<p>How would you rate chances for merit $ with these stats:</p>
<p>3.8 unweighted GPA
ACT - 27
SAT - math 700/verbal 560
lots of AP and honors classes
pretty good public h.s.
main EC is sports - 2 varsity, captain 3 times
white</p>
<p>Thanks.</p>
<p>snorky:
I think no one is answering you, because they just don't know. I will say that my son, who got a scholarship there, had higher grades and SATs than you. But I do not know what the overall proflile of the recipients looks like. </p>
<p>Can you retake the SATs? You probably need to bring them up for sure. Good luck to you!</p>
<p>Thanks. D will take again, she's been studying -- but I'd be surprised if her verbal score increased more than 50 points. We know of kids with lesser stats that got money, but I think Denison has been getting more competitive.</p>
<p>My daughter, now a sophomore, received a wonderful merit scholarship - her stats (test scores/GPA) were about the same as your daughter's, and she had some unusual community service things on her resume.</p>
<p>If you check out Denison's financial aid web page, I believe there's a link that describes the different merit scholarships available. That should give you a better idea of what they're looking for.</p>
<p>By the way, my daughter is very, very happy at Denison. It's been a positive experience academically and socially.</p>
<p>Hi Flatlander,</p>
<p>Glad your daughter is happy at Denison!!!!</p>
<p>I've been checking out Denison for my son. It sounds great (from the literature, website and folks here on CC). The biggest obstacle is the distance from home (we are in CA).</p>
<p>FresnoMom</p>
<p>Denison was my younger son's alma mater Class of 2005. my older son graduated from Wesleyan in 2002. The academic experience for number 2 was far superior to number 1's. Denison is a gem of a school with a campus to die for.</p>
<p>Birch</p>
<p>I'm so glad that Son #2 had such a great experience at Denison!! I seem to have fallen in love with Denison, but son is not so sure. It's a free application if you apply on-line, so I will probably keep encouraging him to submit an application anyway. I wish we could visit this semester, but it doesn't seem possible. Perhaps spring break.....</p>
<p>Was your son involved in the honor program?</p>
<p>How was the greek life there? I know they are trying to increase academics and decrease frat life.</p>
<p>Also, were there very many Asian Americans there? Son would like to go to a school with at least 5% Asians....</p>
<p>FresnoMom</p>
<p>Hi FresnoMom,</p>
<p>Re getting there: Travel expenses are definitely something to consider when you're looking at schools. Southwest flies out of Columbus, thank goodness, so that might be an option for you. With gas as expensive as it is now, it's actually cheaper for my daughter to fly back and forth than for me to drive one leg of the 1,000-mile round trip.</p>
<p>Re your question about Greek life: My sophomore daughter, who I never in a million years thought would join a sorority, decided to pledge this year. It seemed like a very laid-back process; for example, you can't pledge until the spring of your freshman year. She tells me they have lots of community service projects, which is a big plus for her.</p>
<p>flatlander (formerly of Bakersfield, CA!)</p>
<p>Flatlander,</p>
<p>Bakersfield! What a small world!</p>
<p>Why did your daughter choose Denison?</p>
<p>FresnoMom</p>
<p>Hi FresnoMom,</p>
<p>My daughter had very specific criteria: She didn't want to go to a college in New Jersey or a state that touched New Jersey, nor did she want to go north or south. So we headed west to Ohio. We visited three smaller liberal arts colleges in the Columbus area (she wanted to be near a big city), and out of the three felt most at 'home' at Denison. The students seemed happy to be there, there were lots of activities going on on-campus, there were many community service opportunities off-campus, and the academics were quite challenging but not completely overwhelming.</p>
<p>She knew she would not have a car while she was at college, so she liked the fact that she could walk to a "real" town for food, banking, etc. (The lovely town of Granville is down the hill from Denison - a 10-15-minute trip at most.)</p>
<p>Hope this helps!</p>
<p>flatlander</p>
<p>"the academics were quite challenging but not completely overwhelming."</p>
<p>I have been searching for colleges with that in mind.....challenging but not overwhelming.</p>
<p>On another thread, a poster throught that there were more drinking at Denison than Amherst, Grinnell, Carleton, Occidental, Redlands. I was surprised. Do you think this perception is true?</p>
<p>FresnoMom</p>
<p>'Fraid I can't answer the drinking question for you. My sense is that there is drinking on just about every campus; some kids drink heavily, some lightly, some not at all. I have no idea how Denison compares to other LACs, but it seems the administration for some years now has been cracking down on drinking. I believe that is one reason Denison did away with residential fraternities.</p>
<p>flatlander</p>
