Current Beloiters

Colleges and Universities A-Z Beloit College
1

<p>What is life like at Beloit? Is it academically stimulating? Stressful? Enjoyable? Pleasant? Difficult? </p>

<p>There’s a bus that goes to Chicago everday, right? What about into town?</p>

<p>How often do you find youself shopping for things like laundry detergent, soap, toothpaste, snacks, shampoo etc? At the local Walmart?</p>

<p>What do people do on the weekends? Go to Chicago? What % of the popualtion parties? I would not be in that %.</p>

<p>Do you ever visit other unis to meet friends? (I wouldn’t know anyone at the Unis in WI or IL, but I would be willing to accompany others to meet their friends at local unis if that’s what they do.)</p>

2

<p>As a freshman at Beloit, I’m no expert at college life, but I can do my best to answer your questions.</p>

<p>I find life at Beloit very pleasant, and I honestly can only think of one or two days when I wasn’t happy throughout the entire semester. How academically rigorous/stimulating it depends on what your courses are and how well you manage time, as I’m sure is true for all colleges. However, even if you find yourself stressed out by work, odds are it will be with work you are interested in. There isn’t really much social pressure to do specific things (in academics or in social life), and people just do what interests them. Some choose to put more pressure on themselves, some don’t.</p>

<p>There is a bus that heads to Chicago; I think it’s daily, but I’m not sure. Anyways, the main problems with this are that you need a way to get to the bus station, and that the trip is around $50 round-trip. From what I can tell, people usually only use it before and after breaks to get to campus from the airport, or to get to the airport from campus. </p>

<p>There is a city bus, and I know of a few students who use it, but not too many. Generally, when people need to go somewhere and don’t have a car, they either find a friend to drive them or wait until Wednesday or Sunday errands, when the school provides a free van for the students, usually either going to Walmart or Woodmans (a local grocery store). </p>

<p>There is also sometimes a bus provided by the school going up to Madison, which I think is free. I’ve also heard that there is a bus that isn’t affiliated with the school that regularly goes to Madison, and that you can get discounted tickets from student activities. </p>

<p>Also, sometimes a college shuttle will bring students to the local movie theater.</p>

<p>I’m still on the same bottle of laundry detergent I start the year with, and that’s with doing laundry every week. I’m still using the same tube of toothpaste. I’m on my third bottle both of shampoo and of soap. (However, I do end up going to Walmart every other week or so since I like to cook a lot and go through some supplies rather quickly.)</p>

<p>From what I can tell, a fair bit of the students party over the weekend, but I’m not too sure. I don’t really have a broad enough perspective to say what percentage of the overall student body parties, though. However, as someone who doesn’t party, I’ve always been able to find something to do during weekends. SPIEL (the sub-free planning club) tries to have at least one activity every weekend. Some of the activities we’ve done were capture the flag, improv games, a haunted house (setting this up was one of my favorite memories of college so far), crafts, and mafia. Also, if there are any sub-free events you’d like to try, you can come to planning meetings and try to get it started. Also, the ballroom dance club will usually put on a dance or two each month with lessons beforehand, and those are always a lot of fun. Besides structured events, I’ve spent a lot of weekend nights just hanging out with my friends in the 609 lounge. </p>

<p>I don’t know anyone who’s gone to visit friends at other schools, but I’m sure that some people do. I don’t think it’s a very regular thing, though.</p>

<p>If you have any other questions, feel free to ask! :D</p>

3

<p>That sounds great! I’ve always wanted to learn how to dance. :)</p>

4

<p>life at beloit is pretty academically stimulating. people are always down to talk about or debate pretty much anything. it can get a bit stressful at times, but nothing you can’t handle. generally it’s very pleasant.</p>

<p>there is a bus that goes to chicago every day but like kaiserinsisi said you have to find a way to the bus station. there’s also a gocar on campus that you can rent out for like 8 bucks an hour or something. you can like walk ‘into town.’ </p>

<p>i find myself at walgreens picking up cigarettes and **** at least once a week. it’s a ten minute walk. i’m still on the same laundry detergent, deodorant, and toothpaste. i have my mom ship me conditioner and snacks though! </p>

<p>on the weekends there are ‘parties’ but people don’t really ‘party,’ if that makes sense. all the parties here are dance parties, and while people go to them and dance i don’t consider that partying! drinking in your room/hanging out with friends on the weekend is pretty common. personally i spend a lot of time at c-haus checking out bands and ****. i think (and it’s been my experience) a lot of people at beloit drink and smoke, but they’re generally very responsible about it. also if you don’t, you will DEFINITELY be able tofu ind a big community of people who also don’t. if you want to experiment, you’ll be able to do that too. it’s pretty cool that the other beloiter lives in 609 as i live in peet. they’re pretty polar living spaces so i’m hoping we can offer two very different experiences. </p>

<p>most people don’t go to chicago even semi-regularly, unless they’re from there or something. </p>

<p>there’s so much **** always going on too, a lot of interesting lectures and activities! clubs here are pretty cool too. i really enjoy hanging out in the special interest houses for the most part. i’m sure you’ll find something to fill your time. </p>

<p>i don’t know anyone who’s gone to visit anyone at other schools either. it’s definitely not something that happens on the regular.</p>

5

<p>Curious: What do your guys’ debts look like? Does Beloit ever meet full need? Have you had to borrow a large amount?</p>

6

<p>I think Beloit is pretty generous with financial aid, but it is an expensive school. Scholarships awarded to me by the college plus a grant cover over two-thirds of my yearly payments. That plus the $2,000 work study leaves me with about $13,000 to pay out of pocket or through loans. This can all vary a lot, though, depending on what kind of scholarships you get and how much your family makes (which affects the grant amount).</p>

7

<p>$13K a year in loans…that seems like a lot? The estimator estimated about 14K for me for my familiy contribution, but my family isn’t paying for anything except food…</p>

8

<p>Mom of recent Beloit grad here. My son actually did use the bus to go into Chicago and then when he got a car, visited there and Madison fairly regularly. There are some some interesting places in “downtown” Beloit like Bushel-n-Peck eatery, coffee shop,Beloit Inn and a farmer’s market many weekends. The Rock River has nice walking/running paths and a park that are just a block from campus. </p>

<p>I can’t recall ever hearing my Beloiter ever being without something to do–he became much more open to trying new things while at Beloit. Because he had friends with so many different interests, he found himself attending a broad variety of events.</p>

<p>Beloiters are very friendly and if you open yourself up to the possibilities, you will never be bored!</p>

9

<p>I don’t know if Beloit ever meets full need without loans; if it does, I’ve never heard of it. I’ve got about $8,000 a year in loans, along with a very generous grant and merit scholarship. I’m not sure how much about or below average this is, however.</p>

10

<p>Yeah, it’ll probably be tough to get by without any family contributions. I know $13,000 a year sounds like a lot, but small liberal arts colleges are expensive. With no help from family and hopes to attend a small LAC, you’re going to have to take out a lot in loans. And remember, the $13,000 could also be a lot more if you don’t get as much in scholarships/grants.</p>

<p>However, I think Beloit is pretty generous with scholarships. My grades in high school weren’t great, and I still got two $10,000/yr scholarships. Definitely try to go the college and interview. I know for a fact that one of the scholarships was because my interviewer recommended me. Let them know how much you’re looking forward to Beloit, and put a lot of emphasis on your favorite academic area.</p>