse school and find a group of intellectuals, than to search for a school that is ‘intellectual’. If one is truly an intellectual, he can manage to find people to discuss literature, debate history, etc. It’s absurd to assert that all intellectuals go to a specific school, group of schools, or even kind of school. However, I would say that going to an elite college will net the desired outcome. Moreover, the idea of what constitutes ‘intellectual’ is pretty vague. I.E. some believe it’s attending a school like Columbia with a structured core system, and some think it’s attending a school like Brown with very few requirements. I say it can be, and probably is, both.</p>
<p>Dartmouth, Duke, and Princeton are all very intellectual.</p>
<p>What schools are there that don't grade (or release grades formally?)</p>
<p>I know Reed is one, and I believe St. John's grades on oral discussions...what others are there?</p>
<p>Taking what appears to be a different position from many people posting in answer to the OP's interesting question (which I asked, a few months ago, in a different thread), I might suggest the usual suspects: the research universities with the highest selectivity. Caltech, for example, certainly is full of smart students who like to discuss liberal arts subjects, if we agree that "liberal arts subjects" includes mathematics and the natural sciences. Harvard, Yale, or Princeton would include plenty of intellectual discussions of visual arts, history, music, literature, foreign languages, philosophy, and other subjects that perhaps the OP means when referring to "liberal arts subjects," if what is meant is non-sci-tech subjects. Colleges that select students the way the colleges I mention select students must be full of students who learn for learning's sake, or they wouldn't be able to maintain the high-school-age performance that gets them into those colleges. </p>
<p>Let's please discuss this further.</p>
<p>I go to Tufts, and it's quite intellectual.</p>
<p>Well I would like to second Teri Cotta and say St. Johns.
But I am a poor hopeful intellectual. So I would want to know about such colleges that offer generous aid and scholarships.
Especially since the true intellectuals of the great ages were tragically poor. lol</p>