"what sets our college apart from others is..."

Parent Cafe
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<p>My d1 and I have been having a bit too much fun with this one. We've seen about a docen east coast colleges and after a while the info sessions blur into each other. We giggle about the common things that all "set [them] apart from the competition" (not.) For example, most of them say "what sets us apart from other lacs is the student/professor relationship. Our professors know all of their students on a personal basis, not just in class but within the community too." It is an excellent trait, but seriously, not different from any of the others. </p>

<p>Oh, and the totally "unique relationship the school has with [its] community." </p>

<p>I'm interested in what others have heard, and whether we've heard it too.</p>

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<p>St. Bonaventure really did seem to be a place apart. They claim to be, but this time it really did seem that way. Unfortunately, DS was not all that enthusiastic.</p>

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<p>I’m sure I’ll end up as the minority opinion in the replies to your post.</p>

<p>My sense is that each of the LAC colleges you attended does in fact have a unique relationship with their students, their alumni and their geographic community. In many cases the LAC plays a dominant role in the community – culturally, economically, intellectually. Communities differ. So the challenge for you and your D is to figure out which community is the best match for you. That’s the hard question, and when the colleges blur into one another you need to rethink your criteria, and perhaps even rethink if LACs are really what will work best for you. In the end you learn a lot for visiting colleges, and understanding what they are about – academically and socially. If the blur remains after all the assessment, opt for the local State University.</p>

4

<p>I have to say that this is rings amazingly true for me. There were several phrases that literally were repeated at several of the schools info sessions I attended. Apparently every school in the United States has highly accesible professors, a wide range of ECs, and a friendly, supportive student body. Whether or not this is true, its amazing how similar each school seems judging solely from info sessions.</p>

5

<p>Don’t forget the amazing study abroad programs – EVERY college we looked at touted their study abroad, as if they had invented the whole concept.</p>

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<p>Almost every place that son 2 looked at touted their “quirky students”. Son began to get a complex about it – he thought maybe there was something wrong him. Was he quirky or not? He couldn’t tell! Maybe his quirk was that he was normal? Or maybe his vision of normal is not the same as the rest of the world? Maybe he lived in an alternative universe most of his life? Or maybe the Admissions staff was just playing with his head?</p>

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<p>I totally agree that they all have a unique relationship with their community, alumni, etc. It’s just hearing that statement from all of them that’s amusing. </p>

<p>Another ‘unique quality’ is “we are one-of-a-kind because we’re a small college with big university resources.” That’s really great, but unique? Not so much.</p>

8

<p>My sons did look at some unusual colleges. They were not big on continuing the academic trend that they had in their rigorous high schools, so they did not want traditional liberal arts core courses, which, of course, was what I had in mind for them. </p>

<p>Funny, one his brother’s asked my current high schooler to come up with something unique about the colleges he visited. Here is what he had to say:</p>

<p>Manhattan College: The biggest apartment/dorm complex relative to campus he has ever seen</p>

<p>Dickinson: A train track and major road splits the campus</p>

<p>Duquesne: A whole different world from it’s surrounding</p>

<p>Pitt: A priest taking confessons in the open grassy area on a lawn chair</p>

<p>CMU: One big carnival and fun fest all year according to the tour guides, but no joy seen on campus</p>

<p>Gettysburg: The biggest graveyard ever</p>

<p>Bucknell: The most vanilla college he had ever seen</p>

<p>Fordham: The perfect campus choices with Lincon Center/Rose Hill choice</p>

<p>Bard: Quirky students, and they were the most quirky of the colleges he visited</p>

<p>Loyola: The most cramped campus that isn’t in a city</p>

<p>St Mary’s Md: Most beautiful campus ever</p>

<p>Penn State: the quintessential college campus</p>

<p>SUNY Buffalo: Everything brand spanking new and sparkling clean</p>

<p>SUNY Maritime: Bare bones</p>

<p>Hopkins: Perfect southern campus</p>

<p>Mary Washington: Looks like a private college, beautiful women</p>

<p>Goucher: Feels like out of away campus with a town and shopping center right on the rim. Country club feel, but ominous feeling that the academics are intense</p>

<p>Providence: Priests in the dorms? Yuuugh.</p>

<p>Holy Cross: Serious atmosphere</p>

<p>BC: All the cool Catholic kids </p>

<p>BU: Didn’t feel like college</p>

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<p>Pitt, Duquesne, Fordham, Gettysburg, Dickinson, UBuffalo, SUNY Maritime, St Mary’s of MD made the cuts for his list.</p>

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<p>They all have campus security and a blue light system. They all belong to a library consortium that can get you books from other campus’s libraries (and they all want you to think this is unique to them!) And at every college we visited, our kids wouldn’t be just a number - they’d know professors by name and professors would be eager to help them (got this at huge State U’s and small LACs and every school in between).</p>

<p>What DID stand out?</p>

<p>Stonehill has the only Shovel Museum in the world on their campus.</p>

<p>Marist’s location & view - literally on the bank of the Hudson</p>

<p>Union’s Minerva House system (all incoming students are assigned to one of 8 houses for social purposes).</p>

<p>Elon’s large and beautiful fountains (especially when they’re lit at night). Also their emphasis on “engaged learning” which doesn’t seem to be lip service, it seems to permeate every single thing they do.</p>

<p>Clemson’s school spirit. Seriously, I know a lot of schools have spirit but these folks live and breathe orange 24/7/365.</p>

<p>Northeastern’s Co-op opportunities - often imitated, never duplicated. They’re the original at it and probably still the best.</p>

<p>William & Mary - across the street from historic Williamsburg. Thomas Jefferson is an alum.</p>

