<p>Thanks, quakerstake! Knowing its location with regard to Charlotte helps in making comparisons. Would you say Davidson has Swarthmore’s reputation for being extremely intense academically? Also, are there any other LACs you would recommend visiting if one were to venture down to Charlotte to check out Davidson?</p>
<p>First, Davidson perennially ranks in the top 10 of best LAC’s when it comes to academics. In fact, some potential students we have known decided NOT to attend because of the tough academics. If I were in that area ( have been many times-use to live in that area and kids graduated from Furman), I would definitely make a stop at Wake Forest. While a true university, the undergrad portion has more of a LAC feel. Duke is about 2 hours a way ( with traffic), but of course a very different feel/culture, IMO.</p>
<p>Son is going to be at Freshman at Davidson. We spent a good deal on campus because he was a scholarship candidate. There are definitely “preppy” kids but a good split. Wake and Washington and Lee much more preppy. It’s an awesome school. I recommend you and your daughter doing a " discover Davidson " weekend. It really gives you a great flavor for the school. That weekend rocketed Davidson to my son’s top three or four choices. While looking we stayed in Raleigh and did tours of UNC and Duke. The next morning we drove to Davidson and toured that. Drove that day to winston Salem stayed there , had a nice dinner etc and did Wake the next morning. There are a great mix of Kids from all over country. It’s is very academic. A good friend who is very liberal and both she and husband are Johns Hopkins professors told me the most impressive people she meets academically - both graduate students and professors - are from Davidson. And this is when we first started looking at schools - not after son got in!</p>
<p>I’ll also add that he applied toWilliams, Columbia,Dartmouth, Rice, UVA, Vanderbilt, Wake, wash &lee, Harvard and Yale. He was rejected from Dartmouth. wait listed at harvard , yale and Vanderbilt. admitted to the others. We really looked at a lot of schools closely. . Harvarford too small and we didn’t consider Swartmore. schools he looked at and didn’t feel were a fit were UNC, duke, William and Mary, Amherst, Princeton. He did not like WAsh Lee after his overnight ( even though he won their scholarship). (apologize for typos - on iPad)…</p>
<p>Davidson draws a lot of students from the northeast and from the mid-Atlantic states, so I don’t think a Yankee will have any trouble fitting in.</p>
<p>as a person who was born in nyc, and moved long ago…it still puzzles me why so many folks in nyc, boston etc… actually think the south is still circa 1875. I saw the movie “gangs of new york” with Leonardo DiCaprio is that how new york is today?</p>
<p>2008 Presidential Election Results for Mecklenberg County, NC (which includes Davidson):</p>
<p>[2008</a> Presidential Elections Results in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina](<a href=“http://www.city-data.com/elec08/MECKLENBURG-NORTH-CAROLINA.html]2008”>2008 Presidential Elections Results in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina)</p>
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<p>I’d say easily accessible if you have a car. Philadelphia has a much better public transportation system. DD and I visited Haverford, Swarthmore, and Davidson. We easily got to Haverford and Swarthmore by commuter train. When asked about getting into the city at Davidson, transportation by car was the only option given. I suspect there is a bus though.</p>
<p>Definitely easier by car but per Davidson website:</p>
<p>Bus
There is a public bus system that has routes throughout the greater Charlotte area. An express bus runs from Davidson into Charlotte (route 77x) and loads in the parking lot one block from campus. There is also the Village rider bus system (route 96) that students can use to reach local shopping areas and restaurants.</p>
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<p>Partially because in some areas of the south, enough non-southern folks have experienced areas of the south where it still seems to be the case. Whether it’s a former supervisor/current friend’s experience with having a gun pointed at him by someone creepily muttering something about “Lookie here, Chinese food” and “f&^n’ chinks” at a rural Georgia gas station in the mid-'90s, accounts from my Mississippi cousins(lived there from mid-'80s till late '90s/early '00s when they were sent off to private boarding schools for better academics) and friends/co-workers from the south about the continuing phenomenon of crappy private schools founded as “segregation academies” where the main difference is the student racial demographic…academics were the same/worse than the local public schools underfunded for political reasons, and BS like [Feds:</a> Student Rights Violated in East Miss. City - ABC News](<a href=“http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/feds-student-rights-violated-east-miss-city-16980492]Feds:”>http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/feds-student-rights-violated-east-miss-city-16980492) .</p>
<p>Davidson, NC is not Mississippi or rural Georgia (though there are also enlightened people and communities in Mississippi and rural Georgia).</p>
