<p>Is what Tthom34 says true? Do Agnostic students feel uncomfortable on this campus? Are students who are not “extremely Christian” feel unaccepted on campus? I did not have this impression about Roanoke College, but I’d like some clarification.</p>
<p>I’ll ask my son - now a senior at Roanoke - but I don’t really think they talk that much about God and church. Not that that is a good thing but I think that it’s just not a big deal. I’ll ask though. My son has not attended church more then three times since he has been there and twice was when I was there and we went to church together. I would not be surprised if he was the only one of his religion on campus.</p>
<p>I’m so glad this thread popped up. </p>
<p>We will be visiting Roanoke on June 17. Although I anticipate a mostly-vacant campus during the summer, there will be some students there for summer session. Now I know what to ask if I have the opportunity…
- social life for minimal partiers
- hard core Bible campus, or not?
- dorm placement and reassignment process
- is the 25% Greek stat misleading? is a Greek culture more pervasive?</p>
<p>What else? Anybody want me to raise a question? :)</p>
<p>My S will be a sophomore at Roanoke this fall. He definitely did not experience the “hard core Bible campus”. He is a Catholic and regularly received invitations to participate in events through Church but nothing high pressure at all. He has plenty of friends and mostly hung out with Greeks although he did not pledge a fraternity. The Greek culture is extremely pervasive in my opinion and I understand that there are even unofficial, “underground” frats. Unfortunately I cannot tell you anything about social life for minimal partiers as my son does not fall into that category but there are plenty of social functions on campus where no alcohol is involved. </p>
<p>Anyone, feel free to PM me if you have more questions. There are some things at the school that were not as I believed were represented but all in all it’s a good place, albeit small.</p>
<p>Sabaray, your description reinforces what we already heard about Roanoke. In fact, some of what we like about it. </p>
<p>Would you be willing post publicly about what was somewhat misrepresented?</p>
<p>Sure- no problem. We are somewhat disappointed in the advising and the financial aspects. It has been very difficult for son to get the classes he wanted to stay on track for graduation. This term he had two profs that were absent a fair amount- leading to a instructor switch in one class and a lot of cancelled classes in the other. If your son is fairly certain of what he wants to do and can start that track immediately, it may work better for him. We really liked the representation of Roanoke as service oriented, but the projects son has been interested in have been mostly led by the Greeks- a problem since he isn’t one- primarily because we can’t afford it and all the extras. </p>
<p>I think the biggest thing that we didn’t realize was the divide between kids with a lot of money and kids like my son- who need work study, loans, etc. Work study is also difficult to come by. Many jobs are open to all students- not just work study. Roanoke does not meet full need. They definitely gap. Scholarship dollars and grants were also not what we were led to believe and they have not been interested in working with us this year even though we will have another child going to college in the fall. </p>
<p>Roanoke has a lot to offer students, but in hindsight if I had known how prevalent the Greek/lacrosse culture was, the expenses, the advising, I probably wouldn’t have encouraged son to attend as much as I had.</p>
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<p>Is this typical, because that is a big consideration?</p>
<p>Do you know the percentage of men that participate in the Greek culture? Are there any more professionally orientated fraternities, than those that are there for mostly social/drinking culture, IMO anyway?</p>
<p>The 4 year graduation rate is 58.3%. Is that because of the difficulty students have getting classes to graduate? I wonder if some classes are closed to freshmen because they are freshmen, but will have their turn. I also wonder if some of these classes have open seats in the beginnning of the semester, or a couple of days before classes begin? At some schools that happens because students change majors or their classes in the 11th hour, or occasionally some seniors who know the ropes hold onto a class in case a friend (frat brother) needs the spot!</p>
<p>As far as FA, they seem to mix stats and need and come up with rough numbers. You can get an idea by plugging in your family’s estimated income, and ACT/SAT scores and gpa. It does not allow for you to take another student in college into account, but for one student in school one could get very rough an idea of what might be offered.</p>
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<p>That’s bad news for us. Roanoke is one of Son’s two safeties. The merit estimator on the RC website produces an attractive number for us. It puts RC neck-n-neck with the in-state safety. Now, based on what you say, we’re gonna go into this even more financially-skeptical than before. </p>
<p>Thanks for sharing.</p>
<p>I do not know if my son’s experience with classes is typical. He did not go in with a lot of AP credits. </p>
<p>The school’s business program appears to be very popular- and they may in fact have a professional fraternity. </p>
<p>The first time freshman register, they have received a packet in the mail and basically tell a faculty member over the phone what they want to take. The faculty member tells them if a course is open or not and registers them. Son is interested in history/poli sci- got an initial advisor in Chemistry who was pretty indifferent/uninformed. His current advisor is a nice guy who taught his freshman writing course, but again hasn’t been real involved from an advising standpoint. </p>
