Several of you had expressed interest in a report on Goucher after our visit, so thought I’d write up a quick report. In a nutshell, we loved it. D17 and her dad [my ex] and I did the info session and tour and then she had an interview [or counselor conversation, I think they called it]. I don’t think this is the norm, but the college president showed up for the info session and spoke after the the woman from admissions [she was fine, nothing special]. President Bowen was very impressive, I thought, going both into detail on the school as well as talking about some of the more theoretical reasoning behind some of their policies/requirements etc. Even D17 was impressed [and “not bored”!]. Really like that for such a small school they are very diverse…something like 25-30% Pell students, approx 30-35% students of color. [numbers from memory but they should should be accurate] Love the required study abroad. Kids who have a lot of required classes [maybe double major or trying to do premed and something else or whatever] can do a 3 week intensive abroad program, but they really encourage you to do at least a semester. He talked a lot about going to a place outside your comfort zone and really immersing yourself, and how it’s hard to get as much out of it when it’s only a few weeks.
Had a long tour [bit over an hour, pretty long considering campus fairly small] with a chatty tour guide. Saw classroom buildings, Athenaeum [contains library, radio station, cafe etc], new freshman dorm and room. Didn’t make it to the athletic facilities as we were out of time…he did ask if there were any athletes and would have brought us over if any in group had asked for it. We needed to bail anyway bc wanted to grab lunch at the dining hall before interview. They gave us a card to swipe at dining hall for free lunch for the 3 of us, which I thought was a nice touch.
Campus as I said was small…well, I guess it’s 300 acres but the academic/living area is pretty small, but in a nice manageable kind of way. The Athenaeum was really nice [built I think in 2009] and tour guide says you end up spending a ton of time there bc a lot happens there. Was psyched to see the new freshman dorm…tour guide’s ID gets him into the building but not onto any of the floors with dorm rooms, I guess, so he had to grab a freshman on her way to her room and she showed us. Rooms not huge but really nice. That dorm is all coed by room, with shared bathrooms, just FYI. Bathrooms looked really nice also. Kitchens and lounges on each floor. Rest of freshman housed in same area in older dorms, which apparently have bigger rooms. If you select same sex [at least this year] then you’re not in the new dorm. They may change that in future and have single-sex floors.
We went to the Stimson dining hall, which is not enormous, and even at 12:15 wasn’t super crowded. The whole campus had that uncrowded feeling, which surprised D17 but I thought was nice. Lots of food options…we didn’t have a lot of time so I went for pizza, but there was a burger/fries station, a main course station, a stir-fry to order station, deli station, big salad bar, fruit bar, desserts, ice cream, bagels/bread, cereals…that’s all I can remember at the moment. Soda, milk, coffee/tea, soy milk, maybe som other options too. They are renovating the student center to house a centralized dining area that will replace Stimson [and maybe Heubeck too, not sure], and that opens I believe in 2018. Lots of talk about building projects going on–intention is to build more new dorms for freshmen and more apartment style housing for seniors. Some other stuff too that I can’t remember.
Interview seemed to go fine. They ask you to fill out a form ahead of the interview so the AO has some info to go on. We totally forgot about that and I happened to see something about it on the website while we were at the hotel the night before–had to finagle printing at the hotel, always fun. He came out afterwards with D17 to see if we had any questions.
Overall I think it would be a great fit for D17. She was trying to think of some downsides–she wishes it was a little bit bigger, maybe 2000 instead of 1500. Seems like a very liberal, open place. Towson seems like a nice area–big mall right next door, bunch of other stuff in walking distance. Shuttle to downtown Baltimore and a bunch of other colleges in the area. Can take classes at a bunch of other schools including Johns Hopkins for free [up to 2 per year]. Easier if you have a car, apparently. Freshmen can have a car on campus.
Let me know if you have any questions…this is a novel already. 