<p>Hi. I've already posted this question on the "Parents' Forum" thread, but I was hoping to hear from the actual students also. I don't know if double threading is allowed at CC, but I hope it's OK. So, here's the question:</p>
<p>I'd love to hear from parents and from their children who have been attending a college, about their experience so far. I'm especially interested in Grinnell, but also would love to hear about other LACs. I wonder about the less reported upon LACs, such as Kenyon, Macalester, Bard, Skidmore, Occidental, etc.
Some of my questions:
The experience of living on a small campus, in the country
The experience of living in the Midwest
How has it been to adapt to the academic standards?
Experiences re professors: are they mostly positive, and - if not - in what way
Ability to get the classes one chooses; I've heard of problems with this in some of the schools. If there are, does a kid have to be aggressive to get into classes?
General campus and social life
Is there a prevailing "work hard/party hard" ethos
How good are the programs, re helping a student who is very intelligent and motivated but has some difficulty with self-organizing and perfectionism.
Thanks very much.</p>
<p>This is my average day at my LAC</p>
<p>Wake up at about noon
Eat some gluten free pancakes and organic orange juice.
Go kick a hacky sack around with my buddies
Go to my “The Danger of Capitalism: Down with the Man” class.
Go from there to an outdoor discussion in the grass for my Acoustic Guitar class.
Come back to my dorm and hit the books for a few minutes.
One more class, Math 101 - Trigonometry. Its do stupid Idk why I even have to take it
Then I go back to mu dorm. After this hard ass day I usually smoke some weed.
Now dinner time. Grilled tofu, veggie burgers, and free range broccoli. Yum!
And finally before I to bed k usually write some haikus about how my days been, here’s one from yesterday</p>
<p>Live free, fight the man,
Animal testing is wrong,
Legalize weed, brah.</p>
<p>And end scene</p>
<p>I go to Carleton, in Minnesota.</p>
<p>Personally, I really like Northfield (the town) and the Midwest in general. Coming from the East Coast, I was looking for a very different environment and I like what I got here. The campus can feel a little small at times (running into old hookups, etc.), but in general I like the close community feel. In addition, Midwesterners are friendly and accepting, and generally nice to be around (the Minnesoooota accent is amusing, too).</p>
<p>The academic standards haven’t been too hard to adjust to. I was a hard worker in high school, so I was disciplined enough to make the transition to Carleton’s academic standards. My experiences with my professors have been almost entirely positive - they all love their subjects a lot, and are passionate about what they do. I really like going to my professors’ office hours, and just getting to know them better. However, registering for classes is a little tricky. Most classes that are full can be “waitlisted” and if you talk to the professor, you’ll probably get in. However, as a freshman, it can be trying because you’re assigned a priority number at each registration time (everyone gets a good and bad one at some time in the year), so sometimes you can literally watch your classes fill up while you’re waiting for your registration time.
I like the campus - it’s really pretty - and the social life here mainly consists of parties in the dorms and the townhouses, since there is no Greek system. There are a LOT of themed parties, and generally people go all out, which is really fun. I’ve found it significantly easier to make friends here than it was in high school, and in general I am very content. Many people certainly have the “work hard, play hard” mentality, but if you don’t, you won’t be judged.</p>
<p>Hope that helped!</p>
<p>^^haha @MLDwoody you’re too funny</p>
<p>@reezespieces: I bet carelton would’ve been more awesome if it was in Mpls or st.Paul…then it wouldve gotten more applicants…I think …</p>
<p>Sent from my LG-P509 using CC App</p>
<p>Thanks, reesezpiecez.
That was very helpful.
It’s nice to hear how happy you are at Carleton; it seems like you made the right choice.</p>