<p>It's back to school for the second term, and I was wondering if parents or students wanted to report on their experiences so far. My son is a first year student, and I have to say it has been mostly positive for him. He likes Denison a lot and has made a nice group of friends despite his own shyness. He found his classes challenging the first term, but did well and overall liked them a lot. He seems to have a good schedule for the second term--a mix that will avoid all classes having heavy reading hopefully. It was a nice long break, so I think he is ready to go back.</p>
<p>One problem he had was that he was sometimes bored--not enough to do! Hopefully, he will get involved in more things this term, but he actually spent so much time studying the first term that he kept up with his work with time to spare. He signed up for several clubs at the beginning of the year event, but wasn't called for most of them apparently and, being a shy kid, did not seek them out. He did get involved with the Denison Democrats and worked on the Obama campaign some, which he enjoyed, but that came to an end after the election. He had been planning to audition for the band at the beginning of the year, but was afraid he would not have time for it. (And the auditions were apparently held at the same time as the club sign-up event.) That was a miscalculation, so he went off with his instrument this term and will hopefully get in the band (he signed up for the one-credit). I'd be interested in hearing from other parents and students if they find enough to do on campus and what they recommend.</p>
<p>Another problem is that my son's advisor has done the minimum--just looked over his courses and signed, basically. He has friends with advisors who do a lot more, and take a real interest in the students, so I think he was unlucky with his. I wonder if he should try to switch soon or wait until he knows what he wants to major in and switch then. any advice would be most welcome.</p>
<p>again, it's been mostly positive, and I would recommend Denison to others applying now (the financial aid is great among other things).</p>
<p>1955, DD1 is a soph at Denison and loves it. She has a group of very close friends (she stayed her last weekend of the break with one) and is involved a couple of clubs - anime and fencing. She also gets involved in other things that inspire her. As far as the counselor, DD1 knows what she wants to major in and a friend has very specific courses she is working toward (with a difficult double major). I wouldn't worry much until your son declares a major. That is when it is critical to get the proper guidance.</p>
<p>thanks. You are probably right that he can wait until declaring a major to change advisors. I had hoped, though, that he would get guidance to figure out what major is best for him--that's probably too much to ask!</p>
<p>My brief experience from DD1 is that students get info from friends and instructors, think about it and make their own decisions, regardless of what we parents think (or GCs I would imagine).</p>
<p>Ours has had much the same experiences ...virtually all positive with several notable exceptions. Had a psych class that the prof, who obviously has a fixaton on gay and racial issues, turned the class into those issues. She did well, but the class was defiinitely not as advertised. This is a chronic issue on many campuses.</p>
<p>I don't buy the ho-hum advisor issue. Not with a price tag of $45K/annum, whatever the FA. That's one of the points that Denison profs argued in lobbying to teach fewer classes over the past several years. Need to do more serious advising. And I'd argue the point that students need and merit the most serious advising when they are novice students. By the time they're majoring, they should know quite well what they need, want, and much more about the professors, teaching styles, etc. I don't buy that one second. That's one of the very things campuses like DU sell to prospective students, and I'm not inclined to give them any pass at all. That's one of the Freshman Dean's jobs, i.e. to ensure thorough academic advisiing. Students and their paying parents should embrace a far more aggressive consumer mentality, imo. Lastly, the academic advising is so inconsistent with the extraordinary attention to individuals by the admission staff in the recruitment process.</p>
<p>Furthermore, DU exacerbates this by allowing students to advise incoming freshmen in their initial course selection in June-O. Also, she has a language course continued but they refused to allow the same prof, which seems nuts to us. These issues and the obvious lack of student spaces in even intro courses are the only 3 major issues we've observed. And these noted, our student loves it, and is so thrilled, especially noting how many friends seemed so unhappy and/or dissatisfied when they all reconnected over the holidays.</p>
<p>I do agree with Whistle Pig that part of what we are paying for is special attention in advising, even though they do get advise from other instructors and students as well.</p>
<p>My son was not thrilled with his classes after the first day, but it is really too early to tell. He seems to think there are a fair number of temporary faculty at Denison (e.g., brought in for the year, non-tenure track). I don't know if that is true or not, and of course those people can be good teachers anyway. I wonder though if Denison has trouble attracting and retaining faculty? Granville is charming, but not the most exciting place to live and a fair commute from Columbus.</p>
<p>Again, I don't want to sound negative, because overall it's been a good school for my son so far.</p>
<p>Good question. I know very little about the honor's program, but my son just told me that he was invited to it after his first semester's grades since he had the average they were looking for. He could have taken an honor's seminar instead of his FYS, but he likes that class so decided not to switch. I'm not sure if he'll be able to enroll in the fall or not and what the advantage is. I imagine some teachers teach honors courses along with other courses. Probably more of the honors courses are taught by tenure-track faculty.</p>
<p>no personal knowledge beyond scuttlebutt. Spoke with an older student (probly 24 or 25 year old young man) who was in honors program and lived in the honors house. He spoke very maturely and highly of both the residential and academic experiences, noting that he did not particularly "fit" into the traditional dorm scenario very well (he'd been in service, etc. ...clearly a very focused, self-motivated student). Honors courses are also available to other students when space allows. My own impression is that there are many honors level students and generally small classes with tenured faculty and so the difference between honors and regular courses is not so great. Just some very superficial, anecdotal observations and comments.</p>
<p>btw, I had to smile on the comments above re: Granville. My own perspective is it's a "glass half-full" place with enormous advantages over say Kenyon, Oberlin, Greencastle, Richmond (IN), Meadville, Hiram, Wooster, and a whole bunch of others. Granville was founded and laid out by a bunch of Massachusetts Presbyterians (sent out from Granville, MA as "missionaries" to the wild western front which would eventually become an eastern bedroom community of Columbus.) We find it a spectacularly picturesque town, with wide streets, beautiful churches. Possibly a town that "seems" wonderful and might become a bit less so when one lives there? But what a New England college town is "supposed" to look like. And they have the advantage of being readily commutable to a very large metro area. This is a critical component in hiring top flight young faculty who have spouses often seeking professional positions and/or disinclined to want to live in Yellow Springs or Mantua Corners or Grinnell Iowa or Northfield MN or other rural, often run down communities with few professional opportunities in reasonable proximity. So our view is that Granville may not be downtown Philly...thank God...and has enormous strategic advantages for an aspiring LAC. Best of both worlds ...live in a neat, attractive, economically vibrant place with easy access to the symphony, museums, professional job placements. </p>
<p>I guess in the end, it's just the old story about beauty being in the eye of the ogler ...</p>