Thoughts on St. Olaf

[Anonymous]

DC is an Ole (nickname for St. Olaf students). Wildly happy there. The Piper Center offers amazing opportunities for career discernment, including trips over Spring Break to various cities, where students network with alumni in targeted fields. There are also professional development opportunities throughout the undergrad career.

https://wp.stolaf.edu/pipercenter/

All the talk up-thread about binge drinking because it is a "dryish" campus doesn't ring true to me; DC (a non-drinker) did not choose St. Olaf *because* of its alcohol policy (rather, for a specific academic program), but it is a nice perk, I guess.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DC is an Ole (nickname for St. Olaf students). Wildly happy there. The Piper Center offers amazing opportunities for career discernment, including trips over Spring Break to various cities, where students network with alumni in targeted fields. There are also professional development opportunities throughout the undergrad career.

https://wp.stolaf.edu/pipercenter/

All the talk up-thread about binge drinking because it is a "dryish" campus doesn't ring true to me; DC (a non-drinker) did not choose St. Olaf *because* of its alcohol policy (rather, for a specific academic program), but it is a nice perk, I guess.

I did not take the up thread on binge drinking to be an indictment of St. Olaf specifically, rather a caution that a dry campus is not always a perk and may give parents a false sense of security thinking their DC is tucking away hot chocolate and Pepsi because they are on a dry campus. Rather it was a warning that dry alcohol policies may drive a culture where alcohol is consumed but hidden, and students may be fearful of seeking help when help is needed because they don't want to get in trouble for violating the alcohol rules. You don't want a culture where students, especially freshmen, try to manage a bad situation themselves out of fear. Wet, dry or in-between students on campus are drinking and, as a parent, I prefer an environment where it is out in the open and nobody gets in trouble when they call for help. YMMV.

[Anonymous]

I went to St. Olaf (graduated a little over 10 years ago) and have done well career-wise, even after pursuing a double degree in music and a foreign language (currently am a fed in a niche foreign policy area). I think it's a very under-rated school--great professors and students, but not a high-pressure atmosphere like some higher-ranked schools. Even though it's a small school in a small town, there's a huge emphasis on foreign language study and studying abroad, which is perfect for someone interested in the State Department. It's also great for the sciences and of course, music. Since I was a music major, I loved that music was such a huge part of student life and they have an incredibly talented student body.

That said, I don't think it's the school for everyone. It's very small and most of the student body is from Minnesota and a few surrounding states. I had wonderful friends while I was there, but in many ways still felt like something of an outsider for various reasons (and I'm white and Christian). You have probably seen the recent news about racial issues there. This was not something widely discussed when I was a student, but it's true that it was an overwhelmingly white school then and still is. I know they try to recruit more minority students, but I think many people just don't feel that comfortable in such a homogenous student body.

When I graduated, there were only a few alums my age in the DC area, but that seems to have changed considerably. I am not involved at all in the alumni groups, but they have regular events and there seem to be many more students moving to DC after graduation so there are probably many more networking opportunities now than when I moved to DC.

[Anonymous]

Um Ya Ya!

[Anonymous]

I strongly encouraged DS (Class of 2015) to apply and we visited, though he is not a fan of the cold so he was fairly reluctant to go. He's a cellist and I thought he might really click with St. Olaf for that reason and others.

We visited over the summer, which was the only time it would work for us, but we did an official student visit day. We drove 7+ hours one way to the campus, so it was a serious visit - not something done on a lark.

I have to say I was very unimpressed overall and DS was, as well. I realize many qualified students apply to St. Olaf, but DS was on target to be a National Merit Scholar and he had already earned state-level awards for cello performance. Maybe it's naïve, but I thought they might be interested in him even a little bit and put forth even the smallest amount of effort to welcome him. That didn't happen. There were maybe 50-75 students visiting (plus parents) and it was just a cattle call. DS did meet with a cello instructor who was very pleasant and quite accomplished, but DS was not interested in a cello major and the professor was not really interested in talking about anything else related to the college.

The biggest red flag for me was that there was zero discussion of internship placement assistance, career placement assistance, or anything beyond graduation. I had read about The Piper Center, and we walked by it on a tour, but it was not touted whatsoever. I asked one professor about it and she was very vague in her response. My impression was that this is where you go before graduate school. Don't go to St. Olaf and then expect to enter your CAREER field immediately after.

Our visit was so bad that I felt the college was probably not as bad as it seemed and clearly they could improve their recruitment. In the end, DS did not even apply. As we were leaving, DH asked why we had put forth so much effort to visit with virtually nothing to show for it. I thought he had a good point.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I strongly encouraged DS (Class of 2015) to apply and we visited, though he is not a fan of the cold so he was fairly reluctant to go. He's a cellist and I thought he might really click with St. Olaf for that reason and others.

