Hi all!
I am a former student from The College of Wooster, and I am here to answer any questions you may have. I will give you a completely honest opinion of the school and my experiences there. I should warn you that I had an extremely negative experience and transferred out after the first year. I will not try to dissuade you from attending, I know many people that love it there, but there are also people such as myself that were quite disappointed with what Wooster is really about. Wooster is very good at hiding negative comments, and there is a lot I wish I knew about the school before I chose to attend because the real Wooster is vastly different than the image of the school painted by admissions. I am willing to answer anything (academics, social scene, party scene, local area, food, dorm life/res life, clubs, safety, etc.). I will also be posting more details about my personal experience and why it was so negative soon, so you can check back if youâre curious. I just really want to help people make a more informed decision before they commit, so please donât hesitate. Iâm here to help!
Where did you transfer to? and do you like your current university?
I would like to know what aspects did not work for you and how your experience was different from how the school presents itself.
I appreciate that you acknowledge that there are kids who are very happy there, because I believe it is often the case that what works well for one kid does not work for another. But Iâm very interested in your experience vs. the others, and in your answers to these questions:
- What drew you there initially? (What schools did you choose it over?)
- What did you expect to find that you did not find?
- Where are you now?
- Have you found what you are looking for there?
- What do you think is working for the kids that are happy there that did not work for you?
Thanks.
Hi! I transferred to Kent State University (about an hour north of Wooster) and I absolutely love it here. Coming to KSU has really helped me expand socially and academically. If you have any other questions about Kent I would also be more than happy to answer those as well.
Hi mamaedefamilia and porcupine98! Iâm going to try to answer both of you at once so hopefully this works.
NOTE: my original comment was way too long so I will be posting this all in several different parts.
First of all I completely agree that certain schools work for certain types of people. Some love Wooster, but I think their misadvertising draws many to the school that probably donât belong there (Iâl further explain below).
- What drew you there initially? (What schools did you choose it over?) A lot of things initially drew me to Wooster, it was my dream school and first choice. I loved the IS program and thought it would be a wonderful opportunity as well as great preparation for grad school. It's nationally recognized and highly impressive.The research opportunities seemed far better than any other colleges, which was very important to me as a science major. I also loved the feel of Wooster, everybody I met was so friendly. I did an overnight weekend and went to a trivia night at the UG (a bar/ nightclub on campus that is now closed) and saw a performance by the campus's improv comedy group "Don't Throw Shoes." I had a blast the whole weekend and thought going to college there fulltime would be equally as fun. Finally, I really wanted to go to a smaller school for the smaller classes and closer relationships with the professors.
- What did you expect to find that you did not find? Unfortunaetly almost every reason I listed above for why I chose to go to Wooster was either different or not there at all once I really got there. I only went for my freshman year so I obviously can't talk about IS, but I can talk about the research for underclassman. I did go through the process of applying for sophomore research, which they say in admissions that everybody does but they really don't. First of all I was shocked by the lack of research opportunities available in the first place. I was (I still am) a chemistry major, and there was only one research posting for chemistry that I was unqualified for because you needed to have taken three semesters of biology (which is impossible for a freshman...). I asked my professor if he knew of any research available for me next year and he told me that professors rarely take sophomores into labs, despite how much the school advertises it. I did have a friend who was a sophomore that did partipate in research, however he said the professor and seniors in the lab working on their IS did not let him do much. It was mostly along the lines of filing paperwork, etc. In fact, he didn't even put the fact that he did reseach on his resume because he didn't really do much. Furthermore, all of my other friends (most of whom were science majors, but I knew a couple of poli sci, English, and foreign language majors too) who applied for sophomore research either found that there were no positions available, they didn't meet the requirements, or their applications were rejected. In short, the research opportunities available at Wooster are blown vastly out of proportion and pretty much every student will openly admit this. Along with other disappoints were the classes themselves. I took four classes (also Wooster limits you to four classes a semester, which is very weird if you know anything about how most other colleges work), and I had two professors I loved and two that were terrible. I had a chemistry professor that was a mess, and that's the nice way to put it. He was a wonderful person but he couldn't teach. He taught lecture wrong half the time, and the other half he walked in and gave a worksheet then left without saying a word. Several of my friends failed out of the class and are currently retaking it. He was a visiting professor and visiting profs are notorious for not being too good. The problem is Wooster has a lot of visiting profs. A lot. Professors come to Wooster and leave all the time, not because the school is bad but because the school actually pays them very poorly. The turnover rate is crazy. This is bad for students because then we get visiting profs and