Knox College

Date: May 17 2011
Major: Language - French/Spanish/etc. (This Major's Salary over time)
If I had to do undergrad over again, I wouldn't have gone to Knox. I only came to the school because several family members were alumni and they gave me a fairly decent financial aid package.

I was a varsity athlete, and to be honest, a mediocre high school team could beat Knox's varsity teams in any given sport. We always finished last in every sport in the conference, and the athletes were more concerned about the post game drinking than the actual games themselves.
For a school that was supposed to be "egalitarian", I found it to be rather conformist. While there are some very nice people, a fair number were arrogant, twofaced, and intolerant. I had suitemates who spread untrue rumors about me and others all over campus during my freshman year. I think in many ways it colored how I felt about the social life. There is the wide range from LARPers to high school benchwarmer jock. Students want to say they are liberal, but really they all parrot views their professors tell them, just to look socially acceptable to their peers.

As for parties, they were rather lame. Same 60 people gyrating to Lil Jon and awkwardly groping at each other hoping for some affection from another desperate person with mommy and daddy issues. Most people were over the frat parties by sophomore year. There isn't a lot of selection barwise, so visit your friends on other campuses or go to Peoria, if not, take a trip to Chicago or Iowa City.
There was only one thing that really made Knox worthwhile to me, and that was studying abroad. They did do a good job with their Spain program. However, I can honestly say I didn't feel very challenged or like I remember a lot from my studies. If you didn't kiss ass, your professors tended to ignore you. I was never someone that felt the need to push my agenda on my classmates, so I felt overall ignored. FP is a total joke, depending on the professor you get. I learned more in junior and senior year of high school about writing and thinking for myself.

That being said, Knox has a great library, a crappy endowment, and if you aren't majoring in science or creative writing, it doesn't totally prepare you for the real world. I know too many Econ majors that are now making a career of waitressing or working at Enterprise. I live in a large city with many Knox alumni who haven't ever tried to break out of the Knox bubble. For this reason, I don't associate with them, give the school money, or attend alumni events.

Knox is good for idealistic liberals who have little experience with the real world. Meanwhile, this kid should have stuck with a good old Jesuit education.