<p>I can't decide between these three schools. I know i should only choose based on what will be the best fit for me (probably skidmore or kenyon) but against my better judgement i'm drawn to BC because it has programs that interest me and has a better academic reputation even though i know i really don't like the type of student it attracts and i think i wouldn't enjoy the people. thoughts?</p>
<p>I don’t really know if BC does have a better academic reputation than Kenyon and maybe Skidmore. Kenyon is very well respected among people seeking LAC’s-- especially for english and writing. The big difference is the liberal arts college experience (small classes, lots of attention etc.) vs. not and there are lots of threads on that which you might want to really study. And go to accepted student events if you can.</p>
<p>prp8264 -</p>
<p>My son narrowed his choice down to Kenyon, BC and Vassar last year. He ultimately picked Kenyon - mostly because he felt it was the right fit for him. </p>
<p>In our opinion, Vassar had the best reputation of the 3, followed by Kenyon. BC is more well-known here on the East Coast, partially because of sports. (Don’t get me wrong - BC is a great academic school. But I do think Kenyon has a better academic reputation - although it’s kind of hard to really compare a tiny LAC with a university.)</p>
<p>Again, his ultimate choice was based on fit and really going with his gut. I’m happy to say he’s totally happy with his choice. He’s absolutely loving life at Kenyon. He recently visited a friend at BC for the weekend, and came away knowing even more that Kenyon is the place for him.</p>
<p>Good luck with your decision!</p>
<p>Why is it that BC always gets these backhanded compliments, like "BC is great but blank blank is better! To me that signifies that the poster know little to nothing of BC’s academics and strengths, and is content to rely on some nebulous perception of it from decades past…</p>
<p>leanid - why so defensive? I said in my post “In our opinion” and that’s what I gave. Based on what I know about BC (and the other schools my son got into), I think that Kenyon is stronger academically. There are plenty of people I know who thought my son was crazy to pick Kenyon over BC. They obviously disagree with me and if they want to come and give the OP their opinion, that’s fine. When I’m typing MY response, however, I think I’ll just stick to giving MY opinion…and I personally don’t think it’s based on “some nebulous perception,” but hey, you’re entitled to your opinion too!</p>
<p>Well, BC gets my vote, it’s great, and the location is pretty good.</p>
<p>BC for me too.</p>
<p>China, I have no problem with people preferring other schools over BC, after all we don’t all drive the same Ford; but I do find the OPs attitude offensive…</p>
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<p>Thoughts? My thoughts are that the OP sounds like some immature high-schooler who obviously didn’t do enough research about his/her college choices. My question is if it’s “against your better judgement” and you “really don’t like the type of student it attracts” why did you bother applying? Yet even with your negative feelings, apply you did, and now you sit on an acceptance you don’t want while wait-listed students hope for the opportunity to attend BC. My thoughts are, under no circumstances attend BC, your negative attitudes will make it difficult if not impossible for you to succeed there. I suggest putting two pieces of paper in a hat, one marked Kenyon and one Skidmore and then blindly choosing. In short, I recommend getting out of the way so someone who wants to go to BC can start planning.</p>
<p>P.S. It’s customary to capitalize “I” and “I’m”; just a tip for your college writing class.</p>
<p>vinceh - Well said!</p>
<p>By the way, proper capitalization is not only customary – it is expected!</p>
<p>Actually, the OP sounds alot like my son - who was NOT, by the way, “some immature high-schooler who obviously didn’t do enough research.” Sometimes you really don’t analyze and make your final choice until after all decisions are in. My kid really wasn’t sure where he wanted to be. All his schools had something to offer - that’s why he applied to each of them. I do understand what the OP means by “i really don’t like the type of student it attracts and i think i wouldn’t enjoy the people.” You can read that as very negative, but I don’t think it has to be taken that way. My son also felt that he didn’t really “like” the type of student he saw as the “typical” BC kid. But that certainly doesn’t mean all of them - he has quite a few friends that went there. In his case it was more a situation where the students as BC are just a little too similar to the kids who went to his high school. Again, he doesn’t not “like” them because they’re bad; he just didn’t want to spend another 4 years with the same “type” of kids. Maybe the OP should have used the word “prefer” rather than “like.”</p>
<p>Also, if someone wrote that “against their better judgement” they were drawn to Kenyon, I wouldn’t necessarily take that in a bad way either. Honestly, my son was actually drawn to Kenyon “against his better judgment!” Right up until his Admitted Students Day Visit he thought there were too many things about the place that weren’t for him. But something kept pulling him there, and in the end, it’s where he should be. Thank goodness he went against that “better judgment.”</p>
<p>So all I’m saying is don’t be so hard on the OP. He or she is just trying to get some other folks’ insight into the decision making process.</p>
<p>If you are really drawn to a LAC-type experience than a medium sized Uni is not for you. Unless you are interested in undergrad biz, choose a LAC.</p>
<p>College, even under the best of circumstances, can and should be socially and academically challenging. Going into a situation where you are questioning your judgement and where you “really don’t like the type of student it attracts” or where “i think i wouldn’t enjoy the people” is frankly a recipe for disaster. In the best of cases the OP will be fighting his/her preconceived notions while trying to navigate the sometimes roiling waters of freshman year; in the worst of cases he/she will perform poorly while regretting the lost time and opportunities that come from being in a place that lives down to his/her expectations. Why fight it when you don’t have to?</p>
