Prioritizing Visits: Thoughts on Bates, Skidmore, Dickinson relative to schools already on the list

College Search & Selection
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@rayrick Oooh, thanks – I love “thingys.” I’ll check it out. And agreed on Union. Just doesn’t sound like a good match socially.

@LeftofPisa Hadn’t considered that angle, but who doesn’t love a bump? And yes, summer camp or spa vacation. Just lovely. But my kid is, I think, looking for something just a hair edgier.

@ucbalumnus Thanks for the practical advice on assessing Physics programs. I’ll be sure that happens before any final decisions are made. (Meanwhile, if there are any on this list that you’ve encountered that make your hair stand on end, I’m all ears.) And yes, I think a reasonable LAC will be sufficient for my kid’s interests. If they take flight, there’s always graduate school, but as the parent, I’m guessing things may actually head in a different direction. (Check with me in 5 years.)

@Sue22 St Lawrence doesn’t sound right, partly for reasons related to your kid’s perception, also because we have other options in that selectivity range that seem like a better fit.

@MidwestDad3 We’ve visited a similar number, hence the impending burnout. Some were busts, most helped form tastes. And yes, Oberlin and Wooster are quite different from one another, but each appealed to different aspect’s of my kid’s personality. Personally, I found Oberlin a little on the ratty side, and too self-consciously quirky, but it was a fleeting impression, so I don’t give it too much credit. Wooster impressed us by their focus and attentiveness. By far the best admissions office experience to date. But we know the admissions office and the college experience are not exactly the same thing, so jury is still out. As for distance, my kid CLAIMS it matters not, but I have a hunch that’s delusional. But still, I’m willing to consider all options if the end result is a happy fit.

@lookingforward We did look at Clark, and my kid felt comfortable with the kids encountered there, but to me it felt as if something was missing. Again, fleeting impressions, and it is not off the list. Definitely interested in any impressions of Clark and the sciences.

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After doing some further reading, I’m super confused about Dickinson. Some sources describe it as very preppy/fratty/whitebread, others discount that reputation. Thoughts?

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@porcupine98 I have been there twice. Dickinson is 83% white and 55% female although it feels like even more female. I would describe the students as friendly but yes preppy and natty. The campus is perfectly situated in a charming town where you can walk to get french pressed coffee and chocolate truffles. If I read that Martha Stewart’s granddaughter was attending, I would not be surprised. It scored very well on my wife’s black yoga pant test, lower the better. That said, the kids there are great.

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Ha. Tell me more about the black yoga pant test… (Or any other tests…) :wink:

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OP, we have friends whose daughter really liked Dickinson (she graduated 2 years ago). The only reason we didn’t visit was because D ruled out all schools in Pennsylvania for some reason. Go figure.

We had almost identical reactions as you to Oberlin and Wooster. At Oberlin I kept wondering, for such a great school why don’t they spend a little money on making it look a little nicer? At Wooster, D and I were in the cafeteria on a visit day and the Vice President for Enrollment Services came over and sat down with us to eat. That’s the only time something like that happened in visits to 20 campuses! Of the various visit days we attended, I thought Wooster, Union, and Sewanee’s were the most informative and best run.

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Based on his interest in Physics, visit Dickinson.

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@redpoodles: Tell me more. (I liked what I saw on the Physics Department website, but a website is … just a website.)

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@lookingforward Work hard/party hard doesn’t sound exactly like my kid’s jam. More an even hum of serious but not freakishly competitive learning punctuated by hanging out / late night BS-sessions…

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We have visited Dickinson a number of times and know quite well a recent grad and current student, and have a somewhat different impression. The common data set says it is about 74% white – same as Kenyon (Bates is 72%) but decidedly more white than, for instance Wooster at 63% or Grinnell at 58%. The kids walking around campus seem varied and normal - not an overwhelming Vineyard Vines presence, but also not a strong blue hair and piercing culture. The kids we know from there are passionate about their international experience, living in Africa for study abroad (Dickinson has a well-established program in Cameroon). Our impression was good kids, working hard, who get along generally well with lots of types of kids. Greek life is present, but lower participation among men, and rush is in the spring, not fall, so students are on campus at least a term before they decide whether to participate.

The new Science building looks phenomenal, though we are not STEM family so have little ability to discern whether the labs themselves are impressive. The school prides itself on its commitment to sustainability, and that attitude seems to permeate the campus culture.

Skidmore we considered visiting, and I still wonder if we missed a good opportunity there. As a science-y boy, your son might have a bit of an edge in admissions. We know a current student who loves it at Skidmore, good kid, hard worker. ultimately, we decided that my kid really loves the feel of a traditional campus, and Skidmore’s newer construction was just not going to feel like “college” to him. Silly perhaps, but you need some way to shorten the list!

Grinnell is the LAC which is known for both strong sciences and open community culture. Another favorite of ours – no distribution requirements, no Greek life, lots of all kinds of kids, from blue hair to button down prep.

Kalamazoo could be another nice safety for you – for my kid, that is the school most like Grinnell which he could actually get into – no distribution requirements, curricular focus on writing, no greek life, lots of interesting kids. A compact but very pretty campus, strong commitment to study abroad. Merit money and a cheaper list price than east coast competitors. Like Grinnell, if it were on the east coast, it would be considered a much better school than it is presently.

