Good to hear that Williams still has PE requirements. I recall going on some wonderful hikes and taking a memorable ballroom dance class with friends back in the day.
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W&L is 4 PEs now, but there are many fun options. My non-athlete kiddo has enjoyed weightlifting, rock climbing, scuba so far and continues those activities for fun… she hopes to get yoga next year but it’s a super popular class.
She had to take the swim test a couple years ago, but that is no longer required of all students.
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Mount Holyoke also has a PE requirement and offers activities like hiking and yoga in addition to more traditional PE classes.
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When I was at Davidson in the 80s, we had to pass a swim test and get one PE credit. I played flickerball, which is the college’s version of flag football. Safe to say it was not a very serious undertaking, but I’m still pretty good at running the dead bug play! 
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Interesting! I had a friend at W&L who grew up in Brooklyn and had never learned to swim. He thought the swim requirement was stupid and struggled through the classes. He eventually changed his mind and was happy he had to learn. He’s actually kind of famous now in his field and I sometimes think about how he had to learn to swim in order to graduate.
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My Eph’s favorite class was snowshoeing. They would go to the park behind the Clark…”Oh, the mountains…” 
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We were just on a Williams tour last week and our tour guide said his roommate was taking “walking” for PE; sometimes it involved walking professors’ dogs My D24 LOVED that idea!
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A couple years ago I posted that my niece had received a credit for playing club lacrosse and that Stanford football players get 2 credits for being on the team. People were outraged! I think they probably get a lot more exercise than those walking dogs.
Don’t get me wrong, I think all students should take some kind of active class, and learning how to swim is important too, but really people shouldn’t have jumped on the Stanford athletes for getting credit for playing.
My friend’s husband is 73 and taking swimming lessons so he can go snorkeling on his trip to the Galapagos; he never learned to swim.
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So true about Northeastern … I thought is was just a fluke with my D22’s good friend- she was sent to Scotland for Fall of Freshman year, was basically on her own to naviate this foreign city and figure things out upon arrival, and there was zero flexibility with arrival date. Had to miss her cousin’s wedding - NE said she could NOT come even a day late. It was unbelievable. ALSO she had an “in” of some sort with admissions- her mom’s old friend or something- who flat out confirmed that if you check the box, you will 99% likely be sent to another campus, and if you don’t, you have a slim chance of acceptance at all. There was a 2023 student on another thread who checked the box, was granted admission to another campus, and THEN started a long complex & medical appeal to be put on the Boston campus, and actually won the fight. It was interesting because it seemed she knew all along she would not ever attend the alternate campus and yet she checked the boxes. It’s all a silly game, and NE should be ashamed of this, IMHO.
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To be accurate, that student said no to campuses other than Boston, yet (like many others who did the same) was admitted to the Oakland campus. Thus, the choice of campus (es) was apparently meaningless, and I believe they are no longer asking this year.
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That is pretty much the norm for that area all the way up to Syracuse (my H is a Syracuse native and I lived there with him for 10 years after we married. My sister lives in Ithaca).
When we have a cool, gray day here in NC, we joke that it feels like a summer day in Syracuse 
I didn’t realize the lack of sunny days in Syracuse until we moved down south. Definitely something to consider if lack of sun is an issue.
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S21 also said no to other campuses, was an acting major so there was really no reasonable alternate campus (especially since he was not yet 18 at the time of matriculation) and was still assigned an alternate campus. I guess it is good they got rid of that question.
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That was a very unique situation and should not be taken as indicative of anything. I really don’t understand the NE hate on this issue. They are very clear upfront about all the possible admittances and that you may not get the choice you indicate. If someone doesn’t like the offer they get, they can simply decline. I would compare it to not getting the merit aid you were hoping for and now the school is not as desirable.
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He’ll certainly find friends. I think what matters is often how a person feels about not being part of the dominant culture. Some kids have never been and are happy with that. Others may have been on the fringe of it in high school and are desperate to be part of it in college. Others were part of the “cool kids” in high school and want to be the same in college - or they’llover it!
This isn’t something that is limited to LAC s – it’s a dynamic that plays out in all kinds of schools, maybe through Greek culture, etc.
If your son can connect with people over shared interests, he’ll be fine.
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It remains a requirement at Swarthmore.
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I wasn’t hating on NEU, but merely pointing out (because others may not know) how NEU has admitted students to different campuses regardless of which campus they chose. In any case, that is a commentary on the admissions office and not the school itself.
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Thanks for the correction. Seems pointless to ask if they’re going to disregard the answer anyway.
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The question is important for ED applicants, since it determines how their ED agreement works. They might also take other applicants’ preferences into consideration somewhat. So I don’t think it is completely pointless. At least they are clear up front that “all students are considered for all programs” regardless of preference. (From what I remember, last year it didn’t say that… but my memory could be faulty. S23 was really surprised to be admitted to NUin.)
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It did say that. We had a conversation with S23 about how he would react to each possibility. He preferred Boston, but would have happily taken NU.in. The other options were a “ probably not” but it would have depended on what other acceptances he got.
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