Why did YOU choose Dickinson?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Dickinson College
1

My daughter is admited to Dickinson. It is affordable but she has many choices.
Why did you choose Dickinson? What’s the best thing about it? Do you have a favorite class and why? What do you do on Wednesdays when class is done? And on weekends?

2

What other colleges your daughter are considering? what does she want to study?

3

My Daughter is admitted at American University, Dickinson College, Denison,Agnes Scott, Kalamazoo, FIU Honors college, …She would like to be a lawyer so she is thinking to major in Philosophy, she is also interested by International Affairs/Political Sciences and minor in French Studies . She is French, so she needs to keep this advantage (bi-culture).
If you have some suggestions, welcome!

4

I put these questions to my daughter (I think maybe we have already talked about how she ended up there). Other answers she gave:

  1. The best thing about Dickinson - She couldn't pick just one. :) But things she listed:
  • Close relationships with profs, discussion type classes instead of lectures that allowed those to develop
  • The fact that there were tons of opportunities but it was not competitive -- she could decide how hard to push herself and what to take advantage of
  • That it seems a little more practical than a lot of LACs. Specifically she said it isn't all about grooming students for grad school, although she is well positioned if she wants to go on to that -- but that they encouraged students to create LinkedIn profiles senior year and to network with other students (she found her job through an older student she knew, and she got a call from a professional on campus last week telling her about a student who might be a fit at her company -- the student is lined up for an interview now). She commented on certificates they offer, strong support for internships (some funding available for unpaid internships, strong support for identifying internships via Career Services)
  1. Favorite classes:
  2. Senior seminar. Capstone of her experience. She liked that the class gets to shape the syllabus in that class, and it is a close working relationship with the professor.
  3. Field Natural History - She said it was a bit outside her comfort zone, but she learned a lot that she still uses sometimes. She took it to satisfy her quant requirement. Once she missed a lab, and the prof invited her to go owl banding at night as a makeup activity (little saw whet owls, which she got to hold).
  4. What do they do Wednesday after class? My D worked in the Writing Center, so she often had a late afternoon shift there (she had a lot of friends there, too, so loved going to work). She admits that sometimes if she didn't have to work, she took a nap. :) Dinner with friends, then a lot of clubs meet right after dinner on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Examples of things she did: she was in the Dickinson Democrats club, swing dance club, did some kind of off campus tutoring that had an evening meeting once a week to plan the next week's activities, Sometimes she would have meetings for group projects after dinner. She would usually go to the library starting at about 8:00 for a couple of hours.
  5. Weekends: Usually have brunch with friends, might have a writing center shift. Sometimes a little studying on Saturday, definitely studying on Sunday. Tennis sometimes if weather was good. Evenings -- movies with friends (sometimes at the theater, sometimes at an event on campus), other campus sponsored events, her boyfriend played a pickup soccer game on Saturday evenings sometimes. They played a lot of board games & cards freshman year. Went to Harrisburg (Indian restaurant they like there). Sometimes swing dance would have an event on or near campus, or they went off campus sometimes on a road trip to swing dance events at other campuses within a couple of hour drive.