size of Davidson

Colleges and Universities A-Z Davidson College
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<p>Hey everyone, this is my first post. Davidson is almost certainly my first choice right now (I'm a junior). The only thing that I am weary about is that the size of Davidson is so small that it could be suffocating. Is this true? Or is it not as big of a deal as I think it could be?</p>

<p>Also, what is the typical "Davidson student"? I'm assuming he/she is hardworking, driven, and very smart. But is he/she also a member of many clubs? Attractive? Friendly? Gossipy (new word)? </p>

<p>Thanks so much!</p>

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<p>I came from a very small high school, so my perspective is probably a little bit different, but I have very rarely felt any sort of limitation, in terms of size. There will always be people you don't know. Also keep in mind that every year there's a new freshmen class and transfer class, and every semester, abroad students come home. I probably know roughly half my class (almost five hundred students), but don't know everyone, by any means. Usually, I only feel "suffocated," in any sense, when I'm bogged down with work and when I'm homesick. </p>

<p>Gossipy...I don't know. I think definitely within classes, there's a bit of a gossip culture. But it's not ridiculous, and if you do something stupid, unless it was cruel, no one's going to remember it after a month or so, tops.<br>
Attractive, yes, definitely. The people here look healthy and normal. You don't get a lot of people who are too skinny or morbidly obese. Most are athletic. Also, most care about their image to an extent. By that, I mean that people do tend to dress up a bit. Sure, you'll see kids in class in their PJs or sweatpants, but a lot of people go the extra mile. Me, it varies from day to day. Mostly depends on when I wake up.</p>

<p>I am involved with three or four organizations, and compared to other students, I feel like that's nothing. I'm in Rusk Eating House, Young Democrats, and I occasionally contribute to Libertas, the "literary" magazine. I'm hoping to become a tour guide next year, and today I submitted my application for Sports Marketing. We'll see where that goes!</p>

<p>It's hard to really define Davidson students by any all-encompassing labels, because you get a lot of diversity with personalities, backgrounds, and beliefs.</p>

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<p>That was a great reply, thanks! I'm glad to get a student persepective on things, as opposed to books or word-of-mouth.</p>

<p>I also come from a very small private school, and what I like about it is the personal relationship with the teachers. That's one reason why I'm attracted to Davidson, because the class sizes are so small and the professors seem easily reachable.</p>

<p>At this point, I'm considering applying to Davidson early decision? This is certainly not set in stone. First, I want to visit the campus again and stay the night with a student and sit in on a class or something. Is this an easy thing to do? Would I just contact the admissions office?</p>

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<p>Yes, you can contact the admissions office to set it up (I believe they let high school seniors stay over at some point in the fall, but I forget when)</p>

<p>One thing to note about asking the admissions office, however, is that they will only let you visit on weekdays, not weekends. If you have any interest in seeing what the party scene is like or what it's like outside of just classes.. it's better if you know someone at the college who can take you in and show you what it's really like.</p>

<p>If you are a recruit for sports, they let you come over the weekends.</p>

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<p>Also, they won't let you come on Wednesday nights (Wednesday tends to also be a party night during the week -- almost every college has a party night during the week).</p>

<p>It's party to give your parents assurance and partly to take responsibility off your host. </p>

<p>Decision Davidson is hosted on a Saturday and you may spend Saturday night.</p>

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<p>Thanks again! I actually think that I am going to come to Decision Davidson, unless I have a sports tournament that weekend. I'm looking forward to it!</p>

<p>Amplifiar, did you apply RD? Do you think that applying ED has significant advantages?</p>

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<p>I think Decision Davidson is for accepted students only.</p>

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<p>Oh. Yeah. My bad forgot to mention that. I more meant it as an example of a prospectives weekend held on the weekend.</p>

<p>I got in RD. Davidson was not my first choice. RD admittance is lower than Duke...Cornell...other big hard-to-get-in schools. ED admittance is almost 50%, or at least it was in my year.</p>

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<p>Do you still like it a lot even though it wasn't your first choice?</p>

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<p>Harvard was my first choice. My father went there and I always wanted to.</p>

<p>I cannot imagine being this happy with Harvard. Davidson is the best thing to ever happen to me.</p>

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<p>Why do you think that is, if you could narrow it down to, say, three things?</p>

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<p>yo- just a random question that I bet has been answered before - how present would you say jock culture is at davidson?</p>

