Cool Colleges : For the Hyper-Intelligent, Self-Directed, Late Blooming, and Just Plain Different

by ASHER, DONALD

• ISBN13: 9781580081504
• ISBN10: 1580081509
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2000-09-01
• Publisher: Ten Speed Press

Summary

Fully revised since the first edition, COOL COLLEGES covers the most exciting schools in the U.S. and Canada, with a new chapter on eco schools, an update on tuition-free schools, and the total low-down on the so-called top-ranked schools. Are you hyper-intelligent? Self-directed? A late-bloomer? Or just different? Then you need a great school that will challenge, nurture, inspire, and motivate you-and COOL COLLEGES has got 'em. It will also give you the scoop on: What the Ivy league is and what it really wants Totally free schools, including one where financial need is a requirement for admission Universities that don't give grades. Schools that don't want your SAT scores. Data on the highest (and lowest) paying majors.The schools that graduate the most millionaires. Men's, women's, and minority-focused colleges. Schools where you can design your own degree program. A college where you can hike and camp your way to a degree. A college that runs its own ranch on an 80-square-mile campus. Science and engineering schools where undergrads get their own labs. The most competitive colleges, including one that rejects 95% of applicants. Campuses where students love to study, even on Saturday nights. Schools that offer programs in computer game studies, comedy, auctioneering, special-effects makeup, and more. Plus a link to the Web addresses for every college and university in the United States and Canada. COOL COLLEGES is the resource for finding your dream school-and gives you the edge you'll need to get accepted. Reviews "Worth a look, if you're headed for college or getting ready to apply."-San Diego Union Tribune I received a used copy of your book, Cool Colleges (2nd Edition) in the mail this morning and (admittedly) out of vague interest and the slight boredom that comes with not having a driver's license, I picked it up and went about my usual hole-up-in-my-bedroom-with-new-book-and-blinds-down-and-stay-holed-until-I-have-finished-the-text-in-it's-entirety routine. The purpose of this message is to express my nearly inexpressible gratitude to you and your associates in research. I have read life-changing books, articles, and speeches but I have never, not once, been so deeply affected by a work of this type: A guidebook? I have perused U.S. News & World Report's 2007 College Guide and the Newsweek/Kaplan 2007 College Guide, each with their individual talents and faults, but your book was different. For once I felt like the book was directed to students such as myself. I'm not an athlete and I'm no an academic superstar: at my school, that's what it takes to be a favorite. I am just another mediocre teenager in millions who wants to save the world. Your book made me feel, for once, as though someone was looking at those of us hanging by our fingernails on the edge of being completely lost in our distinction. I love to learn for the sake of learning and not because I'm aiming for any star-studded diplomas or accreditations, but because there is so much to learn. Your book not only allowed me to see that there were other "Lost Kids" (that's what my guidance counselor called me) but further that there were places trying to find us because we aren't as lost as some of our superiors like to think. Again Sir, thank you for all your work. It has not gone unnoticed nor was it in vain. If nothing else, you made at least one girl's life (and future) a little brighter. -Carina, 17St. Petersburg, FL

Author Biography

Career consultant DONALD ASHER is a featured speaker at more than 100 colleges and universities every year, coast to coast. A columnist for MSN Encarta and contributor to the Wall Street Journal's CareerJournal.com and CollegeJournal.com, he divides his time between Nevada and San Francisco.