Good luck to your son!

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@Midwestmomofboys Thanks for the super useful input. I’m still struggling with what to visit and when (so many variables, not least of them kid burnout), but gathering this information helps enormously.

And although we’re not going to make the trek to visit either Grinnell or Kalamazoo prior to application and possible admission, both are definitely on the “seriously consider” list. Grinnell is not yet on the kid’s radar, but is on mine. Kalamazoo is very much on his radar, thanks to a recent CTCL event where their rep made a great case for them.

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Just wanted to second @doschicos impression of Bard. I have a distinctly artsy kid, but Bard was too out there for him. As a guy with un-dyed hair, no particular propensity for wearing black, and a distinct aversion to cigarette smoke, it was just not his groove. One of the few schools we’ve visited that he really decisively crossed off his list after we left. It was a bleak, gray, mud-covered, drizzly day in March, though, and that could have colored our impression.

We’re contemplating a visit to Oberlin ourselves. Any folks out there have a read on whether he’s likely to have a similar reaction to the one he had to Bard? Is it just lefty and a bit scruffy, or out-and-out weird? He’s fine with quirky, but he’s way happier with friendly and laid-back than dark and angsty. Does that make sense?

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@rayrick, I think Oberlin, for all of its out-there-ness, still has more of that Midwestern happy vibe than Bard. So weird maybe but not dark and angsty.

Put it this way- at Bard, you notice the cigarette smoking. At Oberlin, you notice all the kids ride their bikes without helmets.

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@rayrick - I’ve been Oberlin 3 times. Twice with artsy child that kept it on list but never applied due to ED success elsewhere nor was it on the top half of the list. I agree with @LeftofPisa that it wasn’t as angsty/edgy as Bard and has a friendlier vibe. (And yes to noticing the ubiquitous cigarette smoking at Bard and guys only in skinny black jeans!) Went back 3 years later with child 2 and was less thrilled with it. Seemed shabbier and a little run down/less well maintained than it could be. Child 2 is liberal but not artsy and would have left half way through the tour if an exit could have been gracefully arranged. Doesn’t mind offbeat students but wanted some diversity on campus and pretty much everyone was coming across as offbeat that day. A group of students outside made rude comments to the tour group when we walked by which is always a turn off to me when it happens but it has only happened twice in touring a good 30 schools - Oberlin and Skidmore. We had a dud of a tour guide - a young woman who had a hard time expressing herself coherently and proceeded to skip and bounce across campus throughout the entire tour. I think we had bad luck and a bad day but, unlike some other people, I do think think tour guides reflect on the school. Someone chose to employ these students, after all. There are some things I like about Oberlin but I think its resting on its laurels and I think it swings too left. My family is liberal but part of a college education is about being exposed to at least some diversity of thought and I’d wish for tolerance for different positions. I didn’t get the feeling that one would get much of that at Oberlin.

My kids were looking for some diversity on campus. At both Oberlin and Bard, “kids are different but all different in the same way”, to quote one of my kids.

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We only spent a few hours at Oberlin, and we certainly DID see a cluster of angsty-looking kids in black with dark eye-shadow and ciggies, and another cluster that looked like serious hippie throwbacks, but we also saw some preppy-looking athletes, and wholesome geeks – it was really a mix. I was a bit put off by the super-angsty crowd, and the grubbiness of the dorm we visited, but liked the kids at admissions office presentation a lot, as well as some other things we saw on tour. I’d be interested to know if the grunginess I saw was poor maintenance, or a conscious decision to be eco-friendly by making do with what still works.

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And by all reports, I think we’ll happily skip Bard.

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I remember at one point Bard was housing some students in trailers.

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@porcupine98 - In terms of the grounds, it could be an eco-friendly decision but not sure how that applies to maintaining buildings. One could argue that regular maintenance would prolong their usefulness and be more eco-friendly. Kid2 had an interview with a senior and when he asked the interviewer what he liked least about Oberlin, the interviewer stated the sometimes knee-jerk left-minded, eco-conscious was what he’d changed. He used an example of students pushing for not treating walkways/roads on campus during winter. As the story goes, the result was many accidents and slips before realizing that not dealing with ice in Ohio during winter time is not a wise move.

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I love asking the “what do you like least” or “what kids are unhappy here” question. At Wesleyan, we got a similar answer, though it was more along the lines of too much protesting of everything, all the time. All in favor if kids making their voices heard, but the constant drumbeat can be exhausting and distracting.

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When I think back at all those cigarette smoking and and strangely unfamiliar kids I avoided during my naive college years I now wish I could have known them better. They’ve grown up and are doing fantastic things and raising great kids who care. We take eighteen years of life with us to college and are exposed to four brief years of ideas and people and discipline and connections. It’s really quite special and kids seem to find their equilibrium in the process. Really, the kids have a lot more in common than differences and most of these schools collect a balanced and talented group.

I wish you well on your search and trust you’ll find a vibrant place. I look back fondly on all those college visits and burnout and confusion and decisions. We visited many of the same schools and my kids ended up in Boston and Brunswick and found the best things were the surprises. All the best.

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nvrmind, for now