Favorite College that changes lives?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our oldest just started at Beloit this year. He really likes it. Small classes, engaged professors, more relaxed vibe. And I really can't complain that it costs the same as our average state school.

I thought Beloit looked really great, kind of a less obnoxious Reed or Bard, but I could not sell my kid on Wisconsin.

My sibling and I both went there; we're west coasters. It was a great experience for both of us. One thing that was important to both of us was study abroad opportunities -- we both spent one full year abroad with no issues.

For better or for worse, it doesn't have the most Wisconsin-y vibes... the closest meaningful airport is O'Hare and a pretty big chunk of people go there from Chicago and Chicagoland.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My nephew attends College of Wooster and loves it. They have a cool thesis programs for
seniors.

This is one of ours. I honestly wasn't sure dc would get accepted, they're more selective than some others and I know they're popular. I have a friend who went there about fifteen years ago and loved it and has done quite well in a very tough and very popular field. Wooster's even moved to the top of my list, but they're farther away than I'd like and there are some closer options that also do capstone projects and offer many things that seem similar.

Wooster does seem like it's in good financial shape, and the merit was good.

My dd attended Wooster for 3 semesters and then transferred. Granted, she was there during the height of Covid so she did not have a traditional experience. But the reality for her was very different based upon what she expected from several visits.

Dorms: Research this. You can’t choose (understandable) as a freshman but some dorms are fairly new with A/C and some are literally falling apart. The dorm sophomore year was so bad that dh was worried about leaving her there. Read articles about the bats, etc. in the dorms.

Finances: Check our recent issues of the school newspaper (dd occasionally still reads it and mentioned it). They are making some changes to reduce expenses. I’m not saying they are close to closing but some of the changes may affect the school going forward.

The school has a new president since dd was there. The former president is now at Whitman…

I thought they had one of the healthier endowments. I could be wrong.

I know a lot of these kinds of schools are eliminating or consolidating some majors. That's one of my concerns. Don't want to sign up for one kind of experience and have it change. It looks like Allegheny did that recently, and I'm not sure what to think. In general, that's one that confuses me: there are some things I really really like (and I think Meadville sounds okay, I know it has its detractors), and some things I'm uncertain about (social stuff).

It's also a little bit of a relief to hear something negative about Wooster. When dcurbanmom gets too glowingly positive it makes me nervous. Not because I think the posts are fake, but because I' don't always share the same opinions about what is valued.

There are probably a lot of LAC admissions reps posting. They tend to be the most militant and most unaccepting of differing experiences, thoughts, and opinions.

College of Wooster gets a lot of positive reviews largely because it awards a lot of merit scholarships. This is a true positive.

Uh, maybe because Wooster is almost $75K a year so it HAS to discount the COA for some applicants? https://wooster.edu/admissions/afford/tuition-and-aid/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My nephew attends College of Wooster and loves it. They have a cool thesis programs for
seniors.

This is one of ours. I honestly wasn't sure dc would get accepted, they're more selective than some others and I know they're popular. I have a friend who went there about fifteen years ago and loved it and has done quite well in a very tough and very popular field. Wooster's even moved to the top of my list, but they're farther away than I'd like and there are some closer options that also do capstone projects and offer many things that seem similar.

Wooster does seem like it's in good financial shape, and the merit was good.

My dd attended Wooster for 3 semesters and then transferred. Granted, she was there during the height of Covid so she did not have a traditional experience. But the reality for her was very different based upon what she expected from several visits.

Dorms: Research this. You can’t choose (understandable) as a freshman but some dorms are fairly new with A/C and some are literally falling apart. The dorm sophomore year was so bad that dh was worried about leaving her there. Read articles about the bats, etc. in the dorms.

Finances: Check our recent issues of the school newspaper (dd occasionally still reads it and mentioned it). They are making some changes to reduce expenses. I’m not saying they are close to closing but some of the changes may affect the school going forward.

The school has a new president since dd was there. The former president is now at Whitman…

The dumpiest dorm I've seen is at Williams College and the second dumpiest right next to that one, so go figure.

That is great, except we know that anyone on this thread - including you - doesn’t have a kid in the running for Williams.

Three generations and going strong.

Not for all of your kids obviously

???

