Sarah Lawrence College

Date: Mar 22 2006
Major: History/Histories (art history/etc.) (This Major's Salary over time)
While Sarah Lawrence enjoys an excellent reputation in the field of Academics, the actual living experience leaves something to be desired.

The academics, while demanding, are well worth it. The professors are a helpful as possible, and do everything to make themselves accessible. This is, of course, in addition to the conference system. In addition to your twice-weekly main seminar courses (of only 15 or less people), there is a biweekly conference - a one on one meeting with the professor in which you discuss topics pertaining to the class and other such fun. Your conference work, while not necessarily pertaining directly to the class, is related, but something you want to go more in depth about.

Case in point: "Introduction to African-American History." While we are primarily addressing the social movements brought about during the 20th century, I preferred to focus on the power of jazz as a social tool. A friend of mine is focusing on blacks in the military, and so forth. The system is demanding, but it's what YOU want to learn, and so it is more "fun" than anything.

The administration, on the other hand, is downright hostile to students - they simply don't care. The advisory boards, including the new Presidential Search Committee board, only have a token one or two students at best. Our input is not valued, and regardless of whether or not one gets the response of "we'll look into it," no real change is ever present.

It is easy to compare the administration to a totalitarian society as opposed to a democracy. In a democracy, what the politicians fear most is the voters - but in the sense that they must be kept happy. They are beholden to their constituents, which is why they vote in the voters' interest. A totalitarian goverment also lives in fear of it's citizens - but for an entirely different reason. They are afraid that these constituents will reveal 'the man behind the curtain,' so to speak, and therefore do everything possible to quash dissent.

The school is operating with a multi-million dollar deficit, and being the highest-priced private college in the entire United States ($40,000+ a year), the tuition is obviously one of the few things keeping them afloat. One would think that, stemming from this vulnurability, they would be responsive, that is not the case.

Nit-picky and up-in-arms about the slightest thing, with mountains of beauracracy to go around just to see your transcript, the administration is the strongest reason to not attend SLC.