From the Trade Paperback edition.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	xiv
Introduction	x
Where This Book Came From	1	(2)
Research Methodology, Biases, and Limitations	3	(7)
Is Important Information Missing from This Book?	8	(2)
How To Read This Book	10	(1)
Some Final, Very Important Disclaimers	10	(3)
Two Prep Colleges	13	(24)
Simon's Rock College of Bard	14	(11)
Simon's Rock and Bard	18	(1)
Cool Book Alert! Jefferson's Children: Education and the Promise of American Culture	19	(2)
Leon Botstein
A Few Thoughts on the Large vs. Small Decision	21	(1)
15 Largest Colleges/Universities	22	(1)
15 Smaller Colleges/Universities	22	(3)
Deep Springs College	25	(4)
Get the Name Right!	26	(3)
On Credit	29	(2)
An Unusual Application Essay	31	(1)
Essay: ``Secret to Finding Scholarships-There Isn't One''	32	(3)
A List of Totally Free Colleges and Universities	35	(2)
The Ivy League and More	37	(24)
The Ivy League	38	(5)
The Most Competitive Schools in America	41	(2)
The Yale Syndrome	43	(1)
The Seven Sisters	44	(3)
Cool Book Alert! Looking Beyond The Ivy League: Finding the College That's Right for You	46	(1)
Loren Pope
Why We Still Have Men's, Women's, and Minority-Focused Colleges	47	(4)
Skull and Bones at Yale	47	(3)
Three Schools That Are Kicking Butt	50	(1)
Essay: ``Western Colleges Finally Get Their Due''	51	(3)
Cool Book Alert! The Public Ivys: A Guide to America's Best Public Undergraduate Colleges and Universities	51	(2)
Richard Moll
The Public Ivys	53	(1)
Q&A with a Dean of Admission: What Highly Competitive Really Means	54	(7)
Schools With Massive Endowments	54	(3)
Should You Go to the Best College You Can Get Into?	57	(1)
Inputs and Outputs	58	(1)
Measuring the Value of an Ivy League Degree	59	(1)
Eastern Oregon University	60	(1)
Schools Where Scholarship Is Honored	61	(52)
Reed College	62	(2)
Cool Word List!	63	(1)
Why Reed Declines to Participate in National Rankings	64	(9)
Size Does Matter	65	(3)
Reed Scholars Win Honors	68	(1)
Every Reed Senior Writes a Thesis	69	(1)
Cool Web Site! Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest	70	(2)
Interested in a Career in Higher Education?	72	(1)
A Short History of Educational Reform	73	(3)
The Most Interesting Thing Ever Said to Me by a College President	73	(1)
So You Think College Presidents Have It Easy?	74	(1)
Cool Book Alert! The Fiske Guide to Colleges	75	(1)
Edward B. Fiske
Swarthmore College	76	(5)
Grade Inflation	77	(1)
Cool Book Alert! Colleges That Change Lives	78	(2)
Loren Pope
Cool Scholarship! Wofford Presidential International Scholarship	80	(1)
The consortium of Liberal Arts Colleges (CLAC)	81	(3)
Cool Book Alert! College: The Undergraduate Experience In America	82	(1)
Ernest L. Boyer
The Highest Paid Professors in America	83	(1)
The University of Chicago	84	(2)
The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching Classification System	86	(4)
A Note about Urban Danger	86	(3)
Cool Book Alert! The Innovative Campus: Nurturing the Distinctive Learning Environment	89	(1)
Joy Rosenzweig Kliewer
The University of the South (Sewanee)	90	(3)
Hampden-Sydney College	91	(1)
Cool Book Alert! The Templeton Guide: Colleges that Encourage Character Development edited by the John Templeton Foundation	92	(1)
The Robert E. Cook Honors College	93	(4)
The Real Truth about the Cook Honors College	94	(2)
Truman State University	96	(1)
What Grad School Admissions Officers Love to See on Your Application	97	(1)
Essay: ``A College Officer Writes about Distinctiveness at a College''	98	(2)
Essay: ``On College Counseling for the Intellectual Student''	100	(8)
Essay: ``The 'Rocket Science' of Empowering Faculty to Teach''	108	(3)
MIT's Charm School	111	(2)
The Great Books Programs	113	(8)
St. John's College	114	(4)
The Reading List for Freshman Year	116	(1)
The Reading List for Sophomore Year	116	(1)
The Reading List for Junior Year	116	(1)
The Reading List for Senior Year	116	(1)
Does St. John's Ever Change?	117	(1)
The Thomas More College of Liberal Arts	118	(1)
Shimer College	119	(2)
Recent Pilot Great Books Programs	120	(1)
Innovative Curricula and Schedules	121	(36)
New College of the University of South Florida	122	(8)
Cool Web Site! National Center for Fair and Open Testing	123	(1)
Is the SAT Really Fair?	124	(4)
Cool Book Alert! This Way Out: A Guide to Alternatives to Traditional College Education in the United States, Europe, and the Third World	128	(2)
John Coyne
Tom Hebert
Hampshire College	130	(3)
Essay: ``What Is Intelligence?''	133	(5)