[Anonymous]

In the interests of sharing the good and bad, I posted earlier that my DD is happy at Juniata (and I'm not an admissions rep LOL). After one semester, these are her complaints... She ended up in what has the reputation as the crappiest dorm and although she is very happy with her room, says the showers are gross. The dining hall doesn't know how to make rice properly, in her opinion (and she usually eats a lot of rice). It was hard to set up a schedule she liked because the introductory environmental science class series is a 3-hour block once a week, limiting the ability to schedule Tu/Th classes or M/Wed classes around that. That won't be an issue after this semester. She had to take intro biology and ES despite strong IB scores in those since they are foundational major classes. So, 1st semester was not very challenging (but she was also sick a lot at the start of the year so I'm glad she had a fairly easy intro). I think bio did improve as the semester went on because by winter break she was saying she wanted to add more biology classes to her program. Also, at least in the 1st semester, there was a lack of good group lounge places for hanging out away from your room. Her dorm lounge is on the guys floor so she said none of the girls used it. But part of that was that the library/learning commons was under construction. It just opened and does have a "living room" area that she likes.

All in all, I don't think she has any more complaints than my son had at a big school and she's happy with her choice and seemed to make friends and get involved more quickly than son did at big school. Things I thought were potential cons -- very small, middle-of-nowhere town, lack of public transit (she doesn't have a car), basement gym that was not as nice as others we toured -- are not issues for her at all. She says the town has everything she needs and can walk or easily get a ride to anything. The gym just got all new equipment and she never has trouble getting to use a treadmill when she wants to.

[Anonymous]

if I were a small school, I'd get the food right. even our HS does excellent food. you need on site scratch cooking - fewer entrees, better ingredients. plus some signature moves like fresh baked bread at dinner or cookies or interesting ice cream flavors .. none of which would be too hard.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our oldest just started at Beloit this year. He really likes it. Small classes, engaged professors, more relaxed vibe. And I really can't complain that it costs the same as our average state school.

I thought Beloit looked really great, kind of a less obnoxious Reed or Bard, but I could not sell my kid on Wisconsin.

My sibling and I both went there; we're west coasters. It was a great experience for both of us. One thing that was important to both of us was study abroad opportunities -- we both spent one full year abroad with no issues.

For better or for worse, it doesn't have the most Wisconsin-y vibes... the closest meaningful airport is O'Hare and a pretty big chunk of people go there from Chicago and Chicagoland.

You can study abroad with “no issues” while attending virtually any college or university in this country. Beloit is by no means special when it comes to that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My nephew attends College of Wooster and loves it. They have a cool thesis programs for
seniors.

This is one of ours. I honestly wasn't sure dc would get accepted, they're more selective than some others and I know they're popular. I have a friend who went there about fifteen years ago and loved it and has done quite well in a very tough and very popular field. Wooster's even moved to the top of my list, but they're farther away than I'd like and there are some closer options that also do capstone projects and offer many things that seem similar.

Wooster does seem like it's in good financial shape, and the merit was good.

My dd attended Wooster for 3 semesters and then transferred. Granted, she was there during the height of Covid so she did not have a traditional experience. But the reality for her was very different based upon what she expected from several visits.

Dorms: Research this. You can’t choose (understandable) as a freshman but some dorms are fairly new with A/C and some are literally falling apart. The dorm sophomore year was so bad that dh was worried about leaving her there. Read articles about the bats, etc. in the dorms.

Finances: Check our recent issues of the school newspaper (dd occasionally still reads it and mentioned it). They are making some changes to reduce expenses. I’m not saying they are close to closing but some of the changes may affect the school going forward.

The school has a new president since dd was there. The former president is now at Whitman…

I thought they had one of the healthier endowments. I could be wrong.

I know a lot of these kinds of schools are eliminating or consolidating some majors. That's one of my concerns. Don't want to sign up for one kind of experience and have it change. It looks like Allegheny did that recently, and I'm not sure what to think. In general, that's one that confuses me: there are some things I really really like (and I think Meadville sounds okay, I know it has its detractors), and some things I'm uncertain about (social stuff).

It's also a little bit of a relief to hear something negative about Wooster. When dcurbanmom gets too glowingly positive it makes me nervous. Not because I think the posts are fake, but because I' don't always share the same opinions about what is valued.

There are probably a lot of LAC admissions reps posting. They tend to be the most militant and most unaccepting of differing experiences, thoughts, and opinions.

College of Wooster gets a lot of positive reviews largely because it awards a lot of merit scholarships. This is a true positive.

