How do you find out the atmosphere of a school?

[elegantlion]

We're a few years from college but I'm curious, how do you find out about the atmosphere of a school? Not the wonderful info listed on the school websites but more of which are party schools, which are more conservative, liberal, etc.

 

How do you find this information if you don't know someone who attended that school? I don't have a specific school in mind, it's more of a general question.

[newbie]

:bigear:

[Gwen in VA]

Start by REALLY studying the website. Most colleges try to have websites that reflect the "flavor" of the school. While poking around the website, consider --

 

What kind of student groups are on campus?

 

What are the requirements for an English major? A history major? (My kids aren't interested in either major, but the requirements for those majors will provide more of a "window" into the college than the requirements for chemistry majors will! The requirements for English and history vary HUGELY from college to college -- in terms of emphasis on global studies etc.)

 

Is there a large Greek presence?

 

Are there research opportunities? (Even if your kid isn't interested in them, the presence or absence of those opportunities says something about the school.)

 

What percentage of the freshman class graduates in four years?

\

Check online and make sure that most of the classes listed in the course catalog are actually offered in any given year. Some schools look like they have a wide variety of courses, but they only offer the courses every three years or so....

 

See if you can find an on-line copy of the college newspaper. If not, consider subscribing to it for a year. You can get a real flavor for what the hot and issues are on campus.

 

What kind of activities show up on the school calendar? Mostly sports events, or are there a number of cultural events as well? What kind of cultural events?

 

What hours does the library keep? (My kids decided that they wouldn't consider applying to any school whose library wasn't open until at least 11 -- and that actually did eliminate some schools!)

 

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

 

After you have really studied the website, consider going for a visit. No amount of data can replace an on-campus visit. Have your child stay in a dorm if possible. Eat lunch in the dining hall. Attend classes. Hang out in the student center. Make appointments to talk with professors. Explore.

 

Visiting colleges can be VERY expensive, but so is a college education. I wish we had realized earlier how important college visits can be! (April of senior year is NOT a good time for a first visit to any campus!)

[elegantlion]

Gwen, thanks for the excellent advice.

[Brenda in MA]

if you go to a large bookstore (e. g. Barnes & Noble or Borders) and go to their college guide section you will find several different types of guides. The one put out by the College Board has the same info, mainly stats, as their website, so we didn't think it was too useful.

 

However, we also found a couple of other guides, I think one was called something like "The Insider's Guide..." that talk a bit about the atmosphere on campus and what students have to say about their school. We generally found this information to be pretty consistent with what we found when we visited campus.

 

I don't think the info in these guidebooks should be taken as absolute truth, and you should definitely visit the schools your child is seriously considering, but we found the guides helpful in narrowing the search.

 

Another resource is a new website for reviews written by students (http://www.unigo.com). Since it's a new resource, they don't have reviews of all campuses, and the quality of the reviews varies greatly.

 

HTH,

Brenda

[creekland]

I've googled the names of those we are considering and read some of what came up - good and bad.

 

I've looked at web sites - some are very good at letting you know what graduates have done, and of course, you can see their requirements for various majors.

 

I've looked at Stats - including how they rate with US News and Forbes.

 

Some of them are listed in Princeton's Review - very helpful for those that are in there, but remember, not all are in there since some don't allow independent inquiries of students - and some don't make their 'cut.'

 

If I know anyone that's been there, I ask them or their parents.

 

Then, with those that have made the cut so far, we visit...

 

Since our oldest will be going to college after next year, I'm hardly an expert at this point... but that's what we've been doing.

[elegantlion]

Thank you Brenda and Creekland I will definitely check out those sources.

[Karen in CO]

After you have really studied the website, consider going for a visit. No amount of data can replace an on-campus visit. Have your child stay in a dorm if possible. Eat lunch in the dining hall. Attend classes. Hang out in the student center. Make appointments to talk with professors. Explore.

 

Visiting colleges can be VERY expensive, but so is a college education. I wish we had realized earlier how important college visits can be! (April of senior year is NOT a good time for a first visit to any campus!)

 

Gwen gave some Great advice. But this one is soooo important. Visit. Visit. Visit. Start early and visit local colleges. Visit colleges where you vacation (if you are lucky enough to vacation). even if its not schools your kids are interested in, it helps to give them an idea of what kinds of things they are looking for. My ds did not attend ANY of the universities we visited :glare:, but he learned what kind of things he wanted in a school. He accepted his final choice without ever seeing it, but it was the right place for him and the visits to the wrong schools helped as much as anything else.

