I’ve been reading reviews lately on various colleges of interest, and many of the schools that are appealing are described as having student bodies who wear designer bags and clothing, are stuck up and clickish, etc. Two schools that were described as very welcoming and accepting were College of Wooster and surprisingly, Hamilton, which was said to have a real mix of all kinds of types. Can you think of others along the east coast that have a nice vibe? School can’t be too artsy. Something mainstream-ish if possible, not too big, with a football team, Greek life and of course good academics. Thanks
Lafayette
St Lawrence
Holy Cross
Middlebury
Bates
A couple of the schools that were originally appealing were Bucknell and Wake Forest, but they were the not described as down to earth and there were too much obvious displays of wealth. I was wondering if schools like Colgate and Tulane are similar. Looking around at schools I realized there are lots of good academic fits out there. It then hit me that in my D’s case, the challege will be finding the right social fit. It just seems that she’s going to need to go to the midwest, and it would be nice to have closer options. Thanks for the suggestions @wisteria100.
My son also wanted a very down to earth feel and gravitated to LACs in the midwest.
The schools on the East Coast that made his list were Hamilton, Haverford, Dickinson, St. Lawrence and Muhlennberg. I would add St. Mary’s College but he did not enjoy his visit there. My gut says your daughter would love Hamilton. DS choose Grinnell over Hamilton but he was not looking for sports or Greek life. With that said, he knew he could be very happy at Hamilton because it was accepting, down to earth and academically challanging.
Being in the midwest, we know Wooster well (visited 3-4 times as prospective athlete) and visited a number of east coast LACs.
St Lawrence and Dickinson would be the schools I’d say as the most overlap – nice kids, range of types, not a single dominant type, there is Greek life but does dominate, strong school spirit.
Bates is also all-around nice kids, though there is no greek life.
I see St. Lawrence mentioned. Sounds interesting, but how does one get there from NYC? I see it’s a 6.5 hr drive. What airport do the students use? Seems like a beautiful location, but remote
St Lawrence – you can fly into Syracuse, though it is still about a 2 hour drive from there. One could do Montreal as well, though I think it’s about 90+ minutes from there.
St Lawrence runs buses to and from Boston and NYC for breaks, and students can then connect from there as needed.
Campus, and the surrounding area are beautiful – great for winter sports, hiking etc.
Tulane will have a lot of kids who wear nice clothes, perhaps have a status bag or piece or jewelry, but that doesn’t’ make them all stuck up/snobby etc. , nor does it make kids with nice things at other schools not down to earth. A lot of these schools have significant numbers of students attending with financial aid, so the majority won’t be super waelthy, and even those who get aid may have a nice bauble. I don’t think nice kids and nice clothes are mutually exclusive
My kid liked Wooster too. On the East Coast, Muhlenberg, URochester and University of VT also passed my kid’s “down-to-earth” sniff test and I’m pretty sure they all have football and some form of Greek life. Dickenson should be worth a look as well.
@wisteria100 By designer clothes, I was thinking of $1000 purses, etc. My D loves fashion and shopping more than anyone, but the kids she knows who have multiple pieces of Hermes jewelery tend not to be down-to-earth, even if they are nice people
@porcupine98 thanks! i think of muhlenberg as having lots of “theater kids”. is that true?
@citymama9 Muhlenberg has a great mix of theater kids, preprofessional kids, athletic kids, all kinds of kids and all seem to get along really, really well. It is definitely worth a look. Best of luck to you!
What @beenthereanddone said.
TO citymama9: Contrary to popular belief aka political correctness, Tulane is not Exclusively for rich people school. I for one am the example of poor people with a kid graduated from Tulane. Anyhow, who wants to dress shabby, scruffy and stinky in college? also who wants to dress up with jewelry, riding BMW, Lexus, Baby Benz, Lambo to school?. Have you checked and looked at the parking lots at Tulane? do you see all brand name cars? if not then Tulane is not for rich kids. Also, If I were a rich kid, I certainly would pay my school by my own money. However, Tulane has given lots of money for any students coming from all walks of life. Kindly, compare Tulane to other schools in term of giving school funds. Well, Tulane is not school for rich kids.