Schools That De-emphasize Grades	137	(1)
Prescott College	138	(5)
College of the Atlantic	140	(1)
The Prescott College Mission	141	(1)
Mahatma Gandhi's Seven Sins	142	(1)
Essay: ``Why Kids Aren't Happy in Traditional School''	143	(4)
Marlboro College	147	(3)
The Block Plan Schools	150	(2)
Colorado College	150	(1)
Cornell College	151	(1)
Tusculum College	151	(1)
The Co-Op Schools	152	(5)
The University of Cincinnati	153	(1)
Antioch College	153	(1)
Northeastern University	154	(1)
Kettering University	154	(3)
Entrepreneurial Studies	157	(18)
Babson College	158	(3)
Essay: ``The Big Meeting''	161	(1)
On Choosing a Major and Launching a Life	162	(3)
Essay: ``The Filene Center for Work & Learning''	165	(3)
Best Career Practices from Other Colleges & Universities	168	(7)
Coolest ``Jobs'' on Campus	171	(1)
The Five Highest and Five Lowest Paying Majors	172	(3)
The Engineering Schools	175	(12)
Harvey Mudd College	176	(2)
California Institute of Technology (Caltech)	178	(3)
Really Cool Science!	180	(1)
Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology	181	(6)
Colorado School of Mines	182	(1)
The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art	182	(2)
More Engineering Specialty Schools	184	(1)
Some Other Schools of Engineering to Consider	184	(1)
Most Millionaires Come from the Middle of the Pack	184	(3)
Flying, Sailing, and Militarizing	187	(8)
The Military Academies	188	(2)
Webb Institute of Naval Architecture	188	(2)
Aviation and Aeronautics	190	(1)
The Merchant Marine	191	(1)
Maritime Colleges and Academies in the U.S. and Canada	192	(3)
The Work Colleges	195	(8)
Essay: ``A Life of Work and Learning''	196	(2)
The Work Colleges	198	(5)
Alice Lloyd College	198	(1)
Berea College	198	(1)
Blackburn College	199	(1)
College of The Ozarks	199	(1)
Goddard College	199	(1)
Sterling College	200	(1)
The Saga of a Mountaintop School	200	(1)
Warren Wilson College	201	(1)
Berry College	201	(2)
More Cool Ideas	203	(16)
Thomas Aquinas College	204	(1)
Should You Go to a Religious or Church-Affiliated School?	205	(2)
Special Programs for Nontraditional Students, Single Parents, and Women	207	(3)
The Frances Perkins Program at Mount Holyoke College	207	(1)
Alverno College	208	(1)
Heritage College	209	(1)
More Cool Ideas: Specialty Schools	210	(7)
Computer Game Studies	211	(1)
Interpreting and Translating	211	(1)
Art	212	(1)
Music	212	(1)
Cooking	212	(2)
Auctioneering	214	(1)
Modern Railroading	214	(1)
Comedy School	215	(1)
Americorps	216	(1)
Take a Year Off	216	(1)
Semester at Sea	216	(1)
More Unusual Classes, Majors, and Programs	217	(2)
Men's, Women's and Minority-Focused Colleges	219	(34)
Essay: ``Why I Finally Chose to Attend an Historically Black College''	220	(2)
List of Historically Black Colleges	222	(5)
The United Negro College Fund (UNCF) Member Institutions	227	(5)
The Hispanic Colleges	232	(10)
The Tribal, Indian, and Native American Colleges	242	(5)
Mascots	245	(2)
The Women's Colleges	247	(4)
The Men's Colleges	251	(2)
Every Accredited Four-Year Bachelor's Degree-Granting College in the United States and Canada	253	(162)
What Does ``Accredited'' Mean? Why Does It Matter?	254	(2)
Regional Accreditation Associations	256	(1)
National and Specialized Accreditation Associations	257	(1)
International Students	257	(1)
U.S. Institutions	258	(143)
Looking for an Interesting Sport to Pursue in College?	259	(2)
Cool Scholarship! The Mr. and Mrs. Frederick Beckley Scholarship	261	(9)
Golf Courses	270	(21)
Winter Sports, Anyone?	291	(8)
That Great Sifting and Winnowing	299	(11)
The Hoofers	310	(19)
Top Ten Colleges and Universities According to a Ranking Based on Laissez-Faire Principles	329	(10)
Counselors Are Overworked, Underfunded	339	(6)
More on Mascots	345	(6)
Mountain Day	351	(6)
Suicide and the Smaller College	357	(11)
College Planning Differs by Family Income	368	(4)
Top Ten Colleges with ``Substantial Proportionality'' for Women's Athletic Programs as Defined by Title IX	372	(2)
Top Ten Most Innovative and/or Unorthodox Colleges	374	(3)
Top Ten Private, Four-Year Undergraduate Colleges and Universites Producing the Most Ph.D.'s in All Fields of Study 1920-1990	377	(13)
Cool Book Alert! Bears' Guide to Earning Degrees Nontraditionally	390	(6)
John Bear
Mariah Bear
Madrigal Dinner and Dance	396	(3)
Cool Book Alert! Major in Success: Make College Easier, Fire Up Your Dreams, and Get a Very Cool Job	399	(2)
Patrick Combs
Canadian Institutions	401	(14)
Cool Book Alert! Been There, Should've Done That	404	(11)
Suzette Taylor
Index	415

