Dickinson College
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Anonymous
If you cannot pay for Amherst, it is a rational decision. Of course, you shouldn't apply to Amherst to begin with if you cannot pay. I am the OP from the thread asking for recommendations for SLACs for my son. He has 2330 SATs and lots of APs and great extracurriculars. He is qualified for "better" schools but will apply to schools like Dickinson caliber-wise because that is what we can afford. We cannot pay $59K/year as FAFSA says we can. There are a lot of us in this situation and therefore lots of kids like my son at these "lesser" schools. |
Anonymous
Davidson is a more selective school. Both Dickinson and Kenyon are great schools, though, less selective than Davidson. All of the slacs mentioned on this thread are excellent schools. Some are more selective than others. |
Anonymous
Not at Dickinson, there aren't. Lots of rich kids there whose parents would send them to schools like Amherst without breaking a sweat, if only they could get in. |
Anonymous
Actually, at Dickinson there have been kids like that for a long time. I have a middle-aged neighbor who turned down one of the "lower" Ivy League schools for Dickinson. She graduated in the eighties, so there have been high stats kids who chose Dickinson over schools with higher rankings for a long time. We have looked into it for our kids and it has a lot going for it. The quality of instruction is very high, and that is a top priority for us. |
Anonymous
Class of '07 here and you're correct. Your neighbor made a good choice. I was considering Cornell and some larger, "more prestigious" schools and can attest that the quality of instruction is definitely very high. Looking back on those years I'm grateful I never had to deal with TAs, large lectures or any instructors who struggled with English. We had an adjunct in the business department who had no idea how to teach and the college took the problem so seriously that his contract wasn't renewed and was booted the following semester. The biggest class I had was a 45 person Intro to Econ class. After that classes ranged between 5 and 35. Many of my profs had Ivy PhDs and quite a few of my classmates have gone on to UVA law school, Yale law, prestigious research fellowships in science and humanities etc. and just about every pre-med focused person I knew is where they want to be right now. PP is right about profs having students over to their house for dinner or out to drinks on occasion. Even giving out personal cell #s too. The college even has a "take a prof to lunch" program where they can use a voucher to get a lunch under $25 just off campus to get to know their instructors better. Try finding that at a bigger school! There were some lazy rich lacrosse player types and Greek culture is definitely there. Yet overall most of the instructors and staff I knew would bend over backwards for a motivated student who wanted to find a research opportunity or even petition to get a new language taught on campus ASAP. And I'll take a class of 600 over a class of 400 any day. |
Anonymous
Sure but the tide has turned... Merit aid is where it is at. Kids who need the better sweatshirt to feel good about themselves will pay $200k + for that sweatshirt. But kids who are smart and very confident will take the merit aid. |
Anonymous
LOL. Okey dokey. |
Anonymous
So your kids will be wearing community college sweatshirts then? Probably would get a full-ride. |
Anonymous
Says the precious little snot with an MRS degree who thinks her husbands money makes her a better person. 
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Anonymous
Try again! I worked through college and grad school, received a mix of loans/grants, and now make more than DH. Wouldn't change a thing - my degrees from top programs were key in obtaining my first positions and have helped me all along the way. Worth every penny - and sweat - to me. There is more to it than sweatshirts, obviously. As shown by how hostile you got when I suggested that you fully own your own approach. |
Anonymous
I would love for my child to go to CC for 2 years, it makes economic sense. Alas he was recruited to a D1 college and there is some eligibility issues that make that impossible. I offer my kids a certain amount of money to go to college, I explain that going to CC for 2 years and then state school for 2 give them the same diploma and leaves them money for graduate schools. With the redshirt and the D1 scholarship, my son will not be able to do 1 year of graduate school while still eligible to play. Pretty good financial sense. So yes, I would gladly wear a CC sweatshirt, especially if it noted how much money I saved. So, I wear a UMBC one. My UMBC graduate is at Dartmouth, buying a very expensive graduate school sweatshirt,but he has the money, because he got merit aid at UMBC, school was practically free, and he chose to spend his college money on Dartmouth ... I think UMCP would have been good, with money for a down payment on a house ... But it is his money. Go ahead tell me Dartmouth is a lower ivy, I love that part. |
Anonymous
| What's the town like compared to other college towns? Social life ok? |
Anonymous
NP. You make some good points. But I must add that grad school at Dartmouth is not the same thing as undergrad. So yes, using the money on a down payment would have made good sense. |
Anonymous
| ^^^^ he followed a girl... she graduated from a SLAC so UMCP was below her. She is lovely otherwise, just young and immature, like most 20-somethings. |
Anonymous
PP here again. Well, I taught at both for about 3 years. These were mostly students in pre-med (/pre-health), not hard science majors. Dickinson students outclassed Bucknell students in my experience. That said, I don't doubt there are excellent students at both schools. But just based on my experiences, I'd say the smarter future physicians were at Dickinson. I know people are going to scoff at this, but the best science students I taught were at Penn State. Not the best all-around students, but a big state school has more funding to attract talented physics and math majors, I suppose. |