Based on the criteria of ‘show of wealth’, Muhlenberg is not going to be more ‘down to earth’ . It doesn’t meet full need, and draws heavily from NJ suburbs and NY metro area/LI.
Now, I have already said, that I don’t think students who like/have nice material are automatically snobby or not down to earth, but if that is the factor by which one is judging, then Muhlenberg is not going to fit the OPs criteria.
Don’t know enough about Wooster to make a comparison but D loved her experience at Lafayette College in PA (she graduated last May for full disclosure). At first look it seemed a bit preppy/jocky but my D’s friends there were nice and down to earth people (a number of them were at the college with big scholarships). It really has a good mix for a small school. Lafayette has football with a nice stadium for a small college (admittedly the team is having a bad season this year) complete with a big rivalry with nearby Lehigh and the school has Greek Life. Note that one cannot pledge to a fraternity/sorority until sophomore year which turned out to be a good thing as my D developed a close knit group of friends before she joined her sorority so her sorority added to her campus life but it was never her only social outlet.
When my Son graduated from HS, he was accepted at Johns Hopkins and Tulane. He chose Tulane because of his girl friend and also they gave him lots of money for school funds. Then he embarked on 3+2 at Vandy. He did not care for any schools that have kids who are considered snobbish, dressing-up preppy, full of rich kids, senator and famous people kids, etc. He just wanted to study and pursued his education. So, why bother your kid (s) with other kids who dress up nice and have lots of money? As long as the school gives you scholarship, no loan policy, affordable, etc then go/study hard, pursuing your high learning. In the end after graduation last May 2016, my Son was accepted by a nice large US Aerospace company as engineer with high paying job. I don’t think my son would be able to get that job if he only went to Podunk School aka unknown with meager GPA. So, do you think that those top schools do not have snobbish, dressing up, preppy kids? They do have them and those kind of kids exist everywhere. But the question is: your kid wants to study and get a high paying job after graduation or avoid those schools (with high network and lots of connection)?..You and your kid be the judge.
I’m a Wooster grad, and it’s really hard to find a school like it. With regard to Greek life, it doesn’t dominate campus life, but is present. About 20% of students are a part of the Greek community, but Greeks interact with the non-Greek community. There is little to no animosity. Wooster has a mix of personalities and experiences. There is an arts scene, but again it does not dominate. Athletics do not dominate. Wooster is a place where you can find your group and go forward, but groups often overlap and most students are friendly.
There are well to do students, but a majority are not the Louis Vuitton and Lexus kind. I have a wonderful friend of mine whose family is incredibly rich, but he doesn’t act like it. He drives a Honda. I have another who drove an old Buick. I came from a lower middle class background and received good financial aid. I was never shunned due to my economic background.
Our academics are stellar - we have the Independent Study (I.S.) thesis which is required for all students. It allows students to discover their passion in life and apply that to academic writing. Majors run the gamut from Anthropology to Economics, Physics to Communication. Mainly, it’s the standard liberal arts curriculum with the benefit of I.S. and the commitment to vocational development from APEX.
Our football team has a great tradition and we gave Ohio State one of its worst losses in history…but our team is mediocre at best today. I will say our players have a deep sense of pride and give their best effort every game – they are proud to wear Wooster on their uniforms. The team does run down the hill into the stadium to our bagpipers playing “Scotland the Brave,” which is one of the more unique traditions in college football. We have a terrific athletics complex, centered on the Scot Center. Our basketball team is terrific - they made the Elite Eight this year and we are very proud of them.
Overall, Wooster is a tremendous college offering stellar academics and a good environment for overall success. If Wooster isn’t an option, I’d look towards Roanoke College or Randolph-Macon in Virginia, McDaniel College in Maryland, or Centenary in New Jersey. I’ve heard good things about Bates. In Ohio, most of the liberal arts colleges are quite good. Denison in my view is quite preppy and Oberlin and Kenyon may be too artsy. Ohio Wesleyan could be a good option and is close to Columbus. Their Greek scene seems bigger than Wooster’s, but not overwhelming. Good luck!
@wooalum Centenary College cannot and should not be compared to the College of Wooster in any sense…the academic gulf between the two is night and day. Centenary isn’t known outside of New Jersey, nor is it respected in New Jersey.
I live in NYC, and I have never heard of Centenary @LBad96