Colgate?

[Anonymous]

Great programs and professors.

Very heavy frat culture, and substance abuse, misogyny, etc. issues that go with it. It's very, very homogeneous and feels like a prep school "gone wild". If your kid doesn't fit in with the frat / jock crowd, it will be a very long four years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Great programs and professors.

Very heavy frat culture, and substance abuse, misogyny, etc. issues that go with it. It's very, very homogeneous and feels like a prep school "gone wild". If your kid doesn't fit in with the frat / jock crowd, it will be a very long four years.

Ycch.

I would take a gap year over this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Colgate's admission rate this year was about 17% - low, but not quite in Amherst/Williams/Midd territory despite huge increase in applications.
Part of what's driving the spike in numbers at many competitive schools is applications from non-score-reporting applicants who would not previously have applied. And some of these applicants are shotgunning 20, 30+ applications just to see what sticks. Which means, at many schools, accepted students will have more options and yield will trend down. So the decline in admission rates is not linear.

Nope. Admission rate was 12% for class of 2026.

Where are those numbers? The school reported 17% but has not send out its CDS yet.

Seriously? 12 or 17% Who cares people.

This kind of thinking is what has the lucky boy feeling like a failure. It is warped.

It’s 12% (11.8%). Call admissions and ask if you don’t believe facts. Colgate reported 17% for 2021’s admittance of the class of 2025. For this year, the class of 2026, it was 12%.

I guess you missed the part about "who cares."

[Anonymous]

If it’s going to give your kid a chip on the shoulder, then by all means, do what you need to do to get into the better schools.

[Anonymous]

If it’s going to give your kid a chip on the shoulder, then by all means, do what you need to do to get into the better schools

No, don't. Your son is already in an excellent school. He'll get a fine education at Colgate (assuming he studies) and when he emerges and proceeds with his career will be (correctly) perceived as having gone to an elite college. The annual WSJ college survey asks recent alums if they think their alma mater (1) was "the right choice," (2) had an "inspiring" student body, and (3) was "worth the cost." Colgate's recent alums not only rank it highly (8.6, 8.2 and 8.6 of 10 respectively), but on all three measures, Colgate grads give their school higher rankings than grads of Penn, Columbia, Cornell, Northwestern, Hopkins, Amherst, and Hamilton give theirs. Again, on all three measures. People who go to Colgate generally like it, if anything more than people who attend comparable (what PP calls "better") schools like theirs.

Your kid is, to be frank, having an exaggerated, silly and immature reaction to a very minor "setback," and attaching a wholly unwarranted significance to what are actually relatively minor distinctions among top ranked schools and the students who attend them (seriously, in the real world - outside of college applicants and their hysterical parents on DCUM -- how many people find the quality of individuals is stratified by the college ranking of their alma mater?). Freshman get to their chosen college having a whole lot of preconceived notions about what that school will be like, and whether it's a good 'fit' - then after a few months of freshman fall partying, the actual lived experience of classes and activities and friendships and off-campus life take over. You'd be doing the most to help your son deal with this "situation" ( ) and grow up if you pushed/compelled him to attend Colgate and agreed to let him decide only after a year (not say the first six weeks) if he wants to transfer to a different school that offers something Colgate doesn't and accepts him.

And ignore the periodic undeserved trashing of Colgate on this site -- it's mostly from people who aren't familiar with Colgate (you'll note most of the critiques are either second hand or from someone who once briefly visited the campus). You don't have to scratch too deep to realize some of this is probably from people who feel they or their kid wouldn't fit in with Colgate's happy, well-adjusted student body.

[Anonymous]

Grew up in a place where Colgate literally meant toothpaste. Like we say “you can google it”, we said did you Colgate today. Can't shake that association. What do you do if a toothpaste is 10000x more we'll known than your college? Hard PR problem.

Not a problem here in the eastern US, where Colgate is a very highly regarded 200-year old college. What you're saying might be charming where you come from, maybe, but honestly think you'd do best not to project your own ignorance onto another environment where it's not in the least bit applicable.

[Anonymous]

Wow, PP is really insecure/thin-skinned. It is not ignorance - the toothpaste brand is better known. That doesn't mean Colgate isn't a very good school or anyway diminish it. (As opposed to say, its misogynistic/frat bro reputation).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Great programs and professors.

Very heavy frat culture, and substance abuse, misogyny, etc. issues that go with it. It's very, very homogeneous and feels like a prep school "gone wild". If your kid doesn't fit in with the frat / jock crowd, it will be a very long four years.

This. Check college confidential — significant history of sexual assault issues.

I am aware of young women who attended who are still in counseling several years after graduating.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wow, PP is really insecure/thin-skinned. It is not ignorance - the toothpaste brand is better known. That doesn't mean Colgate isn't a very good school or anyway diminish it. (As opposed to say, its misogynistic/frat bro reputation).

The college is named after the Colgate family, just as the toothpaste is. Same family.

"Instruction began in 1820, and three years later the school became known as the Hamilton Literary and Theological Institution. The name was changed to Madison University in 1846 and, in 1890, to Colgate, honouring the philanthropy of soapmaker William Colgate and his family."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Colgate's admission rate this year was about 17% - low, but not quite in Amherst/Williams/Midd territory despite huge increase in applications.
Part of what's driving the spike in numbers at many competitive schools is applications from non-score-reporting applicants who would not previously have applied. And some of these applicants are shotgunning 20, 30+ applications just to see what sticks. Which means, at many schools, accepted students will have more options and yield will trend down. So the decline in admission rates is not linear.

Nope. Admission rate was 12% for class of 2026.

Where are those numbers? The school reported 17% but has not send out its CDS yet.

Seriously? 12 or 17% Who cares people.

This kind of thinking is what has the lucky boy feeling like a failure. It is warped.

People who understand math care.

No, we actually don't.