Hi all,
I am an international applicant who recently received an offer of admissions from Colgate! It was certainly a very exciting occasion for myself and my family, since Colgate was very high up on my list of colleges and this was my first US acceptance. However, now that I have been accepted, I would like to pose some questions to current students about the environment at Colgate University:
– I have heard that the student body is pretty homogeneous here, with the majority being New England white, athletic, preppy, upper/upper-middle class kids. I have also heard that diversity on campus is lacking. Therefore, as a member of an ethnic minority whose socioeconomic background is definitely not upper crust and who isn’t particularly athletic, I am wondering how well I’d “fit in” among the Colgate student body. Would I mix well with the general crowd or would I end up hanging out by myself or with a few other oddball friends?
– I have also heard that Colgate has a reputation for hard partying/drinking. While I don’t mind the partying, I am definitely averse to drinking myself (I’ve tried and I hated it, especially beer and hard liquor). Though I could probably drink one or two times a month for form’s sake, I don’t plan on doing it regularly. Would my dislike for alcohol negatively impact my interactions with other students? Are there alternatives to hard partying/drinking for people like me?
To be honest I picked my colleges simply on the basis of academic reputation and didn’t do as much research on campus life as I probably should have. I am fairly certain that I will enroll here in August but it would definitely help if I could have these questions answered before then.
Thanks!