<p>Look, talking about the addiction of game playing and the deceit encouraged by the addiction hits just a little too close to home. If your son is complaining of other people’s addictions at his school but has a problem with gaming, then maybe gaming is the problem and not the college or the other people. Gaming addiction is a big problem at colleges. Students usually wash out so unobtrusively that no one knows about it but the family and a few dorm-mates. </p>
<p>I don’t know if that’s the case here, of course, so I would like to mention that one of the advantages of climbing as a social activity is that the kind of climbing newbies do requires people to work in pairs and communicate with each other if the climber isn’t going to end up on the mat. There are a lot of opps for socializing because of this. If your son expresses an interest in dating, girls’ dorm and honors dorm nights are often big turn-outs at a lot of college climbing walls and provide lots of opportunities for climbers to get to know each other. </p>
<p>I second William and Mary. lt seems to be a good fit for your son. It’s a medium size; small enough to have small class sizes and interactive classes, but big enough to know new people. History is one of the strongest departments here, especially given the college’s own role in history (educated 3 presidents, supreme court justices, 16 signers of the declaration of the independence and the like) While I can’t say there is much skiing activity on campus, there are clubs for people into competitive gaming and loads of awesome theater programs (from imrpov, comedy, musicals, to a play that is produced, written, and directed in 24 hours) really awesome stuff.</p>
<p>There’s always something to do on campus, and although there is some partying, people here are generally very involved and look for many other ways to spend their time. I’ve never drank/partied or felt the need to do so in order to have a social life. There is actually an organization called AMP that plans non-alchoholic activities on campus such as live music, field days, movies, dance offs, game shows, and other fun events on campus during the week and on weekends which have pretty good attendance. Clubs have their own “bigs and littles” and have mixers with other clubs/socials. While certainly available, W&M is definitely not a school focused on partying.</p>
<p>Then again, I’d ask him to explore his options at his current school before transferring at all. Make sure he has reached out and looked at all the options, whether they may be with clubs or with a group of friends that he has not discovered yet. It’s been a short period of time and sometimes it takes people time to adjust to all the freedom and some of his friends/hallmates may settle down and look for alternative activities.</p>
<p>Good luck! Let me know if you have any questions.</p>
<p>How did this get so off base? ONE of the THREE things her son likes to do is video games, the other two she listed are technical theatre (great demand and very social) and skiing. He’s unhappy with the atmosphere at his current school, move on. Labbydog, you were given some potential transfer schools (Knox, William and Mary), look into them and ignore this gaming diversion.</p>
<p>I’d second St Olaf - while there are parties, and the campus would be better described as “damp” rather than “dry”, it’s not a big party school and, most importantly, the administration offers many, many (free) things to do on weekends.
Macalester has a different atmosphere but being located in a very dynamic city, has plenty of things to do beside drinking. Both would be good for someone interested in skiing and Macalester would be great for someone interested in theater. I think that both take Spring transfers.
But if it’s just homesickness, give it a couple more months, and if things haven’t turned around in February, start talking about a transfer.</p>
<p>For a LAC that combines solid academics, good theater, and great skiing, it would be hard to beat Colorado College (as long as you’re o.k. with its unusual one-course-at-a-time block plan.) Transfer admission is competitive but not insanely so (~20%). Other outdoorsy LACs include Middlebury and Whitman. Middlebury skiiing would be a bit less great than Colorado’s, but much closer to campus. Middlebury transfer admission is more competitive (< 10% admitted). Whitman’s is less competitive (> 40% admitted). </p>
<p>Not that there won’t be drinking and partying at these schools. If you want good skiing with little or no drinking, check out BYU.</p>
<p>Take a look at Lewis and Clark. It’s not really on the North East radar, but is on most top NE LACs as far as accedmeics. Lewis and Clark has a contained campus in the cit of portland. Portland is great with lots “healthy life style” choices. I know a bunch of kids (crunchy, arty, music, types) who attend and while they like to have fun, none are big drinkers. Skiing is accessible.<br>
Here another, Seattle University, Jesuit. Another good school. My D really liked the school and the kids (very middle of the road–much more “normal” then the typical NE LAC student) Small merit and not enoug Fin/aid for us. Sorry SU. </p>
<p>Thanks for the recommendations. He’s still talking about transferring. He’s going out February break (his college does break in Feb instead of March) to visit his friend at L&C. His old guidance counselor also mentioned Whitman and Macalester, although not sure when he is going to get a chance to see them. Thanks again.</p>
<p>Is a small LAC a deal breaker? I think these days there is partying everywhere, the question is what are alternatives. In lots of small LACs the alternative is watch TV alone. I actually think a larger school may be better, even one with greek presence. At D’s large state uni, greek life is strong but still only 30% students. At small school, you may only have a handful of people you click with once you find them. At a large school you might have hundreds that like some of the things you like, and lots of kids that are exactly like you. S will have to figure out how to deal with partiers wherever he goes - frankly, my D has seen more drug use in artsy, theater crowd than among greek friends. He can still enjoy technical theater and video games with people and then find another group to hang with when those people go out. There just might be more options at large school.</p>