<p>I'm in the fortunate position of having to choose between Colby and Oberlin. Could you give any helpful advice on how these two colleges differ? I understand Oberlin to be known for a very political and "quirky" atmosphere, which is what I am looking for - how politically engaged would you say the average Colby student is? How challenging is the Colby curriculum -- do a high percentage of the undergrad population go on to good graduate programs? I hope this isn't a loaded or unpleasant question to be asking!</p>
<p>hmmm. Well, it's somewhat "loaded", in that there's not a specific answer to be given, I guess, as to how we might compare to Oberlin, politically (I'm not able to speak at all about that school or environment). I would say that many students claim to be political, but probably more would self-identify with being more liberal in their views/practice. Conservative students are vocal here, however, even if perceived to be few in a crowd, and do make themselves & their points heard by the whole. To be sure, there are students here who could be best described as "quirky", as well as "serious", "fun", "busy", "engaging" and any number of adjectives--almost all are meant as positive traits. :)</p>
<p>By my last count (data from a few years ago), roughly 20% of our students go on to immediate graduate school study; after about five years, that climbs to about 75%, I believe. In the interim, students are working, living in large cities, teaching, or following a host of other interesting life paths. Our Career Services office, along with a strong network of recent (and not-so-recent, but still enthusiastic) alums, are at the disposal of our students when it comes to looking for employment post-graduation, internships, jobs, or advice regarding graduate studies and other options.</p>
<p>Hope this is helpful, as you make up your mind (I assume for transferring)-- you have two great options in front of you. Best of luck.</p>
<p>Hello ColbyAdmissions.. I know that you don't work much with international applications.. However could you provide more insight regarding financial aid for internationals?.. Thank you</p>
<p>Financial aid for international students is <em>extremely</em> limited, especially given the number of applications (for admission and aid) that we receive from abroad. Roughly 1,000 students with international backgrounds applied for admission to the class of 2011 (a figure not uncommon for us nowadays), and in most years close to 90% of them apply for financial aid. We are able to fund a <em>total</em> of 8-10 students per year out of this group... and to further complicate the issue, all international transfer students also compete for these precious funds, as well. </p>
<p>Really, your best resource is our Director of Admission, Steve Thomas, who works with international students and travels a fair bit outside the U.S. (he's in Asia for a large part of August/September each year). His email address is <a href="mailto:tsthomas@colby.edu">tsthomas@colby.edu</a>.</p>
<p>Hi, it's me again -- I hope you don't mind one last quick question! How approachable is Colby when it comes to extending decision deadlines? I only got my finaid package in the mail today, but have so little time to make a decision (my situation makes finaid a sadly important part of accepting the offer, which I would love to be able to do). I'd need to wait for about a week past the official reply deadline before I have all the finaid packages side to side on the table.</p>
<p>In looking at this thread, it appears that last year Colby released the students on the waitlist in mid-June or so. Will Colby admit some students from the waitlist this year? If so, are those students on the waitlist who are not admitted likely to be released in June this year, as well? It is so difficult not to know when the endpoint of this process will be. My daughter has sent a deposit for another school, but is so hoping to be at Colby - or Salamanca - in September.</p>
<p>My understanding is that transfer students are given two weeks(?) to inform us of a decision; unfortunately, deadline extensions aren't common here.... you would have to receive permission from our Director or Dean for that, I believe. Assuming you are a transfer student, you could speak with Nancy Morrione, who coordinates our efforts on that front (dial 800-732-3032, which reaches our front desk, and ask for her) and she could perhaps tell you more. As we're looking to round out both our incoming freshman class, and plug in our additional transfer students at the same time, we would prefer to have this entire process over with soon (as I'm sure most students would, too!) Hopefully Nancy may point you in the right direction here... and good luck with your decision!</p>
