Dickinson College

Date: May 16 2012
Major: Other (This Major's Salary over time)
First I wanted to say that I am an International Studies major, an RA and a tour guide. I went to a public high school where I was used to being one of the smartest kids without trying too hard. I knew I wanted to go to a college where I would be challenged and now I work my ass off to stay above a 3.0 in order to keep my scholarship.

I knew I wanted to be a Dickinson student as soon as I went for a visit. Our motto is ?Engage the World? and from the very beginning I wanted to drink the kool-aid. There is a huge international feel to the school from the outstanding study abroad program, the generous amount of international students, the push to learn a foreign language, to just the general feeling that there is a huge world out there and we have to be ready to not only face it but give of ourselves to improve it. Now I know that sounds like someone who has been volunteering in the admissions office too long but I truly feel this way and it was the reason that I decided to go to Dickinson.

I am going to address and explain a few topics that I had to grade the school on.

Safety: As an RA I have seen just about the craziest things that have happened on the campus. With that said I do feel safe on campus. I am also a smart girl and never do anything stupid to put myself in danger, something that everyone should do wherever they are. Carlisle is not Disney World but it?s definitely not west Philly either. Day time I feel safe on and off campus by myself. At night I want to be with at least one friend especially off campus. Campus Safety officers (what we call DPS) are always around and more so at night. They are nice and reasonable people as long as you are respectful.

Aesthetics: Its beautiful, look at the pictures. When I got to campus I just thought, ?Yup this is what a college should look like.? One minor negative it rains often so if you are prone to melting it may not be a good idea to live in Carlisle.

Social Life: If you ask different people you will get different answers, but I think I have an even perspective. My roommate freshman year transferred after one semester because of social life. She is now in a huge city, at a huge university that is known as a huge party school, Dickinson was not for her at all. We are in the middle of PA in small town there are not the benefits of a huge metropolitan area. However anyone who complains about nothing being around or in Carlisle I just think, ?It is because you are too lazy to look past your nose and actually put in effort to find fun things to do off campus.? So if you?re lazy don?t come to Dickinson. As for on campus there are many things to do and you only have to look at your email notices or at the flyer located on every caf table. We are a small school but there are always school sponsored events which I do like to attend.

Greek: We have a few sororities and frats. I think the stat is 20% of the campus is Greek. I am not in a sorority but I do really like the Greek system. I encourage people to rush. There is no pressure to pledge and so why not see if you want to be a part of it. (Just a bit of info: you can rush a frat for the first time as a 2nd semester freshman and you can rush a sorority as a 1st semester sophomore so it is not like you do it right away or anything. I think it gives you a chance to establish yourself at the school before making a big decision like that.) This may be a good place to talk about partying. I do like to party not every night but on the weekends I definitely like to have a bit of fun. The groups that have parties are mostly Greek organizations, sports teams, and occasionally other types of groups on campus. If you are not a part of one of these organizations or have friends that are, it is not easy to get into a party especially for guys. There is also a strong effort by public safety to bust parties. It?s not a huge party school but it is still college, let?s be honest things can sometimes get crazy! ;)

Extracurricular: This is a strong point of the school. I dare say there is a group on campus for every single student. I already said there is Greek, obviously athletics, theater, music dance, student government, religious life, community service, newspapers, radio, academic clubs, and a bunch of random other ones. Look them up on the Dickinson website I took a look and it is a pretty good list and as far as I know they are all active.

As a tour guide I get asked all the time what my least favorite part of Dickinson is or if I could change one thing what would it be. For me I wish we had more school spirit even for our sporting teams. Not that there is none, but it would be fun to go to a school where we come out in all of our Devil pride and had a bit more of that ra ra mentality. I know that is hard to expect from a small, rather academic, DIII school.

No place is perfect but I have found a home at Dickinson College where I am being pushed academically, I am enjoying this college community, and I do feel that after I graduate I will be ready to become a successful citizen of the world.