Dickinson still in trouble?

[Anonymous]

And a B- by Moody's.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Pre-covid Dickinson had falling enrollment:

2018: 2399
2019: 2133
2020: 1932
2021: 2173
2022: 2125

(https://www.dickinson.edu/info/20084/institutional_research/189/enrollment_data)

The falling enrollment between 2018 and 2019 could possibly be attributed to their "Should white boys still be allowed to talk?" guest piece in the school newspaper in February 2019. I know I would never pay for my kids to go there, specifically because of that.

Literally every school has fringe students.

Sure, but that piece came out in the student newspaper (and received national attention) right about the same time prospective students were receiving acceptances for fall 2019. How many "white boys" want to go to a school where the student newspaper is giving the impression you shouldn't even be allowed to talk? And the administration is supportive of that?
If you were the parent of a "white boy" would you be willing to spend hundreds of thousands to send him to a school like that?

Are you really that fragile? It was one person stating their perception and opinion. Dickinson is still pretty white, and as the parent of a "white boy", I'm certain he's capable of handling differing viewpoints and learning from them, even if those viewpoints come across as obnoxious and strident.

If the student paper has published a piece entitled “Should black girls be allowed to talk” I’m sure you would have the same opinion about the school right?

[Anonymous]

Dickinson College's ranking in the 2022-2023 edition of Best Colleges is National Liberal Arts Colleges, #51.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Pre-covid Dickinson had falling enrollment:

2018: 2399
2019: 2133
2020: 1932
2021: 2173
2022: 2125

(https://www.dickinson.edu/info/20084/institutional_research/189/enrollment_data)

The falling enrollment between 2018 and 2019 could possibly be attributed to their "Should white boys still be allowed to talk?" guest piece in the school newspaper in February 2019. I know I would never pay for my kids to go there, specifically because of that.

Literally every school has fringe students.

We toured and thought it look like the least fringe or alternative school we visited. Almost every female student looked like she probably played a sport and wore Uggs to high school.

That is so odd; that is the exact opposite experience we had. The students seemed "quirky" the day we went. We loved the campus (minus the dining situation) and the town, but getting a read on the students was hard. Our tour guide was kind of a no-nonsense type of student. She was a good tour guide but didn't seem particularly excited about the school. She was not in many clubs but was a serious student. The location is excellent. It's closer to DC than many of the VA schools. When we toured, they had just picked a new president. I know our tour guide was disappointed that the other president was leaving.

I did a quick search, and it looks like improvements are coming to the dining situation: https://thedickinsonian.com/news/2023/02/06/50-million-hub-renovation-to-be-largest-capital-project-in-dickinson-history.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: The location is excellent. It's closer to DC than many of the VA schools.

The two VA state schools on my daughter's list are 3 and 4 hours away. The MD state schools are closer to home than our in state options - I wish one of them actually worked for my kiddo's interests. (She may wind up taking classes at Montgomery College for some classes that Nova doesn't offer if she has to start at a 2 year)

2 hours to Dickinson isn't bad at all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Pre-covid Dickinson had falling enrollment:

2018: 2399
2019: 2133
2020: 1932
2021: 2173
2022: 2125

(https://www.dickinson.edu/info/20084/institutional_research/189/enrollment_data)

The falling enrollment between 2018 and 2019 could possibly be attributed to their "Should white boys still be allowed to talk?" guest piece in the school newspaper in February 2019. I know I would never pay for my kids to go there, specifically because of that.

Literally every school has fringe students.

We toured and thought it look like the least fringe or alternative school we visited. Almost every female student looked like she probably played a sport and wore Uggs to high school.

That is so odd; that is the exact opposite experience we had. The students seemed "quirky" the day we went. We loved the campus (minus the dining situation) and the town, but getting a read on the students was hard. Our tour guide was kind of a no-nonsense type of student. She was a good tour guide but didn't seem particularly excited about the school. She was not in many clubs but was a serious student. The location is excellent. It's closer to DC than many of the VA schools. When we toured, they had just picked a new president. I know our tour guide was disappointed that the other president was leaving.

I did a quick search, and it looks like improvements are coming to the dining situation: https://thedickinsonian.com/news/2023/02/06/50-million-hub-renovation-to-be-largest-capital-project-in-dickinson-history.

We recently toured and I definitely didn’t get a quirky vibe and we were there on a busy weekday and saw tons of students. I posted earlier that we thought it was a really nice campus set up adjacent to the town. Our guide was quite enthusiastic about the school, is a sophomore with a great internship lined up for the summer, and we came away surprised at how much we liked it. The kids seemed very mainstream to me, and not particularly nerdy - which in our case made me think it wasn’t quite the right fit for my DC, but it’s still under consideration and I really liked the school’s focus on languages, study abroad and sustainability including their nearby farm.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My sister got her law degree there. I do think there is a strong alumni network for the school at least for those staying in PA afterwards.

Dickenson Law is at Penn State, not at Dickenson College. It's not a great law school FWIW

It used to be part of Dickinson College—it was while I was growing up. You aren’t even spelling Dickinson correctly so perhaps you are not the expert here.

[Anonymous]

I did not get a quirky vibe from it either. The kids seemed blonde, middle of the road, and sporty.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Pre-covid Dickinson had falling enrollment:

2018: 2399
2019: 2133
2020: 1932
2021: 2173
2022: 2125

(https://www.dickinson.edu/info/20084/institutional_research/189/enrollment_data)

The falling enrollment between 2018 and 2019 could possibly be attributed to their "Should white boys still be allowed to talk?" guest piece in the school newspaper in February 2019. I know I would never pay for my kids to go there, specifically because of that.

Literally every school has fringe students.