<p>[Town</a> of Davidson](<a href=“http://www.visitlakenorman.org/visitors/about-the-area/town-of-davidson/]Town”>Town of Davidson, NC | Davidson College, Local Parks & Bicycles)</p>
<p>But, cobrat, here in the South we hear about the same kinds of things happening up North. A friend of mine went to law school in New York, where she was in the 5% or so of students who were black. She constantly heard comments from white students like “I can’t believe there are so many blacks here. It must be affirmative action.” She said that she experienced more negative behavior toward her up there than she ever had in North Carolina, where the schools she attended were almost 50/50 black/white, and she moved back here after law school. Another friend was walking in a “white” area of New Jersey where he was followed by a group of men and told in no uncertain terms to get his n***** self out of town. The Aryan Nations has its headquarters in Idaho; the Creativity Movement, in Wyoming; the National Socialist Movement, in Detroit. A white supremacist from Colorado recently shot up a Sikh temple in Wisconsin.</p>
<p>Racists are spread around all over the country. Fortunately, though, they are spread rather thinly, and although they may be expanding their numbers at any given moment, they are a dying breed. One indication of how far we’ve come as a country is the large number of interracial couples. When I was growing up, Asian/white couples were uncommon but accepted (at least in my area); black/white couples were rare and not accepted. Now, I constantly see interracial couples in churches, schools, stores, everywhere I go. The most marvelous part is that only a very few people seem to be even slightly bothered by it. The younger generation doesn’t see racial lines for dating. They are growing up in a different time, and they, thankfully, are not going to turn back the clock.</p>
<p>Nice posts Marsian and quakerstake.</p>
<p>Annual event right next door to Davidson:</p>
<p>[Charlotte</a> Asian Festival and Dragon Boat Festival :: May 5, 2012](<a href=“http://www.charlottedragonboat.com/]Charlotte”>http://www.charlottedragonboat.com/)</p>
<p>davidson would be an amazing all around experience…both academically and socially. to pass it up because of some silly stereotypes and third hand stories from a cousin who’s friend knew a guy who said this or that is beyond my ability to understand why there are so many silly folks in certain self determined “enlightened” areas (often very insular in reality).
if you do not look at or allow your children the right to explore many of the great southern schools it is your/their loss!</p>
<p>Marsian et al,</p>
<p>I’m not saying that the problem is only in the south. Just stating one common reason I kept hearing as to why many folks in the NE…especially non-Whites hold such perceptions of the south after growing up or traveling through there. </p>
<p>Those were their experiences.</p>
<p>That’s not to say there’s no racism in the NE or other parts of the country. My own personal experiences in the NYC/Boston areas and NE Ohio can attest to that.</p>
<p>Personal experience in Boston (Alston), MA (while attending Law School in Boston). I left to go to Yom Kippur services and returned to find a swastika scratched onto my apartment door. Personally, I have only felt welcome in Atlanta.</p>
<p>Concerning the differences between Davidson and Haverford, there may be quite a few, but I don’t think the Honor Code is one of them. I am a NC Quaker (NC has 2nd largest number of Quakers in US) with many connections to Davidson, including several close friends (and Friends!) and relations currently attending. The Honor Code at Davidson permeates the entire culture, well beyond concerns about cheating and stealing; it informs much about the way the community is nurtured and strengthened. The new president, Carol Quillen, is a Friends School alum herself, so the respect for those kinds of values starts at the top. Of the young people I know currently attending Davidson, two of them also applied to Haverford. One young woman chose The Southern School because she wanted a more politically diverse environment, after attending a very progressive Quaker high school. She claims to be thrilled with her choice, and she says that the mix of backgrounds and beliefs has enabled her to refine and clarify her own views more effectively-- as well as encouraged her to look beyond the scary labels and stereotypes that define and divide much about our political system these days. Davidson may have pockets of pearls and khakis, and yes, there are kids from prep schools (mostly the NE ones, however), but it’s an astonishingly rich and multifacted school for one that enrolls fewer than 2,000 students.</p>
<p>Jim Crow persisted until 1965. NC sent Jesse Helms to the senate until 2003. This isn’t ancient history. While there is no doubt that the south–and the rest of the country-- has come a long way in the last 40 years, we all know that racism persists in some quarters, unfortunately.</p>
<p>Davidson seems like a great school, where just about anyone would feel welcome.</p>
<p>[Davidson</a> College Suspends Chick-fil-A](<a href=“HuffPost - Breaking News, U.S. and World News | HuffPost”>HuffPost - Breaking News, U.S. and World News | HuffPost)</p>
<p>Yeah, seems like a really conservative place. :rolleyes:</p>