Westminster College

Date: Sep 12 2008
Major: Economics (This Major's Salary over time)
Small liberal arts school. I came in as a guitarist, only to find out that there was absolutely no place where I could jam out, no matter if I joined a frat or stayed in the dorms. What kind of liberal arts school doesn't support music?

The first week here I was told that if I wasn't planning on joining groups, I may as well not be here. I was also told that essays and presentations were the norm here because it's such a small campus- sort of annoying to be told your first week that because of a campus's reputation, you're going to work a lot harder to get the same type of degree, just because. This means classes often carry between 10%-25% participation grades, which will be lost after a certain amount of absences, regardless of if you make up the missed work or not.

The campus is beautiful, but there's an enforced smoking ban 50 feet from all doors, so cigarette butts are everywhere.

There's such buzz about going to college and getting to live your own life and screw it up and bounce back. Not at this campus. Mandatory attendance policies also mean you automatically drop a letter grade or lose points on the final after 3-4 missed classes. Missing class is excused automatically for sports, but you have to talk to professors if there was an actual family emergency to have it "cleared". The RAs don't mess around, and will get you for drinking. So, you can either join a fake brotherhood frat house and pledge your life to a couple strangers, then OVER drink with them, or you can drink by yourself and have an RA randomly walk into your room, write you an infraction, and give you a fine.

Two views on this. One, it's a great educational experience. Since there's so few students, it offers a very direct learning experience. The fact that you have attendance enforcements and the fact that you face a lot of trouble for drinking just means that the college cares SO MUCH about you that they don't want you to even have the choice to fail. The other viewpoint is, it's high school in a handbag, except harsher punishments for incredibly minor things.

Kids here still feel like high schoolers. I expected a hundred kids who were deep thinkers and open minded, maybe some musicians and artists and painters, kids who would stay up all night talking, maybe drinking occasionally if it helped the atmosphere. Instead, it's mostly jocks, which surprised me. I was told that Greeks hung out with people who weren't Greek, but I'm quickly finding out that most frat guys just talk to you to recruit you; feels like a car salesman every time.

If you want a place that gives a strong education, where your name will be known by virtually everyone in a matter of weeks, and where your teachers know where you live, your email address, cell phone number, etc, go here. You won't fail educationally. You'll get a degree from a highly-reputable school, and your professors will see to that.

If you want the college experience, the laid back atmosphere, the crazy nights of drinking and making friendships that last forever and falling in love, the schoolwork that doesn't feel like it's from high school, don't come here.