<p>op here.
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<p>There has been some great input on this topic! It is appreciated. There is so much to weigh in looking at colleges and this is an important aspect to my D that isn’t something you can just look up. I suspect it is a question that many students have. For my D, she has strong stats; very good gpa, very good, but not perfect, test scores, and is in a rigorous HS program (IB). She finds that she likes the students in the program, their level of interest in academics, their relative lack of interest in being partiers, the lively and informed class discussions, but the intensity and competitive nature of many of the students…many of whom are now burning out, is a drawback. So, ideally she’d like to find a school that feels more laid back, but has academically engaged students. I’ve talked with many others on CC who seem to be looking for the same. </p>
<p>When she sees a school that looks good based on other criteria, but then notes that either her GPA or her scores put her comfortably in the top quartile of students in the school, it makes her wonder if she will find the type of students she is looking for there. Particularly in the smaller schools where the top quartile may not be a large number of students. For her purposes, she doesn’t seem to feel she needs to be surrounded by exceptionally smart students, but she does want to be surrounded by interested and engaged students, so again, the stats just don’t tell the whole story.</p>