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| Not so bright | Great college. Really enjoyed my experience there. Foreign study is a huge bonus and all students should seriously look into it. Fun city, too. | Starting Job: Research Engineer, Preparedness: -, Reputation: - |  | |
| | Mar 22 2001 | Alumnus Male --
Class 2000 | | Blog it!Blog about this comment from your webpage or Blog, or MySpace account:
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My experience at Kalamazoo College has given me the necessary tools to succeed in whatever path I've taken since graduation. The key skills I learned at 'K' include time management skills, goal-refining skills, and the ability to find ways to continually challenge myself further in new projects and endeavors. I believe 'K' is most rewarding to those who have a high degree of ambition or those who are willing to explore new resources and develop new relationships. Programs I took advantage of include: GLCA New York Arts Program; study abroad program in Tokyo, Japan; and the SIP Abroad Fellowship for students wanting to do their senior project overseas.
The well-rounded education 'K' provides will create a flexibility after graduation that I believe is hard to find in graduates from other schools. For example, I majored in Art and will be applying to business schools this Fall in pursuit of an MBA. I also have a friend who graduated from the Health Science Department, worked in a research hospital long enough to contribute to a published paper, and is now at the top culinary school in the US.
Although I am still paying on my student loans, I consider the money well spent. And I look forward to donating money back to 'K' in the future to help improve the experience of current K students. | Preparedness: -, Reputation: - | | |
| | Jul 03 2001 | Alumnus Male --
Class 2000 | | Blog it!Blog about this comment from your webpage or Blog, or MySpace account:
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| Bright |
Kalamazoo College was the school I was really hoping to get into when I did my college applications my senior year of high school. I really wanted to go there, due to all the great things I had heard about the school, the staff, the campus, the atmosphere, and everything about it. I applied to it early decision because I wanted to go there so badly, and found out in December from an letter that was hand delivered to me by members of the admissions department that I got in (and honestly, I was surprised I got in because it was supposedly a very competitive year.) But after being at school for a couple quarters, I realized that it was not at all what I thought it would be.
I knew that it was supposedly a slightly "dorky" school, where smart, but slightly odd went, where they could all fit in and strive to do well together, but the environment ended up being, to me, quite negative. The students were all incredibly competitive and closed-minded (it is a very liberal school) and even for someone like me who is quite moderate and empathetic to both sides, can end up being shot down by a student or professor for having an alternate view, no matter how small.
Kalamazoo also prides itself on the hundreds of different student-created groups that it has, but the groups end up having very few people in it (the largest groups being 15, the average being about 6 people), and having very little funding.
I also went to kalamazoo because it really promoted its music department, and said that it had several student orchestras that I could participate in. I had been an active violinist all throughout high school, and was really excited to continue with orchestra at the college level, but the orchestra was nothing like I had read about or been told by the college. The orchestra was 60% community members, so most students sat with older adults, ages 40+, and as a freshman, it was incredibly difficult to get to know other students when I was surrounded by adults (my standpartner was a fellow students grandmother). So the student atmosphere I had anticipated for the orchestra was non existent. And the new, young conductor it had tended to be very crabby, and would yell at students who were not playing up to snuff, verbally attacking them in front of the entire orchestra. And the lack of students in the orchestra was not due to the few students the school has, but due to the intensive cuts the conductor made so that the orchestra could be mostly community members, and few students so that it could be "at the level he thought it should be". So the musical environment I had looked forward to and expected was not there at all.
*********Finally, the GPA system was absolutely ridiculous. From what professors and admissions directors said, the average GPA at Kalamazoo college was around a 2.7, which one would expect to be a bit higher since the college is always talking about the "intellectual students" it has, and how brilliant all we students were. But it was virtually impossible to get an A in several classes. The college works on a GPA scale that says that an A and A- is a 4.0, a B+, B, and B- is a 3.0, a C+, C, and C- is a 2.0 and so on. And that sounds great if you got an A- and your GPA went down as a 4.0 for that class, but the problem was that many professors simply "did not give A's" as several of my professors had told me my freshman year. Due to the way the GPA system worked, many professors, in order to keep their class rigorous, and so that they would not reward students for what they did not think was "4.0 material" they would give students who deserved A-'s B+'s instead. It doesn't seem like a huge difference, and wasn't in high school, but with the way that GPA works, you would get a 3.0 GPA instead of a 3.5, which looks terrible on an application to grad school if they don't know the school (which most out of state schools don't). So the classes were made unfair, and made it incredibly difficult to get a good GPA, even with just one B range grade.
Not to mention, the social life was virtually non-existent, especially winter quarter, when the school seems to turn into a barren, VERY cold desert. It isn't uncommon to be walking around campus at midday on a week day and see no one outside, or a weekend evening, and to see NO ONE. The social life outside of a few parties at the FEW nearby houses on campus was incredibly weak, if that.
thus, I was incredibly disappointed with kalamazoo college, I felt that all the hype I had heard and all the information it had given me about its reputation was untrue, so I transferred schools after my freshman year. I originally had no plans to do so, and tried as hard as I could to make the school more fun, but the abysmal social life, the lame student groups, and the ridiculous GPA system forced me to move elsewhere. I'm no partier, so I thought Kalamazoo would be a great place for me, but after a year, I knew it was time to move to a better, more lively school that didn't make me miserable. | Campus Maintenance: A-, Scholastic Success: F | | | |
| | Aug 07 2008 | 1st Year Female --
Class 2011 | | Blog it!Blog about this comment from your webpage or Blog, or MySpace account:
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| Quite Bright | I looked at going to a number of other schools, both small and large, and settled on "K" as my sister, now a doctor who studied anthropology there, loved it. I really enjoyed the smaller size of the school and the accessibility of the faculty. When I first started college I had no idea what I wanted to study, and was able to meet with several department heads early on to figure out what it was I wanted to pursue in terms of a major. I found the classes challenging, which was reflected initially in my GPA as my work ethic from high school, do nothing and get A's, didn't exactly work at "K". The school does a great job at getting you to expand your view of the world and is often recognized as a leader in this area of higher ed. I spent a my junior year in Africa, did a Summer project in Madrid, and was awarded two post-grad fellowships upon graduation, one in France and another in Germany. While I agree with others that "K" is best for those who plan to go to grad school, I think in many ways this is because "K" grads are true liberal arts folks and use their undergraduate experience to quench their thirst for pure knowledge rather than study what could be termed more practical subjects like accounting, business, etc. I wouldn't give up my experience for anything. I know I'm a more well rounded, unique, and out-of-the-box thinker due to my time at "K"... | Starting Job: Study Abroad Program Manager, Preparedness: A+, Reputation: B+ | | |
| | May 02 2005 | Alumnus Male --
Class 2000 | | Blog it!Blog about this comment from your webpage or Blog, or MySpace account:
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