<p>On paper Dickinson College in Carlise, PA looks like it could be a good fit for S2. However it seems much harder than most schools to get a feel for the type of student it attracts. Coming from the Midwest, I think it will be important for him to have a laid back, very friendly, down-to-earth student body. Is this how you would describe Dickinson students?</p>
<p>We visited Dickinson about 5 years ago with our son. On paper, it looked like a good fit.
After the visit, he took it off his list. He felt like he would have been stranded in the middle of nowhere. I don’t know what the area is like now, but at the time we visited, the area within walking distance from the school felt very gray and depressed.</p>
<p>Plenty of students are very happy with Dickinson. I would highly recommend a visit before spending a lot of time focused on it. I think one visit to the school will convince you to keep it on your list or drop it.</p>
<p>I only know one Dickinson student, from California, and that’s exactly how I’d describe him. He absolutely loves it there.</p>
<p>IMHO Dickinson is one of those colleges that should be visited when school is in session. It’s appears a bit cold and foreboding when there are no kids around! (It’s not unlike Yale in that respect.)</p>
<p>Isn’t this the school Otter went lookng for his girlfriend Fawn Liebowitz? Luckily, Shelly Dubinski was there to console him. ;)</p>
<p>I believe that was Emily Dickinson College (based on Mount Holyoke). :)</p>
<p>My friend’s son is a freshman there. He lives in a quad room with three other boys and seems to like it a lot. If you have specific questions, list them and I can ask her.</p>
<p>One of my D’s friend is a freshman at Dickinson. She’s kind of shy, younger than most freshman, and she said she likes it there.</p>
<p>I know a Dickinson grad who I consider to be very bright, well balanced and on the shyer side of things. She is very satisfied with her post Dickinson life in Northern VA where there is a cluster of grads working now.</p>
<p>I think you should go to my alma mater, Furman and give it a look. It is a spectacular campus, stunning really. In a boomtown city in the South with a great economy and a truly fun downtown life, close to the mountains of North Carolina…about 45 minutes to Asheville…and on the interstates that go to Charlotte and Atlanta…Greenville is so much more fun than Winston Salem (sorry, Wake) and many other locations where you find excellent liberal arts colleges (sorry LeHigh, and Bucknell). Greenville has French Michelin and German BMW plants. I love downtown Greenville, with the Reedy River Bridge Park and all the chi chi places to eat…so safe and fun to walk at night. Also we spent a lot of time in the Pisgah Forest where the Real Cold Mountain is and also the beautiful venues in the Daniel Day Lewis film Last of the Mohicans–which is so laughably and obviously North Carolina instead of upstate New York…Weather at Furman is so spectacular that both fall and spring seem to never end and winter is a short dream. Everyone is outside constantly. </p>
<p>That said…go look at other great schools like Wake Forest and LeHigh. Are you aware that many schools under 3000 in size are eager for male applicants because of a lopsided applicant pool? Yep, sometimes boys are easier. enjoy the search…Furman is eager to get midwesterners and people not from Florida and the Carolinas where a lot of their students originate. The faculty loves to teach students from other parts of the USA.</p>
<p>Visited Dickinson with my D during a summer open house; she liked it reasonably well, and will apply there as a safety/match school that gives merit aid. It is not one of her favorites. My nephew was deciding between Dickinson and Denison a few years ago, and chose Denison because he felt it had a friendlier, midwestern feel vs. a less friendly, east coast feel of Dickinson. Just one kids opinion, of course. Your S really should try to visit at some point.</p>
<p>@1moremom;That’s correct. I had the same question the first time that I experienced that story, and rewatched the specific scene to find the truth haha.</p>
<p>Daughters of two good friends have attended Dickinson. One graduated several years ago, the other is a freshman athlete there. Both girls and their families have lots of good things to say about the school. It’s a popular well-regarded school for good (but not spectacular) students in central NJ, eastern PA. Law school has a good rep. Everyone I know who went there is pretty middle-of-the-road and nice.</p>
<p>Hi! I’m a 2011 Dickinson grad who now lives in the Mid-South. I think it’s harder to get a feel for the type of student Dickinson attracts because there isn’t one! </p>
<p>Most students come from PA, NJ, NY, and MD but there is growing regional “diversity.” I would say the student body is very friendly, but I’m not sure about laid-back. I guess some clarification would help? People are pretty intense about academics and having a good time. There is certainly some of the East Coast attitude there–fast moving, fast talking-- but I’ve always thought of Dickinson as a place where people can easily find what they are looking for. </p>
