<p>warriorboy648 - Endicott has a lot of triples but the rooms are large (at least the room they show you on the tour). Interested to know your thoughts after your visit.</p>
<p>My son has not visited Quinnipiac - What did you not like about it?</p>
<p>Hi, I think I can help with some of the OR/WA schools. </p>
<p>B to B+ students have some great choices. Linfield, maybe Lewis and Clark, Western Washington, Evergreen, St. Martins, Pacific Lutheran, University of Puget Sound, Seattle, Seattle Pacific . . . really, it depends on a lot of other factors as to what would be a good fit. </p>
<p>Evergreen is funky, non graded and in Colleges that Change lives. A student should not assume they are a shoo-in because of a GPA. They do look for kids that will fit and thrive in their approach. </p>
<p>There are also some specialty niches. For instance, Central Washington has a chimp colony. It could be a draw for a student with that interest. Oregon Tech (OIT??) has a solar energy and green building program. Someplace in OR (I can’t remember but it may be in Dalles, OR) has a big program in wind technology. You just have to keep looking until the right fit shows up.</p>
<p>Northeastmom, re kids getting into good grad schools from lesser known colleges, a key point is remembering that academia is basically an industry, similar to law or architecture. Lawyers often know good small law firms that the public has never heard of and academics often know good small schools in their particular field. Just as lawyers at small firms in the suburbs are often alumni of big city law firms, profesors at lesser known schools are often grads of well-known schools and can help favored students gain admission. </p>
<p>In addiiton, great grad school board scores; a very high GPA; or URM status will attract attention.</p>
<p>Ok, so then how important is it to have more than 4-5 PhDs in a department? Yup, that is correct. I looked at different small colleges/universities (think 1200-1500 undergrads) and a history or an English department might have just 4 or 5 PhDs in the entire department. One school that I checked out (it was not easy to hunt down bios either) has 4 PhDs and another 8 MAs teaching in a department. Another school has 5 PhDs, one MA, and one with a PhD but in the area of that department (ie: not the real example, but a PhD in English teaching in the Spanish department). The latter openly listed professor educational bios.</p>
<p>Editing: the size of these depts. for a college of this size seems typical. I just looked at another they have 6 PhDs and one MA in one department that I checked out.</p>
<p>You raise a good question which goes to the core of the large school vs. small school debate. Yes, a department with 12 PhDs should have more contacts than one with 6, just as it will likely offer more courses and a student will find it easier to avoid 1 dud teacher.</p>
<p>Whether the school with 12 offers as much help to graduates as the one with 6 depends upon the school, just as whether the the smaller school’s faculty actually includes more good terachers.</p>
<p>On a related note, I have read a claim that at least 1 small LAC which boasts of it’s gruaduates high admissions rate to med school achieves that by actively discouraging borderline candidates from applying, lest the rate drop.</p>
<p>yabeyabe, yes, I do know about the med school admissions stories. I have heard about this trick (true or not, I do not know) at several schools.</p>
<p>MaryAnnC: I’ll jump in on Quinnipiac. We went thinking it would be among DS’s top choices and left partway through the tour. The admissions office, compared to others we had visited was too crowded and not on top of their game. They needed three people to check to see if my son was having an interview. The information session was the most unimpressive of any school we have seen (poor grammar, mispronunciation, and lack of knowledge on the part of rep) Tour guides seemed more like the kids we met at lower tier schools - inarticulate and uninspiring; seemed to have fallen into their choices. Dorms were unimpressive. View and campus are beautiful, though. Could have been a bad day. We’re keeping school on the list for now only because they seem to offer some strong academic programs/internships in DS’s field. However, it fell to the bottom of the list.</p>
<p>^^^ Similar experience. Worst information session I’ve been to, and this is my second child so I’ve been to a LOT of them. I think it was an assistant dean of admissions who gave the talk, and he reminded me of a used car salesman. Asked himself general questions about the application process, answered them, and followed his answers with “It’s just that easy!” Our tour guide was good, though.</p>
<p>Quinnipiac is off our my son’s list because of the freshman rooms. They are all quads. I can’t understand why a school would build new dorms and make them quads??? There is also the issue of housing for senior students. It is also extremely stingy with financial aid.
