I have hesitated to respond to this thread, as I don’t have first-hand experience regarding Dickinson. My son is a junior at Denison, and @Mom_to_three 's post reminded me of the cold, wet, grey day in March that we first visited the school. We had been in San Antonio, Texas the day before for an admitted students day, and it had been absolutely gorgeous, so I though Denison would be a goner, but my son loved it and has been very happy there. I agree with @Midwestmomofboys that Denison feels like a school on the move in all good ways. President Weinberg is a very gifted leader with a clear vision for the school. On the other hand, one of my son’s best friends from home is at Dickinson, and he is also having a great experience. I don’t think you can go wrong with either of these schools. My son is a double-major with psychology as one. There has been a fair amount of recent turnover on the psych faculty. If your daughter’s interest in the field is focused, perhaps she could ask to speak with someone on the faculty or with a current psych student to get a sense of the department and its direction.
Thank you for your detailed and thoughtful comment! A lot to think about and a lot to consider.
Both great options, best wishes to your student!
Thank you very much!!!
I’m just seeing this thread. My daughter is pre-med at Denison finishing her junior year. She is very happy with her program and all the resources the school provides her. She has mentioned several times that they are working in labs with expensive NMR and IR machines that she says most smaller schools typically don’t have and at larger schools the undergraduate students don’t have broad access to. I assume her perspective is based on discussions with her friends and other pre-med students at other colleges. Denison seems willing to invest their considerable resources to enhance student experience. I can’t speak for resources available at Dickinson. As others have said there is not a bad choice here as both Denison and Dickinson are fine LACs.
Hi! We visited both campuses and my daughter decided to apply to Dickinson but not Denison. She liked Denison enough, but it felt so similar to Dickinson that it didn’t make sense to drive 6 hours from where we live in PA for such a similar experience only two hours away at Dickinson. Obviously this doesn’t apply to you except to speak to the similar vibe, with the differences already described by other folks here. We stayed overnight in Columbus - it’s 40 minutes from campus so I don’t know if students really go there much. I guess they’d need a car or there may be a shuttle? And the town of Granville, while very pretty, is basically a street with a pizza place, an ice cream place and a couple stores and that’s it. Carlisle seemed much more vibrant, my daughter liked its proximity. However it’s true that Dickinson is further from Philadelphia than Denison is from Columbus, although those cities don’t really compare. And I don’t know much about Harrisburg except it’s the same distance as Columbus from Denison. We got a stronger Greek vibe from Denison. It was something my daughter commented on and didn’t prefer. Also the Dickinson campus seemed more expansive, Denison felt small. Dickinson’s extensive study abroad program offerings appealed to her. My daughter sounds a lot like your daughter. We’re going to Accepted Students Day this weekend so if you’d like to know about her experience feel free to message me. She is choosing between Dickinson and Rhodes.
Everytime I have gone from Granville to Columbus it takes me ~30 minutes to get there. Denison students do frequent Columbus on a semi regular basis. There used to be a shuttle several times a day between university and Columbus. They stopped this during COVID and I haven’t confirmed if has started up again. In any case my daughters friend group, who all seem to have cars, go to Columbus regularly for dinning and shopping.
Although, Greek life is present at Denison because it’s non residential my daughter who had no interest in pledging has friends that are both involved and not involved in Greek life.
We are from central New Jersey and visited a lot of the LACs in Pennsylvania including Dickinson. Ultimately my daughter chose to apply to other selective LACs such as Bucknell, Williams and middlebury as her more rural schools. Denison’s location although further from home felt right for our student. I respect that others may have a different perspective.
If you don’t mind me asking, what made Denison stand out over Bucknell (and some of the others)?
(Besides the fact that they are both great schools).
Hi, my daughter ultimately decided she really wanted somewhat of urban college experience and although she loved williams (#3) and bucknell (#4) her final choice was between Denison and Northwestern in evanston. Once she was awarded one of the full tuition scholarships at Denison that strengthened their already strong showing into something that was an easy decision for her.
Will be heading to Denison for an admitted students day but found the comment odd that its campus felt smaller considering Dickinson’s campus is 144 acres and Denison’s is 850 acres. The students in a webinar said there are shuttles to Columbus and they go there often. Transportation & Shuttles | Granville, Columbus & more
The Denison Edge program is located there to help with career readiness. https://edge.denison.edu/
Ah ok. We went during covid in March 2021 and weren’t allowed to see dorms so maybe we didn’t see the whole campus, or maybe more of the property is wooded. I’m sorry for sharing my perception which seems to have been incorrect. It was the first school we visited and we did like it very much, my daughter just didn’t choose to apply. I was responding to the Dickinson v. Denison question and tried to explain our impression. Perhaps students do use the shuttle. Again during covid wasn’t the best time to get that full experience. And again I was explaining a bit about why my daughter chose not to apply but perhaps that’s not relevant to others. Wishing you the best on your journey and enjoy Denison.
As the original poster on this thread, I thought I would provide an update. My daughter decided on Denison after attending the admitted student event this past week. I should have noted in my post that my daughter spend the first 10 years of her life in Ohio, and has always considered herself a buckeye at heart. She loves Columbus and Denison has a great connection to that city and the employers there. Some people might view the location (and the weather) as a negative but that wasn’t the case with us. Not to mention the fact that Granville is such a pretty little town. Dickinson is a great school and she loved their commitment to sustainability. Another interesting note; my wife and I both went to Kenyon College which is right up the road from Denison, so we are slightly conflicted about our daughter’s decision to go to our rival 
but we are really happy for her. Best of luck to those who are still trying to decide, and thank you again for all the great insights.
Congrats to her! She’ll do great, and Denison is an excellent choice.
Congrats to your daughter on finding her college. I’m sure she will love Denison as much as my daughter does.
Congrats to her, I’m sure she will have a fantastic experience! We miss our time in Granville and on campus, so lovely!
Denison’s campus is tight (but very nice!). It has 850 acres because they count other land that the college owns adjacent to the actual campus itself, forest preserves etc.
Yes, the adjoining acres are where the organic farm/housing coop is – the Homestead – plus the nature preserve used for environmental science research, running trails etc.
We visited Dension. It’s lovely and we really liked that the nature preserve was right there. S19 ended up not applying for other reasons but we really enjoyed our visit and the students we met there. Smart and friendly.
Yes, and my Denison grad enjoyed Bates very much, but did not like the coach in his sport . … who is now gone. It all works out!
AAGH! That Bates coach!! We’ll leave it at “memorable”!