Excerpts

Chapter One

SIMON'S

ROCK

COLLEGE

OF BARD

early entry program · no high school diploma required · quality college education beginning at age 16, 17, or even 15, if you have what it takes · 350 students: 60% women, 40% men · beautiful environs · a unique chance to get on with it

Simon's Rock is one of the few schools in the nation to seek out students who have not finished a high school curriculum. It offers an early start at college for those students who are ready for college before most colleges are ready for them. Strictly speaking, Simon's Rock is not just a prep college, as many students do complete all four years there. Deep Springs is a two-year school like no other. When you think about two-year programs, you're probably not thinking about Simon's Rock and Deep Springs. These two schools are listed first in this book just to give you an idea of some of the different approaches to higher education that are out there once you think beyond the nearest large state university. This section also begins the discussion of the college choice process, which infuses all the sections of this book. The questions under consideration in this chapter will be: Should you go to a large or a small institution? What about scholarship scams? Are there really totally free schools out there?

SIMON'S ROCK COLLEGE OF BARD

Some people are too bright for high school. Is this you? Do you find the level of academic endeavor at your high school slightly beneath sea level?

    Are you drowning intellectually while you wait, wait, wait for the day when you can escape and join a real college, where you can be with other people who care about more than the senior prom and Oh, what are you going to wear? Ohmygawd! You can't be serious! That's like, so out of it!

    Well, you are not alone. All over North America smart young people are bored out of their minds by high schools that de-emphasize academics and emphasize sports and a warped view of adolescent social life.

    Here's the really important question: Are you ready for college now? There are four main parts to this question, really:

· Do you have the intellectual capacity to perform at the college level today? Are you ready to write college papers and do college-level scientific work and tackle college-level mathematics? This is a question of intellect.

· Are you academically prepared? That is, do you know enough to benefit from college now? This is a question of accumulated knowledge.

· Are you mature enough to perform on your own? Are you able to get out of bed in the morning, manage your own time, and meet your commitments?

· Have you gotten all your high school has to offer you? Not perhaps all your high school has to offer, but all your high school has to offer you ?

    If you can answer an unequivocal yes to each of these four questions, you should consider the early entry program at Simon's Rock College of Bard in Great Barrington, Massachusetts.

    Simon's Rock admits students of demonstrated promise straight out of high school. Except for this one fact, it is in most other senses just an innovative New England liberal arts college. It has a carefully designed curriculum emphasizing mastery of critical thinking skills, followed by increasing specialization and the design and execution of a major research project before graduation with a bachelor's degree. You can start a classic liberal arts education here, then transfer after two years to another school--or stay and complete your bachelor's degree.