Uh, maybe because Wooster is almost $75K a year so it HAS to discount the COA for some applicants? https://wooster.edu/admissions/afford/tuition-and-aid/

It's their (and other similar colleges) strategy--they give significant merit aid to highly qualified students to make it as affordable/more affordable than in-state public schools, they give some merit aid to good students to make it more affordable than other similarly priced SLACs and they enroll some full-pay--or v close to full-pay-- students with spottier applications than higher ranked SLACs. Financial aid is usually generous for qualified students who come from limited means. It's not a bad model, really as you get a fairly diverse student body in terms of SES and academic strength. The rich full-pay students usually don't drop out because they have the resources to keep going even if they aren't the strongest students and their career outcomes are likely to be fine because of family connections/support.
They are basically paying full fare to have stronger students around them. Everyone else is strong enough to do fine and has a better ROI because they are not paying the very high cost. "Donut hole" families often find these schools are the most affordable ones due to merit aid if their in-state options are not attractive. You don't get the 'bimodal' distribution of poor and rich kids that you get at the more higher ranked private schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In the interests of sharing the good and bad, I posted earlier that my DD is happy at Juniata (and I'm not an admissions rep LOL). After one semester, these are her complaints... She ended up in what has the reputation as the crappiest dorm and although she is very happy with her room, says the showers are gross. The dining hall doesn't know how to make rice properly, in her opinion (and she usually eats a lot of rice). It was hard to set up a schedule she liked because the introductory environmental science class series is a 3-hour block once a week, limiting the ability to schedule Tu/Th classes or M/Wed classes around that. That won't be an issue after this semester. She had to take intro biology and ES despite strong IB scores in those since they are foundational major classes. So, 1st semester was not very challenging (but she was also sick a lot at the start of the year so I'm glad she had a fairly easy intro). I think bio did improve as the semester went on because by winter break she was saying she wanted to add more biology classes to her program. Also, at least in the 1st semester, there was a lack of good group lounge places for hanging out away from your room. Her dorm lounge is on the guys floor so she said none of the girls used it. But part of that was that the library/learning commons was under construction. It just opened and does have a "living room" area that she likes.

All in all, I don't think she has any more complaints than my son had at a big school and she's happy with her choice and seemed to make friends and get involved more quickly than son did at big school. Things I thought were potential cons -- very small, middle-of-nowhere town, lack of public transit (she doesn't have a car), basement gym that was not as nice as others we toured -- are not issues for her at all. She says the town has everything she needs and can walk or easily get a ride to anything. The gym just got all new equipment and she never has trouble getting to use a treadmill when she wants to.

Well, that's a new entitled complaint! Buy her a rice maker. End of problem. She can haul the cooked rice to the dining hall.

[Anonymous]

Evergreen State College is the poster child for what’s wrong with the CTCL list. It accepts virtually everyone who applies, a full one-third of its students are gone after freshman year, and only 1/3 of an entering class graduates in four years. Why on earth would that school be selected out of hundreds if not thousands of no name state colleges as being a college that “changes lives?” It’s just nuts, and it calls into question the entire list.

Every one of these schools needs to be judged on its own merits, and the list as a whole or as an aggregate needs to be thrown out the window.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In the interests of sharing the good and bad, I posted earlier that my DD is happy at Juniata (and I'm not an admissions rep LOL). After one semester, these are her complaints... She ended up in what has the reputation as the crappiest dorm and although she is very happy with her room, says the showers are gross. The dining hall doesn't know how to make rice properly, in her opinion (and she usually eats a lot of rice). It was hard to set up a schedule she liked because the introductory environmental science class series is a 3-hour block once a week, limiting the ability to schedule Tu/Th classes or M/Wed classes around that. That won't be an issue after this semester. She had to take intro biology and ES despite strong IB scores in those since they are foundational major classes. So, 1st semester was not very challenging (but she was also sick a lot at the start of the year so I'm glad she had a fairly easy intro). I think bio did improve as the semester went on because by winter break she was saying she wanted to add more biology classes to her program. Also, at least in the 1st semester, there was a lack of good group lounge places for hanging out away from your room. Her dorm lounge is on the guys floor so she said none of the girls used it. But part of that was that the library/learning commons was under construction. It just opened and does have a "living room" area that she likes.

All in all, I don't think she has any more complaints than my son had at a big school and she's happy with her choice and seemed to make friends and get involved more quickly than son did at big school. Things I thought were potential cons -- very small, middle-of-nowhere town, lack of public transit (she doesn't have a car), basement gym that was not as nice as others we toured -- are not issues for her at all. She says the town has everything she needs and can walk or easily get a ride to anything. The gym just got all new equipment and she never has trouble getting to use a treadmill when she wants to.

