<p>Can someone tell me more about this school besides the fact that Hobart will be written your diploma if you are male and William Smith will be on your diploma if you are female?</p>
<p>I'd like to know if a middle class student can be very comfortable here, as I keep reading that there are a lot of prep kids, and students from very wealthy families who attend. I have read that students who do not come from wealthy homes do not feel comfortable. My son will not be able to take "spring break" trips and he will not have his own car (more than likely not even a real "clunker"). Could a student who cannot afford those extras be comfortable at this school? </p>
<p>This school has a sticker price that is high. If anyone has experience with financial aid, do they make this school affordable with enough grant aid for a fair number of middle class students to attend, or is it just too much of a stretch? For us, merit aid alone will not be enough for our son to be able to attend.</p>
<p>How is the surrounding neighborhood? Can someone get to somethings without a car (ie: drug store, cafe)?</p>
<p>D loved this school but it’s a personal thing for her It has a lot of what she wants - music, her sport, her major but she hasn’t decided about attending though. We only visited once. Beautiful campus!
I do remember listening to the tour guide and over her shoulder I saw some boys hauling case after case of beer into one of the frat houses on the main drag. But that is everywhere…
Merit aid was outstanding.</p>
<p>woody, I know merit aid is outstanding, but the sticker price is high to begin with. We did tour this campus once. It definitely had that “preppy” feel to me, but we only really spoke with 2 students on campus. Admissions was very nice, and they took the time to speak to my son 1:1. My son was not made uncomfortable by anything on campus, but that was one visit for an hour or two. I agree the campus is beautiful!! Wonder how the winters are, lol!</p>
<p>northeastmom – We know several kids who have gone to or are current students at H&WS. All are from middle class families (parents include two teachers, a minister, a farmer, a pharmacy tech) – household income is probably in the $70,000 to $90,000 range. All of these students have loved H&WS and have not felt uncomfortable with their wealthier classmates. There are indeed many students who come from upper middle class backgrounds and there are those who attended private prep schools. But to some degree I think the relative isolation of a small Finger Lakes community minimizes opportunities to flaunt wealth even if there was a desire to do so – Geneva isn’t the Hamptons. </p>
<p>The only complaint I’ve heard regarding financial aid came from one girl who didn’t get her act together on a timely basis to apply for some of the competive merit awards. Nonetheless, she and her parents have been able to make do with the package she was given and she loves the school.</p>
<p>How are the winters? They aren’t a huge hardship to most of the kids from our area, although if you grew up in New Jersey (as I did) they might take some getting used to. On the other hand, autumn in the Finger Lakes is about as gorgeous as you get.</p>
<p>Does anyone know anything about public transit in that area? Does it exist? Poor? Does the school offer a shuttle? Can someone without a car get to a pharmacy, restaurant, etc.?</p>
<p>Also, just how big are frats? </p>
<p>Has this school shaken the rich, lazy kid/slacker image that I keep reading about? How is grad school placement, internship placement, job placement, if anyone knows?</p>
<p>my brother goes there and he’s definitely not a preppy kid…he’s more into music and drama and woodworking and volunteering and outdoor (especially winter) activities. He’s really happy there–it seems like there are a lot of different housing options after freshman year, which could help in finding like-minded friends. He doesn’t have a car on campus and isn’t planning expensive vacations…there’s a neat alternative spring break program for kids who want to do community service.</p>
<p>Also, last year my brother got really sick while at school and the professors and administrators were really outstanding. I remember calling the dean of the first-year class to give him an update and work out some details (my parents were with my brother in the ICU so I was helping them handle some things) and the dean was just so kind about everything, even when I got a little teary on the phone. Now that he’s back, he seems just as happy with HWS as last year.</p>
<p>D is also considering HWS and we were very impressed when we visited on the Scholars weekend. She wants to go back, though, because she didn’t see any actual students or any classes. On another note, an old friend of mine who claims to know the area well told me the following: “Geneva is crime-ridden and overrun with criminal gangs.” Huh??? I actually emailed this question to one of the HWS officials we had spoken with during the weekend, and he has not replied, although he promptly replied to another email from me. I haven’t found anyone who had any idea what she is talking about. The school did seem to pay a lot of personal attention to each student and I have heard the faculty is excellent and there is an emphasis on teaching</p>
<p>stacy, thank you. I hope that your brother has totally recuperated.</p>
<p>lisares, that is interesting. I can tell you that I was made aware also that there is a crime increase in that area. I also have the same concerns and it is nothing to take lightly, IMO.</p>
<p>I know, this was such a strange statement, but the source is not known to be anything but sane! Does anyone (especially the posters who are at the school or have friends/family there) know where this notion could have come from?</p>
<p>I can’t speak for Geneva, but I know there is a perception in my semi-rural part of New York State that the crime rate has gone up over the past 20 years or so. FACTS say it has not.</p>
