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I would like to go to an academically challenging college or university that is not so intense as to create huge amounts of stress. I am looking for an intellectually challenging place where there aren't so many people in the library at 10:00 each night -- where students have a life outside of their studies, too. Is there such a place? How would you rank these potential destinations in terms of intensity levels: Brandeis, Brown, Columbia, Barnard, Macalester, Colorado College, Washington U St. Louis, and Stanford? Are there others that should be on the list? Thanks for your insights.

By Celebrian23 (Celebrian23) on Saturday, October 02, 2004 - 09:09 pm: Edit

my list from most to least intense:

1.Stanford
2.Brown
3.Columbia
4.Barnard
5.Washington U.
6.Macalester
7.Brandeis
8.colorado college

By Pyewacket (Pyewacket) on Monday, October 04, 2004 - 06:29 pm: Edit

Brown is intense in terms of admissions but you can choose your own intensity level when you are enrolled there--many students there have strong interests outside of pure academics and grades, but if you want challenge you can find it.

By Thekev (Thekev) on Monday, October 04, 2004 - 08:59 pm: Edit

Look at U of Miami in addition to Colorado College

By Burutzagiuribe (Burutzagiuribe) on Thursday, October 07, 2004 - 10:51 pm: Edit

brown deserves to be ranked at least second on that list, maybe first. stanford has MASSIVE institutional grade inflation, and while brown can be easy for those who abuse the system (like .1% of students) it's really hard for everyone else.

By Pyewacket (Pyewacket) on Friday, October 08, 2004 - 05:51 pm: Edit

Perhaps I have misunderstood "intensity" here. Do you mean how hard is it to get A's at these schools or do you mean how much work do courses require so that you can feel " prepared for class" and not fall behind?

By Carolyn (Carolyn) on Friday, October 08, 2004 - 07:34 pm: Edit

Colorado College is pretty intense from what I understand. Because of their block schedule, you take a single course every three weeks ---- on that compressed schedule you can bet you don't have time to slack off much. However, some people may find concentrating on just one course at a time to be less stressful. For myself, I would think it would be more stressful to cram a full semester's work into such a compressed time period.