Thoughts on Davidson?

[Anonymous]

I had never even heard of it until a few years ago. I kept noticing that a steady stream of Big 3 and MoCo graduates were heading that way. Is it considered prestigious and selective? What's it like?

[Anonymous]

Excellent small liberal arts school. I've heard only positive things about it.

[Anonymous]

I didn't like the way it was built on a hill, but it's a good school.

[Anonymous]

conservative, Southern, good place for religious Christians.

[Anonymous]

Friends recently looked. Conservative, protestant, not the same look and feel you'd get at a Northeastern LAC. Academically better than Wake Forest but below the "little ivies," whatever they are this week. If you're Virginia, I can't see spending 220,000 on Davidson if you could get Mary Wash for 78,000.

[Anonymous]

Like a number of other Southern schools Davidson's following in the footsteps of Duke, Vanderbilt and Emory in making a big marketing push in the DC area. (Wake Forest and Sewanee are other schools looking north for applicants). Davidson is very small and tucked away, more conservative socially and politicallly than New England SLACs, but very solid academically. Davidson has always been a preppy place (the Southern version of preppy), but like SLACs in New England and the Midwest, it can be attractive to an intellectually curious kid who wants 4 years to explore his/her passions in an academic village. As it draws more kids from the Mid-Atlantic region, the school is becoming more diverse, more culturally liberal and stronger academically. Oh, and Davidson has a little curve-ball that boosts its appeal to some students-- it's a D1 school with some very legit teams. Definitely a comer.

[Anonymous]

A lot of kids from the local elite privates end up at Davidson. they are really good students but just missed making the cuts for the Little Ivies, Ivies, G'town, Stanford, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A lot of kids from the local elite privates end up at Davidson. they are really good students but just missed making the cuts for the Little Ivies, Ivies, G'town, Stanford, etc.

What other schools fit into this category (i.e., next choices for private school grads missing the cut).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Friends recently looked. Conservative, protestant, not the same look and feel you'd get at a Northeastern LAC. Academically better than Wake Forest but below the "little ivies," whatever they are this week. If you're Virginia, I can't see spending 220,000 on Davidson if you could get Mary Wash for 78,000.

Davidson is a lot more selective than Mary Washington. To pull some other schools now being discussed out of a hat, Davidson is a Southern version of a Kenyon or Colby/Bates. Even if the education is no better, a Davidson degree will get far more attention than a UMW degree. It used to be considered rather conservative, more so than either Duke or UNC. However, as main-line Protestantism moved to the left, so did Davidson. Many graduates are on a pre-professional track, but you'd also find a lot of liberal clergy members in the South who attended Davidson. A kid considered "preppy" in the DC area would fit very comfortably there.

[Anonymous]

That's a good question. It is so difficult to get into a top 20 university now -- that a lot of great students are having to "make due" with schools that used to be a lot easier to get into. So, Davidson is just one of those...Dickinson is another. There are other liberal arts schools that someone mentioned earlier such as Kenyon, Oberlin, Colby as well as some state schools that are mid-tier. A lot of local kids end up at UMD which used to be quite a party school and easy to get into. You can check out a lot of the Liberal Arts Schools and their rankings by typing in "US News Rankings Liberal Arts Colleges".

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A lot of kids from the local elite privates end up at Davidson. they are really good students but just missed making the cuts for the Little Ivies, Ivies, G'town, Stanford, etc.

What other schools fit into this category (i.e., next choices for private school grads missing the cut).

[/b][/b]

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:conservative, Southern, good place for religious Christians.

I just moved from Charlotte and you must be talking about a different school. Davidson is not like the other southern christian conservative schools. It's actually quite liberal and very quaint. We considered moving to Davidson because the little town is so liberal. It's actually more liberal than most of Charlotte. The school may be known here for being conservative, but that must be because it is in the south, not because of the school. I am as liberal as they come and I would definitely consider it for my kid.

[Anonymous]

Davidson has always had some liberal students -- even back in the day. DH's law school roommate (at Yale -- as Yankee as you can get) is the son of a Baptist minister who was very active in the civil rights movement. Our friend, whose son is at Bowdoin, tells us that he sees a lot of similarities between the 2 schools, though there seem to be more students at Davidson who attend religious services on a regular basis (or as regular as college students get anyway).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Friends recently looked. Conservative, protestant, not the same look and feel you'd get at a Northeastern LAC. Academically better than Wake Forest but below the "little ivies," whatever they are this week. If you're Virginia, I can't see spending 220,000 on Davidson if you could get Mary Wash for 78,000.

Davidson is a lot more selective than Mary Washington. To pull some other schools now being discussed out of a hat, Davidson is a Southern version of a Kenyon or Colby/Bates. Even if the education is no better, a Davidson degree will get far more attention than a UMW degree. It used to be considered rather conservative, more so than either Duke or UNC. However, as main-line Protestantism moved to the left, so did Davidson. Many graduates are on a pre-professional track, but you'd also find a lot of liberal clergy members in the South who attended Davidson. A kid considered "preppy" in the DC area would fit very comfortably there.

Kenyon is a great school but not in the same category as Davidson nor the NESCAC schools (Colby, Bates). Ranking, if that's important to you, is Davidson, Colby/Bates and then Kenyon.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:That's a good question. It is so difficult to get into a top 20 university now -- that a lot of great students are having to "make due" with schools that used to be a lot easier to get into. So, Davidson is just one of those...Dickinson is another. There are other liberal arts schools that someone mentioned earlier such as Kenyon, Oberlin, Colby as well as some state schools that are mid-tier. A lot of local kids end up at UMD which used to be quite a party school and easy to get into. You can check out a lot of the Liberal Arts Schools and their rankings by typing in "US News Rankings Liberal Arts Colleges".

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A lot of kids from the local elite privates end up at Davidson. they are really good students but just missed making the cuts for the Little Ivies, Ivies, G'town, Stanford, etc.

What other schools fit into this category (i.e., next choices for private school grads missing the cut).

[/b][/b]

Since this poster references US News liberal arts college rankings here you go - Davidson (#11), Colby (#21), Oberlin (#24). Kenyon (#33), Dickinson #47.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Friends recently looked. Conservative, protestant, not the same look and feel you'd get at a Northeastern LAC. Academically better than Wake Forest but below the "little ivies," whatever they are this week. If you're Virginia, I can't see spending 220,000 on Davidson if you could get Mary Wash for 78,000.

Davidson is a lot more selective than Mary Washington. To pull some other schools now being discussed out of a hat, Davidson is a Southern version of a Kenyon or Colby/Bates. Even if the education is no better, a Davidson degree will get far more attention than a UMW degree. It used to be considered rather conservative, more so than either Duke or UNC. However, as main-line Protestantism moved to the left, so did Davidson. Many graduates are on a pre-professional track, but you'd also find a lot of liberal clergy members in the South who attended Davidson. A kid considered "preppy" in the DC area would fit very comfortably there.

Kenyon is a great school but not in the same category as Davidson nor the NESCAC schools (Colby, Bates). Ranking, if that's important to you, is Davidson, Colby/Bates and then Kenyon.

I'd say Kenyon is in the same tier as Davidson, and that Mary Washington is not in the same category as either.