<p>To my knowledge, students aren’t closed out of classes because they are freshman. Son struggled with foreign language- he was the only student in the course who hadn’t had any prior instruction in the course and the majority of the students had placed higher- but wanted an “easy” course. Many meetings with the instructor and visits to the learning center. </p>
<p>If your child is a great student then Roanoke might be the perfect fit. It looks like a great school for a B or even C student- but our experience has been a bit different. Son will be returning in the fall and it’s a small campus so I don’t want to post too much.</p>
<p>As I was reading the last page of this thread it occured to me that while I think my son’s experience has been different then sabaray’s son, it could be that it’s just that our son’s are different. I never hear anything about the frat’s unless I ask. I found out that the Lacrosse team ended the season in first place by seeing it on the schools website. My son never mentions them. I think part of this is because my son did the optional outdoor adventure mixer he found his group of people very quickly and does most everything with those people. It’s like an outdoor adventure frat. While I think they may all drink some, it’s not central to what they do. </p>
<p>As to the grants - we were told up front what we would get and that’s what it’s been. No surprises at all. The cost of tuition did go up every year, but it did at our daughters old college and every other college too. I did not expect the grant to increase with that. Our son did have a work study job the first year and could have continued with it if he had wanted to even though he was no longer work study eligible after the first year. It was not a glamorous job, so I think that’s why it wasn’t a real popular choice.</p>
<p>As for the advisors, when my son started he was undeclared and was given a Philosophy professor to work with. In his sophomore year he decided to major in English and chose his own advisor who has worked with him and helped him co-ordinate his study abroad. </p>
<p>It is difficult to graduate in four years when you start out undecided, but I think that’s the case at any school. It might have been better for our son if he had gone to a larger school with more major choices since he didn’t know what he wanted to do, but I think he really needed small classes and a small campus for his comfort zone. I’m not sure how to prioritze that stuff - small college, limited choices, vs. large college and large classes but more choices. </p>
<p>Sabaray - has your son gotten involved in the habitat for humanity group on campus? It looks like they do quite a bit. I think there are quite a few groups NOT associated with the greeks, but it sounds like the things that they sponsor are what appeals to him so for him I guess that’s a good thing.</p>
<p>One of the things that resonated with me at a parent workshop at the orientation weekend was that the college really tried to make the kids feel at home and comfortable so they could succeed because if a student doesn’t feel comfortable, they are much more likely to drop out.</p>
<p>Kathie, it’s great that your son has had a good experience. Our sons are different and they are also in different years. As of right now, I am trying hard to persuade my son to return. </p>
<p>My son is involved with Habitat. He also had a work study job which was not a real glamorous one either- but he didn’t get hired for that until second term. There was a lot of competition for jobs. He is not a member of any fraternity. Most of his friends are in one. </p>
<p>In our discussions with financial aid prior to enrollment, it seemed that aid would be recalculated as we would have a second child in school this fall. This has not been the case. </p>
<p>I’m not trying to run Roanoke down. It just is not what we expected. That may be our fault, I don’t know. Kids either seem to love it or not- just like any school. I have encouraged those who PM’d me to make their own decisions and shared other details about our experience that I am not comfortable posting here as it is a small campus.</p>
<p>Sabaray - Ahh, I see what you are saying. When our son started college, his sister was starting her senior year in college so we started off knowing that it wasn’t going to get any better. Merit aid isn’t really connected with that anyway and the only financial aid was a work study for son that did indeed disappear after she graduated. BTW, when our son started college, our daughter’s financial aid (another private) did not change, but again she was just getting merit aid.</p>
<p>“It is difficult to graduate in four years when you start out undecided, but I think that’s the case at any school.”</p>
<p>This is far more common at large unis than at small colleges. All of D’s frends and classmates entered LACs as undecided/undeclared majors and all are on track to graduate in 4 years - - including those who participated in study-abroad programs or who changed their majors soph/jr year. Only the uni students report having to stay a 5th year after changing their majors.</p>
<p>Why will nobody name the dorm that is being referred to as the lacrosse party dorm? I really would like to know which it is. Also, my daughter will likely be attending RC and I would also like to know which dorms are considered quiet and peaceful… in fact, can anyone give me a run-down on each of the dorms please?</p>
<p>I believe that the dorm that was referred to was one that was holding some freshman along with upper classman on a temporary basis while another one was being totally renovated. My son stayed at Marion his freshman year. If the dorm is the number one priority, you might as well pick another college. You won’t know which one your daughter will be in until the summer anyway. I know one boy that’s on the lacrosse team and he’s been off campus since sophomore year.</p>
<p>Dorm reputations seem to change every year, with each class making its own reputations.</p>
