December 01, 2004

• Well, there's my wife's old school, Bard College, between Albany and Kingston. Not sure if that's what you're looking for. It's definitely rural though.
• they don't offer anything I'm interested in Which invites the obvious question... ?
• why would you want to go to such a small college? It's counter-productive when you become hiring material. Trust me, I hire people for a living.
• I have friends who liked Colby College (I think that's it...), which I believe meets your requirements.
• Addendum to Warrior's comment: Of course, if you go to a "name" school with a strong network of alums, the disadvantage of having gone to a small school disappears.
• Also, what goetter says.
• wow, that description fits Skidmore College very well. do you have specific interests? Skidmore's great for visual and performing arts, is wonderful for English and art history (well-connected departments), well-equipped for geology and biology, etc. not the best place to go for foreign languages if that's your focus, but you'll learn well enough. great study abroad options and summer sessions that are marvelous. feel free to email for more info/to chat about your specific interests.
• why would you want to go to such a small college? It's counter-productive when you become hiring material. I've always heard it doesn't matter what undergrad school you go to; it's grad school that counts, if they even look at that part of your resume.
• Go to Reed! It's not what you asked for, but it's just what you need!
• I am absolutely serious when I give you this piece of advice: Go to the cheapest school that money can buy unless you can go somewhere Ivy or something. You can move on to any post graduate degree from any school as long as you get the grades while you are there. See the comments to the Curious George from earlier about debt to understand why you should go to the cheapest school that you can.
• As to Maine Martime, they have an amazing job placement, because all the alums love the school and want to help out current students. Im interested in writing and political science. And I'm actually visiting Skidmore this weekend, it does sound great but I've heard a lot about the students being spoiled rich kids, so I'm not really sure...I'll have to see for myself. And Bernockle, you've got a good point. Im looking at as many scholarships as I can, should be alright, I've got good scores and grades to help me along. But if that doesnt work out, I've got some very cheap safety schools I'm appyling to as well. Thanks everyone, I knew I could count on the monkeys!
• I agree with bernockle. However, if you have a good academic record, don't assume state schools are the cheapest. Why? Because often, they only offer need-based assistance. If your family is middle to upper-middle class, good luck with that. However, high test scores and grades combined with good extracurriculars can often get you full tuition at small lib arts schools and private universities. When I was applying, the scholarship offers from private schools made them MUCH more financially attractive than state schools. Too many kids with great academic records think you can only go to state schools if you want to be frugal. It's not true. Just find schools that offer good merit-based aid. I'd say you're limiting yourself too much. If there's no SPECIFIC college you like up there in that student range, your experience will almost definitely fail your high expectations of a permanent Vermont fall with professors who talk to you for hours, or whatever. If you only have an idealized "New England lib arts school" in your head, you're being unrealistic. Look in other geographic regions. Look at bigger schools. And GO TO THEM. Visit. If you don't visit you're setting yourself up for failure. And sometimes, the schools you expect to like best are the ones you like least, and the ones you only go to on an off-chance that you'll like them are a perfect fit. For instance, I personally can recommend Cornell College in Iowa for its maximum class size of 15, pretty campus, awesome profs, and insanely good, intense scheduling system that gives students opportunities abroad and in the US that would otherwise be impossible. It's a small school - and though it's in the midwest, it's nice. It's also on Iowa's only hill, I swear.
• I'd also like to add that at last glance, both Case Western Reserve University and university of oklahoma offer full tuition plus room and board plus (at oklahoma) a bunch of other spiffy things like a STIPEND and a laptop automatically to people with a certain combination of grades/class rank and SAT/ACT scores.
• If you pick carefully, you can go to a small liberal arts college that's affiliated with a big school and get the best of both worlds. For example, the Five Colleges (UMASS Amherst, Amherst College, Hampshire College, Mount Holyoke, Smith College) share libraries and you can take classes at another college too. It's been a long time since I researched this, but I remember other multi-college towns having similar arrangements.
• What musingmelpomene said on cost. Presitigious schools with big price tags also have big endowments and usually lots of scholarship aid. My daughter goes to a liberal arts school in New England that is supposed to cost $32,000 a year, with scholarships and aid our cost is $12,000, and if she gets to be an RA next year, $4,000. I went to the University of Chicago with no cost to myself beyond a few loans I took out for beer money. Apply where you want, see what offers you get, and then go where you can afford. Also--don't make yourself nuts about this by thinking there is only one right school for you. There are lots of good schools, and you can get a great education even at a mediocre school if you work at it.
