<p>Curm,</p>
<p>I think something interesting and generally unnoted is going on at Colgate and the impressions your daughter got there may be on more target than yours (or mine).</p>
<p>I was sure my vegan, tree hugging, birkenstock wearing, anti fraternity D would wind up attending Oberlin, but she really liked the people she met at the Gate and during her overnight stay there.</p>
<p>Almost a month into it now, there are definitely kids quite different from her there but she says they are all friendly and she gets along well with them. And she seems to have met and made good friends with others closer to her interests as well. I was not surprised to hear that she had joined the student chapter of Amnesty Int'l and Habitat for Humanity, but I was shocked to hear that she found all the football players to be "sweet" and that she had joined the womens rugby club.</p>
<p>For my money (and quite a lot of it at that) any school which succeeds in encouraging that sort of interaction and exploration of different experiences is succeeding exactly the way a college should.</p>