All I can say is, if you are so worried about whether your JCPenney wearing, straight-edged child will find acceptance at college, you can start by being careful how you characterize other people’s children.
Our LAC tour guides were…a very lax-bro pre-dental student from suburban NJ (Conn), a female science major from CA with an outfit so unremarkable I can’t recall it (Amherst), an avid gamer in all black - fishnet stockings too - with a nose ring from Seattle (Oberlin), a hip young dance major from the west coast (Barnard), a pretty preppy but not over the top History major from Cleveland (Wooster).
Only Oberlin’s guide lived up to the stereotype presented here, though D was mostly impressed that she came from Seattle since that meant Oberlin was going to have lots of not-Ohio kids which was a pretty major requirement for her.
@doschicos We visited: Denison (loved), Kenyon, Oberlin, and College of Wooster. We have seen Hillsdale as well. On National U’s: We saw Yale & Bowling Green State U.
@Lindagaf Thank you–your comments were helpful. So what I am seeing is not just a mid-western “small-town” Phenomena. The cities and coastal LAC’s are similar. This is actually comforting. In that case, I am less concerned about which college they choose.
@circuitrider your comments are obvious and feel judgmental. I would invite you to think about digging deeper into people’s posts and to consider that everyone is struggling, searching, and exploring the confusing and vast world of colleges. I am sure you must have helpful information that would contribute to this thread.
^Dear @RebeccaJWJ - Until I’m convinced you did not join CC literally 24 hours ago just to stir the pot, you’ll have to make do with my succinct contribution to a thread that already paints with a pretty broad brush. IMO, The Golden Rule is still the best policy.
My dear student just got picked as a student tour guide at Pomona in the fall. After reading this post, I’ll be sure to tell her to pay attention to what she wears, ie no shoes that flap, no fishnet tights and no hideous sandals. I know she wears birkenstocks a lot (after all it is Socal), although I think they have a rule “no sandals,” and she’ll be the one carrying the paddle I had made for it bearing a photo of her and Cecil Sagehen to help her keep her group together.
I don’t want to get too political here, but in support of @RebeccaJWJ’s experience…
I think in this country we’ve become increasingly polarized, even balkanized, and that polarization can show up on college campuses as well, so for instance there are some schools where after a couple of years on campus you might assume everyone in the real world introduces themselves by asking “What is your preferred pronoun?” and others where you might leave assuming everyone is part of a weekly bible study group. While I recognize that those are not technically mutually exclusive groups, I think you can understand what I’m getting at. Sometimes college experiences can reinforce preexisting biases instead of challenging them. I know these same students are not insulated from the outside world, but I’ve seen some colleges that seem to be a kind of echo chamber, where challenging the dominant college ethos is discouraged either explicitly or implicitly.
Small schools can be great for introducing kids to a wide variety of people in that a small population can mean you’re exposed to people you might not normally gravitate toward repeatedly, but if a school’s culture is too overwhelming it can backfire with a kid uncomfortable with that culture. OTOH at larger schools I’ve seen kids who simply stick to their original group. They come in signed up to room with a friend from HS (unusual at a LAC) and have a large enough population of similar kids that they’re never really forced outside their comfort zone. In these cases it doesn’t matter how much racial, religious, ethnic, economic, gender and sexual identity diversity exists at a school if a kid never really accesses it. Yes, these are broad generalizations, but they’re not meant as an attack on any one kind of school, just as food for thought.
As an atheist I wouldn’t have lasted a week at an evangelical Christian college but attending a relatively balanced LAC I got to know and like my evangelical roommate. We had some really good discussions about religion and I was able to see the positive role her faith played in her life while I believe she came to understand the kinds of deep moral frameworks that can exist outside a theistic worldview.
For me the ideal is a place where the student will be both comfortable and challenged. Each student needs to decide for himself where that balance lies.
Queer? Seriously? Not to get too political here, but … in 2017, the word doesn’t simply mean different. And has anybody seen the OP?