One way to think about Davidson is that, in terms of career preparation, the well-rounded liberal arts focus prepares a graduate to succeed in any number of fields, not just a single one. A small liberal arts school such as Davidson allows a student to develop their analytic thinking, collaboration, problem-solving and other skills. Those are attributes which open career doors. I’ve heard one college President talk about how liberal arts schools prepare students for careers and fields that don’t even exist yet. While learning the tech part of a role may be necessary, the people who advance in a field are often those who bring something more, and that includes precisely the types of skills and attributes students develop in a liberal arts education – analytic thinking, problem solving, creativity. As others have said, look for the opportunities to be involved in film on campus – is there a sports network for livestreaming team events, or something similar in the arts, or the marketing/communications department needs people to work on videos. The opportunities will be there, along with the mentoring and support on campus and with alums. Look for ways to turn this into lemonade!
Congratulations! One of my kids attends a very rigorous LAC and it is not like high school at all. Also, some classes that have general, vague titles in reality go into big depth and can be very particular. Depends on the professor teaching or the interests of the students. Lots of classes have less than 20 students and they can customize. Also they have many classes that are “easy.” Rigorous does not necessary mean hard and soul sucking. Enjoy the moment!
FWIW, I attended UCLA undergrad and the grad film school. And I have a kid at Davidson. I wouldn’t sweat it. She knows a student on the Davidson campus right now shooting a feature length film with volunteers from the school. You can study your craft anywhere. And absolutely no one in the industry will care where you went to school. Just focus on getting some great internships over the summers. Good luck.
Remember this. Get to know your professors and discuss your goals with them. Most are thrilled to help enthusiastic and motivated students.
Data point of one: My D, a freshman at a peer SLAC, had a wonderful relationship with her creative writing prof last fall and they stayed in touch (even though my D is a biochem/premed major). She will be taking another class with that prof next fall and they discussed the syllabus while meeting up for coffee. My D threw out an idea about adding a community service component, reading to local kids. The prof loved the idea and asked my D if she wanted to spearhead that project. She pointed out how good it would look on grad/med applications (and other opportunities) and said she’d provide a LOR. My D would have done it anyway but is very grateful for the opportunity.
Side note: My D’s first choice school was Davidson. If her current school hadn’t given more merit, she’d happily be at Davidson. I hope you’ll come to embrace the school that loved you and take advantage of all it has to offer. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised if you just open your mind to the possibilities. Best wishes!
Many congratulations on making a wise choice even if it doesn’t feel like it.
My daughters, especially my eldest, had to choose schools they didn’t 100% love due to finances. But I followed the advice of @blossom or @thumper1 (apologies I can’t remember which one of you did this!) and made them pick 3 things that were positive about the schools.
e.g. - my eldest went to Alabama when somewhere like Davidson would have been her dream school (we could not afford it). Three things she liked about it:
- she was in a residential liberal arts core program AND could take classes at the business school, so chance to explore
- warm weather can wear shorts and t shirts and flip flops
- diverse crowd of people from engineers, to business majors, to frat stars and sorority southern royalty, to National Merit Finalists, to nurses, from all parts of the USA and further afield…
plus:
- came in under budget which allowed extra money for other things
- no debt
Can you list 3 things you find positive about Davidson? Plus points if you don’t include $$… ??
Good luck. I know OCD/anxiety can make dealing with ambiguity and uncertainty really difficult, so kudos to you for embracing this and taking the step into the relative unknown.
Congratulations, you made the decision! That’s the first step.
Any college will only provide you with opportunities. It is up to you to take advantage of them. What you get out of your 4 years will not be a function of what the college does for you but will be a result of what you do to take advantage of what opportunities that your college offers.
Beyond the obvious liberal arts education which Davidson offers, a major benefit is that it is a wealthy college with lots of resources for students to take advantage of. You have strong areas of interest. The sooner you link up with mentors, advisors, and faculty at Davison, the sooner you will have more opportunities to take advantage of.
Davidson offers both interdisciplinary majors and student designed majors. The Center for Interdisciplinary Studies provides support for students with strong interests like you to be in charge of their own learning plan. That’s a wonderful opportunity for you.
Davidson has multiple majors and departments which match your areas of interest - Digital & Screen Interdisciplinary Major, Art, Communication Studies, Digital Studies, Film & Media Studies, Interdisciplinary Studies, Music, Digital & Screen Media, And Theatre.
Davidson will accept credits fro other colleges. You can explore wit an advisor or mentor whether you can develop your own semester in LA like the in that BU offers. It could be a semester of courses at another college or it could be a combination of internship + courses, or it could be a full time internship.
Davidson has alums in the industries in which you’re interested. A good question to explore early on is whether an advisor on campus can connect you with an alum who would be willing or interested in mentoring you, or providing you with an internship, or facilitating connections for you in the industry.
Time to get excited. There are lots of wonderful opportunities at Davidson. Now it’s up to you to figure out how you will take advantage of them to make your dreams reality.
Agree 100 percent. OP—I’ve lurked and stayed out of posting a response because I didn’t have anything unique to add that others weren’t already telling you. However, your response today compels me to say some things I think you need to hear.
It’s ok to be disappointed that you don’t find yourself in the group of students who are in love with where they are going, know what they want to do, and feel they have found that “perfect fit”. You feel what you feel.
