I finally figured out what an "Ivy League" is-it turned out to be a sports league, and there are also "big vines", "small vines" and "Super Five". Go to Baidu, I'm too lazy to list. Either the most famous is the best, and many "small vines" are not as good as excellent universities outside the "rattan school".
Princeton and Yale in the "Big Rattan" are idyllic, located in small towns not far from big cities, and are ivory towers far away from the hubbub, which are conducive to students' undivided attention and healthy growth.
Similar to Cambridge and Oxford, Princeton and Yale also implement the residential college system. Freshmen are divided into residential college according to their major, so they can't choose their own roommates. But senior students are free to choose colleges and roommates. Young people learn from each other's strong points and can usually build long-term friendship. After graduation, alumni will also support their younger generation.
Like many comprehensive private universities in the United States, Yale and Princeton have excellent undergraduate education regardless of their majors. The school implements the concept of holistic education, and every student must take enough humanities, social sciences and science courses. They are free to choose their major after four years in school and change their major at any time. The school emphasizes quality education. In order to help students develop in an all-round way, the school's extracurricular activities are very rich, which is also the best way to establish intimate relationships between students.
The subject setting of the undergraduate course in the school is very complete. Most courses are taught in small classes with no more than 20 students. Professors can pay attention to every student, and even arrange senior students to give one-on-one counseling to students with difficulties. The school also appoints a professor as a course tutor and research tutor for each student to guide them in course selection, major selection and thesis research.
In order to implement the concept of "learning-oriented" in Princeton, students usually find their own thesis topics according to their own interests, and the tutor only provides research and experimental conditions. Compared with research universities, the research level of this kind of papers may not be high and has no practical significance, but it allows students to explore their own scientific research interests and lay the foundation for future scientific research.
Princeton is strict with students, and students may not have much time and energy to spend on extracurricular activities to finish their graduation thesis. Yale, on the other hand, has no such high standards. Although students are also required to study many courses, they are relatively loose in giving points. Half of the students in a course can get an A-level. Yale believes that learning is students' own business, and it depends more on students' autonomy than coercion. In addition, the school does not want students to spend all their time and energy on their studies, which will delay the all-round development of other qualities.
In addition, Yale, whose mission is to train future leaders, emphasizes students' sense of social responsibility. It advocates freedom and pays attention to protecting students' independent thinking and judgment ability, so that they can lead the future of themselves and society. During the Vietnam War, it resisted the request of the American government in the name of academic privilege, protected young people who opposed the war and evaded military service, and gave students the freedom to choose independently. Perseverance and free will are the essence of Yale spirit.
Finally, the most enviable thing is their library. Princeton has 65,438+00 libraries. The largest Flint Library has a collection of130,000 volumes, half of which are paper books and half are microfilms. The five-story underground building covers the whole square and the underground of the church.
Yale has more than 20 libraries with a total paper collection of12.7 million volumes. The largest Stirling Memorial Library is like a Gothic church. In order to protect books, the Rare and Orphan Library uses 3 cm thick slightly transparent marble as the external wall without any windows.
The ideal university described by Newman allows young people to roam freely in the ocean of knowledge. Thanks to the inheritance of universities, the popularity of the Internet and education, everyone can have their own library dream, which can really be realized.