Hi Kolorado Kid, thanks so much for responding. My son is struggling between CC and UC Berkeley. He prefers small classes and the ability to focus on one class at a time. His concern is social. He’s definitely offbeat, counterculture, doesn’t mesh with the typical kids at all. In a large university, if you’re offbeat there are probably more people like you due to shear numbers. How do you feel eccentric, quirky offbeat kids fare at CC? If you don’t mesh, are you screwed, or is there a friend group for everyone? That really is the crux of it for him-he needs a warm supportive diverse community where he can make friends and be accepted for being him. What are your thoughts on that?
Hi Betty Spaghetti, and all of you who responded, I am grateful for your input. What is behind his feelings is his background-relegated to special education in elementary school due to severe AD/HD, then rebounded and became a huge success story in high school with a 4.5 WGPA and 36 ACT and decent EC. So, he wanted Bowdoin for the student satisfaction rate and overall prestige, ultimately, he wants an involved academic experience and social acceptance in tight knit, warm highly academic, liberal, progressive community. In our area, everyone wants Stanford or CAL, or some other Ivy, and given what he went through in early ed, prestige is a reflection of his self-worth.
In terms of prestige, the difference between Colorado college and Bowdoin is negligible. Both are highly selective small LAC colleges–well regarded as outstanding in academic circles and, truth be told, not well known outside of that world, in the general mainstream. My brother is an attorney in SoCal, and he went to Williams College, a school with an incredible reputation in the academic world and amongst college applicants… NO ONE he meets in CA (or where he used to practice in TX) has ever heard of Williams… It’s only within a small bubble that these schools have “prestige.”
Prestige is not a good reason to choose a college. IMO there are two important criteria: 1) Will you be happy there? 2)Will you be successful there?
So as an answer to question #1 student satisfaction is a valid concern, and by some measures CC outperforms Bowdoin: http://www.liberalartscolleges.com/rankings/student-satisfaction/
Certainly the school meets your son’s desire for “an involved academic experience and social acceptance in tight knit, warm highly academic, liberal, progressive community.”
And then there’s the equally important question: Will you be successful there? Going to a “prestigious” school and doing poorly there is a terrible outcome. And one thing you probably already realize is that CC is an AMAZING fit for a very bright student with ADHD. The block plan allows students to deeply engage academically while completely eliminating the need for all of the executive functioning/organizational work of keeping 4 or 5 classes managed at the same time. CC could be the best thing to ever happen to him, academically.
Your son has accomplished great things in his HS-- everything he has done and triumphed over is a reflection of his worth–the decision of an overwhelmed admissions committee in Maine is NOT in any way relevant to his worth and value. your son’s proven ability to work hard will be far more important to his future success than the name of the undergrad school he attends, and learning to be resilient and flexible in this moment will take him far.
I highly recommend Frank Bruni’s book “Where You Go is Not Who You’ll Be.” and if your son doesn’t want to read it, you should, so you can share some of the wisdom with him.
Manning36 - I would say that 50% of campus is quirky and offbeat. I am definitely not a ‘typical’ person, whatever that actually means. Nobody gets judged for anything around here. The first month of school features so many activities and opportunities to meet people. My perspective is that it is easier to find friends in a small place like this, because virtually all students know each other. CC students don’t have to look for a specific group to socialize with all the time because everyone here seems to have many facets and nobody is ostracized. While there are specific clubs, I can’t point to a single instance where I saw an established homogenous ‘group’ hanging out on the quad or in Worner all the time. Not in my first 7 Blocks at least.
In the back of our minds, I guess most students consider CC to be a prestigious school. But nobody much cares. I spent a lot of time at Duke for 5 summers. Everyone there was consumed with being an ‘Ivy’. That is definitely not the case here, though our useless test scores virtually match Duke. I am not sure that prestige means as much as it might have in past generations. Bill Gates went to Harvard. Steve Jobs went to Reed. Being at Reed did not hurt Jobs innovation or abilities to success.
You might find it interesting that CC has joined a group of about 30 colleges who have essentially refused to actively participate in the hunt for US News or Forbes rankings. I am not sure who put those two publications in charge of prestige. My Geology professor is the pre-eminent scientist in her field and just got a $4.5 million grant. She went to Carleton. Betty Spaghetti mentions that there is public recognition of prestige, yet there is also an ‘underground’ recognition of colleges such as Williams, Bowdoin, Davidson, Pomona, Swarthmore and CC. I honestly don’t think that matters to anyone here. We all chose CC because it gave us an opportunity available at no other college in the world.