    At the end of the sophomore year, students complete what the school calls the Lower College program, and are awarded an associate of arts degree. At this point, two-thirds of Simon's Rock students opt to complete their studies at another college or university. This was the way the college was originally designed to work, as a sort of early entry prep college for young scholars who were bound for other schools after completing Lower College. Simon's Rock students find admission to such colleges and universities as these:

American University, Washington, DC

American University in Paris, France

Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York

Barnard College, New York, New York

Bates College, Lewiston, Maine

Berklee College of Music, Boston, Massachusetts

Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts

Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts

Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island

Bryn Mawr College, Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania

Carleton College, Northfield, Minnesota

Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio

Claremont McKenna College, Claremont, California

Clark University, Worcester, Massachusetts

Colgate University, Hamilton, New York

Colorado College, Colorado Springs, Colorado

Columbia University, New York, New York

Cornell University, Ithaca, New York

Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire

Drew University, Madison, New Jersey

Duke University, Durham, North Carolina

Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia

Eugene Lang College of the New School for Social Research. New York, New York

Evergreen State College, Olympia, Washington

Fisk University, Nashville, Tennesee

George Washington University, Washington, DC

Goucher College, Baltimore, Maryland

Hampshire College, Amherst, Massachusetts

Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts

Hood College, Frederick, Maryland

Howard University, Washington, DC

Hunter College, New York, New York

Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland

Knox College, Galesburg, Illinois

Lehigh University, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania

Lewis & Clark University, Portland, Oregon

Macalester College, St. Paul, Minnesota

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, Massachusetts

Michigan Technological University, Houghton, Michigan

Mills College, Oakland, California

Morehouse College, Atlanta, Georgia

Mount Holyoke College, South Hadley, Massachusetts

New York University, New York, New York

Oberlin College, Oberlin, Ohio

Parsons School of Design, New York, New York

Pitzer College, Claremont, California

Pomona College, Claremont, California

Reed College, Portland, Oregon

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, New York

Rice University, Houston, Texas

Royal Holloway College of the University of London, England

Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey

San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, California

Sarah Lawrence College, Bronxville, New York

Savannah College of Art and Design, Savannah, Georgia

School of Oriental and African Studies of the University of London, England

Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, New York

Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts

Stanford University, Stanford, California

State University of New York, Albany, New York

State University of New York, Binghampton, New York

State University of New York, Buffalo, New York

State University of New York, Purchase, New York

State University of New York, Stony Brook, New York

Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, New Jersey

Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, Pennsylvania

Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York

Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland

Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts

University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona

University of California, Davis, California

University of California, Irvine, California

University of California, Los Angeles, California

University of California, Santa Cruz, California

University of California, San Diego, California

University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois

University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado

University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Illinois

University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland

University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Massachusetts

University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan

University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, Minneapolis, Minnesota

University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina

University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

University of Rochester, Rochester, New York

University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah

University of Washington, Seattle, Washington

Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennesee

Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, New York

Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri

Wellesley College, Wellesley, Massachusetts

Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut

Williams College, Williamstown, Massachusetts

Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut

CoOl BoOk AlErT!

    Jefferson's Children: Education and the Promise of American Culture by Leon Botstein (Doubleday, 1997)

Eighteenth-century optimism has been lost in a national morass of pessimism, Botstein contends. Weighing an assemblage of evidence, he charges that we no longer believe we can educate our children to create a better world. Leon Botstein was the youngest person to assume such a post when he became president of Bard College. Now the longest-serving college president and director of the American Symphony Orchestra, he makes a bold indictment of present practices in public education. "The American high school is obsolete," he declares, characterizing schools as "breeding grounds for violence, for drug and alcohol abuse, vulgarity, and a totally thoughtless, rampant expression of sexuality," and where the "best are influenced by the weakest." Yet, Botstein portrays public education as doing a better job than political rhetoric would have us believe, despite the deleterious effects of bureaucratic regulations, defensive teachers' unions, and parents more concerned with school prayer than with education. He offers concrete ideas, some of them certain to raise hackles, for creating renewed institutions of learning.

    Also check out Stanley Aronowitz's The Knowledge Factory: Dismantling the Corporate University and Creating True Higher Learning (Beacon Press, 2000), in which the author calls modern universities "glorified employment agencies." If you want even more fun books along this line, read Martin Anderson's Imposters in the Temple (Hoover Institution Press, 1996), Charles Sykes's ProfScam: Professors and the Demise of Higher Education (St. Martin's Press, 1990), and Richard Huber's How Professors Play the Cat Guarding the Cream (George Mason University Press, 1993).

