<p>My D has 10 acceptances in all, but has narrowed down to these schools: Trinity College (CT), Dickinson, Elon, Allegheny. We're from NJ, and she is considering majoring in psychology but is undecided. Merit aid from Allegheny makes it much cheaper than the other options. Elon's tuition and R&B are significantly less than Dickinson and Trinity, which are the most expensive options. We're full pay and she won't have loans regardless of which option she selects. </p>
<p>I had started another thread over on the Search & Selection forum about a month ago where I got some good feedback, before she learned about the Trinity acceptance. </p>
<p>I would appreciate it if anyone with experience with any of these schools could comment on them.</p>
<p>I have heard the best feedback about Elon and Dickinson, with the most from Dickinson. However, this is merely anecdotal and influenced by my NE location.</p>
<p>I would really really consider Trinity before heading there. It’s a great little school with a caring faculty, but its location makes it problematic, imho. Because the area around the campus is so – questionable – and because Hartford itself is hardly the most interesting place – the Trinity kids get ‘stuck’ on campus a lot. And without a lot to do, come the weekend, and these kids party truly to excessive levels. A LOT of drinking and drugs. Yes, that exists on all campuses, but the Trinity kids not into that scene can’t get away from it as well as in other schools. You’re sort of stuck at the school-on-the-hill with nowhere much to go.</p>
<p>She did an overnight visit at Allegheny, and really liked the people she met there, who were all very friendly and welcoming. I thought the campus was pretty on the outside but the interiors of buildings seemed rather dated, less updated than other schools we visited. And it was cold and snowy!</p>
<p>She also visited Elon and Dickinson, but unfortunately neither offers overnight visits through the admissions office. She hasn’t visited Trinity yet but we plan to do so.</p>
<p>When my son visited Trinity, he was completely freaked out by all the locks on all the doors, including bathrooms. Students talked often about not feeling safe on the campus. And if you check out the school’s Clery Report (school safety report federally required), you’ll see there are more problems at that school than elsewhere. At least, compared to every other school he was considering. He’s at Willamette University now, in Salem OR.</p>
<p>I’ve heard some great things anecdotally from friends about their kids’ experiences at Dickinson. Don’t know the others.</p>
<p>Trinity is an urban campus. The others are not. If your student wants a small town college campus, Elon, Dickinson, and Allegheny would better fill that criteria.</p>
<p>Doesn’t matter if it’s slums or not. Dickinson, Elon, and Allegheny are small campuses in college towns, not in any city (regardless of the condition of the neighborhood in that city).</p>
<h2>Carlisle (Dickinson) is a very pleasant historic town. You are within a one hour drive of one million people, which means there are plentiful internship and cultural opportunities, etc. , even through the town is not huge.</h2>
<p>I’d hate to go to a college where I was afraid to go outside at night.</p>
<p>I’m not sure what she really thinks about an urban vs. small town campus. We haven’t visited Trinity yet, so once we do at least she will have some idea of what it is like. I have read that the college recently bought and demolished what Wikipedia refers to as “blighted former public housing units” on Crescent St and is building townhouse style student housing.</p>
<p>She has lived her whole life in suburban NJ. Her older brother attends Wash U in St. Louis, and when we visited she liked the proximity to restaurants on the Loop. But Wash U is in a very nice area of St. Louis, although according to my S, it drops off quickly when you get too far from campus on the other side of the Loop. </p>
<p>One of her criteria for college selection is having an equestrian club team (which all 4 listed schools have). Some of the more urban schools don’t have teams, and I think proximity to barns might be a factor, but Google maps estimates the distance to Trinity’s barn as less than at all 3 of the other schools. </p>
<p>We all thought Carlisle (Dickinson) was a much nicer town than Meadville (Allegheny), both of which were walkable from campus. D doesn’t like the streets that run through Dickinson’s campus though.</p>
<p>If she doesn’t like the streets that run through Dickinson, save your money and skip the trip to Trinity. The roads through Dickinson are probably only thought of the first 2 days of school and then they are just there=but there is a 100 page thread on silly reasons people rejected colleges and this is one of the more reasonable ones. I love Dickinson and the town around there. It doesn’t feel remote at all, I don’t think. With an undecided major, however, I would hesitate to spend that kind of money when you have good choices at a much lower cost.</p>
<p>Allegheny is very cold and snowy, so if winter is not your daughter’s thing, then maybe not a good choice, but most students adapt and find ways to embrace the weather there. Some of the buildings are dated, but they have been upgrading things over time. Allegheny has always placed a high value on providing scholarships to students which is why your COA is lower than the others on your list. They have been putting money into students and being more conservative on building projects. That being said, they did recently do a half million dollar upgrade to the psych building facilities.</p>
<p>My S is graduating in May with a psychology degree from Allegheny. It has been an amazing experience, he has done research over the summer and last semester as well as a summer in DC. He finished his comp today. Allegheny increased our grants and scholarships each year. My son wanted snow and grew to love the long winters.</p>
<p>For all of these schools, I’m particularly interested in getting a sense of what types of students would “fit” and feel comfortable at a particular school. Also, how are the post-college opportunities that these colleges provide, in terms of job placement and alumni network? </p>
<p>There are pluses and minuses to each school. Like the south–Elon is great; kids who have come from there love it. Trinity is a great school with some top kids in there–many from the boarding and other independent schools and the instruction there reflects that. You do have to visit to gauge what you think of the environment. We visited it when my son auditioned at Hartt at the University of Hartsford, and he was blown away as to how nice it was compared to a larger school like UH that he was considering. How dangerous things are on an everyday basis I have no idea, but we have cousins and friends who’ve had their kids go there, many of them with daughters of whom the parents were very solicitous and they have nothing but great things to say about their experience. I hear the same thing about USC, UChicago, COlumbia, Barnard, Johns Hopkins, UPenn. Something to look into if that is a top choice.</p>
<p>Dickinson is a great school and I know kids who have graduated with a psych degree and are now working on their doctorates. I have only good things to say about it. One of mine had it on his list, it was just too pricey for us. Great school in a great area.</p>
<p>Allegheny is a gem of school with its only drawback being its location which is for some people is too far away from things. But so one can say about the Maine trio that are so popular. Some friends of ours went there and they felt it was a wonderful experience and an excellent education. </p>
<p>I am inclined to lean towards Allegheny, Trinity and Dickinson in that order with a tie between T and D, pretty much with A just a smidgeon ahead. But so close that I could not have definitive opinions or advice about which to pick. If you can visit, that would be great so that your DD can see and feel first hand what the schools are like.</p>