 

Check your local universities. The ones here have future student visit days where you and hundreds of other prospective students all go at the same time to take a tour, eat a meal, talk to professors and people from each department, and visit several dorms. Many of the kids there when we went were sophomores and juniors in addition the the seniors who looked much more frantic about the whole process.

[elegantlion]

We hope to do some long term road trips before he enters college. We'll add campus tours to the list of things to see. Thanks, Karen.

[Cheryl B in VA]

Find the student handbook on the college's website. My son is looking at only Christian colleges and several are very conservative - even monitoring what music the students listen to. One school handbook talked about acceptable dating at the school and students cannot wear shorts to class. The handbooks gave him insight into whether or not he would be comfortable at the school.

[elegantlion]

Find the student handbook on the college's website. My son is looking at only Christian colleges and several are very conservative - even monitoring what music the students listen to. One school handbook talked about acceptable dating at the school and students cannot wear shorts to class. The handbooks gave him insight into whether or not he would be comfortable at the school.

 

 

Thanks, Cheryl. My ds would have a horrible time with a no shorts policy. Most days he shows up sans shirt and wearing only shorts. At some point I guess I'll have to remind him of classroom etiquette. I'd hate for him to show on his first day of college and remove his shirt after arriving at class. :001_huh: I can hear his excuse now, "I can't learn while wearing a shirt." :lol::lol:

[TravelingChris]

Yes, I would like to know about dress codes and music codes before. I know that my musical and athletic daughter would not take kindly to such restrictions unless gangsta rap was the only music restricted (which she considers noise).

[creekland]

Find the student handbook on the college's website. My son is looking at only Christian colleges and several are very conservative - even monitoring what music the students listen to. One school handbook talked about acceptable dating at the school and students cannot wear shorts to class. The handbooks gave him insight into whether or not he would be comfortable at the school.

 

We've been discovering this too... and trying our best to avoid these types as they don't fit us at ALL. Fortunately, there are some others out there that seem to be good... since my son wants to major in Community/Economic/Global Development with a Christian slant (this major changes names, but is essentially going into third world nations and helping them develop a sustainable economy to avoid welfare/dependency types of giving). This means he is more or less limited to a Christian College - and I'd had absolutely NO experience with any of them till this past year... I'm learning!

[Sharon in MD]

We pretty much did all the things you all have listed here and they were helpful to varying degrees. Just standing in Barnes and Noble flipping through a bunch of different types of insiders guides helped up eliminate a few very quickly and I did try that unigo site as well. I also had some trepidation about how reliable it was....mostly what I read about all schools was complaining and whining...so I figure you have to take that with a grain of salt.

 

The only thing we used that I haven't seen mentioned is the book Choosing the Right College, put out by ISI. It covers a fairly broad range of schools....mostly liberal arts, so a little less helpful for budding engineers, but it goes into great depth about the trends in political thought on the campus, the curriculum, sexuality and gender etc

 

here is a link to their site http://www.isi.org/college_guide/choosing_right_college.html

 

We found it helpful even for schools that weren't listed in that it gave us ideas of what to ask about and what to look into for those schools.

 

Best wishes and visit visit visit!!! My husband's favorite mantra applies:

 

Time spent in reconnaissance is seldom wasted!

[Kareni]

...

 

The only thing we used that I haven't seen mentioned is the book Choosing the Right College, put out by ISI. It covers a fairly broad range of schools....mostly liberal arts, so a little less helpful for budding engineers, but it goes into great depth about the trends in political thought on the campus, the curriculum, sexuality and gender etc

 

 

 

I'd agree that this is a great resource. In my opinion, it is written for those who are looking for a conservative atmosphere; however, we are quite liberal and found it very useful.

 

Another thought is to look to find out what the crime statistics are on campus. All this information is required to be shared. Sometimes one can find the information in the campus newspaper; alternatively, one can find it on the campus website. I did have a site which gave the information for all colleges and universities; unfortunately, I've lost the bookmark. Perhaps someone else may know it.

 

Regards,

Kareni

[Sharon in MD]

But as you said it can be used either way because you know what their "bent" is to start with. I just wish they had something to cover more of the mainstream schools.

 

I think a lot of these books can help to narrow the list from large to manageable and then the all important visits come in.

 

But, for my two cents....the very best thing was visiting the schools. It was so much more helpful to actually walk the grounds and talk to students, visit departments and so on. And, we found that the ones we were most interested in required more than one visit to really make the decision.