<p>The lacrosse team that was discussed in this thread will all be juniors or older when your student is a first year–their paths are unlikely to cross in the dorms.</p>
<p>Or next year’s lacrosse kids could be a great, studious team, and it could be the XC runners that party hearty.</p>
<p>My S3 is a student at AU. He is living in what has a reputation as a “party dorm.” Whenever we have visited, his floor has been almost Too quiet. There is another dorm on campus with a reputation for being quiet/studious/nerdy. One parent complains continually about how everyone in that dorm parties constantly, and how her daughter is so upset because she chose that dorm based on its tame reputation.</p>
<p>I am new to this forum, so I hope this is the correct place to ask these questions. I have some experience at Roanoke, and hope to add to what is already said about the school. I also have questions about the school, so I am hoping people can answer them here as well.</p>
<p>I am a rising junior in high school, and looking at Roanoke College for many reasons. I am very interested in Athletic Training/Sports Medicine, and Roanoke provides that. </p>
<p>I am also looking for a top-tier lacrosse school, and Roanoke is that. I have read every post in this thread, and read over and over about the lacrosse players. Those couple guys gives everyone who plays lacrosse a bad image, and I do not want to be associated with that image for saying that I play lacrosse and am looking at Roanoke for those reasons.</p>
<p>I went to Roanoke for a lacrosse camp a couple weeks ago for recruiting purposes, and stayed in Bowman Hall dorm. Compared to other colleges I have visited and seen, Bowman looked run down somewhat trashed. I know of a couple kids that have attended Roanoke or are currently attending, and said that the campers were put there because the school wouldn’t care as much if we were to trash it. So I am assuming they will be fixing it up in the time to come. The kids that attend Roanoke also said the other dorms are much nicer than Bowman.</p>
<p>Because Roanoke has an Athletic Training/Sports Medicine program and a good lacrosse team, Roanoke is high on my list of schools that I am looking at.</p>
<p>Does anybody know anything about the actual program though? Does anybody play sports for Roanoke, or have children that are college athletes and how they handle juggling sports and school?</p>
<p>Thank you for any help, and sorry for the long post.</p>
<p>Evanderson, I’m a current student at Roanoke and I’d like to help you out with some of your questions. First off, I absolutely love it here. I transfered in as a Sophomore this past year and it’s been a great decision. Financial aid is awesome, I pay less than half off what tuition currently costs and my grades in high school were not perfect. Roanoke is small but very friendly. Upon transfering I quickly made friends and rushed a sorority. Greek life is great here, you should definitely consider rushing if you go here. We also have an awesome lacrosse team, it’s true, many are huge partiers and belong to un “underground” lacrosse frat but many are nice and studious as well. A sorority sister of mine that just graduated was in the Athletic Training program and loved it and is now a personal trainer. Sorry I don’t know that much more about it. I have a couple of friends both male and female on the basketball, soccer, lacrosse, and field hockey teams and they seem to juggle their social/greek life, sports life and academic life pretty well. As for Bowman, please don’t let that tarnish your image. I loved there last year and it is pretty crappy and rundown but that is by far the worst on campus. We have several new dorms and Bowman will probably be torn down within the year. Good luck with junior year!</p>
<p>How about some recent insights into Roanoke now? Are the dorms reasonable? Food? Social life? Will a New England public school kid fit in? My son certainly enjoys the occasional party, but is focused on academics and does play lacrosse. He’s not particularly preppy, and we are not “well off” like a lot of the prep school kids. Would he have trouble fitting in?</p>
<p>This is my first semester at Roanoke as a junior. I transfered in from a community college.</p>
<p>I don’t live in campus so I can’t comment on the dorms. </p>
<p>The social scene here is pretty much what I expected from a small, Southern private liberal arts college. I was born and raised about 30 minutes away from Salem so I have lived here my entire life. The majority of the students are from CT or MA (I have seriously only met like three people who aren’t from there) or they are in state. </p>
<p>The lacrosse players do dominate and they are also the majority of the guys in frats. It took a while to get use to Roanoke, honestly. There are a LOT of up tight and very preppy people here. Honestly, I would describe them as having too much of their parents money for their own good. The girls go to class dressed up every single day. Very rarely do I see girls come in with sweats and hoodies. I know when I do I feel like I stick out like a sore thumb. It’s not uncommon to see guys going to class in sports jackets and ties on any random day, either. </p>
<p>The professors are great, though. And so are the academics. However, the general education requirements are a bit tricky for incoming freshmen because they just changed them so make sure you research them! You will do LOTS of work at Roanoke. I have written probably over 60 pages worth of papers this semester for four classes. Also, May terms… they are required atleast once and they offer AWESOME travel courses. They’ve went to Africa like 3 years in a row. </p>
<p>There are parties here. And they are exclusive for the most part. If you don’t know someone there, they won’t let you in. Making friends was hard at first but I have found my “niche” within the school and hope my next year and a half here will be fun.</p>