What is Denison known for? What does it compare to? I’m reasonably aware of college options and the more famous schools across the country and I have to admit that as as west coaster, I had never heard of Denison before. I had it confused with Davidson and had to look it up to find out it was from Ohio. I’ve heard a lot about Kenyon and Oberlin, but never Denison.
Really hits home how vast this country actually is and how many regional options really exist.
Being from Texas, where most of the kids from our area stay in state and go to the flagships (UT/A&M) or the privates (SMU/TCU/Baylor), I hadn’t even heard of the majority of these LAC’s from up north before joining CC lol
Geography is destiny. We lived in Waco when our oldest daughter graduated HS and went to college. We visited all the usual options within TX (she didn’t have the grades to get into UT or TAMU) so we visited Texas State, Tech, North Texas, and the big privates. And also did a road trip to visit LSU, FSU, Alabama, Arkansas, and Oklahoma. She ended up picking Arkansas and it turned out that there were four other girls from her HS graduating class living in her same dorm, and perhaps as many as 20 kids total from her HS attending Arkansas. It worked out well for her, the academics were right within her wheelhouse and she graduated with honors.
D21 is 5 years younger and we moved back to the Pacific Northwest when she was in 8th grade (as soon as her older sister graduated HS). Her college geography was entirely west coast centric. Had she been interested in east coast schools we would have considered them, but she wanted to stay on the west coast and I saw no point in pressing the issue. We visited all the logical pubic and private schools in the Pacific Northwest and did a CA road trip to visit the private school options in CA. We did not even come within 2,000 miles of a single overlap between the two kids.
I do not have any intel on the merit $ situation but can speak to how wonderful the school is and how happy the kids we know there are ! My suggestion would be do all you can to communicate your needs to your AO during the process. Good luck & let me know how it goes 
Denison has changed a lot in past 5-10 years, and dramatically in the past 20 years or so. It is about 2300 students in a charming village which is about 30 minutes from Columbus – the state capital and home to OSU – and the airport is very accessible so draws heavily from east coast metro areas, Boston to DC, as well as North Carolina and Chicago. It is more economically diverse than a lot of LACs, primarily because it gives merit money which makes it more affordable for middle class and upper middle class families. Defining characteristics of student body and campus culture are probably campus engagement and a strong emphasis on living with diversity, which means civil discourse and tolerance. A lot of innovative programs to prepare students to launch after graduation, including things like the entrepreneurial Red Frame Lab, cross disciplinary academic programs, excellent career development. Acceptance rate has been about 28-29% for past few years.
Ohio has a large number of LAS for some reason … Denison is similar to the others including the ones you mention as well as Wittenberg and Ohio Wesleyan. One might be a bit more artsy, another athletic etc. each with their own vibe.
Hi, @Camasite, while Denison is not as famous as some others in the area (i.e. Kenyon) it’s not terribly obscure for people in the East or Midwest looking at LACS. For some context (FWIW) USNWR currently ranks Denison tied for #44 on its National Liberal Arts Colleges list, along with Trinity (CT) and Union and just ahead of Whitman and Dickinson (#47). I hear that Denison’s big “thing” in recent years is attracting a diverse community (in every sense) to dispel its past reputation as a school attracting mostly affluent white kids interested in Greek life. I get the sense that Denison is deliberately obscure about its range of student stats (I wasn’t able to find a published CDS when we were looking into it) and bases much of it’s selectivity on social fit and the enthusiasm of applicants to join its community.
I agree with @Momof3B, having lived my entire life (for many generations) in Texas. I only know about the name of LACs that I read on CC. Texas kids do tend to stay in the state on the whole. The state retains most of their talent for the exploding job market here.
I have spent about half of my life in the Midwest and about half in the SE. Same, never heard of most of the LACs people routinely mention on CC.
Living in the NYC metro area, I’ve heard of all the LAC’s because inevitably someone will attend them. Granted our area sends kids to Wisconsin, Baylor, Alabama, Michigan, etc, but we send many to schools like Denison, OWU, Rhodes, Sewanee, Roanoke, etc, not to mention all the PA ones within 2-3 hours like Dickinson, Gettysburg, Elizabethtown, Lycoming, Muhlenberg, Susquehanna, and the New England ones like Wheaton, Norwich, Salve Regina, Springfield, Clark, Emerson, or the NY ones like St. Lawrence, Clarkson, Union, Hobart, Ithaca, etc, etc.
This is actually part of the reason I frequently shake my head when people easily dismiss non-name brand school or focus so much on rankings and prestige. I could give you a VERY LONG list of successful people in my area that attended schools most of CC never heard of. In my experience, the school you attended means very little. YMMV obviously.
And the pandemic is over in Texas! More reason for Texans to stay there (and some of us to stay out)!
To be fair, I think there are more Texas attending LSU, Oklahoma, and Arkansas than in-state residents from those states. That’s probably an exaggeration but not far off. For my daughter’s HS graduating class in Waco I think Arkansas ranked 3rd after Baylor and Texas Tech for the number of graduates attending. And OU was also extremely popular. Some of the bordering state schools are closer than TX schools. Most Texans live closer to OU or LSU than they do to Texas Tech.
But very few students left the region except for the few super elite kids who got into the Ivy League schools and Stanford. No one ever did it for a small LAC in the Northeast or Midwest.
Oklahoma State and UArk are considered “13th grade” in our school district lol…we send a lot of kids there and OU as well…my comment was specifically about small/selective/ seemingly obscure LAC’s along the east coast and in the midwest. Most people in Texas haven’t heard of them.
Agreed. We are from Dallas and a massive number of my eldest’s sons class went to Arkansas besides the ones who went to UT, A&M and Tech. He is at Bowdoin and nobody has ever heard of it here ( he got into several LAC but also Georgetown and Cornell and folks thought he had lost his mind to pick a school NOBODY had ever heard of over those or turning down UT Plan 2) They think the same for my senior who is going to Bates. There are excellent options here and one can argue that if you intend to stay in TX it might be best to stay here, especially for grad school. Mine wanted however to see a different part of the world prior to settling down and also wanted a smaller environment.
Similar experience here in NC. The only kids I know of that went further north than VA went to design schools in NYC. Everyone else either stayed in state or went somewhere else in the South or out West (just a few). I’m sure there are some, but certainly doesn’t seem to be common.
That seems a little harsh to put in a general parent thread where there may be parents with kids going there.
I am also a lifelong Texan and when I joined CC, I had to google many east coast LACs- I am a little embarrassed that there were many good ones that I had never heard of. My D21 is still weighing her options and always said she would like to go out of state, but we went to an accepted student visit at Trinity University yesterday and she loved it. We are headed to UGA, Clemson and Wake Forest (RD, so still waiting on Wake along with a couple of other schools) next week. Many thanks to the person who suggested finding current students for unofficial tours. We were able to line tours up on every campus and feel like our trip will be much better!
I was talking to someone the other day (adult) and they said they regretted staying in-state and not taking the opportunity of college to experience a different part of the US for awhile.
I don’t think it’s a Texas thing, I think it’s more of a regional thing. Texas just happens to be vast and is kind of it’s own ‘region’.
Wasn’t meant to be harsh at all. They are both fine institutions and my son was accepted to OSU as well. My comment was clarifying that in our area, the state public U’s from neighboring states are very popular and considered an extension of Texas/staying instate.