Kenyon vs. Colby vs. Carleton vs. Puget Sound vs. Macalester vs. Grinnell vs. Whitman vs. Wooster

College Search & Selection
1

<p>So I'm currently a senior in high school so I'm really trying to narrow down my list of colleges to apply to. I'm looking at all the ones listed above. I've visited Macalester, Carleton, and Grinnell and I liked them all. The only main difference I could tell between them was their location and the feel of the campus. Location (city vs town) is not a huge deal to me, but financial aid is. Could anyone who has visited one of more of these schools give me some insight on what you thought? They all seem very similar to me, so I'm trying to differentiate between them.</p>

<p>Some facts about me:
Planning to major in economics with a minor in Spanish
Definitely want to study abroad
Have a 29 ACT and expecting a 31 on my last try
Have good ECs
My political views are in the middle so while I don't want to be at a school where every student is extremely liberal, I don't mind if the majority are.
I don't want to be at a school where the whole student population is extremely "hippie" (this does not mean that I'm open to different types of people, because I am)
I'm not interested in a big drinking culture
I'm from the midwest, so I'd prefer to be at a place where people are similar to midwesterners (friendly, welcoming to outsiders who aren't from the region)</p>

2

<p>I have set foot on at least four of the college campuses on your list (and none are the same as the ones you visited :-? )</p>

<p>KENYON COLLEGE
Liberal but not radically so. In fact, their unofficial motto is “The Middle Path” (although I supsect that it is not intended to be politcal). My favorite campus on the planet, period – rural, quiet, like the best summer camp ever. It is set on a hill. Gambier is so integrated into the campus that you hardly know when you leave one and enter the other. Not much to do off campus, however. Dormitories are mediocre but the atheletic facilities are fantastic and the food is very good. Students are friendly, yet on the quiet side. My dad went here, so I know more about it than any on this list.</p>

<p>WHITMAN COLLEGE
The city of Walla Walla is my favorite small town in… well, anywhere. It is like a small slice of Seattle set out in the Palouse. Hard to find a more sophisticated small town. The students are liberal, but as with Kenyon not radically so, other than being very environmentally green. Closer to “hippie” than the other three colleges. Winters in Walla Walla are not near as bad as in Minnesota or Ohio. Cold but not brutal.</p>

<p>UNIVERSITY OF PUGET SOUND
Located in the best part of the city of Tacoma. Mostly borders on an safe upper middle class neighborhood. Campus is fairly spacious, and feels bigger than it is (actually, it is also bigger than any other college here). Usually you will need a car to go anywhere off campus. Seattle is about 40 minutes away, by car in good traffic. Weather is moderate year round. Unless you don’t like rain, UPS has the best weather of any of these colleges.</p>

<p>COLLEGE OF WOOSTER
I will be honest, I like the other three colleges here better than Wooster. The campus is a bit cramped, and ever so slightly shabby. A major city road runs through campus. The city of Wooster has some things to do within walking distance, but the city is not special. Student attire tends toward sweat pants and ballcaps. Very casual.</p>

<p>Culturally, all of these are open to outsiders, and similarities to the Midwest. You won’t have a problem with that at any of these.</p>

<p>Personally, if this was my choice, I would go with Whitman with Kenyon being a close second. Yet, UPS is very nice too. Otherwise, I might go with the best financial aid package. Only go with Wooster if the financial aid is way better than the others.</p>

3

<p>Thank you so much @NROTCgrad !!</p>

4

<p>I don’t know much about the others, but Carleton struck me as a school with interesting students who were all friendly and had a nice campus vibe. They do lean liberal, but there are no frats on campus and there is plenty to do besides drinking. One of the greatest things that caught my attention were the number of interesting ECs. From what I have heard, they do offer good FA to low to middle income families, but that is about all I know about the college. I did an alumni interview and talked to some students, they were all really friendly, but it is a hard school to get into</p>

