One person’s quirkiness is another person’s loveliness.
Mark Zuckerburg went to Harvard, and he seems “quirky” to me. My kid doesn’t drink or smoke or do drugs, so I guess he might be quirky. I would think having some quirky students on campus would make things more interesting. Being quirky is being different from what? Actually, higher ranked colleges are, more quirky students there are, it appears to me.
Not necessarily, @websensation
There’s the nerdy-humor continuum of quirkiness that runs from U of Chicago and Swarthmore in terms of selectivity through Beloit, which is less selective, but has that same type of nerdy-humor, the sort that can recite entire sketches from Monty Python and then riff on that for the next four hours. The Beloit student might be just as intelligent as the UChicago student, but may not be the best student, can’t or isn’t willing to drill drill drill at the academics.
The common thread of Reed, Carleton and Tufts is intellectualism not quirkiness, IMO.
Yes. There was a fun thread years ago they broke the definitions of quirky out and talked about various campus cultures. Quirky to me has just become a catchall word to describe anyone with idiosyncratic traits.
@doschicos maybe but Harvard, Stanford, Duke, Princeton, et al are very intellectual and have extremely smart students but their students body don’t self describe themselves and campus culture as being “quirky”?
Re: W&M; I think @rickle1’s son summed it up well (and Wake), as the Birkenstock crowd. I agree with intellectual/bookish/strategy game-playing, not sure about quirky. What do you guys think “quirky” is? I think it to be offbeat, unique, colored hair 5 years ago (it’s quite mainstream now), don’t-care-what-others-think/not crowd following types.
To me, quirkiness is defined by a person’s noticeably unconventional behavior in some area. Many giants of human history exhibit quirkiness in some aspects of their personalities.
A kid’s friend group tells you a lot. A less quirky kid who chooses to hang out with the pink-haired vegans or the D&D crowd will probably be just fine at those quirky schools.
I’m dating myself, but remember MTV’s bookish Daria and her artistic best friend Jane? Daria was pretty square, but got along great with a stylish, multi-pierced painter. They met on a smart, sarcastic wavelength. With different academic goals and records, they went to different colleges resembling Tufts and RISD, but socially could easily have found a home at one another’s schools. Or they could both have gone to NYU.
W&M has its own vibe, for sure.
Getting on campus is the best way to see if a school will work for your student.
I’m curious what the Birkenstock crowd is. Environmentally conscious? More into life-of-the-mind than height-of-fashion footwear?
As mentioned, W&M has 5,000 undergrads, so there are lots of different vibes on campus. The students we met there said that a typical W&M person is active in multiple areas (Intramurals, arts, Greek system, community service—they go all in).
D19 said the word that came to mind the most as she met kids was nice. Also, studious but not too serious, and genuinely in love with their school.
It’s possible that D19 is “quirky” and I don’t realize it. For example, I’ve heard people say that being into Comi-Con/super hero movies/Star Wars is quirky, but that feels mainstream to me. The students D19 met at W&M were more socially conventional than her theater friends from HS, so maybe our quirkimeter is off.
I’m any case, no one was wearing Bikenstocks 
.
S19 has Carleton, Tufts, and Reed on his lists but has only seen Carleton. It’s high on his list and I think the intellectual vibe someone mentioned is why. He loves to talk and would be one of those kids sitting around discussing topics until late.
We call him quirky because of his sense of humor and combo of interests but he’s pretty mainstream/traditional in lots of ways. He seems to get along with kids far quirkier than himself.
Mainstream is in the eyes of the beholder I suspect and birds of a feather do tend to flock together which in turn makes someone feel mainstream. There are many “streams”…and as long as the kid is not swimming constantly upstream and against the current they will probably be content.
