Dickinson College

Date: Apr 20 2010
Major: Undecided (This Major's Salary over time)
Going to Dickinson College is one of the biggest regrets of my life. The college completely misrepresents what is required of students when talking to prospective students. I, myself, was deceived by the college's failure to communicate its academic demands. One must take about two semesters of courses that are Dickinson College Graduation Requirements, making it absolutely impossible to take courses for the sake of learning. The rest of your two years will go to your major, AND you spent $100,000 (and rising) your first two years going to classes you will most likely not enjoy. One must take two lab sciences (which are time-consuming and terrible if you are a humanities student), language up to 116, U.S. Diversity, etc. Certain courses fulfill more than one requirement; however the college will only let it count toward one, so then you must take another class at some point. i.e. Astronomy may fulfill Quantitative Reasoning and a Lab science, but only one at a time. So you have to take two courses even though you learn what is required of you in one. Dickinson gains many students through abroad programs; however there are many unstated restrictions, like you must take this many classes, know a language up to this level, etc. And with all the graduation requirements, it is difficult to fulfill abroad requirements, and on top of that, major requirements. But it is important to go abroad, even if you get stuck in Norwich, England, because presumably no town is more boring than Carlisle, PA.

Overall, I find this college to be terrible - even academically. On top of that, Campus Life is terrible, the college will not help you out as much as you need to be helped financially, and the town is awful. Maybe they're trying to make cultured, well-round students with their absurd amount of graduation requirements; I, however, will resent this college for the money and time they are stealing from me.