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I just typed up this whole thing and then accidentally deleted it...so here I go again.

Anyway, I'm a freshman at a state university and not entirely happy here. Academically it is not challenging and the students are not very motivated or intelligent. I did well in high school but decided to go to the state university so that I could live at home and avoid dorm life. Dorm life sounds fun in abstract but I was scared to be in a situation where there was a lot of partying, drinking, and drug use. My high school was full of kids like that I hated going to school with them and could not imagine living with people like that.

So I'm looking for a school that has strict policies on underage drinking and drug use, where the students are academically motivated (without being overly competitive), and the party scene is minimal. I'm not religious so a religious shcool won't really work for me.

Also, I'd like to be a foreign language major so the I'd like a school with a solid foreign language department. I'm mostly interested in French but also would like to study Italian, German, and Spanish.

Preferably I'd like to find a school in the northeast but that's not really the most important thing right now.

any ideas would be much appreciated!!!

By Thedad (Thedad) on Friday, October 24, 2003 - 01:37 pm: Edit

Smith sounds like a match. A friend of mine was a French major there, spent a year in Paris, and was very happy with her education there. It's a women's college but part of a five-college consortium so social opportunities are there.

By Tsdad (Tsdad) on Friday, October 24, 2003 - 02:56 pm: Edit

Middlebury. Great languages. Don't know about the partying though.

By Haon (Haon) on Friday, October 24, 2003 - 05:36 pm: Edit

there's a good bit of drinking at middlebury.

By Reidmc (Reidmc) on Saturday, October 25, 2003 - 12:10 am: Edit

No school will be free of underage drinking. I think smaller schools may be a better bet though. At small schools with serious student bodies most students live on campus or in college-owned housing where they are more easily observed and/or controlled.

Most colleges will offer decent programs in the languages you list. AS noted above, Middlebury is a good school for languages. Another in the northeast with very good language programs is Dickinson College.

By Clickspring (Clickspring) on Saturday, October 25, 2003 - 03:42 am: Edit

go to a school in a city so the students will have other options besides just bars/parties. if you go to a school out in the middle of nowhere, that's all the kids will have to do. go some place with culture

By Adh713 (Adh713) on Saturday, October 25, 2003 - 04:26 pm: Edit

Thanks so much for your input.

I had thought about Middlebury. I'm really interested in their summer language programs, too, so if you have any thoughts on that I'd love to hear those, too.

I'll check out Dickinson, too. Thanks

By Adh713 (Adh713) on Wednesday, October 29, 2003 - 06:23 pm: Edit

any other ideas out there?

By Coureur (Coureur) on Thursday, October 30, 2003 - 04:01 pm: Edit

Look at Mt. Holyoke too. It didn't seem like a party school when I toured there with my daughter.
They were intent on showing that they are Serious Women.