[elegantlion]

We pretty much did all the things you all have listed here and they were helpful to varying degrees. Just standing in Barnes and Noble flipping through a bunch of different types of insiders guides helped up eliminate a few very quickly and I did try that unigo site as well. I also had some trepidation about how reliable it was....mostly what I read about all schools was complaining and whining...so I figure you have to take that with a grain of salt.

 

The only thing we used that I haven't seen mentioned is the book Choosing the Right College, put out by ISI. It covers a fairly broad range of schools....mostly liberal arts, so a little less helpful for budding engineers, but it goes into great depth about the trends in political thought on the campus, the curriculum, sexuality and gender etc

 

here is a link to their site http://www.isi.org/college_guide/choosing_right_college.html

 

We found it helpful even for schools that weren't listed in that it gave us ideas of what to ask about and what to look into for those schools.

 

Best wishes and visit visit visit!!! My husband's favorite mantra applies:

 

Time spent in reconnaissance is seldom wasted!

 

Thanks, Sharon. I have looked at that book at isi and wondered if it were helpful. I'm adding it to the list.

[Kareni]

Here's the website I was looking for earlier. It has information on safety issues. It also lists numbers of graduates in different areas which can be a factor of interest (i.e., will your student be one of five majors or one of five hundred).

 

College Navigator

 

Regards,

Kareni

[Kimm in WA]

When did you/do you recommend doing college visiting? Sophmore or Junior years?

 

Thanks

[TravelingChris]

We visited one during the summer before sophomore year. She then went to cc in the fall for one class. WE probably will visit somewhere this summer before Junior year. Your kids may be different but she really wasn't very interested in visiting before now. SHe is getting more interested as the time for college gets closer. My older only visitedc one college before he applied and went to another. That is because we moved to Europe right after his sophomore year and were still living there when he went to college. Looking back, I think I would have liked to visited the college he went to. I hope to visit more before the next two go.

[K-FL]

When did you/do you recommend doing college visiting? Sophmore or Junior years?

 

Thanks

 

As soon as you can. Even if it's just to really find out if you want rural/urban, big/small, near/far, etc. There are so many colleges that you need to have some way to narrow the field when the brochures start coming in. ;)

[Melinda in VT]

We've been discovering this too... and trying our best to avoid these types as they don't fit us at ALL. Fortunately, there are some others out there that seem to be good... since my son wants to major in Community/Economic/Global Development with a Christian slant (this major changes names, but is essentially going into third world nations and helping them develop a sustainable economy to avoid welfare/dependency types of giving). This means he is more or less limited to a Christian College - and I'd had absolutely NO experience with any of them till this past year... I'm learning!

 

I would encourage anyone who is considering a religious school to research the school's policy on what happens if a student has a change of faith while at school. I know of at least one school where the honor code/student requirements are such that those who change their beliefs while in college (not an uncommon thing for that age group) are put in a position of either having to switch to a different college partway through or lie about their beliefs in order to stay and finish their degree. That's not a situation I would ever want my kids to be in.

[creekland]

I would encourage anyone who is considering a religious school to research the school's policy on what happens if a student has a change of faith while at school. I know of at least one school where the honor code/student requirements are such that those who change their beliefs while in college (not an uncommon thing for that age group) are put in a position of either having to switch to a different college partway through or lie about their beliefs in order to stay and finish their degree. That's not a situation I would ever want my kids to be in.

 

That's actually one thing I'm not in the least worried about. Transfers seem easy enough if it were to happen... same as they'd be easy enough if he ended up at a secular school he didn't like.

[Jane in NC]

Here's the website I was looking for earlier. It has information on safety issues. It also lists numbers of graduates in different areas which can be a factor of interest (i.e., will your student be one of five majors or one of five hundred).

 

College Navigator

 

Regards,

Kareni

 

The friend who introduced me to the College Navigator is a professor. She found it to be particularly useful when her daughter was looking at schools because they could determine how many people earn degrees in each major at a college. Say, for example, your student wants to study chemistry. Many colleges may list chemistry as a major, but by looking at the actual number of degree candidates produced by a school, you will get a better idea on the strength of the department than by examining the course catalog. Schools that only produce two or three students in a major annually may not offer many upper level courses in that subject in a given year.

 

College Navigator is a government reporting site. It is rather dry, but I think the statistics are quite telling.

 

Jane