After spending about a year following the different CC threads, and seriously considering dozens of schools, my daughter is down to her final three choices: Centre, Denison and Oberlin (with Oberlin being a very distant third). Her stats are v good and none of these schools will be stretch choices, and she is also a recruited athlete. Curious to hear from current students / recent grads / those who decided to go elsewhere and why. This is the smallest of the 3 schools, but she prefers the small / close knit community. My concern (if you can even call it that as I think all 3 are great choices) is the size & that its in the south. She has spent time on campus and loved it, but I also heard a little bit of rumbling that its still very Southern (and not in the good way; this is more related to lack of diversity and being “confederate”). We are from the midwest, and she really disliked all of the east coast schools. Cost is not an issue as from early discussions the merit $$ would be close enough to not affect the decision. Would appreciate any feedback.
I am a Centre grad, and I can say without a doubt that attending Centre was the worst mistake I’ve ever made.
It’s just too small to give any real opportunities. Research? Not a chance (unless you happen to hear about opportunities on other campuses, in the summers). Internships? Where would you do them? Unless they’ve changed significantly, and perhaps they have, they put no emphasis whatsoever on internships. I was too naïve to know what I was missing at the time, but being a working adult, I see newly-minted grads come to work with several legit positions on their resumes and plenty of professional contacts. That never happened with Centre grads. Almost no one interned. Maybe that’s why so many people I knew worked at Applebees or O’Charlie’s in Lexington after graduation.
There were also no classes - and I mean zero - that provide any professional skills. Yeah, kids take Humanities 101 and can write a paper on Beowulf and that’s great. But they get no training on anything remotely necessary for today’s workforce. (Again, perhaps they’ve changed significantly, but that’s hard for me to imagine.)
The community is small - far too small, in my opinion. Everyone knows everything about everyone else’s business. They call it the “rumor mill” - and boy, is that true. It’s just not healthy.
Yes, very southern. Very country. Very “good ol boy”. VERY little diversity, in terms of race, religion, etc.
One more thing - no one and I mean no one outside of Kentucky has ever heard of it. Everyone has heard of Oberlin and its reputation precedes it. That’s a good thing. Unless she plans to settle in Kentucky, no one will have the faintest idea about where she went to school.
I had a good time there and I learned a lot. But attending school there is the biggest regret of my life. It’s just too small and too isolated to provide opportunities she could get in a bigger city - or even a medium-sized city. I would encourage your daughter to look elsewhere.
All that said, I’m clearly biased. Many people love it. But I don’t live in Kentucky, so no one has heard of it. And I live in a big coastal city where I see kids everyday getting the opportunities I missed.
Thanks for the feedback - much appreciated. How long ago did you graduate? I agree that Centre does not have the name recognition (except in certain circles) but they seem to be getting some attention with the Colleges that Change Lives designation - I don’t know if that’s recent or not.
About 10 years ago.
The colleges that change lives thing isn’t new. They’ve been on the list as long as there was a list, afaik.
DS18 is looking at Centre very closely. Just speaking from the perspective of what they are holding themselves out to be (not personal experience), Centre would dispute what @dragonflies had to say about research and internships. Read this for another perspective as you consider Centre.
@LOUKYDAD - my DD chose Centre. Admissions gave us very detailed statistics on graduate school (her goal) and we were very satisfied. Its unfortunate @dragonflies did not have a good experience however the overwhelming majority of folks we spoke with did.