Can anyone with first hand experience speak to activities like science fiction club, anime club or other nerdy type activities at St. Olaf? This is for my DD who is more into anime, Dr. Who, Nightvale etc. She’s a high stats kid, into science, not necessarily music etc. She’d enjoy other very bright students who might like video games, Steam games, DandD, Magic the Gathering etc. Not politically active or activist in any way.
She’s visiting for admitted students day, but thought I would ask here. She’s gotten into Carleton as well, but Olaf was generous with merit.
Apparently they don’t exist…
My daughter geeks out on astrophysics and Dr. Who so they have that in common. Not sure about the rest. She loves choir, theatre, art as well. Also accepted at Carleton…
Hey thanks for replying @bwcafan
DD is completely torn between Carleton and Olaf. How did your daughter decide? My DD is not into music even though she plays cello for fun. Loves anime and video games and science.
She’s very very worried!
Help!!
As a parent I can’t see spending $240,000 for Carleton (vs $120,000 for Olaf).
Need a parent perspective!
My daughter is going to do an overnight at both schools before making her final decision but, for her, the combination of merit aid and music in addition to the science and study abroad programs at St. Olaf make it hard to pass up. If you removed music from the equation it might be more of a toss up, but would still have to question paying twice as much. The $ are playing a huge role in her decision without a doubt.
As a Carleton alum, I can say that your daughter would fit in at Carleton with some students, but not everyone-I met all types there. I believe St. Olaf will have a less nerdy/more mainstream vibe overall but she would still find students who share some of her interests. And even better, she will find students at both schools who will introduce her to new activities, experiences, ways of thinking…
Carleton is a fabulous (and yes, “more prestigious”) school but our family is struggling to justify the price difference-plus the music piece is very important to my daughter. In the end, we have to trust that there is more than one way to skin a cat, every school is what you make of it, and who you are is not where you go. Our daughter feels like she will be happy and challenged at St. Olaf and that music will be the creative outlet she will need to balance out the academic stress.
Hope this helps!
Did you try asking for reconsideration for more FA from Carleton using the St Olaf aid as leverage? I know it’s unlikely to work since they are not considered to be schools on the same playing field, but might be worth a try.
We’re in the twilight zone of not qualifying for need based FA but also not in a position where an additional $120, 000 is a drop in the bucket. The merit aid at St. Olaf does make a huge difference for us.
Worth remembering that undergrad is just the beginning. That 120k might come in handy down the road…
We get no FA as well, so every school is full pay.
I do think from an academic standpoint she will have more peers at Carleton purely based on stats, and she is well above the 75th percentile stats at Olaf. I told her if she has a bad vibe from her Olaf overnight then we will fly her up for an overnight at Carleton even if it isn’t an admitted student day.
We visited in the summer but there weren’t many kids around. Our tour guide told us it was “an intense place” about ten times. Like drive the point home a little more!
My DD is also a year younger than most having skipped s grade, so the relatively more paternalistic Olaf is appealing as a mom.
She did email the anime club at Olaf to see if it still exists and is active (yes) because the sci if club has disbanded. Olaf doesn’t have a strong quiz bowl team, something she likes in HS, but she did say she was open to new things. So trying different things is ok and a good idea regardless.
There are lots of smart kids at St Olaf, too. If she is young for her grade it might not be a bad thing to feel at the top of the heap. We are full pay as well, and understand the predicament
Our DD sounds similar and also got substantial merit aid (140K over 4 years); we don’t qualify for any need-based aid so got 0 from Carleton. She is nerdy. Into math and really into theater. Likes anime, fandom club (Nightvale, Dr Who, Full metal Alchemist, etc, etc), very into animation and computer art, also opera club. She had a great overnight (actually 2) at St Olaf and really liked the school. The ‘conversations’ programs and especially strong study abroad aspect also appeals to her. The study abroad is different at St Olaf she said; they have programs that St Olaf runs. This different than many schools where the students go abroad on programs run by other schools or organizations. St Olaf students can do that too of course. She has many friends similar to her who have gone to St Olaf and they liked it a lot. Also she likes that it is a dry campus and there are so many musical student-run events; all those music majors want to perform and she said there were so many student music productions to attend on Friday and Saturday nights plus the theater/improv clubs put on stuff.
She visited Carleton also, but it turned out she didn’t like it as much. To be honest the ‘intense’ environment at Carleton does not appeal to her and she really wants to be able to be heavily involved in theater plus a STEM field (most likely math). She’s a top student, but I think the intensity would make her miserable. St Olaf is very strong in her academic area of interest (math) and will prepare her well for her life after college.
I would say visit both, preferably overnight. That should make it clearer. She said the feel of the campus’ student bodies is quite different.
thank you @liska21 Your DD and mine sound like kindred spirits. Nightvale? anime? dr. who? Please send her to st. Olaf…
DD liked the interim study abroad in the Bahamas and Costa Rica (she’s not interested in a full semester or year) and I like they are STO run and lead AND merit scholarships will apply (Lawrence U is one she considered but no merit can be applied to study abroad).
She has her overnight next week so we’ll see. That for posting!
TytoAlba, could you tell me a bit more about st Olaf having “a relatively paternalistic attitude” compared to Carleton (S is looking at St Olaf)
Also, S loves all these nerdy things too, so maybe they will find each other
@listener76 I know you addressed your question above to TytoAlba, but I wanted to share a few observations from a St. Olaf open house that gave me a somewhat negative impression of the school’s administration.
Several open house events that day weren’t managed well. We had a choice of panel discussions to attend, but when we arrived at our first choice we were told they were full. Staff directed us to another panel (at the other end of the building on another floor), but when we got there, someone else told us to return to the original discussion panel, as more seats had been brought in. We hoofed it back there, but by then we had missed a good chunk of the session.
Something similar happened when we went to take a tour. We got in line, waited for 15 minutes or so, but when we got to the front of the line we were told the tours were over because the tour guides were all busy. We walked away to try to figure out what to do next, then saw a tour guide starting out the door with another group, which we joined.
These are minor issues, but in both cases, the staff seemed harried, and not at all apologetic. I realize it’s not always easy to manage big crowds, but it surprised me that the school seemed to have trouble doing so. It also seemed odd the they were in “herding mode” with a large group of prospective families - I would have thought they would be trying to make a better first impression. But they may have just been having an off day, or a computer glitch. Overall, we loved everything else we experienced at St. Olaf during the open house.
Hello!
I mentioned paternalistic but that probably was too harsh. i mean it in the sense of nuturing and caring. It was appealing to us.