Help a geeky girl find a college?

College Search & Selection
41

<p>Hiya! Just wanted to let everyone interested know I’ve been accepted to Beloit (through Early Action II) and was offered the $15k/yr Presidential Scholarship. I also visted Oberlin a few weeks ago. Just from my visit, I didn’t see much geekery going on, but there is an insane amount of political activism all about campus. I will also be going to Earlham’s Winter Preview Day next weekend. So far, so good!</p>

<p>Again, thanks for your help, everyone! I’ll continue keeping this updated. And if anyone still has ideas as for colleges, please continue to post - I’m sure it’ll help someone along the way!</p>

42

<p>Visted Earlham this past weekend. Everyone there is so friendly and so very welcoming - the atmosphere is hard to describe over the Internet, but it was definitely worth a visit. Given the fact that they have a whole house dedicated SciFi/Fantasy, I am quite sure a geek would have no trouble fitting in there! Not to jump to conclusions, but visibly, Oberlin students seemed very homogenous. I didn’t get to talk to many Obies, though. Still, I was impressed that Earlham has a very diverse student body, personality- and appearance-wise.</p>

<p>I’m also going to try to get up to Beloit next month for the Admitted Student Open House. Will report back on the geeky vibe!</p>

43

<p>I am so happy for you! Congrats on your acceptance and $$ from Beloit! Earlham does seem like such the perfect school for you too…this may be a difficult decision in the end. I can’t wait to hear what you think of Beloit!</p>

44

<p>My son is at Beloit and all the kids he hangs out with sound a lot like you although he spends more time with the magic group. Good creative writing program, nerf gun wars, zoombies vesus humans week, and serious competition to get into the Beloit Science Fiction Fantasy Association dorm.</p>

45

<p>My son is at Beloit and he hangs out with kids that sound a lot like you except he spends more time with the Magic players. Good creative writing program, Japanese, nerf gun wars, zommbies versus humans week, and serious competition to get into the Beloit Science Fiction Fantasy Association dorm. And he got a very nice merit scholarship.</p>

46

<p>Hi KellyR,
Congrats on the Beloit admit!
Can you please comment more on the homogeneity of Oberlin students? This is a school S2 is considering and I value your opinion as a fellow geek!</p>

47

<p>Hi calla1! I must say, as compared to Beloit and Earlham, I didn’t spend nearly as much time at Oberlin. I had a campus tour and attented an info sessions - I didn’t get to stay overnight and experience the student body as closely as I would have liked. And I just realized, it’s unfortunately too late for me to do so. Drat!</p>

<p>It just seemed to me that, compared to my other schools, every Oberlin student I encountered had a “hipster” vibe to them - in their clothes, their attitudes. One sociology class I attended consisted almost entirely of three students debating about something while everyone else sat back and watched, which threw me off a bit. Also, everyone seemed very liberal - I’m sure your son knows that already, though. I didn’t get as many friendly smiles as I did at Beloit and Earlham, but it could have just been the day I went - I think they were nearing final exams. </p>

<p>I am wary to make a generalization about all Obie students just because I only got such a limited view of the place. If you have the time/money, I’d definitely encourage him to spend a night with a host student - that’s the best way, I’ve found, to get a real feel for the community of a school. And I’m sure there are geeks all over the place - I just didn’t get to meet any!</p>

48

<p>Just a quick update: I received rejections from both Oberlin and Macalester as well as comparable aid packages from Beloit and Earlham. At this point, it’s deciding between the latter two!</p>

49

<p>Hi kellyr017, I reread these posts & didn’t see a description of your experience visiting Beloit. I may have missed it! But if not, and if you have time, I, for one, would be really interested in your thoughts.
And congrats on having 2 great choices!</p>

50

<p>hanaviolet, I’d be glad to write about it! Overall, I enjoyed Beloit very much. This might be a little long!</p>

<p>I got lucky and came on an uncharacteristically warm February weekend for Wisconsin. After a thorough “Here’s Beloit and Why You Should Come Here” introduction, I went to a club fair. There are a ton of clubs (including ones perfect for the geeky-types) that I got to check out, including the Japan Club (full of Japanese majors and non-majors alike) and the apparently venerable Science Fiction Association. Not to mention the fair was in the new-ish Science Building, which was a simply gorgeous piece of architecture, in my opinion. They also have a number of theme houses, much like Earlham and Oberlin.</p>

<p>I often feel Beloit is trying to “sell” itself perhaps a little more than Earlham is (maybe it’s the Quaker simplicity that Earlham operates by?), so I had to investigate for myself. My host was very friendly and open to exploring anything I wished to see. She took me around to explore the dorms and various halls and houses, which was great. I was able to learn which dorms to avoid and which to try to get into as early as possible (there are a few dorms known as “party” dorms, but there are others that are really very nice, and these can be researched with a quick Google search). </p>