it negatively impacts our education. The other bad prof I had was for my FYS (first year seminar). I took a seminar about the government, and it was taught by a music professor. The worst part is that your FYS prof is your academic advisor. So I was a chemistry major with an academic advisor who was the director of the jazz band. Since this is how they assign advisors it is not at all uncommon to get assigned to an advisor who is completely out of your field of study, which is ironic since Wooster prides themselves on interdepartmental mentorship. My advisor never held advising appoints and he told us one day in lecture that he couldn't help us register for classes because he didn't know how. Luckily I had a few friends who were upperclassman science majors because without them I would've been beyond lost. Also, as a science major if you don't take exactly the right classes during the right semesters it can seriously risk your ability to graduate on time. Finally, as more of a general comment on the classes, the relationship with the professors were also lacking. I had some profs who didn't know my name even though I went to office hours, and I don't really believe that my education was vastly better sitting in a lecture hall with 30 other kids than it is now sitting in a lecture hall with 100 other kids. This is all just my personal experience, and I understand that every college has its good and bad professors. My only problem is that Wooster is very good at leading you to believe that they have all of the best professors in the country and that running into problems like I had is very uncommon. Wooster does have some wonderful profs, but they too have their fair share of bad apples despite what they'll tell you on a visit day.
(cont.)
Finally, the biggest disappoint by far was the social aspect of the college. I thought that Wooster had a great community feel, but I soon found out this is very far from the case. Now that I am at another college, the social scene stands out even more. People at Kent (my new college) smile at strangers and say hi to each other and hold doors open for people. Itâs a very social campus and I met more people here in the first three weeks than I did during my year at Wooster. Wooster felt very cold, it was a lot of âkeep your head down and only worry about yourself.â Sure some people were friendly and social, but the majority I ran into were not. It started when I first moved in. All of my high school friends from other colleges had hall meetings and hall dinners, where they quickly met people in their res halls and found their new best friends. Wooster does not do this. I met a few girls in my hall, but for the most part no one knew anybody and it was a very uncomfortable environment to live in. (Imagine showering in the communal showers everyday with people whose names you didnât even know. Not the best). But I wasnât too discouraged yet. Classes started and I joined some clubs and started to meet people. However, it was a slow process. By the time I left I had many close friends and leaving them was very hard, but finding friends at Wooster was a lot harder than I expected (and I am a very extroverted, social person). As another desperate attempt to meet more people, I even tried rushing a couple of sororities, but they were not for me at all so I dropped out of the rush process. Once I finally had a solid group of friends we found that there wasnât really much to do. Nothing in fact. The school does virtually nothing for the students. I mentioned that I had a lot of fun at an overnight weekend. What I found out as an actual student is that the school pretty much only puts of events when they have visiting high schoolers or big donors (ie alumni weekend). We went to Scot Lanes a few times (a bowling alley in the basement of the student center), but that got pretty old pretty fast. We had movie nights in each otherâs dorms, but again how much Netflix can you watch. WAC (Wooster Activity Crew) put on some events which were fun, but hardly enough to be considered a good social scene. There were craft nights about three times a semester (which I loved, but again how many craft nights can you go to. Also, do you really want to be 21 as a senior and be going to craft nights for your only source of fun?). The school put on an outdoor concert in the fall, which only had about 50 people at it and was pretty uneventful. There were two comedians and one hypnotist during the whole first semester. I asked around to see what most people did for fun since I was running out of ideas and the answer was pretty much one of two things: stay in my dorm and watch Netflix, or get drunk. Yes drinking. Drinking is everywhere at Wooster. I met with several people in the admisinstation during my transfer process (I really didnât want to transfer, I wanted to love it there. I saw the retention specialist and a counselor in the wellness center to âease my adjustmentâ) all of whom admitted to me that the campus has a drinking problem. Oddly enough, the party scene was prettyâŠweird. Wooster doesnât have national frats/sororities nor do they have off campus Greek housing. I am NOT a partier, but I was so desperate for fun that I tried to go to a couple of parties. There was usually people sitting around in a dorm room binge drinking vodka. I donât drink so I felt very uncomfortable and usually left after about 20 minutes. I know that sometimes groups do throw bigger, more fun, more traditional parties, but these happen much less frequently. The only fun party I went to was at a program house off campus. It was a private party thrown by one of the clubs I was in. We all played games and talked, but again after a few hours everybody there was trashed so I left. Also, this was pretty risky because security busts all parties at about midnight and if they see alcohol they call the actual police and everyone gets underage drinking on their record (which I think is a bit too harsh, even as someone who has never been drunk). The way I can best describe the social scene at Wooster is as follows: you have two options for having fun, you can either watch Netflix alone in your dorm or get drunk until your stomach needs pumped.
