The New School

The last college I visited was the New School and I actually took two tours one of their liberal arts college and one of their drama school. The New School is a collection of schools for mostly artists that was founded by academics who felt like outcasts at traditional colleges. In some cases a student can get two degrees one at a arts program and one at the liberal arts program. But, the drama school has only been around for two years so it is not possible to get a degree in Drama and a degree at the liberal arts college. Because of this I am going to talk about each school I toured individually.

I toured the liberal arts college first so that's where I'll start. The academics seemed appropriately rigorous but I had a problem with the social scene. The school is located in random buildings in a ten block area in New York City and most students don't live in dorms. I want a college where I can be apart of a community and I'm not sure that the community at the New School is a that active. All in all I'm not sure that the New School's liberal arts school would be the right fit for me.

The New School's Drama school might be a much better fit. A student who wants to be an Actor really couldn't ask to be in a better place than  New York City. However, like I said above I'm not sure what the community of the New School is like. I think it would be better in the drama school simply because it is a smaller program. The curriculum that I have heard about is rigorous and focuses on lots of different facets of drama and requires students to take classes in all of them all through there four years of study. The tour guide also talked about how students often go to auditions while they are in school. Since the program is only two years old they have now information about what students do after graduation; however, since it is a new program there is and will be lots of input from students about how the school works which would be a unique opportunity. In conclusion I might consider the New School for drama but not their liberal art's college.

Bard

Bard college was a fun college to tour. However I'm not sure what exactly I think about it it had its negative and positive aspects. I liked the artsy vibe of campus, its work ethic, and its environmental consciousness; however, lots of people on campus were smoking, there were extra time commitments outside of the regular school year for first years, and I've heard bad things about the economic standing of the college.    

I'm going to talk about the negative aspect of Bard first to that I can end this post on a happy note. I'm not a smoker and being on a campus where lots of people smoke would expose me to all the negative effects of smoke just seems like a silly idea and it also would make it more likely that I would start smoking and I don't want to put myself in that position. Next, while on the tour the tour guide talked about two programs for first years that involve coming to campus three week early and while it is good for academic development I'm not sure I want to give up six weeks of my breaks! Finally, I heard from a student on another tour who was transferring away from Bard, my father who read it in a academic journal, and a Bard professor that money at Bard is underfunded and that perhaps its funds are misused. This is not necessarily a huge problem but I think it is something that I should keep in mind.

Now on the positive side of Bard college. Like I saw at Oberlin there is an attitude of art and it seems like that art and performance seems to go on all the time. In fact, on the tour there was mention of a twenty four hour theater festival that seemed fantastic. There were also two different programs that showed me how rigorous academics at Bard must be the process of getting into a major and the senior thesis. Every student at Bard has to create a project and write papers about why they want to study a specific major before they can accepted into a major. Then at the end of each student's senior year they have a senior thesis which is a project that is a culmination of the of their work at Bard. These two things force students to work for their degree and that should keep them motivate: I want to be at a place where I will be motivated

Haverford

Haverford was the only college that I visited on this trip that I disliked. While the academics seemed rigorous there was no theater program and I did not hear anything about environment or community service while I was on campus. I was also told that each first year hall has eight upper class men is charge of them and who help make sure that the first years are doing Haverford "right" the tour guide also talked about have two faculty advisers and a dean who "protect" her and, from the stories she told, knew what was going on in her life without her telling them. It just seemed like a place where there was not any room to be an individual and to grow up and learn how to be an individual. If I went to Bryn Mawr I might take classes at Haverford but that's all.

Bryn Mawr

I liked Bryn Mawr a whole lot for a few reasons; the beautiful campus, the 360 courses, and the possibility to take classes at other colleges. It is a women college and I liked all the women I met there, the tour guide and most of the women who were looking at the college with me and the women I saw around the campus just going about their lives seemed nice as well.

Additionally, Bryn Mawr is full of gorgeous architecture and beautiful green spaces that inspired me. The campus' regal buildings made me walk a little straighter and it feels like an environment where the history as well a the current students inspires everyone to do and achieve more.

