Goucher visit report

Colleges and Universities A-Z Goucher College
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<p>Yesterday, we visited Goucher College. It’s hard to believe that just off the beltway north of Baltimore is this small gem of a liberal arts college. Trees were all over the campus as we turned into the visitors' parking lot. The campus was quiet, away from the hustle and bustle of Towson’s Dulaney Valley Boulevard. </p>

<p>We drove in just in time for the hour-long information session, where someone from the Admissions Office and a member of the Spanish language faculty gave an overview of Goucher and answered questions from the audience. At the end of the information session, the tour guides came onstage and introduced themselves and their field of study. Members of the audience could then choose their tour guide. Since D1 is interested in majoring in Biology, we picked a tour guide (TG) who was majoring in environmental studies, hoping we could talk to her about the biology program since environmental studies overlaps quite a bit with the biology curriculum. Our TG was very good---one of the best we’ve had on the college tours circuit. Her voice projected well, and she was pretty experienced in walking backward so she could face the prospective students in our tour group.</p>

<p>I like how this college is laid out. Unlike our state flagship, where you have to take shuttle buses to get to the performing arts center from the engineering building within 5 minutes, the buildings are far apart enough so that you can manageably walk or bike in a short time. Biking apparently is popular as we saw several bikes parked in the front of many buildings. </p>

<p>Some things we discovered on this tour: The new student union/library/public performance space (called the Atheneum) is gorgeous, light and airy. And the library is open 24 hours. The library spans four floors and two of the floors are quiet areas. We also loved the Kraushaar Auditorium; it is a beautiful venue for dance and music performances. D1 also liked the modern architecture of many campus buildings. The Atheneum also have a large computer lab filled with Macs and PCs for students to work on their papers. </p>

<p>The student ID card also serves as a swipe board and meal card. There is meal plans where you can have more meals and less “flex dollars” or less meals and more “flex dollars”</p>

<p>The dorm rooms seem larger than any other college we have visited so far.
The substance-free dorm is said to have the best dorm facilities on campus, where each suite has a private bathroom. In addition there are other special interest houses such as a language house, a sustainable living house, and a live music house. D1 and D2 were interested to find there was a special interest house for video gaming.</p>

<p>The admissions office was kind enough to loan us a meal card, so we ate at Taquierias (a Mexican food place) on campus. The food was good, although not on the level of Chipotle.</p>

<p>After lunch, we talked to a faculty member in the biology department who answered several questions we had about the biology program. Apparently, the post-baccalaureate pre-med program at Goucher is pretty well-known by medical schools and that reputation has seeped into the pre-med and biology program at Goucher. This faculty member has also led biology-themed overseas tours to fulfill the “study abroad” requirement at Goucher.</p>

<p>We came away with a good impression of this college, and D1 was appreciative that it was 1.25 hours from home. However, we are a bit concerned over how Goucher handles foreign language study done in high school. D1 has four years of Chinese at the high school level, but Goucher does not offer Chinese on campus; one has to take a consortium shuttle to Johns Hopkins to continue studies in the language (which is somewhat inconvenient). D1 also commented that the character for the word “listen” which was plastered all over the campus was written incorrectly because a radical was missing from the character.</p>

<p>The price tag is also a concern for us---our EFC is too high for us to qualify for need-based aid. We will just have to wait and see how everything pans out as we go through the college admission process.</p>

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<p>Thanks for the excellent report ldwendy.</p>

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<p>This is a such a great post and appreciated! D1 has started her college search recently and Goucher is high on her list of schools to visit this spring. She also plans to major in language, but Japanese (2 yrs. in HS so far and is a soph.), so thanks for mentioning that she may have to take courses at another campus. That may not be a problem for her, but it’s good to know that beforehand.</p>

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<p>I visited Goucher last week as well, on Thursday. My interest is in the social sciences, so I took the tour from a poli sci major tour guide. She was a freshman. After that I attended two classes to see what they were like. I liked it, but I did have a few reservations.</p>

<p>The OP pointed out the best aspects of the school. I can report very similar findings to the OP, but I’d like to add on a few things. They’re mostly drawbacks, but only because the many wonderful qualities (the Atheneum! also a great gym.) have already been stated.</p>

<p>First, if you’re thinking about going here, you should visit for sure, and be sure to ask about visiting a class. This school is good, but there’s a definite character that you need to have, or at least need to like. The best word to describe it (and I think this is how Fiske describes it too) is “quirky.” There is a very big emphasis on community. People were very friendly, and very helpful, but there was a definite social quirkiness that made it more difficult to see myself there (although I could see that my little sister would fit right in-much more of a match for her I think). I can’t really describe it. But don’t let that dissuade you: it adds to the charm of the place.</p>

<p>This was confirmed by my conversations with students: if you want a party school, don’t go here.</p>

<p>My classes were “History of the Cold War” and “Intro to International Relations”. The first was mostly upperclassmen. It was a relatively interesting lecture by a very experienced professor. It was a lecture on US-Russian relations between Watergate and the Iranian Hostage Crisis. I got the feeling, however, that some class members were not that engaged: the boy next to me was tapping on his iPhone the whole time (not taking notes: they were on paper). The professor was helpful, though, and led an engaging conversation after the primary part of the lecture.</p>

<p>By the time I had the international relations class, I was getting tired. The class was mostly spent discussing the previous night’s reading and connecting to previous concepts. I’m sure I would have liked it had I done the reading and been in class (do your homework, kids). I was again put off by the amount of cell phone use, although I can’t say that I was that surprised. (How common is texting in class these days?)</p>

<p>These classes were small: I’d say about 11 in the first, 15 in the second. The professors commented when people came in late, and also that someone wasn’t there.</p>

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<p>As far as Chinese classes go, there are some very good opportunities available not just at Hopkins but down the street at Towson U. Our freshman S has taken second-year Chinese there both semesters and is very happy with the (two) teachers and the caliber of the classes. You may want to check the Towson course catalog to see the extent of their Chinese classes, but S plans to study there all four years, except for when he’s on a Goucher program abroad in China. It’s almost like a second major for him.</p>

<p>His grades have translated seamlessly to his Goucher record and GPA. The down side is that Towson’s calendar doesn’t match up perfectly with Goucher’s; classes go about a week longer in May this year, and he missed a class over spring break. But it’s so close – certainly bikable or even walkable on a nice day, although shuttle buses are frequent convenient – that it almost feels like a different branch of the same campus.</p>

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<p>My sister goes here and I think she really likes it. However, also note that the girl:guy ratio is very high, something one might not notice at first. However, other than that, I think she made a great choice and enjoys here classes (sitting in, all her professors seemed cool). Anyway, another awesome feature- birthplace of humans vs. zombies. Also, their concert hall is small but very architecturally interesting with good acoustics- I recommend checking it out!</p>