http://http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-04-04/the-50-most-stressful-colleges/#gallery=1470;page=51
Carefully consider you child's choice for college. What type of child is she/he? Can they withstand intense competitiveness and all of the intense pressures when leaving home or will they end up homeless pushing shopping carts because they "lost it" either from drugs (trying to cope) or underlying mental illness like... many of the math/engineering/physics majors at UC Berkeley (where I went to school) or even worse committing suicide from the 3rd floor rotunda at MIT (which has an incredibly high suicide rate). You may think you have prepared your child for the best of the best, however, I urge you to think again based on your child not on the ranking of the school academically, or because it is your alma mater, you want to brag to people at the country club that your kid goes to an IVY or Top 10 in world report....They can do that for Grad School where they will be most likely better adapted to handle the intense pressure after 4 years.
I have known so many students that have gone from a 4.0+/g.p.a. AP student in high school to getting there first A- or lower (if graded on the curve and you have two future nobel laureates in your class that are killing the curve) and it is absolutely devistating to them. For so many different reasons (I won't go into, I do have to work LOL) but psycologically it can blow them so hard it ruins them. There self esteem which was once high is now shattered and they begin the spiral of self doubt....
Instead of seeking professional help (although available at some schools, Im not talking academic counselors, I'm talking Psychiatrists or Mental Health Counselors, would be considered weak) or talking to their parents which they now think they are most certainly going to disappoint because they received a lower grade they either, keep trying, give up, drink or do drugs trying to self medicate, or have some underlying mental issue that makes them completely snap (which is why I am writing this) I saw too many students at UC Berkeley, push shopping carts, live on the street because they just couldnt handle the stress.
One in particular Rawr Man could tell you any baseball statistic in the time since base ball has been played. Another was a brilliant physics doctorate student when I got there he was 50ish wearing a dress, sleeping in the bushes and if you sat near enough (if you could stand the smell) you would hear the most fascinating discussions occuring between a group of homeless men that you never thought you would hear. Particle physics, Newton, all with huge gesticulations. They would get drunk when they could go on for hours, sometimes incoherent, then maybe fight. It wasn't over a girl or something dumb...it was over a difference in an equation or theory.
Can you imagine if we had a place that made them feel safe enough to discuss what they were discussing in the streets, dirty with dresses and smelly but in an environment that was OK with their mental illness what we could actually study and listen too? I am sure that with all their craziness there is still much underlying brilliance to be had, it just needs a conduit so that it can get out and be noticed....
I sure hope that your children are in the proper environment to learn without that much stress. I hope that I can help my kids choose wisely. I'm not sure that is possible, one already wants to go to summer camp at MIT for robotics.....at 9.
Ok I am done with my rant at the moment.....
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