Also, on a very serious note, the social scene at Wooster can be very damaging to those with mental health issues. Many of my friends developed pretty severe depression (some stopped eating and sleeping completely. It was terrible), and unfortunately depression is far more common on campus than it should be statistically. My counselor even agreed than an abnormally high amount of people on campus seem to struggle with their mental health, which isnât surprising knowing just how isolating and uneventful the social scene really is.
(cont.)
- Where are you now?
Now I a very happy student at Kent State University (about an hour north of Wooster). I'll talk about Kent a lot more in the next question, but I am also happy to answer any other questions about Kent that may arise.
- Have you found what you are looking for there? Kent State has helped me grow so much socially and academically. The social scene here is vastly different, as I alluded to earlier. Meeting people is much easier, my residence hall has weekly meetings, game nights, movie nights, cookie parties, etc. I have met so many wonderful people in my hall this way. My first month here I went to a karaoke night, a craft night (I still love crafting but it's not all I want to do!), an ice skating party (there was free ice skating, a henna tattoo artist, a balloon animal artist, free food, a free hockey game, a big bonfire outside, etc), a concert, a party (it was college sponsored so there wasn't any alcohol) with a mechanical bull, another big concert by some supposedly famous rap artist I had never heard of, and countless other things. I have not spent a single weekend night in my dorm room alone watching Netflix or doing homework at Kent (I spent far more than I'd care to admit doing so at Wooster). Amy Schumer came to Kent last semester, Aziz Ansari was here a few years ago, Hunter Hayes preformed at the beginning of the year, and countless other big acts come to Kent State. Academically Kent State has a worse reputation that Wooster. I can't argue that, but I can honestly say that I don't think my education has been compromised in the transfer. Most of my classes are just as small as they were at Wooster, I only have one large class (~300 people), which is my intro to biology lecture. However, the professor offers recitations, and we have organized study groups lead by grad students that meet as often as four times a week, so the size of the lecture hasn't been a problem. In terms of the professors themselves the situation is similar to Wooster. I have some professors who are excellent, and some who are just okay. (On a side note, I was lucky enough to not have any grad students teach my actual lectures, so I can't speak to this situation that does happen at larger universities like KSU). Additionally, I transferred into the Honors College so I take most of my classes with other Honors students who are typically very motivated and intelligent. In terms of research, since Kent is a large research institution, opportunities are everywhere. I already have a position in a chemistry lab, where I will work alongside grad students who are working directly with several professors here at the university. I just completed my training and will be moving into the actual lab sometimes in the next few weeks and I very excited.
(cont.)
- What do you think is working for the kids that are happy there that did not work for you?
I think the social aspect is the biggest determining factor for why some students thrive at Wooster and others do not. If the social scene had been more vibrant I probably would have stayed, I could've dealt with the disappoints in academics and research, but I couldn't take everything else. Many of the friends I had that really loved Wooster tended to be more introverted. They were satisfied with mostly staying in their dorms on the weekends and watching TV alone, going to the occasional craft night. Along the same lines of people who I feel thrive at Wooster are those who are very very very passionate about their academics. I mean the type of people who are so dedicated that they are happy to do extra homework during every Friday and Saturday night.The other people I noticed that loved Wooster were on the complete other end of the spectrum: the partiers. If you like to get drunk to have a good time (or smoke weed. People smoked weed in my dorm ALL THE TIME which was another reason I was happy to leave), then you will likely find the social scene more appealing. As I said before, most of Wooster parties are people binge drinking in dorm rooms (again this is all from personal experience), but I imagine this would be more entertaining if you were drunk and not just sitting there soberly like myself. To clarify, I am not trying to judge these people or mock their life style choices in any way. If any of this makes them happy then that is all that matters, but the social scene simply did just not for me, not do I believe it works for a lot of other people.
