<p>I posted questions in the Trinity College (CT) forum, but it does not seem to get much traffic, and here in the Parents Forum it seems like there are a people who have experienced visiting many colleges or have kids who have attended. Am hoping to get some feedback about Trinity.
- What is campus social life, given the lack of off-campus social activities due to the "bad" neighborhood?<br>
- How big is Greek life? Would someone not interested in Greek life (non-athlete) feel like there are minimal social activities?
- Do kids tend to collaborate and work together, or is it a cut-throat competitive atmosphere?
If anyone has information about Union College in NY - looking for that too.<br>
Thank you.</p>
<p>We visited Union College in Schenectady, NY a couple of years ago when my daughter was looking at schools. Pretty campus w/nice facilities, students seems happy/involved/engaged, unique housing community arrangement (I forget what they called it, but students housing was centered around different housing cluster that had a kind of community identity - seemed nice). Seemed reasonably strong in Bio/Sciences & if I’m remembering correctly they offered an engineering program (which my daughter was interested in at the time) - which not many of the smaller schools offered. </p>
<p>Main drawback for us was that the town/neighborhood surrounding the college seemed very run-down. Not sure what crime statistics might be for the surrounding area? </p>
<p>I toured both campuses with my son. Both are good schools - both are located in rather sad run-down cities, but I’m not sure if that’s any worse than being out in the middle of nowhere i.e. Pennsylvania. </p>
<p>We didn’t care for Trinity but I can’t say why specifically. The campus is pretty enough and the kids were pleasant. </p>
<p>Union has a beautiful campus and to answer your question about Greek life - they have worked hard to de-emphasize that aspect of their college experience. Check out their Minerva program: <a href=“The Minerva Program | Union College”>https://www.union.edu/campus/minerva/</a> </p>
<p>My son was admitted to Union but ultimately decided he wanted to be at a larger research university. He chose Case Western Reserve in part because of their low-key Greek system which emphasizes academics and philanthropy over athletics and partying. </p>
<p>Thanks for your replies. My son is not interested in greek life and this presents a problem for him. I have heard that Union is trying to de-emphasize the Greek life there, but wondering if anyone knows if they have been successful in doing so. Also, I am concerned about the surrounding area around these schools.</p>
<p>I would love to hear some answers too. My S is interested in a group of liberal arts schools (including Union and Trinity) that offer engineering and in general all those schools have a similar reputation of rather conservative, rather greek and near run down parts of town. He reads reviews in the internet that make him questioning fit although he likes the academic offerings. </p>
<p>S3 and I weren’t too “keen” on Trinity. We didn’t get the impression Greek Life was a huge deal. We liked Union alittle better. Both colleges statistically are identical and a good choice for the B+/A- student. S3 liked the culture alittle bit better at Union, but even though he’s a “country club” sport kind of kid, he’s more down to earth and he felt like he’d find more peeps at Union. But ultimately S3 decided to apply to the more well known larger engineering programs so did not apply to Trinity or Union. </p>
<p>Union College has a good academic reputation in many areas including engineering. </p>
<p>However, it also has party school and heavy drinking campus culture according to several alums I’ve known who attended. This factor was one of the main ones for HS classmates and friends deciding to apply/attend or not. </p>
<p>Apologies for the totally disjointed post. I must have been multi-tasking. After sending 3 boys off to college I’ve decided most of them, have plenty of parties going on. If it’s one of the crunchy granola tree huging schools those kids are smoking plenty of pot so pick your battles. Academically there’s not much difference between Union and Trinity - but the campuses, neighborhoods and to some extent the student bodies are different. My guess is plenty of drinking goes on at both campuses. </p>
<p>^^^ Agree. As mom of two boys who are both in college, I think the same. I think if a kid wants to find a party, they’ll find a party no matter where they attend. Union was a top choice for my younger son. He liked the academics and the fact that it seemed to have a lot of school spirit. Financially, they were very generous. And the campus is gorgeous. True, we weren’t crazy about the surrounding neighborhood and asked about it but it but it seems they have it under control. We also asked other parents about their thoughts re: safety as well and they were satisifed. As someone mentioned above, the Minerva houses seem like they’re working well. S2 was accepted at his #1 choice so didn’t end up at Union but I think he would have been happy and engaged had he chosen to attend. We all have good feelings about Union. </p>
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<p>As someone who attended one of those crunchy granola tree hugging schools, it’s no contest. </p>
<p>Pot smokers tend to mind their own business, not be noisy late at night, not get in your way/face, not vomit/vandalize all over the place, nor be belligerent enough to start fights because they’ve gone wild partying/drunk. </p>
<p>In contrast, I’ve seen and heard about all such behaviors while visiting friends on campuses with huge partying/drinking campus cultures or after college, living close* to two such campuses and seeing such drunken partying students in action. </p>
<p>Sometimes to the point of having to call/flag down the cops on them when they were vandalizing buildings/cars or picking fights with pedestrians. And the cops seem to be quite familiar with those students and the campuses they come from. </p>
<p>My S is probably going to Union and he is definitely not into the drinking/party scene. He prefers smaller quiet get togethers with friends. So just from posters on this thread alone it is obvious that no matter how much partying goes on, there are still those who do not go for it. I think they will be fine and they will find each other.</p>
<p>I’ve been told that for schools with a big greek community - weekends can be boring for those not involved in greek life. Hope you are right Midhelper!</p>
<p>I happened to share a dinner table this weekend with a group of students from Union who had just presented their research at an national undergraduate research conference. They were very friendly (more so after a couple of beers!) and intelligent. Several were involved in Greek life, so it’s definitely a part of campus culture, and they seemed quite familiar with drinking rituals. 
(In fairness, the dinner was on a Friday evening after they had finished their presentations.)</p>
<p>But virtually all colleges, except perhaps the crunchiest, have a subset of drinking in frats or not. Not sure there is much of a difference in that regard between Union and Trinity is there? There is always a subset of kids that find drinking and partying pretty boring and find other things to do with their weekends. I am sure either school offers options. There can also be frats that are less party hardy than others. Don’t base your decision on CC response. You really may not get a clear picture. </p>