Anonymous wrote:Would a boy from a non-country club type family fit in? DS is at an area independent school, and his college counselor is pushing Davidson as a "good fit." I think this is just code for, it's the best school our son can get into given his stats and the competition. Anyway, DS seems open to it, which I guess is the most important thing, but I'd like to hear thoughts on whether coming from a non-country club family will leave DS feeling out of place at Davidson.

Anonymous wrote:Would a boy from a non-country club type family fit in? DS is at an area independent school, and his college counselor is pushing Davidson as a "good fit." I think this is just code for, it's the best school our son can get into given his stats and the competition. Anyway, DS seems open to it, which I guess is the most important thing, but I'd like to hear thoughts on whether coming from a non-country club family will leave DS feeling out of place at Davidson.

Anonymous wrote:If you like Landon, you'll love Davidson.

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.

Anonymous wrote:

On paper I thought it looked perfect for my daughter, and she did too. Then we visited and there was no magic -- the school seemed nice, but not distinct in any way....other than the student laundry service. It made me realize that the key with these small schools is to visit the campus during the school year-- they have different personalities that are hard to assess from a distance. Plus it helps with admissions. A number of high school kids in our Davidson tour were planning to attend summer programs on campus.

Anonymous wrote:From the Common Data Set. For the class entering fall of 2011, middle 50%:

Davidson
SAT Critical Reading 630 730
SAT Math 640 720
SAT Writing 630 730
ACT Composite 29 33
Percent in top tenth of graduating class: 82%

Kenyon:
SAT Critical Reading 640 740
SAT Math 610 690
SAT Writing 640 730
ACT Composite 28 32
Percent in top tenth of graduating class: 59%

University of Mary Washington:
SAT Critical Reading 530 640
SAT Math 500 610
SAT Writing 520 620
ACT Composite 22 27
Percent in top tenth of graduating class: Not reported although they indicate that 33% of incoming first-year class had a GPA of 3.75 or above.

Anonymous wrote: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?