<p>It might be good for your son to get out of his Midwestern comfort zone, especially if he sees himself going into business or politics in NY or DC, where most Dickinsonians end up. Lastly, please do visit when classes are in session! It’s a very vibrant place.</p>
<p>H is a Dickinson alum and he turned out okay! We took the tour and were very impressed with the history, the physics program and the option for some decent merit aid. My only concern was logistics.</p>
<p>My D is a senior at Dickinson this year, from the Midwest. I would definitely describe her as very friendly and down to earth (sometimes she is laid back, but she is has worked very hard at Dickinson and will graduate with an excellent GPA, so she is not TOO laid back 
). She has found a lot of friends like herself there in personality and interests, and loves the school.</p>
<p>It was a safety/match for her, but she got very good merit aid. When she compared it to the higher ranked schools she also got into, she thought they really didn’t seem to have more to offer. She has been very content, says her classes in her major have been challenging and interesting, and has had great study abroad & internship opportunities.</p>
<p>I don’t know that I would say D’son is “in the middle of nowhere”. We have visited several schools that are more remote/in smaller towns. That said, Carlisle is not a big city by any stretch of the imagination. But there are several restaurants, a theater, a swing dance club, public library, etc. within easy walking distance. There are also some good opportunities for students to volunteer in the community, and D landed an unpaid part time internship at the Army War College (which is in Carlisle) as well this semester. D does say that she needs a lot less spending money at D’son than she would have at some other schools, and she is happy that is the case. I also think the campus is very pretty (if you come in to town at night, be sure to drive past the library).</p>
<p>Honestly, the only down side for us has been logistics. Harrisburg (nearest airport) is never a direct or cheap flight from our city. But it is minor compared to how happy our D has been and how well I think the school has prepared her for her upcoming graduation into a tough job market. You should definitely go visit.</p>
<p>Dickinson has a reputation for strength in foreign language instruction, correct? I think a lot of students push for fluency and time abroad.</p>
<p>^Yep, the school has a strong focus on foreign languages and extensive study abroad program. When we visited, this aspect really came alive for us.</p>
<p>I have a “soft spot” for Dickinson because they reached out to me and my son at a critical time and were particularly helpful. We were just starting out in the whole college process, and I was feeling a bit overwhelmed. It so happened that the Admissions Dean called here one Saturday afternoon and we had a wonderful conversation. He told me about going through this process himself and now, as the acting Dean of Admissions, he understood that process in a whole different light. Maybe it made a difference that the applicant was a guy or that his SAT scores were very strong, but fit was obviously the most important goal.</p>
<p>Several kids from our area go to Dickinson. They all love it. One of the smartest people I ever knew in my life, a Classics professor, went to Dickinson several decades ago.</p>
<p>My youngest son really, really loved Dickinson! He ultimately decided to go to school in DC because of his ultimate career objectives, but until we persuaded him to look at schools in DC and give them a chance, he was ready to apply to Dickinson ED. He was very predisposed to an LAC but wanted one with a very global focus…which is Dickinson. He also liked the campus town area…a lot of affordable restaurants for when the dining halls would grown old.</p>
<p>He did an overnight with a member of the soccer team during the school year (he would have played at Dickinson…he had attended the soccer camp for a week previously , and he and the coach had already talked) and really liked all the students he met, and the professors of the classes he attended. The dorms were better than average.</p>
<p>He was not in love with the dining hall…food was ok but not as spectacular as some other LACs he had looked at (Muhlenberg, Lafayette, Richmond).</p>
<p>We toured Dickinson last fall and did not love it. It does not have what I would consider a “laid back” vibe. Our tour started with a very formal information session at which the admissions director (a very buttoned up southern lady) and the president spoke. The presentation was very much focused on academics and the increasing competitiveness of the applicant pool as well as their success in getting kids into good graduate schools. My sense was this was a fairly intense academic environment rather than a laid back one.</p>
<p>As far as the students, that is hard to generalize; our tour guide was a sorority girl and was all decked out in her northface jacket and chanel sunglasses. I believe that Dickinson, like many other PA LAC’s, has a strong Greek life element. I don’t know if that is what you are looking for or not.</p>
<p>The dining hall, BTW, was terrible, and the town of Carlisle doesn’t have much to it.</p>