<p>I did call, and was told it was a-ok. I really have to applaud your admissions office for being so kind, understanding and ready to listen, including the active part you've taken in being present on forums like this!</p>
<p>We have gone to our WaitList already this month, already, for a few dozen students; we still have about 300 students who asked to remain under consideration, however, and we will be meeting as a staff later this week to determine if more movement is necessary, or if we're at a "high water mark" and can thus release those students from this limbo. Hopefully, your daughter sent back the card indicating her interest to remain with us; we have been looking to our WaitList to round out our incoming class (maintaining balances where possible, eg. gender, geography, etc.). My colleague, Dory Streett, addressed some WaitList concerns on a recent submission to her weekly blog--the one titled, "Pacing Ourselves" (<a href="http://www.colby.edu/news_events/feeds/feed-item.cfm?feedname=Behind%20the%20Decision%5B/url%5D">http://www.colby.edu/news_events/feeds/feed-item.cfm?feedname=Behind%20the%20Decision</a>)</p>
<p>(if the above link fails, try this one: <a href="http://www.colby.edu/news_events/feeds/%5B/url%5D">http://www.colby.edu/news_events/feeds/</a> -- and click on the head of our Dean, peering above stacks of applications :) )</p>
<p>But I would sincerely hope that, for all of our sakes (and collective sanity), we would be able to finish any WaitList activity by the end of May. We will call students to whom we will offer admission, or we will send a letter to the group effectively "closing the loop"--so cross your fingers for a phone call. :) -and thanks for your, and your daughter's, continued interest in Colby.</p>
<p>ColbyAdmissions, Thank you for you reply. 10 out of 900 awarded aid? or 10 out of 900 awarded full aid ie 45000k?</p>
<p>We "fully fund" 8-10 international students per year, up to the students'/ families' demonstrated need. My sense is that usually the need is quite high for these students, but not necessarily total.</p>
<p>thanks ColbyAdmissions!</p>
<p>Hi, ColbyAdmissions! I'd like to give a shot at reviving this thread. :)</p>
<p>I am currently attending a very good community college where I am highly active in our honors program, as well as campus life. A couple of my professors have said that Colby might be a good academic and social fit, especially because of your course offerings in my intended major (well, majors -- still deciding between English and political science) and the Colby Volunteer Center and other cocurricular offerings. Your commitment to service-learning is especially attractive to me.</p>
<p>Had I applied during high school, I think I could've been competitive, but now coming in as a transfer from a community college, things are obviously different. What I am wondering is, how supportive is Colby of community college transfers? Are you less likely to accept them because they attended community colleges rather than four-year institutions? Although you have a low transfer admit rate (like just about every top school!), I have heard that you are good with transfers, including with financial aid...but I don't know how community college students fit into that.</p>
<p>My apologies if this was already asked somewhere along the way! Too many pages to read back through. :)</p>
<p>We don't receive many transfer applications from students enrolled in community colleges, but aside from the different/unique experiences inherent in those options, I don't see why we'd look "differently" at them as admission candidates, as opposed to their counterparts who apply from four-year colleges/universities. Most students who apply here can clearly do the work, and would be excellent citizens, whether applying from 2- or 4-year institutions...I remember a woman several years ago, in fact, who came to us via Isothermal CC in western North Carolina--hers was a unique situation in several ways, thankfully we were able to say "yes" in her case--and she graduated from Colby two years later with Phi Beta Kappa honors. Perhaps 10% of our applicants are from CC background (a number off the top of my head, perhaps, but hopefully somewhat accurate), and keep in mind we'll only accept perhaps 15-20% of all transfer applicants total, if that.... we're not enrolling many CC students here, but it's more for want of space, rather than wont of policy. </p>
<p>I imagine that most of us in the coming years, will start to see more students going that route for a number of reasons, especially cost; perhaps our number of enrolled students from CC's will grow accordingly.</p>
<p>ColbyAdmissions, may you kindly consider answering my question regarding the Computer Science department at Colby. It's on a separate thread and it hasn't been replied a single time!</p>
<p>Thank you.</p>
