<p>Can anyone compare the kids at New College to kids at Oberlin, Grinnell or Reed? More liberal? About the same? D is pretty liberal, but looks conservative; she is not into clothes or her appearance and just wears whatever. When we toured New College last spring, we passed a group of kids that scared her with the amount of pink hair, body piercings, and same sex hand holding (it looked to me like a whole class had just gotten out of session and was walking back to their dorms). We have several gay friends and are accepting of different lifestyles, but these girls almost were defiantly stared at us, the obvious visitors, and it concerned my daughter that she would have a hard time finding friends. She toured Grinnell and felt like she would fit in there, and she also feels like she would fit in at Reed and Oberlin. We are going to visit New College again, but unfortunately the only date we can attend is one when the kids are not in school. Can anyone compare students at these schools?</p>
<p>I have friends with kids at Reed and Oberlin, I have visited all four schools, and my son is a student at New College. I think the New College student body is similar to Reed’s student body. Oberlin and Grinnell while still quirky seem to have a bit more toned down student body. My son is much more socially conservative than the majority of his classmates. He is clean-cut, heterosexual, wears a dress shirt every day, and doesn’t have any piercings or tattoos. He is happy at school and views his peers’ unusual outer appearances as their canvases for self-expression. The students at New College are very warm and inclusive, so even though he does not experiment in most of the ways that his peers are experimenting, he never feels out of place, unwelcome, or judged. New College students are an eclectic group of smart young people who, in figuring out the kind of adults they want to be, tend to ignore traditional roles when they don’t suit. This means that there are males who wear skirts, and students who are barefoot 24/7/365, but there are more traditional appearing students as well. So, as long as your daughter has an open mind and doesn’t judge people by their looks, I think she would find very good friends at any school, including New College.</p>
<p>My daughter is now a first year at NCF. Based on that rather limited experience and her reports back to us, I would agree with dntw8up’s comments regarding NCF students.</p>
<p>I especially like dntw8up’s description of the son’s views that his “peers’ unusual outer appearances [serve] as their canvases for self-expression.”</p>
<p>People seem dressed in all manners. Other schools have mandatory uniforms, albeit only socially enforced (expressed through the excessive wearing of orange and blue at UF, for instance), but at NCF, divergency is the only consistency (although my daughter described herself as too much the “conformist” when she arrived on campus with pink hair). </p>
<p>My daughter says everyone is friendly, and she feels welcome, despite holding views to the right of the mass of NCF’s student body.</p>
<p>NCF rightly attracts very bright kids who can and will work independently and very hard in an intensive academic environment in which they are encouraged to take personal responsibility for their learning. It is this aspect of NCF that appealed to us.</p>
<p>The personal responsibility aspect is very important to us as well. It concerns me as a mother, though, in my Ds senior year and see senioritis set in a little, about how well New College gets kids ready for this independence. My D has always been a challenger, never liked the “system” at high school, etc. But I still can’t see her being responsible enough to to “take personal responsibilty” for her learning at 18. As she matures, yes, but I really am concerned about next year. Does New College help these new students make this transition, or are they pretty much on their own from the start?</p>
<p>New College does not offer any remedial classes; the lowest level math class offered is calculus, and the ability to write well is assumed so there are no freshman composition courses. Every student has an advisor who must sign off on contracts, but the frequency of student-advisor meetings is generally left to student discretion. There is no hand holding, but professors are very available to students who make an effort to visit during office hours. Most first year students take traditional classes, so their program is more structured. After their first semester they have the option of tutorials, but they have the burden of convincing a professor to sponsor their project, and that generally weeds out the ill conceived plans. There is also a lot of peer mentoring – older students showing newer students the ropes, because New College’s academic plan is unique. Every year a number of first year students do not pass and/or withdraw, because they are unable to manage the academic freedom inherent in New College, but the majority of students do well. Senioritis is not really relevant to success or failure in college, because the experiences are so very different. As long as your D is serious about academics and wants to do well, she will enjoy the academic freedom at New College, and you have to trust that you’ve taught her to use such a gift responsibly.</p>
<p>New College places a lot of resources at its students’ disposal. But it’s completely and utterly up to the students to take advantage of them.</p>
<p>For instance, my daughter has made liberal use of the “TAs,” teaching assistants, upper-class students hired by NCF to assist students in lower-level courses, to help her through her rather aggressive first-semester course load. The school makes these assistants available. It was, however, my daughter’s responsibility to determine that she needed the help and then to seek it out.</p>
<p>I, too, was concerned about “senioritus” last year. It has not been an issue this year, at all.</p>
<p>I haven’t visited New College, but Reed has a wide variety of students. Plenty of piercing and tattoos, but also a lot of very nerdy kids and everything in between. It is also has double the student body of New College and is double the price.</p>
<p>I’m a first year at NCF. So far, the transition has been smooth… all of the professors are very capable of guiding students academically. It IS a school for independent students who are willing to take responsibility for their educations, but I don’t see any reason why an 18 year old wouldn’t be able to do that.</p>
<p>To me, Reed students seem a lot quieter than those at New College, and the student body is smaller than both Reed and Oberlin. I hate to say it, but if your daughter was fazed by pink hair, body piercings, or same-sex hand holding (gasp!) she would probably not fit in well here. The NCF student community is very welcoming and inclusive, and it’s likely that the girls that you passed were simply surprised to see prospective students touring, since we rarely have visitors on campus. However, NCF is VERY gay friendly and not ashamed of it, and we are all encouraged to dress and express ourselves as we please. If you don’t think that such a free-spirited lifestyle is right for your daughter, better stick to Reed.</p>
<p>I would have said that if you don’t think that such a free-spirited lifestyle is right for your daughter, better avoid Reed.</p>