The academics at Bryn Mawr are also top notch and not just in individual disciplines  but in cross disciplinary ways as well. The most obvious way that this happens is through their 360 courses. 360 courses are a set of three classes that look at a question from three different disciplines. They are three of the four classes a student takes in a given semester and the allow said student to really get into a topic and look at it from lots of different angles.  

Another facet of Bryn Mawr that I liked was the possibility to take classes at Haverford, Swarthmore and Penn State. I like the academics Bryn Mawr and it has the Majors I am interested; however, it would be nice to have the opportunity to take classes with a broader range of professors and students. Additionally, since Bryn Mawr is a women college this collaboration would insure that one doesn't spend for years without seeing any men close to their own age.  

Over all I liked the campus I was inspired while I was there and I believe that if I went there I would continue to be inspired and I would all be challenged academically.

Allegheny

Allegheny College was the second college I visited on this trip and I was not expecting greatness and I didn't find it. However, I did find a sweet college that I could see myself attending. I got a personalized tour of the campus and saw everything from a dorm to the dining hall to the theater. I'm not entirely sure about the theater program at Allegheny; some people told me that one would be receiving a degree in communication art others said that it would be a degree in theater. If I can't receive a degree that says "theater" than I'm not sure I could go to Allegheny. I also cannot remember exactly how much was said about being environmental sustainable; nothing on the tour jumped out at me and even though there is an environmental studies program if the campus isn't working to be sustainable how much can the degree program do? All in all I liked the campus and almost everything I saw; however, I was not blown away by anything I saw either.  

Oberlin

School number one in the seven schools seven days trip and the school that I was most excited to visit before this trip. Rather high expectations and Oberlin definitely lived up to them! I like Oberlin because it has a fantastic arts scene, and an environmental focus. These two things manifested themselves all over the campus and seemed to be driving principles of the college and manifested themselves all over the campus.
As far as the arts go as a theater person it is obviously to me to be able to see and be a part of lots of different types of theater; when I visited the Oberlin campus I learned that there is always some kind of performance going on, be that theater music or dance and that is definitely the kind of community I want to be a part of.
The other thing that stuck out to me was Oberlin's focus on environmental sustainability. They had a state of the art environmental science building that produces more energy than it uses. It has a water purification system that uses plants to purify "waste water" and make it potable and usable again. Also, every building on campus has a meeter that displays the electricity use of each building each week.
Finlay, Oberlin has pledged to become carbon neutral or even carbon negative by 2050, which is fantastic! Also, Oberlin has a winter term that is designed to allow students to explore and become more independent thinkers. Each student has to complete three "projects" which are winter term experiences that can be anything a student wants them to be; study abroad, research, or just anything that a student wants to.
One other thing that I liked about Oberlin was the town of Oberlin itself. It's a small town but it seemed to have a lot going on, lots of cool restaurants etc. and it seemed like there was a lot of interaction between the college and the town. 

Well hello, you've found my blog. Here's what it's all about.

Hi! It's me, Caitlin, a high school Junior who is starting the whole college search process. This is my place to talk about the schools I look at and to record my thoughts about this whole crazy process. But, if anyone else is reading this it might be helpful to know a little bit about me so here goes!
I'm a huge theater person, I've been acting since I was eight and right now I am playing Alice in my school's production of Alice in Wonderland. Additionally, I really like Shakespeare. Most of the theater I have done has been Shakespeare,  and I go to a camp focused on Shakespeare and acting most summers. I'm also part of my schools forensics (Speech and Debate) team, the vice president of our technical theater club and the resurrector and former president and current community service planner for my synagogue's youth group. SO yeah that's me.
Right now I am driving around in Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York going on seven college tours in seven days (if you count the day of driving before the first school and after the last) and documenting that here! This is just the beginning of my journey and I'm sure I'll have to look at more than seven schools before I decide where to apply and when I look at other schools I will document that here as well.