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Hi! I'm from California, and basically the schools everyone knows about here are limited to the UC's, Stanford, and some of the ivies. I just applied to Connecticut College, and so far, the only information I have about Conn Coll is through guidebooks. If you know ANYTHING or have ANY comments on it, please post!
Thanks!
negative feedback is also appreciated

By Mmccullough (Mmccullough) on Friday, January 02, 2004 - 10:13 pm: Edit

I didn't take the tour, but I drove/walked around campus. It has a really pretty water view basically everywhere & the buildings are gorgeous--one step down from any Ivy's campus (except Cornell's). Everyone looked very preppy/WASPY, though I know it used to be the girls' counterpart to Wesleyan (which means it has very liberal roots). Does that help?

By Soozievt (Soozievt) on Friday, January 02, 2004 - 11:11 pm: Edit

My daughter has applied to Conn College and we visited last year, plus ironically I applied there when I was your/her age and got in but never attended but did visit back in high school too. The campus is very pretty New England style liberal arts school, lots of stone buildings. The school is on the small side, about 1800 students. It is a fine school and hard to get into but not as hard as the top tier. The students who apply are strong students. They are big on the honor code there. After freshman year, everyone gets singles. We did not find the kids to appear Preppy or Waspy. Rather one striking thing was that throughout our daylong visit, kids approached us asking if we needed help and were overly friendly. One drawback (if you care about this sort of thing) is that the school is self contained and nothing is in walking distance. They have vans that take you into town but there is not much close by. So, most of the action is all campus related (which is not a bad thing of course). I have no idea your intended major but my D met with the dept. head for her interest and liked the program alot and met with students in one of her EC interests as well. I realize you have not been able to visit but if there is a way to talk to professors and students, that is a good idea. I think it is a great school and I would think being from CA might be a little notch on your app cause I doubt there are tons of west coast kids interested in this school. There are a lot of east coast kids on campus.
Good luck.
Susan

By Marinakitchen (Marinakitchen) on Saturday, January 03, 2004 - 02:01 am: Edit

Thank you so much for your information, Susan and Mmccullough. I want to be an English major, do you think that Conn Coll is strong in that area? Many people have told me to apply because I want to go to Vassar, and I guess a lot of students who don't get in end up going to Connecticut as their second choice. Is the school well-known on the East Coast? Absolutely no one has heard of it here!

By Thedad (Thedad) on Saturday, January 03, 2004 - 02:57 am: Edit

Marina, I'm here in SoCal with you and I sympathize with your experience of everyone, including counselors, being so UC centered. UConn crossed my radar screen a while back--too small for my D, among other things--but it's a decent school. It makes perfectly good sense as a back-up to Vassar.

Btw, have you considered either Smith or Wellesley? (Smith's about the same league as Vassar, Wellesley is a little harder). Both of them are having local college preview parties locally next weekend.

By Boatboat (Boatboat) on Saturday, January 03, 2004 - 03:49 am: Edit

i applied to conn college as well. I visted this summer and it seemed like a very laid back friendly atmosphere...hope that helps!

By Soozievt (Soozievt) on Saturday, January 03, 2004 - 09:05 am: Edit

Thedad, you made a common error. Conn College is a different school than UConn. People do the same with UPenn and Penn State. But I think you really did mean Conn College cause you said you looked into it and I doubt you looked into UConn so it was just a name mistake. Conn College by the way is good in dance (in general). It is only a little smaller than Smith.
Susan

By Sooky6 (Sooky6) on Saturday, January 03, 2004 - 09:45 am: Edit

Conn has a good reputation across the disciplines, including the arts, natural sciences including environmental studies. Its a lovely campus in a pretty sleepy location (the US Coast Guard Academy is down the road, but cadets can't leave campus much.) I consider it easily on a par with Vassar in terms of quality, but a more athletic and less avant garde kind of atmosphere. If you want to study English, you can't lose.

By Njgirl (Njgirl) on Saturday, January 03, 2004 - 01:02 pm: Edit

I had an interview there about two weeks ago. The person who interviewed me was very friendly, and a graduate of Conn himself. Like everyone else mentioned, the campus is very nice. They have a strong humanities department from what I've heard as well as good term abroad study options. I'm not too sure how hard it is to get into this school; I know a friend's older sister who was salutatorian at a public school in CT did not get in, but I also know people who use Conn as a safety school and aren't top, top students. Anyway, good luck!

By Thedad (Thedad) on Saturday, January 03, 2004 - 01:33 pm: Edit

Susan, you're right: brain cramp. I was talking about Conn Coll but wrote UConn. Regarding size, I think Conn Coll is about 1900, Smith is about 2650.

By Marinakitchen (Marinakitchen) on Saturday, January 03, 2004 - 03:34 pm: Edit

TheDad-
SoCal, huh? I'm from Santa Barbara, what about you?

Anyway, so far from the information I've gathered, the only thing that concerns me is the comment that students are WASPy. I've looked into other sources (princeton review) which said that most of the students are from wealthy backgrounds and prep schools. The same goes for the information on studentsreview.com...Perhaps this is true to any expensive college. Well, thank you all so much for your feedback.

By Thedad (Thedad) on Saturday, January 03, 2004 - 03:50 pm: Edit

Marina, I went to school at UCSB. Live in Santa Monica now.

By Soozievt (Soozievt) on Saturday, January 03, 2004 - 07:59 pm: Edit

Marina....this is a teensy sample but my D who is applying is Jewish and lives in rural Vermont. We are not wealthy and she goes to public school and is first in her class. Anyway, I do not think everyone who goes there fits the description you just mentioned. Another girl from our school is applying (my daughter is the one who told her about Conn College) and she is half Jewish, also lives on a dirt road as we do. So, go figure.
Susan

By Garland (Garland) on Monday, January 05, 2004 - 01:24 pm: Edit

If it's not too late, you could also look into Bard as a Vassar alternate. It's fairly avante gardy, and has a good English/writing reputation.
It's also located in the Hudson Valley.

By Marinakitchen (Marinakitchen) on Tuesday, January 06, 2004 - 09:33 pm: Edit

lol I already applied EDII to Vassar. Bard's deadline is the 15th

By Marinakitchen (Marinakitchen) on Saturday, January 10, 2004 - 02:52 am: Edit

bump