<p>okay....i know i need to get out of my southern california bubble sometime but i was wondering how diverse washington and lee is because from what i hear, it ranks pretty low in diversity. also, how is the general vibe like?</p>
<p>Here's a link to the stats <a href="http://ir.wlu.edu/studata/%5B/url%5D">http://ir.wlu.edu/studata/</a> The second page of that document has all the racial diversity data you could ask for. Looks like last year the caucasion population was 88.3%, so it's not completely homogenous.
As far as the overall vibe is concerned, WnL is the nicest campus I have ever visited. The speaking tradition along with the level of friendliness of the students and faculty make walking around campus a social event in itself. I've never run into nicer students and teachers in my life.</p>
<p>Musings...</p>
<p>While 12% is fairly low, that doesn't, IMO, damn the entire school. There is often the question of WHO those 12% are - is there just a lot of Asian students whose families have been over here for generations? Or, are there minorities who grew in the inner cities, kids who grew up in another country or whose parents came over from India? How integrated are the students? Would you see black students walking aroudn campus with white students, or do they self-segregate? How active are the minority communities?</p>
<p>In short - those are questions which are best answered by visiting the campus.</p>
<p>hey aninar77 I have the same concern and I am from SoCal as well...I used to live in GA and the lack of diversity within the region was an issue that bothered me more than once, but the community I lived in was great and I never regretted a moment living there. I think my experience in GA will be somewhat similiar at W&L...the southern hospitality is certainly prevalent in the community-a stark contrast from the fast-paced, anal SoCal living in the suburbs...but anyway, things like saying hi to ppl you don't know or being willing to help those you don't even know are small things that characterize the South...W&L shouldn't be any different...while being a minority may be unnerving b/c of the homogenous population, one's racial/financial/religious/sexual status shouldn't be a prime issue for discrimination...ppl here judge you by your personality not your appearance...and if they don't oh well, they're the minority.</p>
<p>At the elite LACs, like W & L, the 'diversity' issue is simply a non-starter. All of these schools compete for the same kids, and they almost all come from the same socio-economic backgrounds. Amherst, Williams, Middlebury, Bowdoin, W & L? The same. W & L is aggressive in its pursuit of real diversity, bringing in a increasingly large number of students from areas of the country not well represented, from religious groups not historically represented, and from economic strata not well represented in the past. In addition, although the student body is more conservative than most, the intellectual diversity is both obvious, and promotes a very stimulating college experience. If what you want is an opportunity to live among people who actually disagree with each other about the issues of our time, then W & L is certainly a place for you to consider. If you want everyone to agree with each other, try Wesleyan, or Middlebury, or Bowdoin, or one of the other LACs which all fall under the same left wing umbrella.</p>
<p>Or, if you want real economic diversity. Only about 4% of W&L students are recipients of Pell grants.</p>
<p>Only 4%? Wouldn't that mean that most are rich... and I'm in a huge minority, then?</p>
<p>On the upside of W&L, 85% is from out-of-state.</p>
<p>Well, you did say you were looking forward to a "culture shock". ;)</p>
<p>not everyone is rich. that's a misconception. nearly everyone i know has some sort of scholarship. i mean, people definitely aren't "poor," but they're not the rich *****es you're thinking of. (well, most of them aren't).</p>
<p>not everyone at bowdoin falls under the left wing agenda. do your homework before stereotyping. atypically, bowdoin has a large minority of conservative students who are very vocal. political discussions on the campus have reached very passionate levels indeed. this doesn't happen on a campus where everyone agrees.</p>
<p>There are many people solidly in the middle-class income brackets who don't qualify for FAFSA because their EFC is too high. For some non-scholarship people, the parental salaries are low but they have been diligent savers.</p>
<p>I didn't assert that "everyone" at Bowdoin is a lefty, but let's be clear about the population of students. A large majority of the student body at Bowdoin are leftwing. The campus is dominated by PC attitudes, the faculty is leftwing, the Admin is left wing, and the overal climate is quite solidly left of center.
Bowdoin does not have an atmosphere which inhibits the conservative minority, the way too many other LACs do, but the students are, I repeat, quite solidly leftwing.</p>
<p>what's wrong w/being in the left wing?</p>
<p>you asserted that at bowdoin, "everyone agrees with each other." it's not a compelling argument to boost w&l by way of a comparison that deteriorates with evidence. w&l has enough going for it, anyway. it needn't be used as an occasion to criticize schools whose political complexity falls outside the ambit of "everyone agreeing with each other." unless, of course, you were a student at bowdoin and can speak from personal experience...</p>
<p>Would you like me to post the statistics on the political philosophies of students, faculty and administration at Bowdoin? If you wish, I can, but I can tell you with absolute authority that the vast % (85%) of the students at Bowdoin identify themselves as 'liberals' or 'progressives.' That leaves 15% for the 'moderates,' the 'totally apolitical' and the 'conservatives.'
Now if 'conservatives' are generally viewed as 'rightwing' than 'liberals' and 'progressives' are therefore 'leftwing.' And 85% certainly represents a large enough group to securely (and accurately) assest that Bowdoin, like virtually every elite LAC, has an ideologically homogenous student body.
As for W & L, at one time it WAS a bastion of conservative white rich boys/men, but over the past 25 years it has become a school in transition. Some members of the administration would have it become nothing more than a 'Southern Amherst/Bowdoin/Bates/Wesleyan etc., while the students and some faculty, administration and alums are making every effort to keep it both 'Southern' in character, intellectually diverse, ideologically diverse, and increasingly free of the political correctness that is destroying the intelllectual rigor of most colleges and universities in this country.</p>
<p>Good luck with that.</p>