5

<p>I"m wondering why you need to choose between them at this point? Are you trying to go ED somewhere? If so, are you sure you’d really want to do that when you don’t have a strong, clear number one? To me, this looks like a good list as it is. I am not familiar with all of them, so I can’t say whether you need to add more safeties and matches though. (and of course, for some reason, you seem to want to narrow the list).</p>

<p>Or, perhaps you were just misleading us with the “vs.” in your title. Are you really just trying to see if they all fit your bill?</p>

<p>While I am familiar with several of these schools just from visiting during our search, i will comment only on Grinnell, where i have real knowledge as my son attends. It matches all your criteria. Yes, a lot of students drink but there are plenty who don’t, but the main thing is that it is very much a “come as you are” place so there is no pressure to fit into any one mold or way of being. </p>

<p>As to politics, if you were very conservative, it wouldn’t be a good fit, but middle of the road is fine. Many students are politically active, but many are not. There is definitely a strong prevailing tendency towards promoting social justice and equality. </p>

<p>As to the friendly, welcoming aspect: yes, yes, yes!! Wow. We are from the northeast and my son loves that when he walks in the streets of the town of Grinnell, strangers smile and say hello! The college itself is one of the more diverse among all LACs in the country, including one of the biggest percentage of international students. The college has a host family program with people who live in the town who act as surrogate families for these students during their tenure. </p>

<p>Grinnell also has a “self-governance” structure which, at its core, is about having the students be responsible to and for each other as members of a community. This really creates a certain kind of campus culture that bonds people. Not to say that there aren’t issues that come up, but that the students first look to each other to resolve them, rather than first running to the administration. With this structure, the students also have a very close interaction with the administration and serve on committees with faculty and administrators for a wide variety of purposes pertaining to running the college.</p>

<p>My son is definitely not a hippie! Nor is he a hipster! Just a very curious, kind person. If a student has some unusual interests or ways of expressing him / herself, then it is easy to feel comfortable there, but there is no pressure to be quirky or to fit into any type of mold. It is a very unpretentious, welcoming place.</p>

6

<p>I hope nobody minds me jumping in and asking about Kenyon from a very conservative student’s point of view. Right of center–not middle of the road. She is conservative and a perfect fit academically (mostly loves writing and kind people and curious minds) for Kenyon. Any thoughts?</p>

7

<p>

I think it depends on her fundamental approach. A Rush Limbaugh devotee will not be comfortable at Kenyon. Nor would a fundamentalist Christian. However, an intellectual traditional Catholic probably would fit in fine. The liberalness of Kenyon students is not strident. Political Correctness is not strong (although present) at Kenyon. Similarly, feminism is relatively mild.</p>

<p>Kenyon students are generally quite intellectual and rational; less emotive. If a person presents a conservative argument thoughtfully, grounded in logic and facts, it will get a respectful hearing. Also, last thing I knew, there was a conservative group which published a small journal of opinion on campus. Very thoughtful. Indeed, it took me several minutes to realize that it was conservative. Seemed more like a philosophical journal than a political one.</p>

<p>Stridency, left or right, is not popular at Kenyon. Calm conversation is the style. Conservatives are a minority, but not anathema.</p>

8

<p>@NROTCgrad‌ thanks, your second line has me concerned. Are there no Christians at Kenyon? </p>

9

<p>If financial aid is a consideration, then you may wish to check out this link on CC, which has links to threads on financial assistance: <a href=“Links to Popular Threads on Scholarships and Lower-Cost Colleges - Financial Aid and Scholarships - College Confidential Forums”>Links to Popular Threads on Scholarships and Lower-Cost Colleges - Financial Aid and Scholarships - College Confidential Forums; . Some of the schools that you list give only need-based aid (such as Carleton), so if merit- vs. need-based aid is a consideration, that is something to explore in more detail.</p>

<p>For midwestern schools, you might also look at the Ohio Four (or Six), of which Kenyon is a member: <a href=“http://www.ohiosixcollegetours.com/#?1#?1#WebrootPlugIn#?1#?1#PhreshPhish#?1#?1#agtpwd”>http://www.ohiosixcollegetours.com/#?1#?1#WebrootPlugIn#?1#?1#PhreshPhish#?1#?1#agtpwd&lt;/a&gt; . Some of these schools are pretty good LACs.</p>

