My son is at the University of Edinburgh and is considering applying to Haverford for a year abroad. I am a bit skeptical because attending a small closely knit liberal arts college in the suburbs of Philadelphia for a year seems somewhat of a boondoggle and Haverford is pretty much unknown in the UK. I would love to hear the views of any exchange students on whether their time at Haverford has been worthwhile.
Not currently a student, but I have spent a lot of time researching haverford and spent a few days there on a fly-in. While it does seem odd for studying abroad, haverford has excellent academics and is a great school. On the social end, some students are very active. There are parties on the weekends and plenty of things to do until about 3 am. It’s also super easy to go to philly, and there is a solid mix of students who like to go downtown a few times a month and those who prefer to stay in, don’t go. It’s a very chill vibe with a lot of trust and honesty among students and faculty. There are a lot of resources because of the Quaker consortium with bryn mawr, swarthmore, and penn. It’ll be easy for your student to be enriched academically while getting to explore New England bc they can travel among the different cities on weekends if they make it work. Hope this helps! (Any current students can correct me if I’m wrong)
It’s unclear what “boondoggle” means in this context.
In this context, boondoogle is being used to mean an expensive and wasteful project which in the case of our son is being funded out of his parents’ pockets
Thanks. That helps.
I’m sorry that I can’t give you an exchange student’s perspective, but I’m jumping in as we do know two recent Haverford grads and one current student. All are exceptionally intellectually curious and very unpretentious. Haverford is highly respected by people who know US liberal arts colleges. Considering the small size of the school, the number of Nobel and Pulitzer Prize winners it has produced (as well as Rhodes and Fulbright scholars) is impressive. It would not be difficult for your son to take a train to Philadelphia, NYC, Boston, or DC to enjoy cultural activities, sporting events, & other big-city experiences. I would think a year there would be of value to your son. What are his reasons for wanting to study there?
No doubt you’ve seen this, but just in case:
https://www.haverford.edu/why-haverford#at-a-glance
“Thanks. That helps.” (#4)
What, now?
Forming a response to your question without knowing what you were specifically asking would have been a waste of time. In my dictionary, “boondoggle” refers to “unnecessary, wasteful and often counterproductive work,” which doesn’t appear as if it could possibly apply – across the elements of the definition – to a year’s study at Haverford. Sometimes a prompt for clarification is simply that. I’ll leave it to others to reply at this point.
“Thanks. That helps” was in reply to the post by Rafalala.
I would still love to hear from any international exchange students on whether spending a year at a small liberal arts college in the suburbs of Philadelphia exposed them to a diverse student body, was culturally enriching and/or provided with them with experiences, insights and perspectives that enhanced their career prospects.
@lime20002001: Sorry! I missed that post entirely!
@lime20002001, I have re-framed this answer a few times. At the end of the day, though, the answer to your core question (which I understand to be, ‘is there any way that this year abroad could be worth it?’) is yes, it could be. Whether it would be depends on a lot of factors, but mostly 1) how much of a financial burden it would genuinely be for you and 2) how much your son maximizes the experience.
But as none of us knows anything about you or your son, it isn’t possible to really say more than that. When I look at your criteria:
I don’t know if you are somebody who believes that “American culture” is an oxymoron, or a city person who can’t picture how a suburb of a small city can compare to living in an actual main city such as Edinburgh (I know that population isn’t everything, but it is ~1.3m v ~500K).
When you ask if this could actually have a tangible, career-type benefit, I don’t know if your son is studying a science and might be looking at grad school, or an English Lit major who doesn’t know quite what to do after college. If the former, it very well could help, the latter maybe not so much.
When you ask how
could be good for your son, I don’t know if you are somebody who doesn’t know much about LAC’s (an unfamiliar model to a lot of people outside the US) or a Mom concerned about her son being an outsider in a closed group. When you ask if this can be more than a boodoggle I don’t know if your history with your son suggests that it might be, or if you can’t see how the US educational system can add anything to what he already has.
IMO, it’s all but impossible to know what our kids will make of, or take away from, an experience. I know an Edinburgh student who did an exchange at the University of Richmond a couple of years ago. She found it much harder than she expected- especially the amount of continuing assessment work- and was not a happy camper for the whole first term. It got better in the second term, and now she looks back on it and says that she can see a number of things that came from the experience that she hadn’t expected. I know an Irish student who got an amazing summer internship, that turned into a job after she finished university- through the mother of a person she studied with. I know an Edinburgh student who will be starting a (fully-funded) PhD program in the US, helped by the letter of recommendation from her professor at Edinburgh- and one from her professor at her year-abroad university, with whom she did research. And I know people who had an absolute ball on their study abroad (in Australia, various European countries & the US) and have nothing to show for it except some rather dubious pictures and stories that they can’t tell their parents!
@Collegemom3717. Thank you for your response. In answer to some of your questions (1) my son is studying economics and (2) I am familiar with LAC model. The LAC model and Haverford are unfamiliar to a lot of people in the UK. When I look at some of the other US university exchanges offered at Edinburgh such as Georgetown University, University of Chicago, University of California, University of Virginia, and Washington University in St. Louis I am left wondering if he is making the right decision.
Those are some great choices (I’m assuming UC is LA and/or Berkeley?), and some pretty different experiences. Has your son talked to you about why Haverford? one of the biggest differences from his current experience that I can see is that Haverford is a small, residential campus. Is he someone who would love or loath that? Chicago is the obvious place for Econ- if that is a direction he is serious about (people do econ for lots of reasons). Tbh, although some of the other schools are bigger names internationally, I don’t think that there is a bad decision.
“When you ask if this could actually have a tangible, career-type benefit, I don’t know if your son is studying a science and might be looking at grad school, or an English Lit major who doesn’t know quite what to do after college. If the former, it very well could help, the latter maybe not so much.”
Hmmm, maybe he’s a science major who doesn’t know exactly what to do after college or an English major who plans to go to grad school. Sarcasm intended as the dismissive leanings of posters on CC regarding humanities and social science majors get tiring.
BTW, Haverford does have a strong Economics department.
@doschicos, I really wasn’t being sarcastic- or beating up on humanities students (was one & currently have one!) or even dissing students who aren’t sure where they are going.
I was trying to figure out what it is the OP was looking for in terms of how a year-long study abroad could tangibly affect a career by giving some contrasting examples of students that I know/have known.
Frankly, I’d suggest he go to the University of Chicago instead, or else to Georgetown to be near the museums and other resources of Washington DC.
UCLA has a fantastic economics department too, and quite the opposite politically from U of Chicago. Los Angeles also could be a very good city to explore. Haverford is much smaller than some of his other choices, but Haverford also has cross registration at U of Pennsylvania and Swarthmore College. Being right next to Philadelphia and a few hours from New York City is a good location for a study abroad. It may really come down to personal preference.