Well, that's a new entitled complaint! Buy her a rice maker. End of problem. She can haul the cooked rice to the dining hall.

LOL of course it's a silly complaint! No place is perfect and her annoyances are, IMO for the most part minor and/or short-lived things. But people complained about people only sharing positives. So, for better or worse, these are the minor things she's complained about.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In the interests of sharing the good and bad, I posted earlier that my DD is happy at Juniata (and I'm not an admissions rep LOL). After one semester, these are her complaints... She ended up in what has the reputation as the crappiest dorm and although she is very happy with her room, says the showers are gross. The dining hall doesn't know how to make rice properly, in her opinion (and she usually eats a lot of rice). It was hard to set up a schedule she liked because the introductory environmental science class series is a 3-hour block once a week, limiting the ability to schedule Tu/Th classes or M/Wed classes around that. That won't be an issue after this semester. She had to take intro biology and ES despite strong IB scores in those since they are foundational major classes. So, 1st semester was not very challenging (but she was also sick a lot at the start of the year so I'm glad she had a fairly easy intro). I think bio did improve as the semester went on because by winter break she was saying she wanted to add more biology classes to her program. Also, at least in the 1st semester, there was a lack of good group lounge places for hanging out away from your room. Her dorm lounge is on the guys floor so she said none of the girls used it. But part of that was that the library/learning commons was under construction. It just opened and does have a "living room" area that she likes.

All in all, I don't think she has any more complaints than my son had at a big school and she's happy with her choice and seemed to make friends and get involved more quickly than son did at big school. Things I thought were potential cons -- very small, middle-of-nowhere town, lack of public transit (she doesn't have a car), basement gym that was not as nice as others we toured -- are not issues for her at all. She says the town has everything she needs and can walk or easily get a ride to anything. The gym just got all new equipment and she never has trouble getting to use a treadmill when she wants to.

^^ all correct but IMHE the merit offers from expensive slacs like my own don't bring the costs down to match instate. People here want to believe that but as a donut hole family (zero from FAFSA), the merit offers didn't come near to in-state so both kids went Virginia. Apply only to what you can afford or what the NPC says you can afford (take a screenshot of that!). Sure throw in a few slacs for fun but in the end most of us reading this forum will not get big merit aid packages from slacs

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In the interests of sharing the good and bad, I posted earlier that my DD is happy at Juniata (and I'm not an admissions rep LOL). After one semester, these are her complaints... She ended up in what has the reputation as the crappiest dorm and although she is very happy with her room, says the showers are gross. The dining hall doesn't know how to make rice properly, in her opinion (and she usually eats a lot of rice). It was hard to set up a schedule she liked because the introductory environmental science class series is a 3-hour block once a week, limiting the ability to schedule Tu/Th classes or M/Wed classes around that. That won't be an issue after this semester. She had to take intro biology and ES despite strong IB scores in those since they are foundational major classes. So, 1st semester was not very challenging (but she was also sick a lot at the start of the year so I'm glad she had a fairly easy intro). I think bio did improve as the semester went on because by winter break she was saying she wanted to add more biology classes to her program. Also, at least in the 1st semester, there was a lack of good group lounge places for hanging out away from your room. Her dorm lounge is on the guys floor so she said none of the girls used it. But part of that was that the library/learning commons was under construction. It just opened and does have a "living room" area that she likes.

All in all, I don't think she has any more complaints than my son had at a big school and she's happy with her choice and seemed to make friends and get involved more quickly than son did at big school. Things I thought were potential cons -- very small, middle-of-nowhere town, lack of public transit (she doesn't have a car), basement gym that was not as nice as others we toured -- are not issues for her at all. She says the town has everything she needs and can walk or easily get a ride to anything. The gym just got all new equipment and she never has trouble getting to use a treadmill when she wants to.

Well, that's a new entitled complaint! Buy her a rice maker. End of problem. She can haul the cooked rice to the dining hall.