<p>You might also want to check out the individual school forums here on CC; there can be some interesting comments about the respective schools.</p>

10

<p>DS attends Carleton and it is an excellent school with many, bright, highly motivated students. There is definitely a drinking culture there, but it is tempered by the fact that you have to study hard to survive academically. Also it attracts plenty of substance-free students and activities. I went to Puget Sound. Lovely place but not as academically rigorous as Carleton (and therefore easier to get accepted to). </p>

11

<p>

I do not have statistics, but I would guess that there are not many fundamentalist Christians at Kenyon and that traditional Catholics are the best represented conservative form of Christianity. But this is nothing but a guess.</p>

<p>Personally, I am Catholic and I know that Kenyon has Catholic mass on campus once a month and that it is reasonably well attended. Kenyon, formerly an Episcopalian college, does have an ancient Episcopal chapel which can be used by any denomination. Some services are held there (including the monthly Catholic mass which I mentioned). </p>

<p>This looks like an interesting article about religion at Kenyon: <a href=“http://bulletin.kenyon.edu/x1619.xml”>http://bulletin.kenyon.edu/x1619.xml&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>You might also check this out:
<a href=“http://www.ccojubilee.org/about-us/where-we-serve/all-schools/kenyon-college/”>http://www.ccojubilee.org/about-us/where-we-serve/all-schools/kenyon-college/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>All the best!</p>

12

<p>

Actually it is the Ohio Five, which includes:</p>

<p>Kenyon College
Oberlin College
Denison University
College of Wooster
Ohio Wesleyan University</p>

<p><a href=“Home | Five Colleges of Ohio”>http://www.ohio5.org/web/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>It is an official but mild consortium. Basically, they share a website for employment opportunities plus have access to one anothers’ libraries. Not as tight a consortium as the Claremont schools, which allow cross registration for classes. On rare occasions some people speak of the Ohio Six, to include Wittenberg University. But that is totally unofficial, and not really apropos.</p>

13

<p>When I ran the net price calculator for Puget Sound, I noticed that I would have to pay about $10,000 more per year than other schools, such as Carleton. Does anyone have personal experience with PS’s financial aid?</p>

<p>Also, does anyone have any insight on Wooster? I recently discovered it so I don’t have much information about it. </p>

14

<p>We visited Wooster last spring and I was delightfully surprised by it – I was visiting Kenyon and Oberlin for the second time, with my younger student, but had never looked at Wooster before. Bigger town than Gambier and Oberlin. Seemed to have strong sense of campus community, lots of happy kids. Wooster is known for its independent research project – all students are required to complete independent research project not just certain majors etc. Also, many kids seem to do study abroad. Dorms we saw were certainly nice, and athletic facility very nice. Student body seemed more balanced, middle of the road, closer to maybe Denison/Dickinson/Hamilton type kids than Oberlin/Vassar/Bard/Grinnell kids. </p>

15

<p>Consider Willamette, too; they are fairly generous with financial aid. </p>

16

<p>I-) </p>

17

<p>Grinnell sucks. It is on the list of one of the most unsafe colleges in the USA, for its propensity of forced sexual behaviors. The kids are so stressed and also so bored (nothing to do there, and they are not mature enough to make clean fun) that drugs and alchohol and rampant and kids sent to the ER for alcohol poisoning is not uncommon.</p>

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<p>@jobroblackeys‌ - If you are going to make claims like that, you should provide a link to such a “list” and other support for your statements.</p>

19

<p>I believe this is what jobroblackeys is referring to, who, judging from posts, is currently a high school student. Please read through to understand. Grinnell is not immune to issues but as a parent with a student on campus I can say that it brings them out in the open and administration and students work together to improve and resolve. </p>

<p><a href=“Reader's Watchdog: Sex assault reports up at Grinnell”>http://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/investigations/readers-watchdog/2014/04/28/sex-assault-reports-spike-grinnell-college/8363979/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;