Also, I found the campus to be very small, which became pretty claustrophobic. If I had a car I'm sure I would've enjoyed it a little more. The only problem is that there is virtually nothing to do in the immediately surrounding area, so you have to drive 20 minutes to an hour to find a bigger city, and this can be pretty dangerous considering all of the rural roads that lead in and out of Wooster. Still, I found that people who had regular access to a car so that they could get off campus seemed to be happier overall.
Alright so that was a lot of writing! Iâm sorry it was so long but I wanted to be as thorough as possible to answer all of your questions. I am still more than happy to answer any additional questions or to clarify if anything was confusing/poorly worded, ect. Also please excuse any typos or misspellings, this was a lot to write and I donât have any time to proof read too well. In conclusion, this is all just from my personal experience. I know many people at Wooster that would disagree with my negative comments, but I also know many more that would strongly agree with what I had to say (several of my friends actually ended up transferring as well, or are currently thinking about it). Thank you all for reading and again, if you have any further questions I am still more than happy to answer them. I only ask that no one attacks me my experience or tries to deny it, because I had a very difficult time at Wooster and writing about it all on here was very hard for me to do, so if you disagree with anything I discussed please do so respectfully. Thank you so much!
Thanks for your very thorough report. Iâm sorry to hear some of this, but will factor it in to the questions we ask. It would be useful to hear other perspectives if they are out there.
For clarification - the Underground was closed for renovations and has now reopened.
Porcupine- thank you for reading everything and Iâm glad if I helped in your decision in any way. However please keep in mind that if you talk to admissions or even students giving tours (who work for admissions) they will strongly deny everything I said. That doesnât make what I said untrue, but they will want you to believe that it is untrue.
janjmom- yes I am aware the UG was closed for renovations. When I last talked to my friends still at Wooster they said it was still closed, however this may have change and if it is open thatâs great news. Either way, I donât think the social scene (or lack thereof) is greatly impacted by the UG being opened or closed.
You may not be aware that over the past several years a lot of students and their parents have reported their impressions of and experiences at Wooster. Finding fault with and blaming a person or institution you arenât a match for is quite common. Characteristics are cast in a negative light. You seem to have created an account to do precisely and only that, which is your right. However, to state that the college is misrepresenting itself on its website and in interviews is going a bit too far. It seems to me that if the college were that underhanded, persons more senior to, experienced and qualified than you would have noticed by now. The College of Wooster has been around for a long time and Word gets around. The College in fact has a solid reputation.
You seem to be using this site to vent rather than inform. If you are so happy at Kent State and note your comments to be âjustâ your perspective, why bother? Why âwarnâ others of your experience? Why now?
mreapoe-
I am fully aware that the College has a solid reputation, and I am simply trying to shed some light on the more negative parts of the College that get pushed under the rug. I truly believe (as do many other students at the College) that Wooster misrepresents itself and I am offend that you would imply that this is not the case.
I am NOT using this as a forum to vent. As I said in my original comment, I am trying to inform others about what I feel Wooster is really about. I have openly acknowledged that many people love Wooster and I have not tried to ruin their excellent reputation. I wish that someone had posted a forum like this that I couldâve seen before I attended Wooster because I believe these are things prospective students should be made aware of.
Additionally, I asked that no one on this forum tried to deny my experience, which you did. You did so in a respectful manner which I appreciate, but please do not further try to accused me of bad intentions or deny my experience. All I am trying to do is help.
Do you think that when someone disagrees with you that is equal to denying your experience? When you start a thread on a forum, you have to expect that some people may disagree with you ⊠have a different perspective ⊠. Where are all these âmany other studentsâ who are extraordinarily unhappy? Why arenât they posting comments? Are you their appointed spokesperson? I want to hear from them. Itâs easy to create an account and post comments anonymously.
