Just wanted to give a shout out for Deep Springs College. This is a 2 year college where students work 20 hours/week running a ranch. (And as far as I can tell they don't have a lazy river). (and it could be a good choice for some gifted students?). 20 hours of ranch work per week is probably a great stress reducer.
Traditionally, people have moved to cities and sent their children to college so that they would NOT have to do farm work or a lot of physical labor in general.
Yet Americorps, the Peace Corps, and Outward Bound type programs are popular with affluent families at a higher rate than population baseline...
At least when I looked at it 25yo ago, Deep Springs sent most of the grads to the Ivies or highly selective LACs... So perhaps viewing it as a ultra-small classically focused LAC combined with a 2year Outward Bound program could explain both its appeal and success.
