Finding a good personality fit looking at SLACs

College Search & Selection
1

Okay, background: Male, 17, Mid-Atlantic US, HS Senior in IB Diploma Programme. Current college list is as follows: Amherst, Wesleyan, Vassar, Tufts, Skidmore, Davidson, URichmond, St. Mary’s College of Maryland.

I’m looking for some insight into the social scenes and personalities at the above schools. I find that the answers I often get during college visits from admissions officers and tour guides are nebulous and unhelpful.

I would describe myself as introverted, goofy around certain people, liberal and politically engaged (but cynical), a music lover, with a dry sense of humor. I actually like the social scene at my high school, because it isn’t terribly cliquey, and I can be involved in a few different groups. I hang out with other IB kids, band/music geeks, some of my cross country teammates, and some other kids who like Fantano, /mu/, Death Grips, r/indieheads, etc. I’m in a fantasy football league whose unifying trait is that none of us watch football (my team name is the “Alt Right Deplorables”). I like to go to some low-key parties, but not too much.

WHAT I DON’T WANT: “Oberlin-esque” liberal echo chamber of trigger warnings/micro-aggressions, campus with only super-crunchy Birkenstock-clad hippies, button-down and stuffy preppy kid school, campus with only introverted people, or a frat boy party school (unlikely at LACs I suppose).

WHAT I DO WANT: Good mix of introverts and outgoing extroverts, ethnically and racially diverse, at least a LITTLE BIT politically diverse, and just a good mix of friendly people with different personalities. Also, it would be nice if the other kids had an interest in having fun during college in addition to challenging themselves in their coursework.

Am I looking in the right places based on my descriptions? Would any of these schools be a better fit for me than others?

2

I would take out Vassar, and possibly Wesleyan.

If you are ok with a slightly larger school. Wake Forest is a hybrid of a LAC and research university, and has a similar feel to Davidson.

3

@WildestDream I found Vassar to seem like a pretty diverse mix of personalities when I visited, although I’ve heard of the “Vassar Bubble”. Did I mis-read it? What’s the vibe like there?

4

Are Wes and Vasser politically diverse? I suspect not.

5

The College Board Big Future site has diversity stats. For example,

https://bigfuture.collegeboard.org/college-university-search/davidson-college

Click on “Campus Life” on the blue left side vertical menu, then “Student Body” on the pink horizontal menu.

6

Agree with @WildestDream . If you are looking to avoid an ‘Oberlin-esque’ campus, know that Vasaar is Oberlin x 10.
Wesleyan like Oberlin as well.
You may want to look at Bates, Dickinson, Conn College, Lafayette

7

Sounds like Grinnell to me, maybe Carleton, Bates, Haverford – all pretty unpredictable in terms of admissions because of the importance of mutual fit. Less reachy, maybe Dickinson, St Lawrence and Denison.

8

Bates seems like it would be a good fit. Have you tried looking at the reviews on U-n-i-g-o (remove the dashes) or Niche for all of your schools?

9

Amherst is probably the nerdiest college on your list. But, here’s the thing: if you want a racially diverse campus, and don’t care for Division I sports, you’re going to have to accept a certain amount of political friction. This is a tense time for the country and bright, humane, proactive people are going to occasionally butt heads. Maybe, there’s a Goldilocks campus somewhere that meets all of your criteria, but, my advice is to apply to a wide selection of selective LACs and visit the ones you are lucky enough to get into.

10

Dickinson or Denison

11

I’m assuming that “LAC” is “Liberal Arts College”. What is the “S”?

12

S = Selective

13

I think it is for “small”. Not commonly used out here, though.

14

It’s not uncommon to respond positively to a range cultures, the same way that you have diverse interests and friends with diverse personalities.

To me, Amherst, Tufts, Skidmore, Davidson fall on none side of the culture spectrum and Wesleyan, Vassar on the other. All of these selective LACs lean left politically, but some are more tolerant (or indifferent) to middle road opinions; some are more overtly activist. Some student bodies are more physically active – sporty, outdoorsy; some are more cerebral. Friendly people and off-beat humor abound at all. (I think that was my son’s greatest anxiety: What if they don’t get my jokes? They did.)

If you’re leaning toward Amherst/Davidson then you might look at Williams, Bowdoin, Hamilton. If you visited Vassar and Wesleyan and felt comfortable with what you saw and felt, then don’t be deterred. I’d add Haverford to that mix.

Of course visiting is the best first step in picking up the underlying vibe. Talking to students that you know with first hand experience is another. Overnights can really help in identifying fit and finalizing your selection, especially after your acceptances come in.

15

Based on the options above, Tufts might be good. I also agree that you might want to look at Haverford. For some reason, based on your description of what you want, i wonder if you might value easy access to a city, if not your freshman year, then later.

16

@wisteria100 Can you elaborate on this a bit? I have visited both Vassar and Oberlin and got TOTALLY different vibes from both. Oberlin, to me, was “edgy” in kind of an emotionally immature way (not sure how else to describe it), and seemed far-left to the point of being intolerant of any other political bent. Vassar obviously seemed very liberal, but it seemed like all the students were well-spoken, mature, streetwise, and a little off-beat. Oberlin students seemed smart but I still got the vibe that none of them had really outgrown their high school days. Would you agree with this assessment?

17

I don’t have any answers for the OP, but that’s the best user name ever.

18

@circuitrider Thanks for your response. I suppose I should clarify a little bit. By no means am I trying to avoid political friction, and in fact, I would like to seek it out. The thing that bothers me is when campuses become “oversensitive” about important discussions about race and class and campus diversity. I’ll pick on Oberlin again since they’ve gotten a lot of press for it, but I feel like the “trigger warnings” wave has rendered Oberlin and other schools incapable of talking openly about the big issues. I fear that schools with a single political perspective are bound to be paralyzed by oversensitivity. That’s part of what draws me to Amherst (see the Amherst Uprising).

19

You sound like a Kenyon, Macalester and Wesleyan kid. You don’t seem like a Univ of Richmond kid

20

@antsinmyeyesjohnson - Amherst came in for more than its share of criticism for a relatively mild direct action on or around the same time as the Mizzou demonstrations and probably a dozen others. It’s very, very, very difficult to predict where people are going to land when it comes to politically charged events. You need to concentrate on finding a place where you are reasonably sure of finding your peep and leave the fine-tuning until after you’ve been admitted.