In fact, colleges cannot be all things to all students. Not every student who wants a research position in a small college will get one, because itâs a small college. Did you reach out to the professors in your chosen department(s) and ask them if they had something for you to do?
When you realized you were unhappy with your first adviser, did you ask for another one?
What did you do to be proactive, to assertively try and create a better academic situation for yourself?
Did you reach out to the head of the department to describe your experience with the visiting professor?
Itâs easy to complain and especially after the fact, but takes more character to advocate for yourself in the moment. There are many courses of action: meetings with professors and administrators as soon as you realize youâre not getting what youâre paying for, circulate a petition for change, post on forums like this one in mass. I assure you that even a small but vocal group with valid well thought out and expressed complaints will be listened to. The mission of colleges is to serve their students and society. But like all institutions, colleges are flawed and may be blind to specific issues. Sometimes you have to âget in their face in massâ to be heard.
All we have is your âsubjective perceptionâ of Wooster. Letâs here some facts: Exactly how many unhappy students are we talking about? What precisely are they dissatisfied with? Exactly how many professors and administrators have rejected students attempts to advocate a better academic situation for themselves? How many times have administrators rejected students efforts to get a new adviser or improve their situation in other ways? How many complains about professors are ignored?
mreapoe- First I want to apologize. I did fully expect people to disagree with me on this forum. I misinterpreted what you last wrote as denying my experience, but I now understand that you simply want me to be able to support what I said and this is more than fair.
âWhere are all these âmany other studentsâ who are extraordinarily unhappy? Why arenât they posting comments? Are you their appointed spokesperson? I want to hear from them.â
Many other unhappy students are posting negative comments, they simply arenât using this particular platform. What you must also bare in mind is that many people who had negative experiences would rather keep them in the past. (I can now anticipate you asking why I do not do the same thing. The answer is that I wish to prevent other students from falling into many of the same traps that I fell into myself, and to give a more comprehensive view of Wooster for prospective students). Below I have attached a couple of links that contain numerous other negative reviews from other extraordinarily unhappy students.
http://www.studentsreview.com/OH/CW_comments.html?type=negative
https://colleges.niche.com/college-of-wooster/ (for this link you can select to sort the comments by most negative)
âDid you reach out to the professors in your chosen department(s) and ask them if they had something for you to do?â
While in truth not every student receives a research position at a small college, the admissions team claims during visit programs that each and every student takes part in sophomore research just as every student completes an IS. They promise students opportunities that simply are not available to them once they attend. Also, one of Woosterâs main focuses is on research, so it especially misleading to untruthfully promise students research opportunities who came to the college due to the "ample research opportunities."And yes I did contact several professors in my department. I asked my personal chemistry professor, as well as several others (I believe I asked four additional professors) and all rejected my requests because their labs were full of upperclassmen.
âWhen you realized you were unhappy with your first adviser, did you ask for another one?â
I asked for a new advisor the very day I discovered that he was a music professor, however the school would not let me change. Wooster has very strict rules about advising and FYS, and you are prohibited from changing your FYS class thus your academic advisor. A friend of mine in my FYS (she was a biology major) was so unhappy she appealed to the Dean of Curriculum. She was denied.
âWhat did you do to be proactive, to assertively try and create a better academic situation for yourself?â
I did quite a lot to proactively create a better academic situation for myself. I attended the STEM Zone essentially everyday. If you donât know, this was held in one during the dining halls during its off hours, and was a place for students in intro science courses to come together and study/ do homework with TAs available to help if it was needed. Outside of this I was also in a separate study group with two other classmates. I also went to the office hours for every professor I had. Some (such as my calc 2) professor were wonderfully beneficial, however others (again, chemistry) were not and it was more of me doing homework by myself while he literally played Words With Friends on his phone. All of this made my academic situation better, but that doesnât change the fact I had to teach myself the material.
âDid you reach out to the head of the department to describe your experience with the visiting professor?â
I did not do this personally, but I do know for a fact that several students in his other classes did. The response they received was concerned but unhelpful. Wooster has problems keeping professors on staff (as I described earlier), so they arenât exactly willing to fire current profs.
