Look at colleges on the “happy student” lists. Davidson’s signature is rigorous academic in a kind, supportive environment. Too frequently, rigorous academics coincide with a grinder culture.

Our son will be attending Davidson in the fall. His ED2 was Willam and Mary. While W&M has a bit of a study hard culture, it is similar to Davidson in the happiness/kindness of the students. Both Davidson and W&M frequently show up on “happy student” lists.

Some have mentioned Vanderbilt, another school that gets mentioned on happy student lists, as does Brown. We have family experience with both these schools, and the experiences have been good, but size and professor research/tenure requirements do impact student/professor relationships.

You might look at Wesleyan because it’s about 4k kids, but it is in the NE and some consider it too woke.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is nearly impossible to find the same as Davidson but in a bigger size. You need to prioritize which factors make Davidson most appealing and look for as many of those factors in another university.

OP okay but this is what I’m literally asking.

Something like Davidson’s academic offerings (esp policy and Econ), kids vibe that is left leaning without being quirky, sports culture without having 35% of the kids playing a sport (so more - “let’s go to the big game this weeekend”), serious academics without a grinder culture, happy kids.

Things that he was neutral about: location, southern-ish, architecture, town.

Deal breaker: size. Too small.

You have a Big Ten/SEC kid. You just haven't come to terms with it yet.

What’s a private school, less-than-15k big ten/sec school?

Northwestern.
But much harder admit than Davidson.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is nearly impossible to find the same as Davidson but in a bigger size. You need to prioritize which factors make Davidson most appealing and look for as many of those factors in another university.

OP okay but this is what I’m literally asking.

Something like Davidson’s academic offerings (esp policy and Econ), kids vibe that is left leaning without being quirky, sports culture without having 35% of the kids playing a sport (so more - “let’s go to the big game this weeekend”), serious academics without a grinder culture, happy kids.

Things that he was neutral about: location, southern-ish, architecture, town.

Deal breaker: size. Too small.

You have a Big Ten/SEC kid. You just haven't come to terms with it yet.

What’s a private school, less-than-15k big ten/sec school?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is nearly impossible to find the same as Davidson but in a bigger size. You need to prioritize which factors make Davidson most appealing and look for as many of those factors in another university.

OP okay but this is what I’m literally asking.

Something like Davidson’s academic offerings (esp policy and Econ), kids vibe that is left leaning without being quirky, sports culture without having 35% of the kids playing a sport (so more - “let’s go to the big game this weeekend”), serious academics without a grinder culture, happy kids.

Things that he was neutral about: location, southern-ish, architecture, town.

Deal breaker: size. Too small.

You have a Big Ten/SEC kid. You just haven't come to terms with it yet.

Interesting take. Very perceptive.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Vanderbilt.

We considered Davidson, Washington and Lee, And William and Mary Then took them all off the list either because the school itself is minuscule (Davidson and Washington and Lee) And the town is also a snooze fest (All three schools)

If not Vanderbilt then Wake.

You must not have considered very hard as Winston Salem is gross.

+2 My 2 kids both crossed Wake off the list after a visit because Winston Salem is so boring and just blah.

We had the same experience. There is just nothing going on in Winston Salem.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is nearly impossible to find the same as Davidson but in a bigger size. You need to prioritize which factors make Davidson most appealing and look for as many of those factors in another university.

OP okay but this is what I’m literally asking.

Something like Davidson’s academic offerings (esp policy and Econ), kids vibe that is left leaning without being quirky, sports culture without having 35% of the kids playing a sport (so more - “let’s go to the big game this weeekend”), serious academics without a grinder culture, happy kids.

Things that he was neutral about: location, southern-ish, architecture, town.

Deal breaker: size. Too small.

You have a Big Ten/SEC kid. You just haven't come to terms with it yet.

villanova?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Vanderbilt.