• Phuck U.?
• Swarthmore. All-around awesome. Loved it. Oh, but it'll kick your ass.
• I went to Case. While I normally echo the sentiment that you go to the cheapest undergrad school you can find, I have to say I doubt I'd have a PhD in Physics if I hadn't gone there. Their astronomy (and physics) undergraduate program is way ahead of what they're doing at my graduate alma-mater. And like musingmelpomene said, they have really good merit-based aid (none of which I was eligible for, though they did pick up about half the tuition with their need-based grant). This post wasn't meant to pimp out Case.
• patita- I was a Skidiot too! Class of '95. Anyway, I agree that it was/still is a dumping ground for spoiled rich kids. But, that's like 51%, which is not a mandate. The professors were awesome when I went there. The school really kicked me in the ass since I was kind of a slacker in high school. Cost was and is an issue though.
• wow, CaptainSunshine--i'm a '97 alum. there were spoiled rich kids, but there were also scholarship kids and cool rich kids. and plenty of folks who were neither rich nor kids.
• Amherst College fits your criteria. I've found its namepower ineffective, however, although I'm in a line of work where an entirely different set of schools pull weight. And I do not think it is as rigorous as Swarthmore. But writing and political science are a couple of its strong points, and the Five-College system is pretty nice. I remain entirely conflicted about where I should have gone to school.
• I always thought that a "name" school was the way to go too, but now I know that at those megalithic universities you are a number. You sit in a lecture hall with a few hundred other cows, the professor comes in and lectures and leaves. If you have any questions you ask the TAs. At a small school you have a small class size. You actually get to know the professor and they actually know you. The quality of education is significantly different for that reason alone. WarriorIf you decide who to call in (or hire) based on the name of the college - you wouldn't be hiring for ME.
• Another vote for the Five Colleges in lovely western Massachusetts. This one is my alma mater, and I'm guessing from your profile that you're the right gender for admission. All-women's colleges provide some unique opportunities and Smith in particular has an excellent alumnae network which has proven very useful to me. Feel free to email me with questions. The other suggestion I have is to consider postponing college altogether for a year. I went to Venezuela for a year as an exchange student and it was one of the best things I've ever done. I could tell you that it's because I learned to speak Spanish fluently and became completely immersed in a different culture, but really, it's because I had a year to do fuck all at 18 and got a lot of irresponsible shit out of the way, so that when I hit college I had a much better idea of what I wanted to do, and for that reason, it's something I highly recommend, especially since you seem to be casting about a bit. You can still apply to colleges now, and then defer for a year (usually not a problem) and at the same time, you're buying yourself another year to think about where and what you want to study, so you can apply someplace different a year from now if you change your mind. *quietly folds up soapbox, goes back to work*
• Yet another vote for one of the 5 colleges. I went to Smith as an undergrad and actually returned to work on my M.A. (homework for which I should be doing right now) Smith has great faculty, challenging classes and incredible opportunities. They have a program that pays you for a ten week internship that you design. I spent 10 weeks in the Mojave desert tracking sidewinder rattlesnakes using radiotelemetry and working in a biological field station. That 10 week internship turned into an independent research project that was fully funded by Smith. There is so much more,but I really have to get to work. Feel free to email me as well.... Another school worth looking at is Wesleyan in Ct.
• i too would like to mention Wesleyan just because I like the name.
• The idea of putting off college is appealing ambrosia, but I don't know if I trust myself to actually go to college after the year is up. Defering would solve that problem, but then I'm back to the problem of actually picking a college.
• Get a trade. Seriously. Money is just as good as most desk jobs. Very good opportunities if you're smart and entrepreneurially oriented. And you'll start life with a much smaller debt load.
• What sort of time frame are we talking about here? Are you in your junior year of high school? Have you been getting the garbage bags full of junk-mail from colleges that people who did well on the PSAT got back in the 80s when the mail was delivered by pterodactyls? The real question as far as I can see is *WHY* do you think you want a very small college in New England or upstate New York? Do you expect to go to graduate or professional school, or do you expect to get a BA and then butt out and call it even? If you rephrase your question into what kind of experience you're looking for, and why, you'll probably get more to-the-point and useful answers and advice. For poli-sci -- by the way, do you mean poli-sci, or do you mean you want to go to law school -- most anywhere will be acceptable. If the program imposes some sort of research-methods course on you, that's a good sign that they're taking the discipline seriously instead of as a vehicle to have erudite conversations over coffee. It's not small, or in the northeast, or even very rural, but someone could always do worse than to land at Mr. Jefferson's beloved Virginia...
