Beware of Small Liberal Arts Colleges if you're not on a sport
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Anonymous
This was similar to my experience at Williams. My team actually facilitated a lot of socioeconomic mixing but I ran xc/track and it’s not a class-exclusive sport like squash or tennis where there was hardly any socioeconomic diversity. I will say that I really did not see designer clothes often. I did have the experience of borrowing a friend’s dress for a dance and someone who I didn’t know said to me as I was leaving the bathroom “that’s from last season” which was obviously intended to be a dig. At the time the dress was so much nicer than anything I owned and the idea of only wearing a dress for one season was absurd (still is), so the comment just rolled off my back. The socioeconomic stuff is a thing on every campus but there are not a lot of ways you can spend money in Williamstown so I never spent money on alcohol beyond team dues ($40 a season for drinkers and $30 for non drinkers) and I ate out like once or twice a semester - not often. I wanted to add about teams that it’s hard too if you walk away from your sport junior or senior year due to injury or to spend more time on schoolwork or pursue other things as social life can revolve around the sports team especially if it’s multiple seasons like crew or running. But that would probably be true at any college. |
Anonymous
Same here. I went to a SLAC (2200) and was on a freshman floor of almost entirely music majors (and I was not). I still became friends with most of them although they were all off practicing their instruments for hours each day. Outside of my floor I found friends in all sorts of walks of life--from class, a camping group I was part of, a religious group, a pre-med group, friends of friends, and on and on and on. I guess it helped that I've always been pretty social but I really did not have to work hard to connect with people. |
Anonymous
+1 for me it was a music group. DS is at a huge university and really stuck with his HS friends because he didn't want to join stuff. Finally started extending beyond that core group when he started taking classes more regularly in his major and made friends that way and now in junior year is on a rec soccer team. DD goes to a LAC. One semester in, yes, the main group she says she hangs out with are kids from her dorm but she's also in a music group so has friends through that, and her major is one of the largest on campus and has several clubs related to it so she's building relationships through that too. She has mentioned that the athletes tend to hang out together but also that one of the guys in her group is on the football team so it's not like it's an absolute separation. She really preferred the small schools but was sure to find someplace where she could continue music as one built-in social group + had a substantial program for her major vs. just a few students. |
Anonymous
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I don't know why anyone would want such a small universe
sorry ~ large state school preference here |
Anonymous
| word to the wise about radio and newspaper - those aren't generally social, radio in particular. you may have a zoom once a term, but otherwise you get your time slot and then you're alone in a booth - or at some schools - broadcasting from your own laptop in your own room. Newspapers also a lot of assignments, not a lot of milling about a newsroom like an old movie. |
Anonymous
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Bowdoin Athletics (enrollment: 1915 students)
MEN'S SPORTS Baseball Basketball Cross Country Football Golf Ice Hockey Lacrosse Nordic Skiing Sailing Soccer Squash Swimming & Diving Tennis Track & Field Rugby Rowing WOMEN'S SPORTS Basketball Cross Country Field Hockey Golf Ice Hockey Lacrosse Nordic Skiing Rugby Sailing Soccer Softball Squash Swimming & Diving Tennis Track & Field Volleyball Rowing |
Anonymous
Because you have your whole life to live in larger more anonymous groups--and this is a chance to focus on your studies and bond with a relatively smaller group that has a comparatively strong personal identification with each other and to be able to develop close ties to professors. It's a failure of imagination to not 'know why anyone would want' something that is obviously desirable to plenty of people. I can know why you want a large school even though it wasn't my own preference. |
Anonymous
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It's gotta be Bowdoin. You're either a jock, or you're not.
Kid needs to join one of the intermural club teams, IMHO. It will be good for their health and socializing. |
Anonymous
+1 And why would someone want to live in a small town vs a big city or work for a small company vs. a huge one. Pros and cons to both. My kids are very different, one chose a huge university and the other a tiny college. I don't love either since my mid-sized university was the right choice for me. They both seem to be getting the experience they wanted and would likely be miserable at their sibling's school. |
Anonymous
| my dd went to dickinson, loved it, was super involved. Now working in private equity because of alum connections! |
Anonymous
| why we still admire colleges that recruit for things like sailing is really beyond me. |
Anonymous
The Centennial Conference is the new NESCAC! Better weather too. |
Anonymous
Schools should cut or threaten to cut these rich sports and then make them self-fund via endowment or get rid of them. What happened at Stanford wasn't pretty but it made the sports sustainable. |
Anonymous
| My sister is autistic (would be considered high functioning, if that classification were still used today). She also does not really drink, and never has (maybe one beer or glass of wine every other month max). She went to a SLAC and met people through a community service sorority. She is not religious and does not play a sport. TBH, she only stayed in touch with one of the women after college, but she considered them friends while she was there and had people to eat with, do stuff with on weekends etc. |
Anonymous
| What is Colgate like? DD is applying there- she is a no-sports, no sorority, studious kid. |