With all of the rice she is eating it’s a good thing she likes that treadmill because she’s gonna need it. Lol.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In the interests of sharing the good and bad, I posted earlier that my DD is happy at Juniata (and I'm not an admissions rep LOL). After one semester, these are her complaints... She ended up in what has the reputation as the crappiest dorm and although she is very happy with her room, says the showers are gross. The dining hall doesn't know how to make rice properly, in her opinion (and she usually eats a lot of rice). It was hard to set up a schedule she liked because the introductory environmental science class series is a 3-hour block once a week, limiting the ability to schedule Tu/Th classes or M/Wed classes around that. That won't be an issue after this semester. She had to take intro biology and ES despite strong IB scores in those since they are foundational major classes. So, 1st semester was not very challenging (but she was also sick a lot at the start of the year so I'm glad she had a fairly easy intro). I think bio did improve as the semester went on because by winter break she was saying she wanted to add more biology classes to her program. Also, at least in the 1st semester, there was a lack of good group lounge places for hanging out away from your room. Her dorm lounge is on the guys floor so she said none of the girls used it. But part of that was that the library/learning commons was under construction. It just opened and does have a "living room" area that she likes.

All in all, I don't think she has any more complaints than my son had at a big school and she's happy with her choice and seemed to make friends and get involved more quickly than son did at big school. Things I thought were potential cons -- very small, middle-of-nowhere town, lack of public transit (she doesn't have a car), basement gym that was not as nice as others we toured -- are not issues for her at all. She says the town has everything she needs and can walk or easily get a ride to anything. The gym just got all new equipment and she never has trouble getting to use a treadmill when she wants to.

^^ all correct but IMHE the merit offers from expensive slacs like my own don't bring the costs down to match instate. People here want to believe that but as a donut hole family (zero from FAFSA), the merit offers didn't come near to in-state so both kids went Virginia. Apply only to what you can afford or what the NPC says you can afford (take a screenshot of that!). Sure throw in a few slacs for fun but in the end most of us reading this forum will not get big merit aid packages from slacs

It's going to depend on the individual student's stats and what the college is willing to offer. FWIW, DD applied to Allegheny and Juniata and both came in at around $30k with the initial merit offers. So, yes, more than her VA match option -- UMW -- but less than W&M (reach school where she was waitlisted). However, colleges higher up in ranking like Dickinson would have cost more than W&M after a small merit amount. And didn't even apply to reach LACs because it was clear from NPCs that cost would be $65K+

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In the interests of sharing the good and bad, I posted earlier that my DD is happy at Juniata (and I'm not an admissions rep LOL). After one semester, these are her complaints... She ended up in what has the reputation as the crappiest dorm and although she is very happy with her room, says the showers are gross. The dining hall doesn't know how to make rice properly, in her opinion (and she usually eats a lot of rice). It was hard to set up a schedule she liked because the introductory environmental science class series is a 3-hour block once a week, limiting the ability to schedule Tu/Th classes or M/Wed classes around that. That won't be an issue after this semester. She had to take intro biology and ES despite strong IB scores in those since they are foundational major classes. So, 1st semester was not very challenging (but she was also sick a lot at the start of the year so I'm glad she had a fairly easy intro). I think bio did improve as the semester went on because by winter break she was saying she wanted to add more biology classes to her program. Also, at least in the 1st semester, there was a lack of good group lounge places for hanging out away from your room. Her dorm lounge is on the guys floor so she said none of the girls used it. But part of that was that the library/learning commons was under construction. It just opened and does have a "living room" area that she likes.

All in all, I don't think she has any more complaints than my son had at a big school and she's happy with her choice and seemed to make friends and get involved more quickly than son did at big school. Things I thought were potential cons -- very small, middle-of-nowhere town, lack of public transit (she doesn't have a car), basement gym that was not as nice as others we toured -- are not issues for her at all. She says the town has everything she needs and can walk or easily get a ride to anything. The gym just got all new equipment and she never has trouble getting to use a treadmill when she wants to.

^^ all correct but IMHE the merit offers from expensive slacs like my own don't bring the costs down to match instate. People here want to believe that but as a donut hole family (zero from FAFSA), the merit offers didn't come near to in-state so both kids went Virginia. Apply only to what you can afford or what the NPC says you can afford (take a screenshot of that!). Sure throw in a few slacs for fun but in the end most of us reading this forum will not get big merit aid packages from slacs

You have to purposefully target SLACs that regularly offer merit aid of this size--which often means SLACs "lower" than your kids can get into. Many of the ones discussed on this thread do for a lot of kids. Many ranked just slightly higher do not. DC had multiple options that put it 5k below to 5k above UVA and W&M. Also, there are a lot of people who are not quite donut hole families--e.g. they are expected to pay about 40k/yr which means they will get no aid in-state, but they qualify for significant financial aid at the privates and then merit aid brings it down further.

[Anonymous]

I don't know if any other states have the private college grants like VA does, but that $5K/year is going to be a decent chunk of change for us after the merit aid/discounts that were already offered in my daughter's admission letter.