Hi
I am thinking about attending Trinity, and I had some questions about the school.
Does Trinity have a good American Government (Poli/Sci) program? (my ultimate goal is to attend Harvard Law School)
Are the academics rigorous at Trinity? Are the students engaged?(I currently attend an all-male Catholic school, and I hate it because no one cares about academics. All anybody cares about is athletics.)
I am looking for a PREPPY, conservative college.(I am a hardline Tea Party conservative) I know thay yhere probably won’t be many Tea Party guys at Trinity, but would I fit in there?)
I am a very devout(quite conservative) Episcopalian. Would that be an issue at Trinity?
Could I ger into Trinity ED? Here are my stats
GPA- 3.5
SAT
CR- 700
W- 700
M- 600
Total- 2000
Thanks!
There is a Political Science Department. My best friend and girlfriend are both Poli Sci majors. You can get your concentration in American Government, Comparative Politics, International Relations or Political Theory. However, the Political Science faculty are pretty liberal so that might conflict with number 3. The most prestigious professor here in the Poli Sci department is a Marxist and is very critical of “American Neo Imperialism.” There is a Public Policy and Law department (Pre-Law) if that interests you instead.
The thing about college compared to high school is that the academics in higher education are as rigorous as you want them to be. If you want to get involved in research and a thesis and an internship at the same time as taking 5 classes and you declare a double major etc. then yes you are going to have a very rigorous schedule. But at the same time you could take the minimum to graduate your entire four years, take a bunch of liberal arts classes like Interpretive Dance or Samba or Ice Skating (all actual classes) and your academics will be less rigorous. No matter where you go to school you will find that this is the case. You will find people that care very much about academics and you will find people that do not care as much.
Trinity is a absolutely a preppy school in terms of fashion. A large fraction of the student body are Boarding School kids. Philips Exeter, St. Paul’s St. Mark’s etc. You would be very surprised as to the number of conservative kids on this campus. If you ask anyone their political beliefs the most common answer I found is ‘I am a conservative libertarian.’ From my experience, I think a lot of the Greeks from the 3 main fraternities on campus here identify as conservative so you might identify with that crowd. They also party really hard so that is a plus (or a minus depending on your position). There has been a push toward more liberalism in recent years but there is definitely a hefty portion of the student body that are conservative. I would say maybe 30% conservative and 70% liberal. This is a Liberal Arts College after all. Of the NESCAC schools, I think Trinity is among the most conservative.
No, the school is non-denominational. We have a gorgeous Neo-Gothic Cathedral here. It has services for Catholics and protestants as well as other religions every week. There is even a Buddhist Meditation chamber in the basement. A lot kids here are Catholic, protestant or Jewish here but I think a very large fraction of students are Atheist or Agnostic in terms of their religious beliefs but like most I know people they could not care less if you are religious as long as you do not care that they are not. But if you are going to be vocally critical about others and how they live their lives based on your religion then you might run into some problems finding friends. You continually reinforce that you are conservative and religious. This school can party pretty hard: drugs, alcohol, Jezebellian women and Hedonistic men. If you are uncomfortable with sex, drugs and alcohol, there is a strong possibility you will be exposed to those things. So if you decide to publicly condemn everyone to hell for their hedonism I do not think that it will go over well.
My stats were 2270 SAT 780, 740 on Chemistry and Biology SAT II. 33 on ACT. 3.8 GPA, top 25 graduating from a class of around 800. Pretty solid ECs. I am on scholarship though. I think you are around the 50/50 mark in terms of average GPA and standardized tests. If you apply ED my money says you would get in but if you are applying not early decision its most likely a coin flip. Ultimately, however, there are no guarantees when applying to colleges.
LOl this post supports my impression and this school’s reputation. Nope, it is not the case that the rigor of the curriculum is “as you want them to be” at all schools. Some schools have rigorous core classes and others have rigorous requirements that don’t allow for “Tulips blowing in the wind” to be taken to fulfill the science requirement and “Math to teach Preschool” to fulfill the math requirement. In other words, at some schools the academics isn’t a joke for anyone. Trinity isn’t one of those schools. I can imagine the image of the Exeter grad dressed in expensive preppy clothes, unable to get into daddy’s or mommy’s college, coming to this one to study Samba. Not really the image of a top university though.
