Goddard College

Date: Mar 03 2012
Major: Other (This Major's Salary over time)
I just finished my first semester after transferring to Goddard. I want to take the time to weigh in with my experience thus far. When I was researching potential schools, I was confused by the conflicting feedback regarding Goddard. Before attending, I got the sense that the school was unapologetic about not being a good fit for everyone. I was also aware of some strange undercurrents re: financial stability.

Based on my experience to this point, I could not have made a better choice. They currently operate only under a low-residency model that was is a wonderful fit for current lifestyle. I'm a mother of two young sons, and am completing my degree more than a decade after starting it. I am wholeheartedly invested in my academic success and making the most out of my time there, and I feel like everyone I've dealt with at Goddard is willing to meet me at my level of investment.

The work is demanding. Being self designed and a totally different educational paradigm, I feel like my first semester there was as much about learning about the Goddard system as it was learning the material that I intended to study. But I feel much more grounded going into my last three semesters. My advisor was wonderfully supportive, an effective resource, and struck the perfect balance between validating and encouraging, but also pushing me when I needed a push, and just generally not letting me sell myself short.

To be fair, not everyone in my program has reported having such a compatible relationship with their advisor. But talking to a large group of folks, you're likely to hear just as many people that had a positive experience with an advisor as those that had a negative one. Qualities that one student might appreciate might be less valued by another student. As cliche as it sounds, it really is all

part of the process,

and truly does build life learning skills as well. How many of us are lucky enough to get through life without having to do our best in dealing with a less-than-ideal situation with a co-worker, supervisor, or in-law?

This article gives some helpful backstory on the College. It helped make me feel a bit more comfortable about investing in attending here. Based on feedback from other students at my last residency (it was my first semester there, so I had no point of comparison), Goddard has been putting money back into the school's infrastructure, and has updated facilities, dorms, overhauled the meal plan, and has plans for continued improvements. While the accommodations were far from posh, they were clean and comfortable, and anytime I had a concern I was met with appropriate responsiveness.

As with any group of students (or faculty), there's plenty of variation in personality. While diverse in some ways, in general, students/faculty attracted to Goddard tend to be individualists, and some dogmatically so. On the whole, though, I was pleasantly surprised with the level of connection established within our group during the week of residency, and that which has been sustained via various social media efforts during the time between residencies.

So, yes … Goddard isn't for everyone. But if you're attracted to this model of education, but are concerned about some of the conflicting feedback, don't be put off from looking into it more thoroughly. Goddard has an "Ambassador Program" where you can be connected with recent students to get a first hand feedback on their experience. It seems like there's distinct variation between current feedback and that is more dated. Also, you might want to find students who are in your particular program … it seems as if each program has a unique culture of its own.