<p>And… negative standouts:</p>

<p>Quinnipiac - Almost all freshmen housed in quads, and trying to sell that as a plus. 5000 students, but only 3 or 4 academic buildings? </p>

<p>Holy Cross - hilliest. campus. ever. </p>

<p>Lehigh - second hilliest, and a new casino at the edge of the campus (I guess that’s an improvement, there used to be an active steel mill at the edge of the campus).</p>

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<p>MIT: Offers a Jan-term for students to receive EMT training. And then they will be on hand to help if someone needs medical assistance…or some such. I didn’t really get the picture, but it was touted twice during the tour.</p>

<p>BU: (Been on this tour twice) There is the dorm <em>points to high rise</em> most freshmen ask to live in. When we get a snow storm, the student doesn’t even have to leave the building.</p>

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<p>Laffter and Lafalum - you forgot something - all colleges and universities all have one building that is haunted. Heard that on every tour. Oh, and all say that the most common major for freshmen there is “undecided.”</p>

<p>Only one school I’ve visited with either of the 2Kids_ had an Automated Retrieval System in its library. Picture four stories of shelves beneath you, similar to those where they stored the Ark at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark. You request a book and a robot gets it for you. Just a very few U.S. colleges have these. If you go on youtube and search for
Automated Retrieval System university library
you can see how one works.</p>

<p>Only one school allowed students to keep pet rabbits or hamsters in their dorm rooms (as long as it was okay with roommate).</p>

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<p>I went to see colleges last summer with my aunt, who is far more of a CC parent than my own parents (seeing as how they shipped me off to tour colleges with her ;)), had this idea that we should try to come up with one unique word/phrase/idea that captured how each college had described itself. It was indeed hard at some schools, because they really did all blend together! Let’s see…here’s some of what we came up with…</p>

<p>Princeton - I think we decided on something about the required senior thesis. Not 100% unique, but certainly not found everywhere. </p>

<p>Columbia - The core curriculum. Okay, also not found everywhere. </p>

<p>Johns Hopkins - They put a huuuge emphasis on research. And while research is found everywhere, their expenditures are pretty impressive. </p>

<p>Swarthmore - can’t remember what our phrase was, but it was my favorite, nonetheless. </p>

<p>Carnegie Mellon - arts + science (something about how they came together, etc.) There are other schools with both really strong arts and science programs, but I would say it’s a somewhat unique combination. </p>

<p>Harvard - can’t remember…whoops…didn’t apply. </p>

<p>MIT - I don’t know, but they had BUBBLE TEA!! And that was incredibly awesome. Though I didn’t apply. </p>

<p>Wellesley - again, don’t remember, didn’t apply. </p>

<p>Brown - open curriculum. Didn’t apply, though. </p>

<p>Cornell - don’t remember…it was really nice, though, but again I didn’t apply. </p>

<p>Smith - at least for me, the fact that they offered engineering (as an LAC and as a women’s college) was pretty unique. </p>

<p>Also applied to UC Berkeley, UCLA, and UC Davis, but didn’t research them as thoroughly.</p>

14

<p>The line we heard repeated when we visited schools (primarily University of CA campuses) was ‘You and 2 of your friends can start a club’…the best club I recall was a skateboarding club at UCSC.</p>

15

<p>Ok, this list stuff seems fun.</p>

<p>Stanford-Pinkberry on campus. There is no good fro yo near my house, so that was cool. </p>

<p>Tulane-Gumbo, gumbo, gumbo. Gumbo!</p>

<p>UChicago-gave out free t-shirts on the tour. </p>

<p>Northwestern-Only tour/info session that was so painfully boring I couldn’t manage to stay for the whole thing.</p>

<p>Harvard-there is nothing unique about Harvard. It is a a dark and soulless place. But maybe I’m just still bitter from my rejection :)</p>

<p>Vandy-THere’s a full sized recreation of the pantheon near campus. As odd as it sounds, it’s true. </p>

<p>Princeton-Highest concentration of people wearing polo shirts. Nassau street is the definition of WASPy. Also, I think Aaron Burr went there. </p>

<p>UPenn-Dorms resembled dungeons. At least the ones I saw. </p>

<p>Amherst-No Italian program. You can’t find that many places. </p>

<p>Middlebury-So, so pretty. Also the fire alarm went off in the building I had lunch in. </p>

<p>Swarthmore-So, so pretty. Wait, maybe that’s not unique. . .</p>

<p>Dartmouth-I don’t know. They were the only school that waitlisted me. that was different.</p>

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<p>^ I think this list is a bunch of negatives on the user’s experiences with schools. I wouldn’t really relate to what the topic was about.</p>

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<p>They weren’t all negative, were they? I apologize if they were. This was just what made them unique for me and what has stuck in my mind a few months later. Admittedly, it was a bit off topic. Sorry.</p>

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<p>I love each of my kids schools (Yes I suppose Bucknell is a bit vanilla. Always safe and good, not too daring. But always satisfying.) </p>

<p>But I think Cornell is really different. Name me another school that is well known (or ranked #1) in architecture, industrial and labor relations, hotel, engineering and agriculture. And it is also an Ivy League school. It also has one of the, if not the most, beautiful campuses in the US.</p>

<p>It is truly a very unique and special place.</p>

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<p><op>
I’m laughing. I love the list of ‘uniques’ that have been posted. I think I’ve heard them all. I had forgotten the “2 students getting together to form a club.” I’ve heard this one more than once “we have students from every state but [one or two]!” I must be taking my daughter to a lot of popular colleges.</op></p>

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<p>

Have to chuckle at this one. Plenty of grime there to go around. He should visit in February when the place is a soulless artic tundra. ;)</p>

<p>That’s a huge list, cpt. DS has totally balked on seeing more places after 15.</p>