âItâs easy to complain and especially after the fact, but takes more character to advocate for yourself in the moment. There are many courses of action: meetings with professors and administrators as soon as you realize youâre not getting what youâre paying for, circulate a petition for change, post on forums like this one in mass. I assure you that even a small but vocal group with valid well thought out and expressed complaints will be listened to. The mission of colleges is to serve their students and society. But like all institutions, colleges are flawed and may be blind to specific issues. Sometimes you have to âget in their face in massâ to be heard.â
I met/spoke with/ wrote to the Dean of Students, the Dean of Curriculum, and the President and Vice President of the College. I have taken to many online forums, not just this one, and I have spent hours on the phone (both during my time at Wooster and after) with academic departments, department heads, and other school representatives. I donât know how much more âin their faceâ I couldâve gotten. All of complaints were valid and well delivered. I am a four year speech and debate champion at the state level, so I know how to be very persuasive and articulate when I need to be. I still believe my voice was not heard. Wooster, like any other college, is more concerned with getting your money than anything else.
âAll we have is your âsubjective perceptionâ of Wooster. Letâs here (*hear) some facts: Exactly how many unhappy students are we talking about? What precisely are they dissatisfied with? Exactly how many professors and administrators have rejected students attempts to advocate a better academic situation for themselves? How many times have administrators rejected students efforts to get a new adviser or improve their situation in other ways? How many complains about professors are ignored?â
Statistically most of what you desire to know is near impossible to actually determine. There is no way of knowing how many students are unhappy at Wooster, even if the student population was surveyed issues of nonresponse and response bias would be causes for error. However, on Woosterâs website they refuse to post a transfer-out rate statistic, which is interesting. If the number was very low there would be nothing to hide. I have also asked several times for this information and they have refused to give it to me on the grounds that it is confidential information. Along the lines of advisors, all students during the first semester (sans those with extreme extenuating circumstances) are prohibited from changing academic advisors as this would be a change in FYS. Students can chose to declare early to receive an advisor within their major, but this largely frowned up by the administration. It also does nothing help students who are undeclared/exploratory. Most of your other questions fall into similar pit falls of simply being impossible to know factually.
mreapoe- Once again, I am not using this as forum to vent, nor am I doing this as my only course of action. I believe that you may have underestimated all of the proactive actions I took to improve my experience at Wooster. I 100% believe that there is nothing else I couldâve done to make my time there better. What I am doing now is using this as just one many forums on which I am trying to give prospective students a better insight to some of the more negative aspects of Wooster. I apologize if I have ever come off as combative or rude to you. I respect that you disagree with me, and your questions have given me a chance to make my claims more credible by forcing me to defend what I have said. As always, if I can answer any more questions from you, or from anybody else, I am still more than happy to do so.
I read almost all the comments on both sites.
The vast majority are quite positive. Even the majority of comments on Niche that gave only 3 out of 5 stars were actually positive. Of the 46 pages of comments, there were only about 5-6 pages negative reviews. Almost every single one was about:
the weather - Did the students notice that they Wooster was in Ohio?
transportation - If so important, why not research before even applying
local area - Itâs a small rural town. What do you expect? Go to a college in a city or suburb if you want action.
off-campus dining - Again, what did they expect? Iâd never move anywhere to live for 4 years without checking this
campus food - Valid point I think. Young adults are hungry! Give them healthy tasty food!
parking - No car, no problem. But wait ⊠Woosterâs such a huge campus ⊠that 2 block walk was exhausting
party scene - admin and security too strict. So sad.
administration - Sounds like admin needs to improve how they respond to students
diversity - Kids should have read the data on Common Data Set or nces collegenavigator. That could be a matter of perception / opinion. Admission could be making a strong effort to recruit and think theyâre doing a good job compared to other campuses, but still numbers are below the ideal
security - campus police presence too strong
security - negative interactions with some local citizens
I also notice more positive comments in most of these categories than negative.
The negative comments are related to the issues that bothered you the most: location and social life. I didnât notice any negative complaints about advisers and only a couple about professors. Academics are almost universally praised. It seems that Woosterâs main issue is itâs location and not all considered the town to be a âdumpâ. Some students were discontent about maters that could easily be discovered if theyâd done the depth of research I think such a huge investment warrants and put more thought into it. For example, someone was upset about the lack of college fairs. There were a few students who were upset that campus police would bust them for under age drinking and drug possession. Thatâs very immature. The complaint that I saw repeated again and again through the years and that caught my attention concerned incidents on Beall Avenue and with a certain sub-culture within the town. That would be very unpleasant for the students subjected to the abuse. Iâd like to learn more about that. I imagine the increased campus security is in response to such occurrences. Some students felt the student culture was unwelcoming, but then the majority of reviewers loved the social life on campus.
