Franklin and Marshall College

Yeah academically I think the school is doing well, very rigorous standards and I've met many stellar professors. Yet the student body is very white-centric and pretty close-minded, in comparison to the students I met in other universities. What's sad is that the school management seems very tolerant to such racist acts (3 major ones I've heard, and that is after my graduation).

Of course there are many nice and welcoming people, but do understand that quite many are at least very racism insensitive, if not racist themselves.Oh, btw, the food, was terrible. Hope they have improved. In a word, I do not feel good towards the pricinpal and the school management team, as you could prolly tell.

Alumnus Male -- Class 2000

I went to Franklin and Marshall College from 2018-2019. They lured me in with good tuition (I'm a low income student). I hated the school so much that I transferred.

First of all, the student population is mostly privileged and prissy jerks. Unless you fit into that population, you won't feel happy or included at all.

The college likes to say that there is diversity but the college couldn't care less about students of color, LGBT students, or students of different economic backgrounds. They treat you like a number. The school definitely feels like a business instead of a place of learning.

I would say that most students are generally stressed, depressed, and reliant on drugs and alcohol to cope with the severe amounts of work thrown at them. It's sad how many times I would hear people talking about their alcoholism in Blue Line or at the dining hall.

My biggest point of contention is with professors and the academics. They're labeled as "rigorous" but I would just call it unnecessarily difficult for no reason. I would have hours and hours of work per night. So many people are working in their rooms or the library constantly so you never really see people outside. It felt like a wasteland walking around campus most days.

Also, housing is really subpar for the price. The first thing I saw in my dorm was a huge house centipede. Most college houses have super small rooms that feel claustrophobic as hell. Plus, the bathrooms in my dorm were absolutely disgusting.

The food definitely doesn't boost morale either. Most times, it was either unpalatable garbage or freezing cold. Most of the food employees hate their job and you can tell.

To make it worse, the college doesn't really have any helpful ways to destress or have fun, so I was constantly on the verge of a breakdown because of the stress. Just because service animals come once a semester doesn't mean that the mental health problems are solved. Way too many people I knew got sent home on medical leave because of mental illness.

I know way too many people there who wish they would've transferred from all different departments. That really says something about the school.In my freshman experience, I would do homework 90% of my time, rarely sleeping, eating or socializing. When I did make friends, they were really overworked and could barely hang out. It sucked. My family was so worried about me taking my own life because of how much the school wrecked me. I withdrew as soon as I got home from spring semester of 2019 and transferred to a state school. I have zero regrets about leaving. Franklin and Marshall ruined my spirits, mental health, and almost cost me my life. Please explore your other options before you try and attend this school.

1st Year Male -- Class 1922

Campus Aesthetics: B, Education Quality: F

Well I'm your stereotypical F&M student on paper. White, rich, smart and an athlete. I was highly recruited for my sport but due to my stupid decision to slack off my first semester of senior year, Williams revoked their offer and my only option was F&M. When you visit F&M having not gone there, it seems like an awesome place. I said after my visit that it might actually not be such a bad consolation prize. Then first semester started. We found out we were not allowed to go out for the first week of school and not allowed to go to any frats for three weeks. I quickly found out the social scene here is very cliquey given how small/diverse the student body is. There are a lot of international or just weird kids who don't go out or try to---i'd say that makes up 50% of the student body. For the 1200 remaining kids, you pretty much have to be on a sports team or greek life to have social options. Even then, you're probably looking at around 3-4 nights a week where there's a place to go. I was on a team, so I get into my team's parties but as a freshman you're pretty much isolated with your younger teammates because our upperclassmen usually invite people we just don't know. I was hoping that maybe it would get better if I joined a frat. To put it in perspective, there are 6 frats here, but really 3 of them carry the "Benefits" of being in greek life--the others are kind of irrelevant. I accepted a bid from one of those three but dropped because the hazing was just brutal. I realized it's just not worth it for such a small school like this. Aside from this, F&M takes security way too seriously. For a school of 2400, they literally have 5 cop cars and one unmarked vehicle as well. You have to register all parties with the school (more than 20 ppl) and they set limits on how much booze can be there. This is part of the reason why it's hard to get on the lists of parties as a guy. To sum it up, the social scene is dominated by greek life and a couple sports teams with the most pull. Getting on lists as a guy is very hard. On top of this, the school is draconian with their policies. I'd recommend F&M to any attractive girls, douchey athletes/future greek members, or anyone that doesn't care about social life at all. For those in between who want to have fun but aren't your type A type people, don't go here. Back home, I never had problems with social life/girls etc. but here I am sitting in my dorm room most nights knowing I'd be having a better time somewhere else. I blame F&M for all the mental problems I have been going through this year, which I had never experienced before in my life.

On the bright side, academics are good here. Classes are small, profs are great and if you do the work, you'll be able to to well here. So many kids here complain about how hard the school is. My explanation for this is that F&M is an elite liberal arts school but they aren't really quite yet known as being a top school, so the quality of their applicants is much less qualified than that of NESCAC schools. If you're smart and did well at a good high school, it isn't hard at all. I think it's even easier than high school. However, tuition here is so high because F&M is in so much debt and they raise tuition every year to correct for it. That's why it's a divided school in that half the kids are super rich and paying for the reduced/no tuition for the other half on financial aid.At the end all I can say is do not come here unless your are one of the types of people I mentioned above. Worse case scenario is you're not that smart, got in because you were rich, do poorly and end up with no job. And to top it off you didn't even have a good college experience at all. Franklin and Marshall is basically like high school part 2 but worse.

1st Year Male -- Class 1922

Perceived Campus Safety: A+, Individual Value: F