<p>Full disclosure: I'm both a parent and a high school counselor.... am investigating Davidson for both personal and professional reasons. Is the Honor Code "the real deal?" How "southern" is the culture?-- I enjoyed living in Atlanta for several years, but a cashmere and pearls atmosphere might not suit my daughter. I am interested in what seems to be a well-organized pre-med admissions process....</p>
<p>I would love to hear the nitty gritty on Davidson from students, especially, and parents as well!!
Thanks, this is my first time posting!</p>
<p>We are also interested in this as we took an informal tour on our own on the way home from the South Carolina beach last week. The campus is larger than expected for a school of 1,800 to 2,000 students but the campus is absolutely beautiful with all of the stately trees and classic brick architecture. Any info from current students or recent alums will be greatly appreciated.</p>
<p>I’m a pediatrician and just saw a girl in the office who’s home for the summer from Davidson-- she’s typical PacNWer and loves her school very very much. You can tell she can’t wait to go back.</p>
<p>We’re planning a trip there, too, so I’ll be interested. My daughter does NOT want a pearl girl school and from what I can tell the girls aren’t like that. Students from the tennis team were visiting this area and they seemed really smart, wholesome and well rounded…no makeup, etc. which I thought would be a good fit for my slightly bohemian daughter. Am going to a Davidson alum’s wedding,
(she graduated about 7 years ago) and will also talk to her college friends about it.</p>
<p>I live near Davidson. I’ve attended sporting events there and see students out and about in stores/restaurants around town. I love thrift shops and have often seen Davidson students in the Goodwill store. Based on the kids I’ve seen there’s no pervasive preppy atmosphere. They just seem like regular college kids. There are fraternities for men and eating houses for women at Davidson. </p>
<p>There is a Davidson thread in the “colleges” forum. It’s not very active but some of the old threads with comments from Davidson students might be helpful.</p>
<p>IMO Davidson is noticeably more preppy than other elite LACs. But, non-preppy will find a place there. The outdoor club is the biggest club on campus. Yes, the honor code is the real thing and compares well to Haverford. But, my Williams daughter, where there is not such an emphasis on the honor code, feels physically safe and hardly ever locks up her belongings, so such a code may not be necessary for a somewhat isolated LAC.</p>
<p>I like Davidson. It is not a “pearls” school but is on the conservative side. The honor code is the real deal and is taken seriously. Students generally love it there but I did know one kid from Dallas who found it to be too conservative and small. My son was recruited as an athlete by Davidson but got in his ED school so he never took an official visit.</p>
<p>Have had numerous friends and their children ( e.g. current or recent grads) attend Davidson. Our kids looked there and loved it, but decided it was a little too small for what thehy wanted. Even though Davidson is in the south, there are large numbers of kids from the NE and mid-west. Kids at Davidson, IMO, have a more liberal attitude than in some more traditional Southern LAC’s-e.g. Suwanne, Wofford, Furman. There is no true Greek presence on campus, there are “Eating Houses”, in case you are concerned about a prominent Greek atmosphere. yes, the Honor code is very real and wonderfully in place. Professors give take home finals as well as leave anything ot and it will be there when you get back. Great school and wonderful placement into graduate schools and professional schools as well.</p>
<p>I live real close to Davidson and I know people that go there!! And I’m thinking about going there!! I’ve been several times. The honor code is like the freaking law. You DO NOT break the honor code. You just don’t. Also, people from all over the place come to Davidson so don’t worry about fitting in. Remember, Davidson is in a part of the country where southern hospitality is the staple. People are going to accept/be friends with your daughter no matter what!! She’ll love it, I promise.</p>
<p>Have an undergrad classmate from the Carolinas who turned down admission there because he felt it was filled with too many stiff preppy rich conservative kids when he visited twice. </p>
<p>Granted, this was in the '90s and he ended up attending what was one of the most radical progressive-left colleges in the nation. Incidentally, we did have someone who transferred into our LAC from UC Berkeley because he felt it was becoming “too pre-professional and conservative” for him so YMMV.</p>
<p>I have two friends who went there (class of '06 and '10). One from southern virginia and one from the Boston suburbs. Both loved it there. They are both moderate democrats, and incredibly nice people–frankly, two of the gentlest and kindest folks I know. The guy is a preppy dresser and the girl is not. I’d never heard of Davidson til I met an alum and now I suggest it all the time.</p>
<p>That area in NC isn’t extremely southern- any Northerners/Midwesterners would be able to fit in just fine. Also, Davidson has a laundry service!</p>
<p>Are cashmere and pearls supposed to be Southern? That sounds rather high society to me. Maybe it’s more of an Atlanta thing, or maybe it’s something you might more often encounter in sororities. I don’t know about Davidson, but at least on NC public university campuses (which have a higher percentage of NC students than Davidson does), most women dress casually. Definitely no cashmere. :)</p>
<p>We have friends with a daughter who graduated in '06, and initially when they called and said their daughter was going there I thought, “oh, guess she must not be too bright” because I’d never heard of it before. Next thing I knew it was written up in Time magazine and over the years I started hearing more and more about it. This student is now an attorney in DC…pretty bright I’d say!!</p>
<p>My D’s BFF from high school (we live in a small town in Massachusetts) loved Davidson. D’s friend (born and bred in MA) was a pre-med major and graduated last year. She was accepted to several medical schools and is now off to Wake Forest for med school</p>
<p>A few months ago I attended a college fair in suburban Philadelphia and met an admissions person from Haverford College who was a Davidson grad. (She was lovely, by the way.) Haverford has always been on my “short list” of dream schools for my son, but it’s location about 15 minutes from our home always sends me looking for similar schools in other regions. A lot of folks mention Davidson as a Haverford alternative because of the honor codes at both schools. Would love to hear from anybody who considered both Davidson and Haverford.</p>
<p>When I was in college in the mid 90s, HC hosted a weekend for student leaders from colleges with honor codes or those considering implementing one. The thing I realized from meeting these students and hearing their experiences is that the history/campus culture of each school is very different and impacts the implementation of each honor code. The military academies’ honor codes are based on military honor; southern honor for UVA, WL, ect.; Wellsley’s and Conn College’s is based on an Athenian ideal of a perfect democracy; and HC’s is based on its Quaker history and value of concensus and inner light. This gives each school its own unique feel… HC’s honor code is more about teaching students to trust and respect one another through traditions informed by its Quaker past rather than cheating and stealing.</p>
<p>Football is played both in the US and Brazil but the game isn’t the same. :)</p>
<p>Davidson and HC are both great schools and have many similarities but I’m not sure an “honor code” is one of them.</p>
<p>Thanks, HC alum, for those insights about honor codes. Being from Philadelphia (and having friends and family members who have attended Quaker schools), I’m very familiar with (and highly value) Quaker principles. If not their honor codes, are there any other similarities between Haverford & Davidson you could share? And are there other schools in the northeast and mid-Atlantic states one could compare to Davidson to get a feel for what distinguishes it from other LACs in the south?</p>
<p>Locationwise, it is most similar to Haverford or Swarthmore. It is located in an upscale suburb of Charlotte and Charlotte is easily accessable. (It is not in the middle of nowhere -Charlotte is a major “New South” city and the second largest banking headquarters in the US after New York.) Its academic rigor might be most comparable to Swarthmore. The recent successes of its Division 1 Men’s Basketball team might draw comparisons to Lehigh.</p>