This school was originally toward the top of my son’s list.</p>
<p>Thanks for the input on Quinnipiac. There are so many schools on my son’s “visit” list, we might skip Qunnipiac. Still would like to visit Providence, Salve Regina, Sacred Heart, Fairfiled and Salisbury.</p>
<p>We visited Salve Regina. I really liked the campus, but it was too spread out for my son. A lot of upper classmen choose to move off campus but I believe housing is guaranteed. Of course Newport is a great place to be. </p>
<p>PC is getting very difficult to get into. We haven’t visited because my son doesn’t want to be in a city and he already has too many reaches. I’ve heard good things about SAcred Heart. There cafe food is suppose to be really good. We may visit Fairfield, now that Quinnipiac is off the list. </p>
<p>You might want to visit Quinnipiac if housing isn’t a big issue. My son wouldn’t do well with that many people in a room. He also prefers housing on campus. (that might change)</p>
<p>Northeastmom, I’m sure I’m not saying something you haven’t already thought about, but at least in my experience (professional school and graduate school), a real key to getting in (and getting $ for grad school) was recommendations of professors who knew me well. I think it’s easier to come by that in a smaller school. While the pool of potential mentors is smaller, access can be easier and earlier.</p>
<p>You never know. Every situation can be different depending on the school and the major chosen. </p>
<p>Here’s our real life example: S1 graduated in May from our state’s largest university…30,000 students. S1’s major was in one of the smallest colleges within the big u. Most of his classes in his area had less than 20 students. DH and I were amazed when handed the program at graduation to see that S1 was the only graduate in May '09 with his particular degree…out of 30,000 students! He knew his profesors and advisor very well and would have had no trouble getting a great rec. fr. them.</p>
<p>Gweeta I agree with you. My son is however only applying to small schools. I am worried about one school that appears to never in PR, Fiske, or other guide books. It is ranked by USNEWS (ranking is not great, but adequate). My son loves this school. He loves this school for many reasons. I just worry about it being the best choice for his future. Only 5% of graduates go on for PhDs, and about 5-7% go on for professional degrees from there. I don’t want him to close doors for himself. He can easily get into higher ranked schools, and I think that a couple of the higher ranked ones will be at a similar cost to us.</p>
<p>Packmom, that is an interesting situation too. Good for you son!</p>
<p>MaryAnnC, there are a number of threads about Salve Regina on CC. You might want to read them before you decide to visit! Lack of things to do on campus, poor financial aid, very strict living conditions etc. Before reading these threads, we had decided not to visit Salve Regina, so after reading them it confirmed that our decision was a good one.</p>
<p>MaryAnn, a friend returned from Salisbury impressed by its campus, friendly atmosphere and low OOS cost. Fairfield is said to be very pretty, but some warn of heavy drinking and very preppy kids. Have you looked at St Joe in Philly and Loyola in Baltimore–both are very popular at our high school among those looking for Catholic schools in this GPA range.</p>
<p>Northeastmom, absent a convincing explanation, I would be very concerned about a college with MAs teaching. Most small LACs are up front about 90%+ of professors having doctorates.
Although rankings are often “gamed” by schools (a Clemson official referred to a policy of downgrading peers which are ranked ahead of them), I share the concern of a child disregarding them entirely.<br>
Re the school with only 5% going on to higher degrees, my guess is that those 5% get a lot of attention from the college, as it is only human nature for teachers with advanced degrees to be delighted when a rare student follows the same path they did.</p>
<p>yabeyabe, it is the same school that has lots of MAs as the one that has 5% going for a MA/PHD and 5-7% going to a professional school.</p>
<p>Northeastmom, the combination of the 2 numbers would cause me concern. I would consider asking Admissions and the department head for their thoughts.</p>
<p>My understanding is that for some subjects, a Masters is the terminal degree. Just because someone has a PHd, doesn’t necessarily mean that they are a better teacher or better connected does it? Or maybe it does. I know schools like to emphasize the number of Prof’s with their Doctorate but when it came down to it, that wasn’t a priority in our college decision. Is it really a big deal?</p>