Prospective Dickinson student needs to know more!!!!

<p>I appreciate your comments and would love to hear what folks feel are the differences between F&M and Dickinson are. They seem very similar on paper.
Both appear to be very inerchangeable based solely on one visit so help and distinctions would be helpful.</p>

<p>My daughter is a freshman at Dickinson and was also admitted to F & M. I have to agree that there are more similarities than differences at these small liberal arts colleges. Personally, I would have preferred her at F & M simply because it is slightly closer to home (Massachusetts) but ultimately, it comes down to the student and where he/she feels most comfortable. The bottom line for us is that our daughter is very happy at Dickinson. The classes are small, she has regular access to her professors and she is active in a number of on-campus groups. The campus itself is pretty and she lives in a recently renovated dorm that I would have to place in the top 10% of all the dorms we looked at during the admissions process (and we looked at a lot of schools). Good luck with the admissions process.</p>

<p>It is hard for me to comment on the differences between the two schools, since my understanding of F&M (where my S is a freshman) is much more detailed than my understanding of Dickinson (which is based on one tour and a discussion with an admission's officer.) After visiting both, my S and I both came away with a sense that the two schools were superficially similar, but perhaps different below the surface. I would suggest that anyone who is interested in either should visit both, since they are close to each other.</p>

<p>We visited both schools and are split down the middle. We like them both for different reasons.</p>

<p>The workload at Franklin & Marshall, typically, is said to be quite rigorous-- almost as if every student is preparing for medical school. Dickinson College is friendly and accepting and students can make their stay as demanding or relaxing as they see fit. Very few slackers make it through F&M. Both are great schools with fairly different campus cultures. Ohio Wesleyan is similiar to Dickinson; while Lafayette and Bowdoin more closely resemble Franklin & Marshall. Also, if you like Dickinson, you may find Connecticutt College interesting as well. An earlier poster mentioned Gettysburg, Furman and Depauw-- three schools which I believe to be distinctly different than both Dickinson and F&M. Gettysburg is a bit like Bucknell in that it is preppy and dominated by fraternaties; Depauw is snobbish and very frat and sorority oriented; Furman is quite Southern, religious and formal. Kenyon College in Ohio is an interesting mix between F&M and Dickinson ( if you visit Kenyon also look at Denison and Ohio Wesleyan). Kenyon is gorgeous and has one of the best athletic facilities in the country. The students are bright and the academics are outstanding.</p>

<p>Yes, but Gambier is the pits even for a countryfied young lady. Truly the campus buildings are beautiful. Note, I did NOT say the campus is beautiful. Agree with the Denison, Ohio Weslyan visits. CT College was somewhat humdrum, imo. Extremely poorly maintained campus. Very disappointing and over-priced, imo. Agree that Furman is quite nicely Southern with a campus like none other. That comes with the advantage of starting to plan and build it all at a shot in the mid 50s. It is absolutely spectacular though. Greenville is a great city. Gettysburg is ... hard to know what it is. We hear very poor reports about the woman who is momentarily president there. It is a nice location, but unfortunately Gettysburg, while dominated as icy notes, by frats & preppy, it does not fly in the same circles as Bucknell, altho they'd like for it to.</p>

<p>
[quote]
Just to update we had a great visit. My D is very interested. Could anyone suggest similar schools ?

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Have you checked out Muhlenberg?</p>

<p>Motherof2,
Our d was an excellent hs student, albeit one with an unusual application, as she was homeschooled. So, even though we live near NYC, she didn't view a smaller school as a negative. They all seemed pretty big to her! She considered Gettysburg, Davidson, Franklin and Marshall, Wake Forest, and Bryn Mawr. We were fortunate enough to have quite a few choices, and she liked all of the schools where she was accepted. But as a ballet dancer, the deciding factor for her was the ability to study ballet at the outstanding Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet school on the campus of Dickinson...for college credit! At Dickinson, she gets the best of both worlds...a fine liberal arts education and a Balanchine ballet school. A match made in heaven! I hope your d finds a college that makes her as happy as Dickinson makes my d...best of luck!</p>

<p>oh...amethyst...thanks for the restaurant's name...Javid's...planning to eat there this week! MMmmm.</p>

<p>Heididoe,
Hope you enjoyed parents' weekend! Wonder if our daughters know each other - CPYB was also a deciding factor for mine! She took ballet for credit first 3 years at D-son, this year she was unable due to scheduling conflicts.</p>

<p>Just to respond to comments about the rigor of the academics at F&M. My S was not the hardest worker in high school; his SAT scores and AP scores were more impressive than his GPA. He finds the academics at F&M to require hard work (he did very little work in high school), but they are manageable thus far (he is a freshman.) The pre-med contingent is a small minority at the school. There is a wide degree of work required depending on what each student is studying, just as in every college. That said, if your D and S wants a school where he or she can pass through under the radar, F&M is not the school. Each student is front and center with alot of faculty attention given to developing each student's interests.</p>

<p>A poster on another thread characterized Dickinson as a school "big on Greek life and partying"--I have never heard this emphasis before, and I wondered about possibly different views from those in a position to know.</p>

<p>Can anyone honestly say that there is a LAC that has students that don't party. Even the very best of schools deal with underage drinking and drugs.</p>

<p>Relgious LAC's don't party, and women's colleges, particularly Wellesley, don't really either. I am not up on religious schools, but I am sure other posters are, or you can do research yourself.</p>

<p>Check list on Princeton Review website: Love Milk or whatever the current category is.</p>

<p>Mother2, of course I know that there's underage drinking and I know that there is Greek life at Dickinson--I just have never heard the overriding characterization of those two things as the main things one thinks about when describing Dickinson.</p>

<p>I certainly agree. I have never heard that Dickinson is a big frat school.On our recent visit it was hardly mentioned. My D loved it .</p>

<p>Dickinson is also high on my daughter's list. Out of curiosity, did anyone consider Wilson College or Muhlenberg as options?</p>

<p>I think my tour guide said that 25% of people belong to fraternities/sororities (but don't quote me on it- i may be completely wrong), but he said that you really don't feel the greek presence if you don't want to.</p>

<p>There are a lot of non-Greek special interest houses at Dickinson-including one for environmentally-oriented students (you have to pedal a bike that is attached to the tv to make the tv work), Arts House, Umoja (multicultural), etc.. One of the big attractions for my son is that D-son is not a cookie cutter type of place-there are people with all different interests.</p>

<p>And as for partying-now that have 2 kids at 2 different schools and know kids on a number of other campuses-I think you will find it just about everywhere.</p>

<p>Fermata, my D looked at both--but Muhlenberg didn't have ceramics as part of its fine arts department and (I assume you mean Warren) Wilson was just too too small. She did love Muhlenberg though and had a fabulous interview there.</p>