<p>I am most likely to attend Davidson next year, and I love davidson because of its location and good education. I want to know why Davidson is so special and attractive for you guys too.</p>
<p>I like davidson because of it's small classes and because of it's liberal arts curriculum. What schools are you deciding between thinkboy?</p>
<p>Honor Code, division one sports teams that win conference championships, small class sizes, proffessors who care a lot, brilliant, multi talenteed student bodies, fantastic arts / music / theater programs in a school small enough that you can get attention in those programs as freshman... they do your laundry for you, all the facillities are state of the art, Davidson's ranked #1 overall quality of life, the food is great for college food, Davidson students do a lot of community service, the campus is gorgeous, it even costs less than its peers and has more scholarship programs then its peers. For someone who wants to work hard, a liberal arts education, and attention from proffessors, coaches and mentors, who doesn't mind a slightly poor track record regarding diversity, Davidson is the best college in the country.</p>
<p>I am finishing up my freshman year at Davidson and Orangelights has it right on the mark. </p>
<p>I have no regrets - my expectations have been exceeded.</p>
<p>You have recited reasons for liking the school.</p>
<p>Question I ask -- who did you turn down and why was Davidson chosen over the others?</p>
<p>As someone with a checkbook writing out a deposit within the next few days, I am curious to know why here instead of elsewhere?</p>
<p>The alternatives for child include big school, small school, north school, south school. So do not worry about where else or what else, just tell me what delivered you to Davidson and what veered you away from another great opportunity.</p>
<p>Thanks in advance.</p>
<p>I don't like to bash other schools, but I think I have shown allready that Davidson is unique. Being at Davidson I have realized that a small class size really matters a lot. I have also realized, and it was part of my decsion making proccess, that going to a business school undergrad just doesn't work very well, to get somewhere in business generally you need grad school anyway, and its very hard to find prestegous, challenging, small business schools. Being from the north, I have found nothing wrong with being in the south. The campus is really a mix of people from everywhere geographically. I think throwing out this school because of its location is silly, just my opinion. </p>
<p>You need to visit Davidson's campus to truly judge for yourself if its the right place. Only on campus can you realize how this small and honorable community is special. </p>
<p>By not applying to other schools we turn them down directly, if I told you the list of schools I turned down after being accepted, I'd be telling you those schools that I applied to because they had aspects simmilar to Davidson, not neccesarily different from Davidson. </p>
<p>If you want the name brand shocker, and to know kids actually do this because they know they will enjoy themselves more here than at Ivy league schools, here goes, I turned down Brown and have no regrets. But even here I didn't really even want to apply to Brown because it has almost none of the things that make Davidson truly special. I didn't even apply to the other Ivys, only reason I applied to Brown was it was close to home and the name recognition. Four years of your life is too long to spend somewhere for the simple reason of name recognition. </p>
<p>I hope this helps,
Orangelights</p>
<p>My daughter looked at Yale, only because we know the former Director of Admissions socially, and he was keen on recruiting her. But my daughter spent many hours on its campus as she was growing up and found the kids who went there to be "funless" (her childhood word for it). My brother went to Yale (he indeed is "funless", God bless him). He also had teaching assistants, no professors, pretty much exclusively until Junior Year, at which time his class sizes reduced to Davidson size. Still, if your child is currently planning a career as an investment banker, then probably an Ivy with all its good old boy connections to that field is an excellent route. Then the class sizes and the soul content become very secondary. But if your child is looking for an education that explores new territory, would like some mentoring, and there is no decision on an IB life path yet, then maybe Yale is not for you. </p>
<p>She also vetoed UVa. Her Dad is a Wahoo and he spent years selling it. It was #1 on her list until she went to an overnight and visited classes. Her hostess was a Virginia native, who wasn't quite sure why she picked UVa--or why anyone would. She spit on the sidewalk a lot. That was a discouragement, but not a veto. The veto came when my daughter attended classes. No one in the Australian history seminar could come up with the word "Overseer", and the professor used Simon Legree was an example of an Overseer (he was not, he was the plantation OWNER in Uncle Tom's Cabin). That, coupled with the fact that an Italian history class thought Garibaldi was an Italian film director, put her off UVa.</p>
<p>She really loved Williams. The people were cool, the mascot was a Purple Cow, (how cool is that!), the campus beautiful, the town cute, the name prestigious But...
I lived in Minnesota as a child, so I know snow and winter depression first hand. I suspect any institution that has to shut down for a month in January, in order to keep their students mentally health, has some pretty nasty winters. Williams calling that time out a special semester doesn't hide the fact that with such rotten weather, kids end up needing a break just to get through. Weather does mean something. It probably shouldn't be the number one reason for selecting a college, but winter depression, if you don't like the cold, can be very nasty.
Williams also did not stress an honor code (no student was really sure if they had one or not) and though it claimed to be a co-operative school, one where students were encouraged not to compete with each other, a lot of the Insider Guide write ups, spoke of kids in tremendous isolation from one another. All the students of color tended to keep to themselves in one of the cafeterias, I noticed. No intermingling.</p>
<p>In contrast to all this, my daughter came home from her trip to Davidson with two new friends (they correspond still), higher than a kite about the two courses she visited (not one Simon Legree type error she could spot), and with an invitation to join the Black Student Union (she is white, but it's OK, she can be black by association the kids said).
As a parent, I am also impressed with Davidson's management and attention to detail. They've responded early on all their decision deadlines, they matched her with a child of Puerto Rican descent (we're currently living in the Caribbean) as a hostess, they seem to go out of their way to help (we were late for a walking tour, so they found us a guide to take us around privately). Everyone said hello. I think we visited a dozen campuses, but this one stood out for warmth and friendliness. All that is why she picked Davidson. Does that help?</p>