<p>Flatlander, how would you describe the atmosphere at Denison? I have always thought of it as rather preppy/Eastern vs Midwestern. A nephew lives in Granville but I've only been to the town once; I found it charming. My D does not want a campus dominated by the Greek system, which I believe used to be the case. She has a liberal bent, is offput by a campus where the majority of students walk around in college logo shirts/sweats etc. (I'm not quite surse what she thinks they should wear!--shirts with band names? Right now, she wraps a winter scarf around everything!) and are all athletic and sports driven. I understand Denison has been working to change its old frat/party image.</p>
<p>Hi bookmom,</p>
<p>I can only speak for my daughter, who is <em>very</em> liberal; she had a memorable experience voting in a presidential election in Ohio last November, as you can well imagine! She joined the Young Democrats (can't remember if that's the correct name), and watched the debates and returns in her dorm with students representing a wide range of political leanings. </p>
<p>She is not at all preppy - she has her share of band T-shirts, which she wears with pride, by the way!</p>
<p>Although my daughter chose to rush and subsequently join a sorority (which, as I said somewhere in this thread, I never in a million years thought she would do - she couldn't wait to get away from high school and all the cliques), she did so because she liked the community-service aspect. Of her close group of friends, some decided to rush, others did not. They still get together on a regular basis, so the sorority scene does not seem to be the dominant social factor in their lives.</p>
<p>Re sports: I know Denison's teams have done very well over the years, but it seemed to me that there is not an "exclusive" feel to the teams, i.e. team members not associating with anyone else. (I know this can happen on many campuses.) One of her good friends plays tennis, and her roommate was on the swim team last year. My daughter is not doing a sport this year (she rowed at the club level last year), but she joined the running club to keep her muscles moving.</p>
<p>Well, I feel with all these positives, I must balance my reply with a negative: The food is pretty bad. My daughter is a vegetarian, too, which doesn't help.</p>
<p>Hope this answered your questions!</p>
<p>flatlander</p>
<p>flatlander: I agree about the food. Son is less than thrilled. I've tried to encourage him to do a little cooking in the kitchen in his dorm (which is really very nice) but he says he doesn't have time. (I think he just doesn't want to go down to the grocery store.) I told him maybe the kids should try to open a dialog with the food people - but he got quite defensive about that - insisting that they are so very nice and always open to suggestion. He seemed to not have any ideas for other ways to approach the problem.</p>
<p>bookmom: The scarf will fit right in! We were laughing at the girls at Denison at parent weekend. Many were wearing scarves! Some even already had those puffy boots on. It was, maybe, 50 degrees out - it was NOT cold.</p>
<p>Preppy is sort of hard for me to assess. Denison seemed less "status conscious" than some of the other schools we visited. Sort of in the middle perhaps. There are preppy kids, but really most of the kids look pretty ordinary to me. In general, the girls appear less "made up" than some places we saw. (Bucknell sticks out in my mind here.)</p>
<p>Here is my son's and his friends' observations about drinking: Yes, it goes on. (I just come right out and ask them.) Do they have any trouble avoiding it? No. They hang together and, so far, their social life seems to consist of going to campus events, watching movies, hanging in their rooms with friends (more movies), going to the mall, playing their sports and musical instruments. Three of his friends are quite religious and attend a dinner through their church at a person's house in the village every Weds night. (She buys the food, they get to cook!) One of his friends is an EMT volunteering with the Granville fire dept, so he's busy with that because he's on call a lot at night. They are a pretty straight (OK - maybe a little nerdy) crowd - but they seem to be having lots of fun. When I asked the kids (all freshman) about frats, they said they didn't know anything about them. Good, I thought.</p>
<p>My son reports that the RA does "write up" kids who are drinking in their rooms. Also, the dean of first year students sent a "progress report" on the class and did mention that there had been a couple of serious incidents and some lesser incidents of freshman alcohol abuse. They happen on every single campus though, from Ivy League to Community College and everything in between, you just may or may not hear about it.</p>
