Franklin and Marshall College

Date: May 30 2005
Major: English (This Major's Salary over time)
I'm not sure where to start. I feel a certain obligation to post something here… I used this site during my college search and now, it's my time to give back to it.

I spent a year at F&M. I am not going back next year despite being there on a full-tuition scholarship. My happiness, ultimately, is worth more to me than any price tag.

I believe that academically, the school is strong. Professors give a damn, give you a lot of work, and expect you to evidence critical and creative thinking. As a liberal arts major, I always had plenty of reading and writing to do. Once in a while I felt overwhelmed, but the workload is generally manageable granted you stay on top of it. Also, I feel forever indebted to a few professors on campus that truly, truly cared not only what I learned but also how I fared overall at college.

I reserve my academic criticisms for, mainly, the breadth of courses offered and the structure of individual majors. This is a small school, and consequently, you don't get a whole lot of courses to choose from. Before I really looked into it, I was perfectly content with the courses offered at F&M; now that I'm looking at course selections at large universities, the difference is stark. In addition, don't expect to find any course here to be even remotely vocational. Administration and professors will tell you that as a liberal arts college, F&M teaches you "how to think." Sure, that's great. Unfortunately, I don't feel that I learned anything even slightly applicable to anything outside of academia.

That said, the structure of individual majors don't allow for much room to explore within the major. I was an English major and I had room for one elective. Ten required courses otherwise dictated the major. That's not my idea of a good time. At college, I'd like to be able to take what I want to take. This is not just characteristic of English either. All departments have vast requirements to complete majors.

Campus food… it's OK. There are many places to eat (6 on campus I believe), but it's always the same thing. I don't think one can expect to find amazing food at any college in America. However, a movement against Sodexho on campus has gained steam and I'm curious to see what changes as a result of this.

Lancaster is, generally, a shithole. No one really leaves campus except to go to the mall or the beer distributor. Lancaster residents and cops loathe F&M students and F&M students hate Lancaster. Go to a real city for college! Your social options will be considerably more vast!

Finally, my biggest problem with F&M and the main reason in my decision to transfer: students and social life.

Frats dominate not only weekend life, but all of social life at F&M. If you are a thinking person who decides against paying for his friends at college, you will need to be "guest listed" by one of the sheep of the flock in order to drink cheap beer in a dark, dirty basement. "Guest listed." Think that over for a minute.

Frats are also completely divided along sports teams. There is, essentially, the lacrosse/elitist frat, baseball frat, basketball frat, tennis frat (yes, tennis frat), and football frat. The two other fraternities may as well not exist. This doubly encourages cliques, which are a fact of life on campus. Cliques form immediately, and if you're not fortunate enough to live in one of the freshman dorms, you may never be able to really get to know anyone outside of your hall.

The collar-popped pink polo shirt culture on campus is dominant. Everyone wears North Face. A lot of the time, I can't distinguish kids on campus from each other. There are Facebook groups entitled "Collars down is for poor people" and "if you're loaded and you know it…" Diversity - forget about it. This has to be one of the most white (and white-bred) schools in the nation.

Generally, the kids are very unfriendly (unless, of course, they want you to join their frat), self-absorbed, cliquey, conservative, and mainstream. This is excepting the (maybe) 3 people I actually care to ever see again. Nearly everyone is from

right outside Philly,

somewhere in New Jersey, or downstate New York. As I said, it does not make for an extremely diverse or interesting group of people. Having graduated from a public school out of that demographic, coming to F&M was a culture shock.

Anti-intellecutalism is rampant on campus. Learning is seen as a chore rather than an investment. I now know that this is prevalent on most campuses, but if you're expecting F&M to be a warm, fuzzy, liberal arts college that promotes growth and furthers you blah blah blah… don't. It's what I expected and was horribly disappointed.

In conclusion, I would really give the school a hard look before deciding to enroll. Talk to students, ask about frats, ask about Lancaster hating F&M (despite the College's claim that it's effectively bridging campus and community). I would hate anyone to be misled as I believe that I was upon deciding to come to F&M.

PS - If you don't drink, don't come to F&M. I don't drink and it was miserable being on campus without ANYTHING to do on the weekends besides go to frats and try to talk to idiot drunk people.