OK, parent with a kid interested in Denison. We’ve heard stories at some schools that substance free dorms are not necessarily a good choice for kids wanting to make substance free choices in college because kids who have struggled with use/abuse issues in high school can be “required” by their parents to live in sub free housing. At some schools, we have heard that sub free is actually anything but.
Any current or recent info on what the freshman sub-free housing is like in terms of the culture at Denison? My kid has expressed some interest, especially because he is not a big, loud party dorm kind of kid and, as an athlete, has chosen not to partake so far. The sub-free housing for freshman at Denison looks really nice, but then again, he also doesn’t want to be completely marginalized socially etc. Any insight or experience appreciated. Thank you.
Hi again! Haha I lived in sub free housing during my entire four years at Denison so I can tell you about my experience. Basically, I had zero experience with alcohol before college and was worried about being in a big party dorm, especially during my first semester.
During my freshmen year, I ended up living in one of the old fraternity houses on north quad (during my time at Denison, many of these houses were sub free, first year housing and I would guess they still are). I had a great experience! Only like 30 students lived in the house, so I became very close with them very quickly. I can see how these houses could be a bit isolating, however, because they are so small and are separated from the rest of the freshmen who live on West quad. I had friends living in other dorms, though, so I spent a lot of time hanging out with them in their rooms. Everyone I knew chose sub free housing because they didn’t want to be in a party dorm, not because of any substance abuse in the past. I will say, however, that these dorms are not completely sub free and that quite a few students still drink. In my experience, however, the students drink much less than in bigger dorms like Shorney/Smith and pretty much all of the drinking happens in other buildings (Shorney, Smith, senior apartments, etc). I didn’t drink at all my freshman year and found friends who also didn’t drink or drank very little. We did go to parties, though completely sober (which was quite an experience haha) so I didn’t feel marginalized socially.
Another good option is quiet housing. These dorms are right beside Shorney/Smith, which is where most of the freshmen live, so you’re not isolated from the rest of the freshmen. Students there are less into partying overall, though some students still drink, of course. If your son is worried about being marginalized, that might be a better option because you’re literally right beside the big dorms but get to live in a nice, quiet environment.
Basically, by choosing to live in a quiet or sub free dorm, you’re ensuring that the parties don’t happen IN your building, which I found to be really important.
Thank you @cats1290! Very helpful for my kid, I suspect he will like the option of living in the quieter dorm and being able to go out to the parties, rather than having them happen all around him. And he’s fine with some substance use around him (he is in high school, it happens now), at least for now, that is not part of his choices and I suspect may not be for some time. I’m not being naive, I have another kid at a flagship who happily partakes. But with this younger one, it is about his personality and commitment to his sport.
Another question – when you get back on CC – I’ve gotten the impression that the fraternities still use the former houses for meetings – if that is how it works, how does that affect the students living in the building? Any thoughts?
And if I could change gears and ask about gen eds. The Denison website says IB/AP generally doesn’t count for gen ed requirements, but that departments have the final word on credit for gen eds. Is that something that ever happens? Is it worth pursuing? My non-science/non-math kid would love to use some test scores to get at least 1 semester of science and/or math out of the way.
Thank you.
Yep the frats still use their houses, mostly for their weekly chapter meetings each Sunday. It doesn’t affect the students living in the houses too much. You’ll see members of the fraternity hanging out in the lounge before and after their meetings sometimes and they sometimes used the grill outside the house. Their chapter meetings are held in the basement of the houses so they don’t really interfere with the students living there (though we could always hear them singing their fraternity songs haha). I know that the Betas have their holiday semi-formal in their house every December and they invite all of the first years living in their house, which I always thought was a nice gesture. I also think they had a few recruitment events in the house during rush.
I know you can definitely get out of the foreign language requirement. There’s a placement test that incoming first years take and basically you have to score well enough to place out of the first three semesters of a language at Denison. I only placed out of the first two semesters, so would have had to take another semester of Spanish to fulfill my language GE, but I decided to start a new language instead (if you start a new language, you only have to do two semesters instead of the equivalent of three). I also used an AP score to get out of a required first year seminar, but I know Denison has completely revamped their first year writing program so I’m not sure how that works anymore.
Other than that, you can definitely place out of a ton of classes. I placed out of some math classes and I have friends who used AP scores to get out of the introductory economics sequence, which is great if you’re majoring or minoring in those subjects. But I’m pretty sure Denison won’t let you use the classes you placed out of as credit for completing GEs. I’d definitely talk to them though to make sure that’s the case. There are some “science courses for non science majors” that are less intense and more interdisciplinary, which non-sciencey students can take to fulfill GEs.