WHAT why is everyone so nice!? And I was just being naive when I said cost was no object @singermom4, lol. I hope that I can be an example to other CC students who are caught between prestige and affordability. It’s all what you make of it!
@minohi You are indeed an excellent writer, and Wooster is very fortunate to have you! Congratulations. We visited several times, love the campus, love the people. I felt that overall, the admissions staff was the best the we dealt with in our D’s college search. The quad is really beautiful there, especially when the oak trees get their leaves in the spring. Food is good at Lowry, the campus seemed just the right size (not too big, not too small), and the smaller Kittredge dining room is a great option. We really liked the library there–bright, lots of activity, filled with students when we were there last. They also seem to have a lot of school spirit, for an LAC of that size. Good luck to you, and I hope you let us know next fall how things are going there! (You’ll find this out soon enough, but there is a great pizza place right off campus, Coccia House. It is legendary among generations of students there.)
Congratulations. We loved our visit to Wooster. A couple of questions to inform our own search, if you don’t mind:
- Any further take on the perceived party culture? We didn’t get that vibe at all from either our visit or other readings.
- Can you say why you removed Beloit from your list? (It’s still on ours.)
Thanks.
@porcupine98: The party culture the OP initially described was the reason I put Wooster third in my own evaluation. I’m glad to see that you – and apparently the OP on reevaluation – do not perceive this to be the dominant campus vibe. (Parties aren’t bad, of course, but “party culture” usually implies lack of academic seriousness.) Good luck to you as well.
I think it’s hard to judge party vibe on a single visit. I went to a school that had SOME hard partiers (as do, I think, most schools), but was in no way a “party school.” If I’d judged the school on the basis of what my entryway looked like on one particular Sunday morning, however, I might have reached a different conclusion.
@porcupine98
- The house I stayed in while on my overnight visit was riddled with empty bottles of alcohol leading me to believe that Wooster is a really big party school. It turned me off at first, but I eventually realized that people are going to do what they want to do and that I should do the same. Everyone I met during my stay was extremely nice and I've even met a lot of incoming Wooster students that share my interests, so I let Wooster's perceived party culture slide. I guess I just stopped associating students that like to party with students that are bad people. Fun fact of the day - they're usually great people!
- I removed Beloit from my list simply because of distance. I found a school of similar merit closer to home (Wooster) so I didn't see the need to keep Beloit in the running. It started to come back into the picture after they offered me a field research grant, but I ultimately decided to turn it down. Regardless, Beloit is a great school and is definitely worth a close look!
Hopefully these answered your questions. 
We have a strong familiarity with Wooster. Family members have attended, and we know several students there currently. Wooster has pretty much a similar amount of drinking that you would find at any Midwestern LAC, not much more and not much less.
However, anyone looking for a significant widespread partying culture there would be sorely disappointed.