<p>My question remains: With such reservations, why did the OP even apply? I loved my time at BC but even I acknowledge that there is no program so unique at BC that it can’t be found at any number of other colleges or universities. Go to the school that gives you the best opportunity and environment in which to succeed.</p>
<p>Vinceh has a great point, and it’s not just the OP. OFTEN on College Confidential you see people who’ve applied to colleges they seem to dislike and know are wrong for them. With the huge number of colleges in the country, it seems odd that anyone couldn’t find a dozen or so that would be just fine for them.</p>
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<p>"If you are really drawn to a LAC-type experience than a medium sized Uni is not for you. "</p>
<p>Maybe the other BC grads here can comment on this: the BC experience involves extremely few of the drawbacks one associates with “universities” as opposed to LACs. The whole time I was there, I had two grad students as instructors (both were superb) and one large class (a two-semester intro history class). NOT ONCE did I feel like I was missing out on the intimacy and close student-professor contact that are the main reasons to go to an LAC.</p>
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<p>“Well, BC gets my vote, it’s great, and the location is pretty good.”</p>
<p>“Pretty good”?? BC’s location is amazing. It’s extremely safe and quiet, yet the main campus overlaps the Boston/Newton line, so you’re either in Boston or right next to it. It’s NOT “way out in the suburbs” as some people claim. Here’s a link to a BC webcam: <a href=“http://at.bc.edu/webcams/bostonskyline/[/url]”>http://at.bc.edu/webcams/bostonskyline/</a> Does downtown Boston look like it’s far away?</p>
<p>Good input, Schmaltz.</p>
<p>What more people should know is that BC has long been focused on a liberal arts curriculum. It could be said that in essence it is a liberal arts college, notwithstanding its professional schools and undergraduate business school, which until two or three decades ago was strictly second fiddle to the college of arts & sciences.</p>
<p>I seem to have offended you by my choice of words, I’m sorry for that and if it seemed harsh. I applied to BC because it has a program I am interested in (International Relations) and within that offers a smaller focus on Japanese (an interest of mine). In addition, after growing up half an hour from New York City a big plus (but not at all a requirement) in colleges I was looking at were if they had easy access to a big city, which BC offers. Also I have friends at Northeastern and Tufts so it added a very small, but comforting familiarity with some people. I didn’t apply to BC for absolutely no reason, and the fact that it is well known was an incentive as well, I said against my better judgement simply because I think that reputation should not play a huge role in deciding which college to attend but I can’t seem to shake the attraction of BC’s reputation, which I do recognize is not so different from Kenyon or Skidmore. Pretty much the only huge problem I have with BC is that fact that, as China pointed out, a very large number of students from the classes before me have gone to Boston College, and they seem to fit a general picture I guess I have developed of a typical BC student, which just does not fit my ideal picture of the students I would want to go to school with. I was just curious if anyone had some thoughts on comparing Kenyon/Skidmore advantages to Boston College in the hopes that maybe something would stand out that could help me make my decision, since I really am having a difficult time.</p>
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<p>Au contraire. There are a LOT more reasons to attend a LAC. Student-faculty contact is just one of the reasons. Sheer size is another one – many kids just prefer the intimacy of a ~1500 student campus. Lack of D1 sports…Four year housing guarantee…Self-operated study abroad programs fully integrated with the curriculum…Advising…</p>
<p>OTOH, there are plenty of reasons to attend a mid-sized Uni, such as prp has found – greater curricular offerings. Access to a city – not too many LACs adjacent…larger classes (for those that prefer to sit in the back)…pre-professional ‘vibe’</p>
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<p>Except that the undergrad biz school is good sized, 20% of total. Add in Communications, which is typically a biz major at other colleges, and the traditional “liberal arts” curriculum is down to 66% of undergrads. </p>
<p>But, back to the OP…IMO, someone who finds Kenyon and Skidmore to their liking will find it more difficult to thrive at a school like BC. The real question is whether the increased curricular offerings are required. (There was another poster, whose name I can’t remember, who was dead set on LACs, and nothing but LACs, until s/he found that only a couple offered anything close to his/her intended major.0</p>
<p>Well, I’m curious as to what this “general picture” of a “typical BC student” is and how that differs from students at Kenyon or Skidmore college.</p>
<p>BC’s student population seems more pre-professional whereas Kenyon and Skidmore attract more eccentricity. BC always gets great ratings on student satisfaction, happiest students, retention rate, etc. I would choose BC, but you have three good choices there.</p>
<p>well my “general picture” I’m sure isn’t totally accurate, it’s just what i’ve gathered from the people I know who go there currently and what I observed when I visited, but what I typically saw were kids who seemed very at home in the preppy, jockish, overachieving stereotype. I know this obviously wouldn’t be every single student who goes there, but I am worried that it makes up a large majority of the students, and that all I’m going to find are guys obsessed with sports and drinking and girls who only wear j. crew etc…
I am exaggerating to make a point here, in no way do I expect this to be typical of everyone at BC, but there is a very specific type of person who goes to BC from my school and the surrounding area, and it just has me worried.</p>
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<p>In the end, you need to follow your heart and judgment. Somehow the various input from parallel discussion threads that you’re soliciting input from have failed to get you to see it differently. </p>
<p>If you believe you will be unhappy with the student life at BC, then you will be.</p>