We considered Davidson, Washington and Lee, And William and Mary Then took them all off the list either because the school itself is minuscule (Davidson and Washington and Lee) And the town is also a snooze fest (All three schools)

If not Vanderbilt then Wake.

You must not have considered very hard as Winston Salem is gross.

+2 My 2 kids both crossed Wake off the list after a visit because Winston Salem is so boring and just blah.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is nearly impossible to find the same as Davidson but in a bigger size. You need to prioritize which factors make Davidson most appealing and look for as many of those factors in another university.

OP okay but this is what I’m literally asking.

Something like Davidson’s academic offerings (esp policy and Econ), kids vibe that is left leaning without being quirky, sports culture without having 35% of the kids playing a sport (so more - “let’s go to the big game this weeekend”), serious academics without a grinder culture, happy kids.

Things that he was neutral about: location, southern-ish, architecture, town.

Deal breaker: size. Too small.

What is the minimum size? Bc I agree with Richmond but it’s only 3100 undergrads.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wake, Washington & Lee, Richmond? I mean nothing is going to compare to Davidson because part of the charm is how small it is.

Agree with this, but Wake and Richmond don’t give out much merit, they don’t need to. W&L has a good number of merit scholarships.

Richmond gives out a sperm load of merit if you have top stats.

According to its cds, about 10 percent of class gets merit, that isn’t a lot.

Tons of kids get 0 merit there. And the standard for getting merit is high because overall stars are high. So kind of depends what you mean by top stats. Also, most of merit is 1/3 off of tuition.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Vanderbilt.

We considered Davidson, Washington and Lee, And William and Mary Then took them all off the list either because the school itself is minuscule (Davidson and Washington and Lee) And the town is also a snooze fest (All three schools)

If not Vanderbilt then Wake.

You must not have considered very hard as Winston Salem is gross.

Winston Salem is fun actually and there’s enough hipster pancake places downtown to have hangover pancakes on Sunday. Also live music venues and that food hall thingy near the reimagined tech warehouses

All of these places were packed with preppy 20-somethings when we’ve visited.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is nearly impossible to find the same as Davidson but in a bigger size. You need to prioritize which factors make Davidson most appealing and look for as many of those factors in another university.

OP okay but this is what I’m literally asking.

Something like Davidson’s academic offerings (esp policy and Econ), kids vibe that is left leaning without being quirky, sports culture without having 35% of the kids playing a sport (so more - “let’s go to the big game this weeekend”), serious academics without a grinder culture, happy kids.

Things that he was neutral about: location, southern-ish, architecture, town.

Deal breaker: size. Too small.

William & Mary, although they don’t have the sports culture. Colgate, although they have the long winter? Don’t discount the positive impact of climate on the vibe at Davidson that is appealing to your son.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is nearly impossible to find the same as Davidson but in a bigger size. You need to prioritize which factors make Davidson most appealing and look for as many of those factors in another university.

OP okay but this is what I’m literally asking.

Something like Davidson’s academic offerings (esp policy and Econ), kids vibe that is left leaning without being quirky, sports culture without having 35% of the kids playing a sport (so more - “let’s go to the big game this weeekend”), serious academics without a grinder culture, happy kids.

Things that he was neutral about: location, southern-ish, architecture, town.

Deal breaker: size. Too small.

ED Vanderbilt and cross your fingers

My son was deciding between Davidson and William and Mary and picked William and Mary because of Davidson's size. He's very happy at W & M.

Anonymous wrote:It is nearly impossible to find the same as Davidson but in a bigger size. You need to prioritize which factors make Davidson most appealing and look for as many of those factors in another university.

OP okay but this is what I’m literally asking.

Something like Davidson’s academic offerings (esp policy and Econ), kids vibe that is left leaning without being quirky, sports culture without having 35% of the kids playing a sport (so more - “let’s go to the big game this weeekend”), serious academics without a grinder culture, happy kids.

Things that he was neutral about: location, southern-ish, architecture, town.

Deal breaker: size. Too small.