<p>You might get some insight into the drinking scene at various schools through campusdirt.com. They survey college kids about various aspects of school. The drinking part is under "Social Life." It's a very depressing view of virtually EVERY school on there. The critical thing is that your kid is able to make friends with similar interests. My son lucked out right away with a great roommate. He has also chosen very very nice friends. (We met them and spent some time with them on parents weekend.) I think being in the honors program has helped, as has his "extra curricular" activities - orchestra, jazz band, frisbee, badminton. Clearly, Denison did a great job matching him with a roommate, as he shares many similarities with my son.</p>
<p>weenie</p>
<p>Always appreciate your posts!!! Thanks for asking your son and his friends about the drinking. I know there is alcohol at virtually every campus. I am glad your son has a good roommate........</p>
<p>Son has already sent in the preliminary application to Denison and will hopefully complete the rest of it by late November.</p>
<p>FresnoMom</p>
<p>Thanks for the info, Flatlander and Weenie. Denison sounds like a school we need to add to our spring circuit. Flatlander, if I may ask, what other schools around Columbus did you and D visit? I am only familiar with OSU , OWU (we visit there next week) and Capitol. bookmom</p>
<p>Hi bookmom,</p>
<p>We visited (in order) Denison, Kenyon, and Ohio Wesleyan, as my daughter was looking for a smaller LAC. Before we went out, OWU was #1 on her list - the psychology department is top-notch, and the admissions department was great in communicating with her - with Denison and Kenyon tied for second.</p>
<p>She spent most of a day at Denison, where the sun was shining bright and campus looked gorgeous. It was a Friday, so there was a lot of energy evident in the students: a pick-up soccer game, Diversity Day celebrations at lunch, lots of posters advertising weekend events, etc. She liked the students she met, and felt comfortable in the class she attended.</p>
<p>We stayed overnight at a bed-and-breakfast in town, and had some good conversations with the owners about their perceptions of Denison and the town of Granville - I know this definitely helped in the decision-making process.</p>
<p>On Saturday, we spent 1/2 day at Kenyon. This is where I learned the weather has a lot to do with initial impressions; it was pouring rain, and my daughter had decided even before she stepped foot outside the car that she did not want to go there. The fact that it is in the middle of nowhere - I grew up on a farm in VT, and even I thought it was isolated! - did not appeal to her. She did not attend any classes, nor did she have a chance to interact with any students, who were laying low on that dreary Saturday morning. I liked that they sent the students and parents off in separate tours; our guide, who was from NYC, was very happy at Kenyon and did not miss having a city, or even a town, close by. (Yes, there is the "town" of Gambier, but Kenyon is Gambier, and Gambier is Kenyon.)</p>
<p>Last stop, Ohio Wesleyan, where my daughter stayed overnight. Unfortunately, they put her up with someone who hated being there -she had wanted to go to Ohio State, but OWU offered more financial aid. She had OSU posters and paraphernalia all over her room! The campus is cut in two by a very busy street, so it lacks the cohesion of Denison. Granted, we toured the campus Monday morning, so the students did not seem all that happy to be there, and I did not notice a lot of posters advertising on-campus events. Our tour guide was <em>terrible</em> - not much of a personality, not active in any groups or clubs, and she failed to point out the brand new buildings going up. My daughter met with the chair of the psychology department, who was great. We found Delaware very depressing, although there are attempts to revive the downtown.</p>
<p>After we got back home, my daughter decided Denison was the one, and she applied ED. I sometimes wonder: What if the weather had been terrible at Denison? What if we had had a lousy tour guide? Would my daughter still have wanted to go to Denison?</p>
<p>It really is a subjective process!</p>
<p>flatlander</p>
<p>I'm not so sure. I thought that too at the beginning. It almost seemed random what my child liked and didn't like. A younger sibling of my one at Denison toured all of the schools you mentioned and was dead set against Ohio. Reasons.. well some were wacky. It was pouring the day we saw Kenyon (we went while his sibling was at Denison Orientation). It was further out than I thought and extremely rural. All the things not on the list! I was sure we would bag this tour early and move on. However there was something that stood out. It is now on the top of the list. There was a feeling there from the people we met. The dreary rainy gray day which went well with the Gothic look didn't scare away the fish! I think that our kids know what they are looking for. They may not be able or want to voice it but when they see it and feel it they know!</p>
<p>Thanks to flatlander and sideways for th insights. I'm not sure about Kenyon but Denison and OWU sound like they are definitely in the running. My D will be overnighting this weekend at OWU for the Psychology Dept preview visit. Good to know they have a great dept.</p>