However, you have agency around what you do with those feelings and how you express yourself. You are privileged to be in the position you are in, and if you don’t like the final result, take a gap year. Period. You aren’t going to find people sympathizing with you for the choices you had before you when there are kids who didn’t get in anyplace and kids whose families can’t afford to send them anywhere.
Your job right now is to move on from feeling sorry for yourself, thank everyone sincerely for the time and thought they’ve put into responding to you, and check your privilege and mindset with a healthy dose of gratitude.
I was being sincere when I thanked everyone. That was not meant to sound sarcastic, my bad.
You just sounded really sad and already filled with regrets.
If you are not feeling more enthusiastic by the time classes start, please strongly consider taking a deferment or a medical leave and re-assessing. (But make sure that any merit aid will be available for you in fall 2023 if you defer). Then, you could re-apply next year to a college that you think would make you happier, armed with your new self-knowledge and with a better understanding of your family’s finances. During the deferral year you could explore your academic and career interests further. Or you could work to earn money to help support additional choices. Or you could go to a community college to fulfill GEs with the intent of transferring as a junior somewhere (but check with Davidson if that would be okay if you plan to enroll there after a deferral). Or you could enroll in Davidson for fall 2022 and embrace it as best you can (and try to, really. It makes everything so much easier if you do try) and then reassess.
What you have done is not irrevocable, but instead has given you the gift of time, with an assured, affordable outcome at the end (enrolling in Davison either fall 2022 or 2023). I think this will all work out for you — either this fall or next.
Forgive me for being so blunt and direct, but I just think you need some perspective. And you did not sound sarcastic—you sound disappointed and sad, and it’s clear that you aren’t happy with your decision. And there’s nothing inherently wrong with that.
However, I think you need some tough love regarding how you are coming across in terms of your mindset. You are in a privileged position, and if you are not happy with your options, you can take a gap year, do CC and transfer, apply to some different schools that are still accepting apps, etc. You have choices, and that is a very lucky position to be in, even if your situation isn’t what you originally planned or hoped for.
Going to Davidson is not a doom sentence. It’s some (many) students’ dream school. Don’t go if it’s not what you want, or go with an open mind and heart and make peace with it, being open to the idea that it may be amazing.
You feel how you feel right now. However, I do think if you work on changing your mindset about Davidson over the next couple of months you can have a wonderful experience. I visited twice with my D and she likely would have chosen it if they had given a bit more financial aid. She chose a similar LAC that we hadn’t been able to visit, worked on looking forward to attending that school and had an excellent college experience.
Plus, remember that you can likely transfer if you are not happy there or don’t see a path to your success after a semester or two. In addition, there is a good chance you could design your own major and/or work with professors to plan a semester or summer away doing a film internship or possible relevant semester at another college.
There will be lots of possibilities for success through a Davidson education and many people willing to help if you take advantage of your opportunities and work on changing your outlook. Best of luck!
This was 100% the right decision for you and your family!! I know you aren’t excited, but I am excited for you. Here is my advice, join all the Davidson social media and if you feel comfortable, post about yourself and your interests. Buy some Davidson swag. Start looking into housing options on campus. Look into the first-year trips they offer before school starts (you can also apply for financial aid for these trips to pay all or part of the costs.) You may also reach out to the NC state office that liaisons with film and tv crews and find out what is currently being filmed in the state.
Davidson is a most generous school, your financial aid package is just the start. You can apply for additional financial aid for the first year adventures as well as summer study programs here and abroad.
A heartfelt Congratulations to you. Best of luck!!
I hope you will open yourself up to the possibility you are wrong about that. I think you will be pleasantly surprised about how awesome a school it is. I don’t know anyone who has gone there who hasn’t absolutely loved it – and again, as I described above, one of those alumni is a very successful professional in the film industry. If you ever want to talk to him, DM me. I’m sure he would be open to that. Congratulations! Go Wildcats.
Is there a specific reason you don’t want to do a gap year (from Davidson?) I’ve read this entire thread twice and I don’t think you’ve ever directly addressed that possibility. You’re a classic example of why this alternative exists.
ETA: My bad. I searched the word “gap” and you did say you were open to the idea a couple of days ago. I would strongly recommend that over and above transferring from Davidson; you may not get the same level of fin/aid as a transfer and why put yourself as well as your classmates through that drama?
People in my real life (and college counselor) are saying I could call UCLA and ask them if I can change my mind, and I’ll commit to one year studying the Linguistics+CS combined major. I’m highly considering doing this very soon today.
Are the people on your life going to pay the $65,000 per year cost to attend UCLA?
They think that Linguistics+CS is a marketable major that will make me a lot of money to pay off debts quickly, especially if I move home for a few years post-graduation. I also am so sick of buying time to decide what I’m going to do with my life. I don’t need to explore more, I just need to pick something and roll with it so I can stop living with this uncertainty. I woke up at 5am today freaking out because of the regret. There’s nothing I’m interested in studying at Davidson.
Those people will burn in (Hades.)
I doubt UCLA would want somebody to just commit to one year. And the cost for you compared to Davidson is laughable.
I wouldn’t be telling them I’d commit to one year. Again, I don’t know what I would study at Davidson…