<p>Everyone that I met was very open about what they liked (and disliked) about the dorms and their school in general. Academics seem pretty comprable to Earlham - the classes themselves don’t seem overwhelmingly difficult unless one seeks the challenge. I was able to attend a Japanese III class - rather laid-back, and it was also Monday morning - but that was it, since the other class I planned on attending ended up being cancelled.</p>

<p>Something noticably different was that in Beloit social life, there is a large emphasis on drinking. I’m pretty sure the majority of the students don’t do it on weekdays, but I’ve heard the alcohol policy is pretty lax. I feel like drinking every weekend on campus could get a little tiring after a while. Still, there are substance-free dorms, and I feel if you stood strong to your principles, alcohol could be avoided. These are just the feelings I got from the students I met, though.</p>

<p>Overall, I really liked the campus and the dorms. The dining hall was meh, but I’m definitely not basing anything off of that. The students were friendly, seemed a little bit shadier than the overt friendliness of the Earlham students I encountered, but I was only at both schools for a night. There are many different kinds of people, so I feel like most anyone could find their niche. I would love to get back to Beloit and see it again, maybe attend some more classes, but I don’t see that happening before May 1!</p>

51

<p>Thank you so much, kellyr017, for your impressions of Beloit! Actually, your description really goes along with the little I’ve heard before. As always, I guess, a visit would be helpful for any individual student, to get a feel for whether it would work for them. In our case, I suppose, (in the future), it might depend on some particular field of study that is strong there…Thanks again!</p>

52

<p>Just wanted to let it be known that I finally decided on Earlham! The feeling of community I got when I visited just couldn’t be beat - I just remember walking around and thinking, “I could really be a student here.” The decision between Earlham and Beloit was tough nonetheless. Thanks, everyone!</p>

53

<p>My daughter, too, will be there in the fall. Come on over to the Earlham forum.</p>

<p>Sent from my SCH-I800 using CC</p>

54

<p>Congratulations, Kelly! My kid is attending there next year too. I’m sure you’ll stumble across her quite frequently as one of her majors will be Japan Studies. Have you already joined the class of 2016 Facebook group where your future classmates have started getting to know each other?</p>

55

<p>A belated hello to both of you! And thank you. Yes, woody35, I have indeed joined that group. People are posting all the time, which is great - I’ve already met some people who have similar interests. I bet I will see your daughter quite a bit!</p>

56

<p>I was just reminiscing about my first year of college when I came across this thread. I’m one paper away from being officially done with my freshman year at Earlham. Wow! I guess a little update might be good for anyone who is looking at this thread now.</p>

<p>For geeky people, I can say 100% that Earlham is a fantastic place. There is a huge and very friendly geeky community, the FantaSci friendship house is one of the biggest houses on campus, and I am fairly sure there is at least one Magic game going on every night. As it turns out, I’m not nearly the geekiest here. Hippy and activist type folks abound, and there are plenty of people who are ready to have a conversation about pretty much anything. I find it worthwhile to mention that I am a person who has been slow to make new friends in the past. Yet, within one day at Earlham, I made friends that I still spend time with now. It’s not hard to find your folk here. There is a very wide spectrum of people, and everyone but perhaps the staunchest of bros will find a niche. </p>

<p>There is a huge amount of things to do here, Japan-wise. And the language and Japanese Study programs are very solid. I’m not sure how true this is, but my fellow Basic Japanese classmate claims that we move faster and learn more than Harvard’s Japanese class. I like to think it’s true. :stuck_out_tongue: Anyway, there are things to get involved in like JCC (Japanese Culture Club), Harumatsuri (the yearly Japanese spring festival - it was big this year), and talking with the dozen or so Japanese students from Waseda University in Tokyo that study at Earlham for a year. I am working toward going to Waseda my junior year, perhaps for the whole year. :)</p>

<p>Major-wise, there are plenty of options. I’m starting to lean towards Comparative Languages and Linguistics (CLL) because they’re starting a Chinese program next semester. My schedule next semester is Linguistics, Chinese, Japanese, and Physical Geology. Can you guess which one I’m taking to fill a gen ed? :P</p>

<p>Speaking of gen eds, I’m not finding them difficult to fill at all. I think it’s safe to say I’m at least halfway done with them. And I’m avoiding taking a mathematics course at all. Score!</p>

<p>My first semester course load was admittedly pretty light, and I was feeling decidedly unchallenged when winter break rolled around. But spring semester, phew. I took a 300-level and a 200-level (along with my freshman seminar and Basic Japanese). I was all kinds of wrong about Earlham not being challenging. You just have to find the challenge!</p>

<p>So, with a year under my belt, I’m already ready to start next year. If any new students or prospective students have questions, I’d be glad to answer. Go Quakers!</p>

57

<p>Thank you for the update! It IS really helpful for other students considering a similar group of schools.
I am glad you are happy…Earlham sounds like a great fit.</p>

58

<p>Nice update, kelly! By your activities this year, I can tell that you definitely know my Earlham kid by now. LOL</p>

59

<p>Yes, Kelly, thanks for coming back to update the thread. My niece just finished her first year at Earlham and she too had a great year.</p>