    One-third of students decide to complete the bachelor's degree at Simon's Rock by completing the Upper School. The college emphasizes interdisciplinary study and independent study, with strengths in some areas, such as environmental studies and most of the liberal arts, and weaknesses in others. If a student is interested in an area the college feels it cannot support, the student is encouraged to transfer to complete her or his undergraduate program at a more appropriate institution. Students can cross-register with nearby Bard College, and many do. A central part of the Upper School degree program is a year-long independent study leading to the writing of an undergraduate thesis. Expectations are high, and success in this degree program is excellent preparation for graduate study.

    Recent thesis projects include:

An Investigation of the Possible Synergistic Mutagenic Effect Created In Vitro by Potassium Chromate and Meta-Stable Barium My Room: An Exploration of Non-Traditional Performance Art Whipworms and Water Filters: An Investigation of Intestinal Parasites in Children Living in a Temporary Home in Tegucigalpa, Honduras Harlem Rising: The Contributions of African-American Music to American Culture during the Harlem Renaissance Art or Artifact? Historicizing Ancient Egyptian Archaeology Once Upon a Thesis: An Original Fairy Tale and Dance Narrative Mud and Myrabolam: An Exploration of Pattern, Fabric, and the Woodblock Printing Traditions of Jaipur, India The Legacy of French Colonization in Côte d'Ivoire

    DOWNSIDE: Many parents are shocked to have their children interested in an early entry program. The student may feel that the program is perfect and a salvation, but the parents may be financially and emotionally unprepared for the student to leave home for college. Can your family afford a school like Simon's Rock? The majority of students at Simon's Rock are on financial aid, and the college grants twenty full-ride merit scholarships every year in national open competition. For more information, contact the college. In short: It may be a lobbying job to convince your parents that you should take an early- entry option. On the other hand, your parents may jump at the chance to see you happy and challenged in school.

    Also, it is important to understand that Simon's Rock is a college, not some kind of boarding school on steroids. Students thrive here who are able to manage their

A FEW THOUGHTS ON THE LARGE VS. SMALL DECISION

If you play a sport in high school and you'd like to continue to play it in college, consider a smaller college. There probably won't be a scholarship for it, but there will be field time and the camaraderie and the competition and the excitement that you've come to love about your sport. At a large university, you're either a national-level contender, or you don't play.

    If you want to write for the newspaper at a small college, all you have to do is find the editor and propose an article. Boom, you're a reporter, maybe even a columnist. At a large university, you'd probably have to be a journalism major, and even then a lot of the newspaper jobs are actually full-time, paid positions.

    If you want to be a DJ for the campus radio station, at a small college all you have to do is find the station manager and ask to come on board. You'll start with the worst time slot, but it'll be your show. You can play rockabilly, gospel, and have poetry readings, all on the same show probably, if that's what you want. At a large university, you'd have to follow the playlist.

    At a smaller institution, you can more easily become captain or founder or czar of something, compared to major universities where student senate campaigns have a media budget. You can be the lead in a play without being a theater major. You can go on biology field trips without being a biology major. You can play cello in a quartet without taking a single music class. You can try lots of things out without specializing yet.

    If you want to get to know your professors, and have them know you, it's sure a lot easier if there are ten or twenty students in a class, than if there are one hundred or two hundred.

    Suppose you want friends. Maybe you think that on a campus with fifteen thousand students you'd have ten times as many people to know as on a campus of fifteen hundred students. This is like the saltwater sailor's lament, "Water, water everywhere, and not a drop to drink." The larger the campus, the less interaction outside of class. At a large school, you won't know the one thousand people in the student union at any given moment. At a small school, you're likely to know all of the few dozen students in the student union at any given time. Also, at large schools, the overwhelming majority of students live off campus. They go home after class, and lots of them go home between classes. You'll see them, alright, walking past you to find their cars.

    The most important factor in creating a school's on-campus atmosphere is on-campus living. It is absolutely essential to creating a bond between students and between students and the institution. Very few universities succeed in providing this--Yale, Princeton, and Rice are the only that come to mind--but practically all the smaller colleges do.

Copyright © 2000 Donald Asher. All rights reserved.