We visited over the summer, which was the only time it would work for us, but we did an official student visit day. We drove 7+ hours one way to the campus, so it was a serious visit - not something done on a lark.

I have to say I was very unimpressed overall and DS was, as well. I realize many qualified students apply to St. Olaf, but DS was on target to be a National Merit Scholar and he had already earned state-level awards for cello performance. Maybe it's naïve, but I thought they might be interested in him even a little bit and put forth even the smallest amount of effort to welcome him. That didn't happen. There were maybe 50-75 students visiting (plus parents) and it was just a cattle call. DS did meet with a cello instructor who was very pleasant and quite accomplished, but DS was not interested in a cello major and the professor was not really interested in talking about anything else related to the college.

The biggest red flag for me was that there was zero discussion of internship placement assistance, career placement assistance, or anything beyond graduation. I had read about The Piper Center, and we walked by it on a tour, but it was not touted whatsoever. I asked one professor about it and she was very vague in her response. My impression was that this is where you go before graduate school. Don't go to St. Olaf and then expect to enter your CAREER field immediately after.

Our visit was so bad that I felt the college was probably not as bad as it seemed and clearly they could improve their recruitment. In the end, DS did not even apply. As we were leaving, DH asked why we had put forth so much effort to visit with virtually nothing to show for it. I thought he had a good point.

You have to be one of the stupidest parents ever to post on DCUM.

You went to a general open day with as you say around 50 people, and expected a red carpet reception. Did you or your child make contact with any professors before hand and ask to meet them?

Your son isn't interested in being a cello major, he told the cello professor this and then expected him to be an enthusiastic ambassador for other majors. Seriously?

You drove 7 hours for this.

You are idiots. Your kid definitely shouldn't apply to St. Olaf

Can you not see where you have gone wrong, on each of these points?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I strongly encouraged DS (Class of 2015) to apply and we visited, though he is not a fan of the cold so he was fairly reluctant to go. He's a cellist and I thought he might really click with St. Olaf for that reason and others.

We visited over the summer, which was the only time it would work for us, but we did an official student visit day. We drove 7+ hours one way to the campus, so it was a serious visit - not something done on a lark.

I have to say I was very unimpressed overall and DS was, as well. I realize many qualified students apply to St. Olaf, but DS was on target to be a National Merit Scholar and he had already earned state-level awards for cello performance. Maybe it's naïve, but I thought they might be interested in him even a little bit and put forth even the smallest amount of effort to welcome him. That didn't happen. There were maybe 50-75 students visiting (plus parents) and it was just a cattle call. DS did meet with a cello instructor who was very pleasant and quite accomplished, but DS was not interested in a cello major and the professor was not really interested in talking about anything else related to the college.

The biggest red flag for me was that there was zero discussion of internship placement assistance, career placement assistance, or anything beyond graduation. I had read about The Piper Center, and we walked by it on a tour, but it was not touted whatsoever. I asked one professor about it and she was very vague in her response. My impression was that this is where you go before graduate school. Don't go to St. Olaf and then expect to enter your CAREER field immediately after.

Our visit was so bad that I felt the college was probably not as bad as it seemed and clearly they could improve their recruitment. In the end, DS did not even apply. As we were leaving, DH asked why we had put forth so much effort to visit with virtually nothing to show for it. I thought he had a good point.

We had the opposite experience with St. Olaf.
We attended during Minnesota Private Schools week so there was a large group. During registration DS had the opportunity to indicate subjects of interest where he wanted to meet faculty. He also marked that he was interested in football so we got connected with a math teacher, a biology teacher and the football coach. The faculty were open, friendly and very willing to spend time with him talking about their subjects. However, we didn't expect the bio guy to tell us about being an English major or the football coach to talk about playing the cello.

The football coach was beyond awesome and the reception they gave DS was incredible. They even had his name on a jersey and locker. When DS opened the locker there was a mirror that said "See yourself as an Ole"

If you have a bad visit, I'm thinking its more about your planning than St. Olaf's delivery. St. Olaf was a VERY strong second choice for DS. He was torn till the last minute but when the coach of his top choice emailed him to apply ED he did, so he didn't get the chance to be an Ole, but the whole process led me to believe that would have been very happy there and they are a fine school.

[Anonymous]

We were pretty wowed by St. Olaf's admissions game, from the handwritten postcards to the national interview at the U.S. Institute of Peace (v. cool building), where family members conversed with alumni and advancement officers while the student interviewed with the assigned admissions rep. (honestly, I felt like I was being interviewed as well, so was glad I had dressed appropriately, and not in my usual Saturday morning sweatpants!) Then, DC's on-campus interview weekend was a total class act.