<p>For Doddsdad and C-Mudge and any other interested parents.</p>
<p>I spent lunch with the girl I know who's a jr. Let me start by saying that she loves Hanover. She came out of our extremely large (3500+) HS having taken many honors/AP classes (had a 3.69 GPA). Hanover is ~1100 students so it was a big switch. But she has enjoyed it immensely.</p>
<p>She strongly feels that Hanover is academically rigorous. Her GPA there is measureably lower than her HS GPA. She has found the classes to be challenging and finds the classroom discussions very stimulating. Professors (as at many schools, particularly small LAC's) are extremely accessible and helpful. She definitely feels that there is an active learning environment throughout the school. </p>
<p>She says that she thinks that students who come there are surprised by how difficult classes can be. Hanover is not the pushover school that some kids think it is. She was telling me about the new curriculum change (called Academic Vision, I think?) that has beefed up requirements for interdisciplinary courses and broader knowledge base. She said she feels that the university is trying very hard to up the ante academically through the new curriculum reqs and through faculty hiring and through course offerings.</p>
<p>She told me that this has actually caused quite a problem with this year's freshmen class. She said that 90 (out of a class of 400) are not returning next year. Some because they couldn't cut it and some because they don't want to try - again, turns out the school is not the "easy" school some students anticipated. Now I cannot confirm any of her numbers so please take that comment with a grain of salt.</p>
<p>She tells me she has lots of intellectual conversations and professors do challenge the students and the students are motivated to do well and challenge themselves.</p>
<p>She really praised the quality of the English Dept. (which she said has all of 7 rising seniors) and the professors are top-notch, in her view.</p>
<p>What doesn't she like? Well, the food wasn't too great. But she said that students circulated a petition and talked to administration to get that improved and they responded and now the food is much better. She feels that the administration sometimes clamps down too hard on drinking - particularly in the greek houses. As she pointed out, in dorms there's an RA on every floor serving as the eyes and ears and "enforcer" of anti-drinking rules on campus. But in the frats, there's only a house parent, and the inhabitants can tend to run a little more amok. So whenever there's a problem, the university comes down hard on those groups as if to show its' might. Again, this is her view.</p>
<p>As to the Greek scene, 50 % of girls join sororities and 30% of guys. She told me the issue with guys is that lots of them have grade issues (and min. GPA for a frat is 2.0). Most parties are Greek. Hanover is relatively isolated but that didn't seem to bother her much.</p>
<p>She told me over and over how much she loves it there. This is an outgoing girl - bright but not super polished socially - and she has thrived. She's a double major (english and communications) with no idea what she's going to do after her senior year. She can't believe that she's going to be leaving school in a year - she says she's scared and I think it's because she's been having such a good time at Hanover.</p>
<p>Hope that helps!</p>