@lostaccount: At first I was typing a really long post about how trinity has prepared me for my future career, about how my friend at Columbia literally sent more than 300 emails to alumni and got 4 back, while I sent 10 and 6 people replied me. (And most of them are high profile people: partner at EY boston, VP berkshire capital, executive director at morgan stanley in nyc… Not like they have too much time on their hands.) But then I read another comment of yours in a different thread and it seems that you are holding some grudge against trinity or at least trying to badmouth my alma mater as much as possible, so I thought better of it. I don’t care how you think of Trinity or how you define “academic rigor” and it’s true that trinity is not williams or swarthmore, but a friend of mine is deciding between harvard, stanford and yale for a phd in anthropology, my roommate is deciding between UChicago, UWashington and MIT for a phd in CS, and a few more examples that need not be told. This speaks volumes about how “unrigorous” trinity is. Also, FYI, every year my advisor fail 1/4 of the intermediate micro class, and many students barely get the passing grade of C+. I’m the TA so I know. You may say it’s because trin students are stupid. That’s fine. You are entitled to your opinion. I just want to make sure that all the prospective students know tulips are not really “blowing in the wind” here at Trinity.
@OP: For your own sake, don’t go here. I’ve been here for 4 years and I only know of 3 people who go to church on Sunday. And one of them, a devout catholic, was considered a “freak.” It’s not nice but that’s what you get for going around telling people that they will go to hell because they have sex before marriage or use protection. He only had like 5-6 friends and each of them all had like 8-9 siblings. I’m atheist myself and I’m in no position to judge, but don’t expect tolerance if you don’t want to tolerate other beliefs different from yours.
@mrbaby43, I think you misunderstand me. I am certainly religious (strong Episcopalian) but that’s very different from what you described. I believe homosexuality is wrong, and I don’t support abortion, but I would never judge anyone who had opposing beliefs. You need to understand the Catholic Church does NOT represent the majority of Christianity. I would NEVER tell someone they are “going to hell” for something Idon’t agree with.
Hi I am a Junior at Trinity and I do not think it will be a problem being a devout Episcopalian at Trinity. I am also a Christina, non-denominational, and have had no problem making friends and fitting in at Trinity. Being Episcopalian is actually perfect because our school was once Episcopalian, so the Sunday service still follow the Episcopalian traditions. There are also many other smaller Christian and Catholic groups that you can be a part of during the weekdays. If you are not into the party scene, there are other alternatives. You do NOT have to drink if you do not want to. There are other students at Trinity that do not like to drink a lot so you will not be alone. Plus, the college Chaplain is one of the best humans I know and she is there 100% to support us however she can. I would not be worried about it, but if you are and don’t live too far away, stop by Trinity and talk to the Chaplain. Hope this helps reassure you that being Episcopalian at Trinity is totally fine and we welcome you!
I was reading the Niche comments about Trinity and was a little concerned about the purported pervasiveness of alcohol and especially drug use on campus, which is reported to be usually rampant even by college campus standards. they gave the school a D- rating on drug safety when I checked. The say students report that in addition to marijuana and alcohol, cocaine use is ubiquitous, and there is an unusually high percentage of smokers on campus.
My DD2 is interested in visiting the school, but with niche ranking it dead last in the nation (# 1,177 out of 1,177 colleges) on Drug Safety, I am a bit uncomfortable about that.
Can someone familiar with the college, give me your perspective on this?
I am a current senior at Trinity, and would love to answer your question! As with all college review websites, only the people with the most severe of opinions (either positive or negative) write reviews, so I’d definitely take what you’re reading on Niche with a grain of salt.
I have two answers to your question. Firstly, I will say that since my first year at Trinity, I have seen a severe decrease in the amount of smoking on campus. In my first and second year, I would see a lot of smokers around campus. However, in the past two years that number has decreased drastically, and I almost never see anyone smoking around campus. If this is an indication of a continued trend, I would say that you need not be worried.
Secondly, I will say in reference to general drug use, that Trinity is an accurate depiction of the real world in this aspect. In life, one will be offered a series of choices: some bad, some good. It is impossible for a parent to protect their child forever from making any bad decisions in life, so why not start with college?
To further ease your worries however, I will say that in my four years that college drug use has never impacted my Trinity experience. I am very active in the social scene at Trinity, and would still go as far as to say that drug use at Trinity is generally frowned upon by people I know.