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<p>TTWhite - Hmm...take baby physics (astronomy) and you will find out the full extent. Honestly? There are not many jocks at Davidson. Not to generalize, but a lot of them join a certain party-hardy frat...a certain...Phi Delta Theta...but in all seriousness, not many dumb-dumb athletes slip through the cracks in the admissions office. Recruiting and admissions here are ENTIRELY separate, but before the recruiting can happen officially, one must pass the admission requirements. Unless your name is Seth Curry, you probably would not arbitrarily be offered a full-ride because of a sport.</p>

<p>Lizzy - I don't think I could possibly narrow it down to THREE things haha. If you read over my posts on this discussion board, you can see that I love just about EVERYTHING-Davidson. If you MUST pin me down (haha), I would say:
1) The people -- everyone is very self-competitive, but paradoxically laid-back at the same time and the result is a student-body that lives every day to the fullest and looks for ways of making everything fun.
2) The Honor Code -- being able to count on my wad of Benjamin Franklins (yeah, as if I have a wad of Benjamins) being on Belk lawn when I walk back ten hours after I've dropped it there is really quite special. Really, though, you hear some cool stories about the Honor Code. And...
3) Commons food.</p>

<p>...</p>

<p>Just kidding.</p>

<p>(Again, as if)</p>

<p>3) Campus and facilities -- the lucky prospies (Davidson lingo for "prospective student") that stay with me over the next few weeks will have the great fortune of staying in Watts dorm: the NICEST dorm for freshmen in the COUNTRY. At least in my opinion :)
Also, have you seen the Union? It's pretty sweet! And the campus is just gorgeous! 24-hour gyms, library, computer labs, etc. Oh, and you can study in Chambers at night with free reign over all the technology in the room. I go there ever so often, find an empty classroom, put Pandora on the loud-speakers and kick back to write my essays.</p>

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<p>Honestly your student Union has had to be my favorite out of all the schools I have visited. I got a good feeling being in there and it was the only one where I could seriously see myself just plopping down on a couch and watching some ESPN. It really felt like a chill place to just hangout when you need a study break or have nothing to do. Also that little snack station thing was pretty good for college food. Also your gym is pretty nice. Kind of small compared to the bigger schools but is nice on the inside.</p>

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<p>amplifiar-- ...and the chicken parm?</p>

<p>haha :)</p>

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<p>Union's pretty sweet! I escape there often haha</p>

<p>Oh gosh. I SWEAR TO ALL THAT IS HOLY. EVERY SINGLE TIME I EAT AT COMMONS IT'S CHICKEN PARM AHHHHH!</p>

<p>Hahah. Commons is actually not bad at all, most of the time. In fact, I wake up super-early unnecessarily for their breakfasts. I love Commons breakfast. But for lunch, I'm a Wildcat Den regular and for dinner, I go to Rusk, go out, or go to the Union, since I don't have 19 meals anymore.</p>

<p>So, when I actually do go to Commons for a non-breakfast meal...ahh chicken parm! At least it comes with plain pasta, if you want.</p>

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<p>Depends what you mean by jock culture. Are you asking whether we bow down to our athletes for their "incredible talents" and worship the ground they stand on? Absolutely not (unless said athlete is stephen... but that doesn't count)</p>

<p>If you are using jock culture as synonymous to fratty.. then yes, we have fit, polo-clad, athletes wearing their vineyard vines and j.crew. But again, that is not everyone.</p>

<p>If you are asking if we have dumb jocks who are here solely for athletics, no, that is not the case. I believe in a survey a couple years ago we tied for the highest GPA among D1 athletes. Some of the Phi Delts lack common sense, no question.. But even they are smart on paper.. Like Amplifiar said, it's pretty much Phi-Delt that has any real jock culture, and even then they're perfectly normal people outside of the court.</p>

<p>Did I answer your question, or did I misinterpret it entirely? I was thinking of jock in terms of how I viewed it in highschool, because I've never heard Davidson described in terms of jock culture</p>

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<p>haha yeah my question was pretty open, i appreciate the responses. i know i've had it answered before sometime, but for some reason last night i got the random feeling that davidson had a lot of jocks. haha don't ask me why. i love sports (keep up w/ basketball and football) and run but just get annoyed by pompous jocks lol</p>

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<p>Davidson has lots of people who are very in shape and lots of people who are athletes and lots of people who like sports. But I can't think of many jocks.</p>