Thoughts on Davidson?
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Anonymous
This is QUITE a reach PP. Why would this person go to Liberty? He sounds like he’d fit beautifully in every school mentioned. |
Anonymous
He graduated 15 years ago! My teenage son says it's much too long ago to impact his thoughts on Davidson. |
Anonymous
Mike still makes oos kids at least think about unc |
Anonymous
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I'm not the OP but just returned from a trip to Davidson w/my high school senior, and wow what a beautiful campus and location! The campus is adjacent to a cute upscale college town with restaurants and shops within walking distance and Charlotte is 30 minutes away. Most of the storefronts had Davidson College flags or banners welcoming new Wildcats. On the other side of campus, there is a cross country trail through the college's wildlife sanctuary and 100 acre farm which my runner appreciated. First years had just moved in a couple days prior so the campus was buzzing with excitement. We jumped on a campus tour with new first year students, and my daughter was even invited by a friendly first year girl to take a look at her double room in Belk dorm which was supposedly Steph Curry's freshman year room. Thankfully, all dorms are air conditioned as it was blazing hot the day we visited. First year dorms are all located close to each other near the dining hall while upperclassmen dorms are grouped down a hill towards the athletic fields. All the students we met were welcoming and super friendly. We had some time before dinner so we took a quick drive over to Davidson's Lake Campus which was full of students enjoying the private beach on Lake Norman. One of the sports teams (track?) was setting up for an event there.
Davidson is now at the top of my daughter's list though it will be a difficult admit with a 15% acceptance rate and a record number of applications this past year. We were told by the admissions dean that she should consider applying early decision if it is her top choice. Davidson has a large endowment which allows them to provide financial aid to the majority of the students with no loans. It seems that the college is increasingly popular among students from the north and for good reason! The pre-med program seems especially strong with dedicated pre-med advisors though we heard some complaints about the difficulty some first years were having getting into some entry level science classes because Davidson caps the size of most classes at 35. We were told that there was only 1 course that had more than 50 students. Also, my daughter and I noticed that, though diverse, many of the students both guys and girls seemed very sporty and looked like they could have stepped out of a J Crew or Abercrombie catalog. However, that may have been due to the fact that only athletes and first years were on campus though having an attractive student body is likely more a feature than a bug at least to my daughter! |
Anonymous
| My kid thought Davidson had more of a nerdy vibe when we visited but maybe that was because our visit coincided with finals week. He would not fit in on a campus full of sporty kids lol. |
Anonymous
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My DD bought a Davidson sweatshirt when we visited and I kid you not, for years later, she constantly gets comments from people who went there saying what a wonderful, unique place it was. We went to a basketball game over Thanksgiving and as we walked out, everyone asked her if she saw a student or applying and told her all the wonderful things about the school. She was going to write her essay basically on the “traveling sweatshirt” but ended up not applying when she got into her current school ED.
Really love the school and often wish she’d gone. |
Anonymous
| My friend’s daughter just graduated and she mostly had a good experience but did say that lots of the students are southern and wealthy and republican. A very different vibe from her diverse MCPS school. |
Anonymous
| ^^so the JCrew etc vibe is real |
Anonymous
Not our experience at all at least the Republican part. My current student feels the student body leans firmly to the left and though he has a few friends who are more conservative the campus welcomes diverse points of view. In 2020, Biden won nearly 80% of the vote in the precinct Davidson students vote in. |
Anonymous
We visited on the day of their Freshman Cake Race a few years back, and it made a similar impression on my daughter so much so that she made note of all the beautiful students on campus that day. She commented it would be tough to be an average looking kid at Davidson so maybe it wouldn't be a healthy environment especially for young women with self-esteem issues. |
Anonymous
That is one nerdy guy with the initials S.C.! |
Anonymous
Have you seen curry at Davidson? He wasn’t a panty dropper He looks a lot better now |
Anonymous
| Haverford and Davidson share a focus on top notch academics but the 2 colleges otherwise have completely different student environments. Though my student graduated almost 10 years ago, Davidson likely still retains the study hard party hard dynamic that comes with having D1 athletics and some semblance of greek life in Southern school. Haverford has a much more low key student life and would be the better environment for an introvert IMO. |
Anonymous
Haverford social scene must be pretty stifling situation for a normal kid. School is so small too even for a LAC. 1400 |
Anonymous
Granted I grew up in the northeast but believe Haverford has a stronger academic reputation than Davidson. |