Questions about Dickinson

Colleges and Universities A-Z Dickinson College
1

I’m probably going to go to Dickinson next year, but I have a bunch of questions which I would really like to know the answers to before I commit (which I have to do in a week!). If anyone could help me out that would be amazing.

  • Are Dickinson’s distribution requirements hard to fill? I looked on their website and it seemed like there were a lot. I really want to try a bunch of classes out and explore in college, but that won’t be easy to do if there are a lot of required classes.
  • I saw there was a PE requirement, which seems a little ridiculous for college. I was really looking forward to being done with gym. Is it all four years? How many times a week do PE classes meet, and for how long?
  • How is the biology program?
  • Is there stuff to do for people who don’t like to drink/party?
  • I’ve heard a lot of negative things about campus safety and the administration. Can anyone speak to this?
  • I’m very liberal and I know Dickinson is a bit on the conservative side for a liberal arts college. Will this be a problem?
  • Is the student body very cliquey?
2

So, you need to hear from a current student or recent grad, but we have visited and know several current students, so here is some preliminary info.

The distribution requirements are fairly typical for a LAC, and should not be difficult to meet.

PE requirement is also easy to fulfill, presumably the idea is to encourage students to develop lifelong healthy choices. While not all LACs have these requirements, many do, including Haverford etc. This is not “gym” class like high school.

The students we know are not majoring in sciences, but we have heard the program is certainly good, the science building is gorgeous.

The students we know are not partiers, at all, and they have a full social life. They haven’t reported anything about campus safety and administration but we haven’t asked either so its not really the kind of thing they would necessarily bring up on their own. I suppose you could search issues of the campus paper to see what is going on.

Again, from the current students we know, it is not so much that the student body is overall more conservative than other schools, but rather than there are more students across the political spectrum, unlike say, Wesleyan or Oberlin. So there will be plenty of liberals, just not everyone will be liberal.

Again, from the students we know, they have developed great friendships through their campus activities. Is that cliquey? I certainly haven’t gotten the sense that their friend groups are exclusive and mean the way one thinks of high school cliques.

College is an entirely different environment from high school, and students evolve from freshman through senior year. So, while it might feel “cliquey” in the fall of freshman year, when students hang out primarily with people on their hall or from dorm and are hesitant, perhaps, to venture beyond your comfort zone, their social group expands and changes as they get involved in different groups, activities, courses etc.

Dickinson is a terrific school, good luck to you.