<p>Your other post asks about Computer Science and how it's perceived among other departments at Colby... it's true, Biology and English are more "popular" here based on the number of majors declared--in fact, CS students make up roughly 1% of the total declared majors at Colby. Colby does a great job in spreading the wealth of academic resource across discipline and division-- we're not a "natural science" school, nor a "humanities" school, nor for just the "social sciences" either--we maintain a healthy balance of the three (and an interdisciplinary presence, too).</p>
<p>Size, though, does not necessarily indicate quality, effectiveness or interest. As with other disciplines, a few students will take CS courses as part of other majors, or as "elective" courses. A handful of students declare a minor in CS (more than in Geology, in fact), too. To extend the point, our Classics department is known to be quite strong (and some of its offerings, especially "Greek Myth/Mythology", among popular elective courses), even with three full-time professors and 1/5 the number of majors as Bio. Music has even fewer majors but that department is extraordinarily performance-based, for both students <em>and</em> faculty; people here are involved with that department beyond the formal designation of "major" in a dozen different ways.</p>
<p>For specifics on the professors, curriculum, and what alums are up to in CS, you're best served by the department's website and going straight to the source: <a href="http://www.colby.edu/cs/%5B/url%5D">http://www.colby.edu/cs/</a>. You'll find a wealth of info there, and I really encourage you to email the profs themselves--particularly Dale Skrien, the Chair of the department.</p>
<p>Quite helpful. Thank you.</p>
<p>I have two questions:
- Can you comment on the Asian Studies program, especially Japanese? How is it compared to those of other institutions?
- Is Colby more of a mainstream environment or a quirky/geeky one?</p>
<p>As I am unable to comment on any particulars of other institutions' academic programs--you'll have to do that comparative research on your own, I'm afraid--I'll only mention a few brief things about our East Asian Studies program. Your interest in Japanese could be pursued with a minor, or as a concentration of the EAS major-- but you'll get a healthy dose of much of studying the entire region, I suspect, with the latter as many cultures in southeast Asia share histories and important foundations (both positive and tragic). Since it's an interdisciplinary major, you should expect to take courses in Art, Government/International Studies, and perhaps Philosophy and Religious Studies too, to name a few. Language instruction would be part of the major, too, beyond the traditional all-college requirement of three semesters of study. I don't know which is more popular at the moment--Chinese or Japanese--but I know students have pursued each, and studying abroad is "strongly encouraged"; for the latter, the Associated Kyoto program is most often mentioned. You can learn more about EAS and Japanese from our website, and the below links in particular: <a href="http://www.colby.edu/academics_cs/acaddept/eas/index.cfm%5B/url%5D">http://www.colby.edu/academics_cs/acaddept/eas/index.cfm</a>
<a href="http://www.colby.edu/academics_cs/catalogue/2006_2007/dept_prog_courses/jareq.cfm%5B/url%5D">http://www.colby.edu/academics_cs/catalogue/2006_2007/dept_prog_courses/jareq.cfm</a></p>
<p>Your other question is more difficult to address... as with other posts on this thread, I'll defer to the students who are living in this environment, to be the touchstones as to our "geekiness" or how "mainstream" this place is. I imagine that, like so many other schools, you'll find many personalities here with which you'll connect (and with which, perhaps, you won't). Perhaps you'll find some answers on the student-led initiative, offering the "inside" scoop to life at Colby: <a href="http://www.insidecolby.com/%5B/url%5D">http://www.insidecolby.com/</a>. (profiled on that site, you'll notice, is Steven Nuss, former chair of our Music Department, whose focus is in southeast Asia...)</p>
<p>also for ccnovice:
I hope you don't mind me jumping in. My son and I met one of the Japanese language profs last spring and corresponded by e-mail with another (who was in Kyoto at the time). Both profs were extremely nice and helpful. The one we met spent about a half an hour talking with us about the program. Colby's Japanese program seems excellent. Besides the Kyoto program, they also have Japanese lunch tables a couple of times a week and evening help sessions for students who need them. My son will likely do a minor in East Asian Studies after a gap year. (He'll be off to Japan shortly.) I'd encourage you to talk with or e-mail the profs also.</p>