As other people have written, if your child is interested in a school from an academic standpoint if you can, go visit! My daughter LOVED what she read about the academics at Oberlin and Bryn Mawr, but when she visited the vibe was def not for her at either place. Too crunchy at Oberlin and too über social justice at Bryn Mawr. She’s fine with both of those things (we live in Nor Cal, after all), but as permeating vibes, she didn’t love it. If you can’t go to visit, see if you can talk to students who might live near you who might be home for Thanksgiving or the Winter Break. Lots of schools that my daughter is interested in have given her names of local students to talk with.
Definitely try to visit, and see if your kid can do an overnight. Even waiting until acceptances come out and then narrowing the most desired schools down by the vibe of the students in the accepted-students’ chat groups is an option open to you.
My eldest was really looking hard at two schools very near the end of his decision process, and while he had visited both and stayed overnight in the dorms, he was finally able to put his finger on an important distinguishing characteristic which helped him to choose by spending time in the accepted-students’ chat groups.
One school, he said, had a true nerd-niche (his own terminology) wherein he could find fit, but the other, in its entirety, “WAS one great big nerd niche.” He chose the latter.
Another vote for checking it out in person given the wide range of meanings assigned to “quirky.” I don’t think Tufts is quirky at all. “Quirky” isn’t the first word that comes to mind to describe Caltech, but yes, the adjective does fit. (Meanwhile, MIT is not quirky, but some MIT students might be.)
Carleton is often called quirky. I have a kid who went there so I have some first hand knowledge of that school. He wasn’t quirky. He was a smart, nice, considerate kid who could get along with all kinds of people. He was invited to all the cool kid parties in high school, but never saw himself as one of them, preferring to associate with a few close friends, many of whom I would call quirky. He does have elements of doing whatever the heck he wants and not caring what anyone thinks. Is that quirky?
The rest of Carleton? There are some eccentric kids, or at least kids who appear to be eccentric. There are probably more who look normal but have unusual interests. There are some quirky traditions, like the freshman frisbee toss, the general popularity of frisbee, and the Daisy Moses house where you can bake cookies 24 hours a day. Does the ability of Carleton to support these traditions make it quirky?
Oberlin has been mentioned as quirky and I can see that. But even though they are both in the Midwest, Oberlin and Carleton are not the same. I’d argue that Oberlin has more of a hippie vibe while Carleton is more…well, quirky.
My S19 is decidedly not quirky. Co-captain of football and hockey teams, homecoming court, super mainstream. But he has no problem with “quirky.” On his list are Colorado College, Carleton, Bates, Kenyon, Grinnell, etc. He liked Davidson a lot, it seemed less quirky or crunchy. But he also loved CC. He ruled out Vassar as too liberal/political. What are the less quirky LACs? That must be a thread in itself, but I’m not sure it matters since he is looking to get outside of his comfort zone.
@4kids4colleges – I’d put Middlebury, Colby, Hamilton, and Richmond on the list of less quirky LACs.
My D18 applied to Carleton, Grinnell and Davidson. She’s a first year at Davidson and loves it! PM me if you have any questions.
Quirky is certainly in the eye of the beholder. Perhaps I started this re W&M and S’s take. Didn’t mean to hijack the thread.
To S- quirky meant a little nerdy, quiet (perhaps a bit introverted). Kids that were as or more likely to enjoy reading a book under a tree vs. tailgating at a football game. I’m sure they do that too! He came from that kind of HS (didn’t have a football team, not much partying, etc. ) and was looking for a more outgoing experience. He did think everyone at W&M was very nice. Had the opportunity to have lunch with some sophomores and sit in on a class at Admitted Students Day. Just thought the vibe was very low key, more artsy. The Comi-Con comment cracked me up. That’s a perfect visual.
My wife and I were / are huge fans of W&M. We were hoping that would catch his interest as we just love everything about the area and school. However, three semesters in at Wake Forest we are 100% positive he made the right choice (we actually knew on move in day semester 1). It’s his vibe (big ACC sports, campus wide enthusiastic events that get huge participation, tons of parties, very serious students, kind of a leadership atmosphere.)
Quirky and non-quirky people often make great friend pairs, and sometimes even couples.