This makes a point for researching your options very carefully and thinking carefully about your compatibility with the various facets of a campus. This requires some level of self knowledge, but many young people lack sufficient perspective. Research a lot and get a lot of advice before deciding to spend thousands of dollars and at least 4 years of your life on anything, anywhere.
You can always assume that admissions are marketing the campus, but also looking for students who are a good match and will stick around for 4 years. No one likes unhappy students. Itâs not good for campus moral or business.
I appreciated your âsubjectiveâ review of your experience at Wooster. Most people on CC are adult enough to realize that your review is subjective and able to process it as such. Kudos to you for writing a thoughtful account of your experiences at Wooster. It is important to hear actual subjective accounts in addition to the concrete objective fact too. At the very least it highlights some aspects that a potential student may want to investigate further before making a decision.
Visiting Profs and Adjunct Profs can be a problem and often times are not truly representative of the culture that a school is selling. It would be nice if schools were more transparent about a number of things like advising, how many classes are actually taught by TAâs, visiting profs, transfer rates (Iâd like to know what the actual GPA is for any given major at a university) and a whole host of other statistics that could make a difference in the actual experience once on campus.
Glad you have found your niche at Kent. I took classes at Kent one summer (and classes at Akron U one summer too) while I was a student at Ohio U, neither school measured up to my experiences at OU. Some schools are a fit and other not. It is hard to know which is a fit until you are actually there and living it. OU has a reputation as a HUGE party school and as a non partier I never found the party atmosphere pervasive. Funny when I was in high school (in a town between Kent and Akron) Kent State was the place to go if you wanted to get into a bar and there was certainly a party atmosphere if you were looking for it. As a student, I felt Kent wasnât very inviting socially nor the classes that I took (Russian and Calc) very challenging. I was taking the math class as a repeat for a class I had failed at OU and was easily able to earn a B. But just because that was my experience doesnât mean it will be your experience.
D16 returned from her accepted student visit at Wooster and said âIt would be a great school if they could just pick it up and move it to a city.â Itâs not a fit for her but it might well be for others.
Iâm actually grateful for OP posting this, as Iâve strongly encouraged my daughter to apply to CoW.
She has steadfastly refused, :).
While having never visited, she was turned off by the rural location on the map, combined with the small size of the campus and student body.
I have always felt CoW and other LACs would be a better academic fit for her, though, than the state schools she preferred and applied to. And that still might be true, but -
What youâve said about the social aspect of Wooster wouldâve been very bad for my daughter, and based on what youâve described, she would not have been happy there at all.
My daughter does not drink, or smoke anything, and while she likes her alone time and can be introverted, she really THRIVES on structured social activities and relies on those for connecting with her classmates and peers. Sheâs not the kind of person who would enjoy hanging out in the dorm all weekend or not having the opportunity to take a bus into town, or attend a school-sponsored movie night or dance.
Sheâd be bored stiff and depressed, Iâm afraid, in an atmosphere like youâve described.
Since you were there for a full year, I trust your opinion. I agree that for many students, the atmosphere you described would be ideal, or just fine at least.
I personally donât see a huge problem with having to be an upperclassmen before having research opps, but if you can do that earlier at Kent, thatâs great!
Thanks again for your insights, and I wish you well with your remaining time at Kent. Sounds like you made the right decision for yourself.
I think itâs generous of OP to take the time to share her experience. Most CCâers I think are intelligent enough to know that it is one studentâs subjective opinion. I think, in particular, her comments about research, visiting profs, and the social life are things that might help families as they consider colleges and offer fodder for questions and consideration. All students are different. I have a niece who attends a small LOC and happily spends her weekends with a small group of friends going out to dinner, hanging out, and playing D&D. My daughter might find that kind of social life also pleasing. My son, like the OP, would want more structured events and wouldnât be content. Everyone is different.