• Xeny, I'm a senior at the moment. Law school might be a possibility. If not though, I would like to go to grad. school. Regardless, my BA is not going to be the final straw, at least thats my plan for now. As to location, I like the area, and have no interest whatsoever in living elsewhere for any length of time, such as college. I also don't want to be 1,000 miles away from home on my first try. I'm a homebody, though I might go farther for grad school. Depends what life looks like then.
• i'd suggest my alma mater but the programs there may be too specific for your needs. I was a Skidiot too! i have to say boooo to skidmore. but that's only 'cause you were somewhat rivals of ours in softball.
• humandictionary, what I'm suggesting isn't simply putting off college, but rather intentionally choosing to do something different for a year first. Especially given your stated homebody-ness, I'd urge you to think about being an exchange student overseas for a year- it's the ideal year to do it, as academics won't matter, so language issues are moot. The opportunity to immerse yourself in a completely new environment and figure stuff out for yourself is really useful, and the structure of the exchange program means that it's easy to stay on track for college. Don't just put off college to hang around New England- go stretch your horizons. Do it now- this kind of thing is a lot harder to swing later on in life. Trust me.
• I can see wanting to be near home, but going away can help develop self confidence. If you'd like, look at my undergrad: University of St. Thomas in Houston, TX. It's a small school (approx 5K students, there were 1.5K when I went there) and the class size is about 15 students per class (I had one class with 4 people in it). They have one of the best international studies departments in the country (they send people to law school a lot), and also have good philosophy and history depts. Grad schools like to see that you've taken philosophy classes, because they think that means you can think. UST is kind of an expensive school, but they give out tons of scholarships. I got a full ride just for my SAT scores (I was a solid B student in hi school). I think something like 50% of the student body has *something* in scholarships. Also, the school is in a really cool part of Houston.
• Bubble bursting time. If you are thinking forward to the point in time where you go to grad school - in all seriousness, are you contemplating this because you want a career in academia? For far too many people, there _is_ no such thing as a career in academia. And the humanities are as bad as any. Take the time to stroll through this, now defunct, website. There is some bitterness to be found in the comments there, but less than you would expect. Universities are brutal places to get employment in at the moment, and for at least many many years to come.
• Captain Sunshine and Patita- I went to Skidmore too. I graduated in '95. Hey, are you the Captain Sunshine from the Mysterians?
• As far as the exchange student thing goes, it was common at my school to spend half or all of your junior year abroad at various programs where you got full credit - so don't feel that you have to do an exchange program before college. My brother took a term off film school to do a Spanish immersion program in Barcelona, without getting credits - there's always that option, too.
• goddam- Skidmore had sports? ;)
• No, I don't want a a job at a university, that sounds like hell. And goddamn, I know people who go to RIT, they love it, but there no way I would ever be able to/want to go there. In a family of engineers, I am the definite black sheep.
• well, we weren't all engineers. i was in the school of art and design. but, yeah, i can see how you'd want to avoid a college such as RIT. (oh, and there's no "n" in my name :-)
• Bored of the Rings reference?
• Sorry goddam, I'll do better next time :'(
• we had polo! and field hockey! and a capella groups!
• If you want a lovely liberal (and I do mean liberal) arts college that, while technically isn't in New York, is full of students from that area, Oberlin College is a nice little place to spend four years. I look back fondly on my four years spent in rural Ohio. Egads, polo? That does not surprise me.
• humandictionary, please email me. I'm in the exact same boat as you are and would love to talk to you about this in greater detail. But, FYI, other monkeys, I am applying to: Wesleyan <-- one of my top two choices Skidmore Vassar Hamilton Middlebury which all sort of fit the job description. In addition I'm applying to Georgetown, George Washington, Tufts (my other top choice), Brown, and Boston College, but those aren't rural. Other suggestions: What Cali said - the five Massachusetts colleges. Reed. Bard. Colby. Williams. Bennington. My primary word of advice: Don't take what any one person says on this topic too seriously. Everyone has a different opinion and you will get razor-sharp arguments for every side of everything. Follow your heart, and make sure your heart knows where it's going. Fun fact: I was going to do a Curious George FPP within the next week on choosing between Tufts and Wesleyan... think I'll put it off until the deadline's even more uncomfortably close.
• Just apply to all of them, wait to get accepted, witness their courtship dance, then pick the one with the most colourful plumage.
• Read the course catelogues (of those that accept you), and find the ones that teach what really excites you.