Sure, but that piece came out in the student newspaper (and received national attention) right about the same time prospective students were receiving acceptances for fall 2019. How many "white boys" want to go to a school where the student newspaper is giving the impression you shouldn't even be allowed to talk? And the administration is supportive of that?
If you were the parent of a "white boy" would you be willing to spend hundreds of thousands to send him to a school like that?

Are you really that fragile? It was one person stating their perception and opinion. Dickinson is still pretty white, and as the parent of a "white boy", I'm certain he's capable of handling differing viewpoints and learning from them, even if those viewpoints come across as obnoxious and strident.

Well, what is your explanation for why enrollment declined from 2018-2019?

2018 HS grads are the largest class of kids/the peak birth year. So quite simply: more kids

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Pre-covid Dickinson had falling enrollment:

2018: 2399
2019: 2133
2020: 1932
2021: 2173
2022: 2125

(https://www.dickinson.edu/info/20084/institutional_research/189/enrollment_data)

The falling enrollment between 2018 and 2019 could possibly be attributed to their "Should white boys still be allowed to talk?" guest piece in the school newspaper in February 2019. I know I would never pay for my kids to go there, specifically because of that.

Literally every school has fringe students.

Sure, but that piece came out in the student newspaper (and received national attention) right about the same time prospective students were receiving acceptances for fall 2019. How many "white boys" want to go to a school where the student newspaper is giving the impression you shouldn't even be allowed to talk? And the administration is supportive of that?
If you were the parent of a "white boy" would you be willing to spend hundreds of thousands to send him to a school like that?

Are you really that fragile? It was one person stating their perception and opinion. Dickinson is still pretty white, and as the parent of a "white boy", I'm certain he's capable of handling differing viewpoints and learning from them, even if those viewpoints come across as obnoxious and strident.

Well, what is your explanation for why enrollment declined from 2018-2019?

2018 HS grads are the largest class of kids/the peak birth year. So quite simply: more kids

But that's about a 10% decrease in enrollment (more than 200 students!) Another poster earlier in this thread asked how it compares to Gettysburg, so I checked Gettysburgs enrollment for the same years. Gettysburg's enrollment also decreased, but by only by 25 students (about 2%) and the decrease was in female students, their male enrollment actually increased that fall.
https://www.gettysburg.edu/about-the-college/facts-figures/detail?id=b3025b8b-fdbd-4a22-a034-693cb5a43bf7&pageTitle=Enrollment%20by%20gender%20and%20year

Lafayette was another college mentioned. Their enrollment actually INCREASED by 20 students that year
https://www.collegetuitioncompare.com/trends/lafayette-college/student-population/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: I did not get a quirky vibe from it either. The kids seemed blonde, middle of the road, and sporty.

It's a fall back for kids who need merit on the one hand and kids who are full pay and can't get in anywhere better on the other hand

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

That is so odd; that is the exact opposite experience we had. The students seemed "quirky" the day we went. We loved the campus (minus the dining situation) and the town, but getting a read on the students was hard. Our tour guide was kind of a no-nonsense type of student. She was a good tour guide but didn't seem particularly excited about the school. She was not in many clubs but was a serious student. The location is excellent. It's closer to DC than many of the VA schools. When we toured, they had just picked a new president. I know our tour guide was disappointed that the other president was leaving.

I did a quick search, and it looks like improvements are coming to the dining situation: https://thedickinsonian.com/news/2023/02/06/50-million-hub-renovation-to-be-largest-capital-project-in-dickinson-history.

We recently toured and I definitely didn’t get a quirky vibe and we were there on a busy weekday and saw tons of students. I posted earlier that we thought it was a really nice campus set up adjacent to the town. Our guide was quite enthusiastic about the school, is a sophomore with a great internship lined up for the summer, and we came away surprised at how much we liked it. The kids seemed very mainstream to me, and not particularly nerdy - which in our case made me think it wasn’t quite the right fit for my DC, but it’s still under consideration and I really liked the school’s focus on languages, study abroad and sustainability including their nearby farm.

I'm the PP who got the "quirky" vibe. We should have visited it more than once, but we were running out of time. My kids are more mainstream. I have another child who will be looking at schools soon, so I will take him up to visit. I really thought it had a lot going for it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: I did not get a quirky vibe from it either. The kids seemed blonde, middle of the road, and sporty.

Similar to Gettysburg?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My sister got her law degree there. I do think there is a strong alumni network for the school at least for those staying in PA afterwards.

Dickenson Law is at Penn State, not at Dickenson College. It's not a great law school FWIW

It used to be part of Dickinson College—it was while I was growing up. You aren’t even spelling Dickinson correctly so perhaps you are not the expert here.

Jumping into this conversation. Dickinson Law and Dickinson College were always two separate entities. Although they are next to each other and both have Dickinson in their names.

Dickinson Law was never part of Dickinson College. It was an independent law school. That changed in the late 90s (or early 00s) when PSU bought Dickinson Law because they wanted a law school.

PSU eventually built up another law campus closer to their campus and while they didn't let Dickinson Law School go, they did something to it so now it's known as Dickinson School of Law at PSU or something.

Anyhoo...DSL was never part of Dickinson College.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My sister got her law degree there. I do think there is a strong alumni network for the school at least for those staying in PA afterwards.

Dickenson Law is at Penn State, not at Dickenson College. It's not a great law school FWIW

FWIW, this is not completely accurate.

Penn State Dickinson Law is in Carlisle (ranked 58th nationally), with Penn State Law at University Park (ranked 64th).

Two separately accredited schools.

Last fall the new PSU president announced a task force to implement the recommendation that the two schools be merged into a single entity, with the preferred location to be at the Dickinson campus.