<p>Might this “perception” be due in part to the fact that whereas in 1985 most of the agricultural workers were white, today a majority are from Mexico or the Caribbean?</p>
<p>My daughter applied to, and was accepted to William Smith back in 2006, and it was one of her favorites (and mine). We are solidly middle-class, midwesterners who don’t “get” preppiness, and my daughter fits the quirky mold. She loved HWS and over the course of two visits, including an overnight, never could figure out where the preppy rep was coming from. It did not jive with her experience there at all, and when she asked the admissions dean about this reputation, he actually sighed, “Maybe in the past, but not so much now.” </p>
<p>Yes, they are extraordinarily expensive which contributed to my daughter’s “no” to her acceptance. Their FA offer was a reasonable mix of scholarships, grants, and loans, and they met our EFC to the penny. However, my daughter would have maxed out on subsidized Stafford loans and Perkins if she had attended HWS, and she ultimately decided it was more debt than she wanted to accept.</p>
<p>Wow, I’m certainly surprised to by the description of Geneva as crime-ridden.</p>
<p>NEmom, I have posted before about HWS and I share your concerns about the prep quotient. </p>
<p>I specifically recall the HWS admissions office visiting D’s prep school on a number of occasions and actually leading an info session on college admissions as part of the boarding school’s college counseling program for juniors and their parents. D and many of her classmates were advised by the guidance staff to apply to HWS as a safety and I definitely got the feeling that the two schools had a rather cozy relationship. When I checked the HWS strateginc plan, one of the goals for the upcoming year was to shake off its image as a safe-haven for the bottom 1/3 of every prep school class. I’d have preferred a goal of perhaps increasing the school’s overall academic strength - - as opposed to maintianing (or increasing) the prep school enrollment, but drawing more from the middle or, God willing, the top of the prep school class.</p>
<p>In all fairness, D never visited HWS and the adcom who interviewed D at school was as nice as any with whom D met. But even now, as D2 (a weaker student than her sister) begins the admission process, the statement in the strategic plan continues to trouble me and is the primary reason HWS is constantly off/on D’s list.</p>
<p>As for the students getting personal attention, emphasis on teaching and great faculty. I’m sure that’s true - - but it’s true of most LACs in the USN&WR top tier (I believe HWS is currently #68 out of 100 in the top tier).</p>
<p>I wish I could get a better handle on the school, but that’s unlikely without visiting. And our current focus is on schools where we have a better sense that D2 is more likely to fit in socially - - or schools that least an easy trip (close to home, near other schools on D’s list, etc.).</p>
<p>Mezzomom - - please comment further about quirkiness. D1 was very “straight” and fit in quite easily with her prep school classmates. D2 is a definite quirk and that too was a concern with HWS - - I fear that a school recommended for straight-laced D1 might not be the right fit socially for hipster D2.</p>
<p>Maybe I am wrong, but to shake that prep school image, they will need to meet the financial needs of some non-prep sudents. I was wondering if they do that bc I don’t need my kid to get an “accept-deny” at the end of this process. Also, this was the only school that we have visited other than one in New England that talked about their sailing team. It might be silly, but that reinforced their prep image to me. Naturally, a non-preppy kid could be interested in sailing and I have been on a sailboat myself, but I just think of things like the Kennedy family sailing in the Cape Cod area too. </p>
<p>Foolishpleasure, thank you for reminding me to read strategic plans of all of the schools on my son’s list. I have only read through a few of them! I am glad that HWS has an interest in shaking that prep school image. I must say that when we visited the students at the info session introduced themselves. That day there were many more students from private high schools in attendance than there were from public high schools.</p>
<p>NEmom, maybe you can find a copy of that old strategic plan (probably 2006) on the site. The wording in the plan, which I tried to mirror in my post, suggested that the school was interested in shaking only its image as repository for the BOTTOM of the prep school class, not its image as heavy w/ prep grads. This was confirmed by the cozy relationship b/c D’s prep school and the HWS admissions staff, as well as your post above regarding the number of private school students when you visited.</p>
<p>Don’t get me wrong - - I have nothing against private schools students (both my girls attended private school). But I care very deeply about social fit. And as students get older, the differnces in wealth become more apparent; I don’t want D to attend a college where there are ostentatious displays of wealth or so few students of our income that she feels left out or otherwise less than a full member of the community.</p>
<p>FP, I agree with your reasoning. Also, I understand the need for students from wealthy families, bc that is what allows their endowment to grow. I will try to search at some point for their strategic plan bc I would like to read it.</p>
<p>FP – According to the admissions data posted on H&WS’s website (Class Profile) only 20% of the kids admitted last year went to a private school. Furthermore, 80% received financial aid. This more or less jives with what I have heard about the college in more recent years.</p>
<p>I suspect that H&WS is still being dogged by the reputation it had when I was applying to colleges back in the Stone Age.</p>