curmudgeon

Congratulations,firefly. You took the initiative and did it. As a great supporter of Centre, and a dad of a potential Centre student-I appreciate it.

Now let's start asking questions. Centre says that a remarkable 80% of their students study abroad. I believe a number of those kids must go in the 4 week mini-mester. Any thoughts on this as D would probably like a longer time,although wanting to play Basketball will probably kill the chance anyway.

SplashMom

Woo hoo! So glad to see we finally have an official place to discuss Centre. Of course, I realize this just as I'm heading to bed, but I'll be sure and post more tomorrow. Thanks to the mods for adding Centre.

fireflyscout

Yay! It worked - the people have spoken!

As for study abroad, yes, the January term is the most popular for travel, but I seem to recall there being quite a few longer opportunities as well. I'm pretty sure I heard about housing arrangements for those who were gone for a semester.

Here's another Centre question - anyone know what performances are or have previously been scheduled at the Norton Center?

doddsdad

Great job Firefly!

Regarding study abroad, I had the same impression that many of the 80% are during the winter term. I'm certain that some students study for a full semester, but I don't know the percentages. I also wonder about summer programs. What do they do with their "campuses" in London, etc. in the summer?

On the Norton Center, there is a link on the Centre website that provides the schedule for the whole school year. I think there are two or three different performances during most months.

Do you think we should cut and paste our Centre reviews on a separate thread since most people don't know anything about Centre?

Lhasa

Congrats, folks, on getting your forum!

I briefly considered Centre for S, but we felt that it might be a a slightly reach-y for him, and he preferred to concentrate on a couple of schools that he thought were better matches.

Centre has a wonderful trumpet instructor there, Vincent DiMartino, which is why it came up on our radar.

Having read y'all's reviews of the place makes me wish I could go there!

SplashMom

Lhasa, while visiting Centre this past weekend, my husband said the same thing ... he wished he could go back to school and go to Centre. Here's my review of Centre.

When we first arrived at Centre, we didn't have a feeling of "oh, what a beautiful campus," (it was cold, overcast and a bit misty) but by the end of the day, we (H, D, D's best friend and myself) were in love with Centre. The faculty, staff and students were so very friendly and knowledgable. By the time lunch was over, both girls were convinced that Centre was a great school and it quickly moved to the top of the list. The professors with whom D and her friend spoke were enthusiastic about their classes and very friendly. They were also quick to introduce other professors who teach subjects in which the girls indicated an interest. D was especially impressed with the French professor and is ready to pack her bags today for the study abroad program. We attended forums on the admissions process, a day in the life of a Centre student, and a financial aid forum. All were very informative and helpful. While taking a group tour on Saturday, we visited a freshman dorm. We were near the end of the line and a couple of girls opened their door and welcomed us to see their room. One recognized the school name on D's sweatshirt and told us she is from our area, too. They were very sweet girls and really made a good case for coming to Centre. They did mention that other than Lexington (~ 40 minutes away), there aren't great opportunities for shopping, but they were very excited that they would soon be getting an O'Charleys restaurant . Currently, I believe Cracker Barrel and Applebees may be two of the "nicer" eating establishments there. Everywhere we went, we were met by very friendly folks who initiated contact. We spoke with two or three different people (one professor included) who spoke of the relationships between students and professors. The professors know all their students and one story tells of a boy who missed class on a day he was to make a presentation. The professor walked with his students over to the boy's fraternity house where he was instructed to present his project.

We visited my cousin in Lexington that evening and visited Shaker Village (thanks to whoever made that suggestion ... was it you fireflyscout?) at Pleasant Hill in Harrodsburg for lunch the next day. Sunday was absolutely gorgeous and sunny and the temperature was quite a bit warmer than Saturday, so the girls asked if we could stop back at Centre on the way home. We did and what a great time we had. They had the grand opening of the new activities center the night before so we toured it and walked the rest of the campus again. We left Centre with the feeling that we would definitely return. I think D and her best friend would like to make an overnight visit. At this point, Centre and Rhodes are tied for the #1 spot on D's list. Centre is the #1 spot on her best friend's list.

To make a long story short, Centre rocks!

doddsdad

Thanks for the excellent review Splashmom! I was going to ask if I could cut and paste what you had PMed to me, but this is even better. If you go back and Keeneland is open, try to stop by. It's one of the most beautiful race tracks anywhere. The KY Horse Park is also a good for a visit if you like horses.

lderochi

Could somebody comment about the Fraternity/Sorority scene at Centre. The schools sounds like a great school to add to my Sophomore S' list of schools to look further into, but the one red flag is that it looks like Greek participation is up around the 40% mark or so. S is really trying to avoid schools where the Greek system dominates the social scene. I don't want to get into a debate on the merits of fraternities (lord knows there have been enough threads over in the Parents Forum!), but S definitely would put Centre in the "no thanks" pile if it's a strong Greek campus -- despite all the other great things about it.

Curmudgeon, I know you mentioned this briefly when comparing Rhodes to Centre in the Parents Forum, but could you or others provide more details? Thanks!

lderochi

And, just so I can feel like I'm actually contributing . . .

With Study Abroad, I really feel like anything less than a semester is a vacation, not an experience. It might be a great vacation, and it might be a productive vacation . . . but it's a vacation. A semester (preferably a year) gives people a chance to really live in a foreign environment and feel like they have become part of that environment. Just my two cents.

SplashMom

I do wish we had been able to visit Keeneland. My cousin lives in Lexington and she visits Keeneland frequently. We hope to join her the next time we are there. We passed several horse farms on our way to Harrodsburg from Lexington and the scenery was just lovely. I would be perfectly satisfied if D stopped looking at schools today. I think Rhodes or Centre would be a perfect match for her. I don't say that out loud, though. She must make her own decisions. I will say that at one point she mentioned visiting Oberlin. Her father and I pretty much said "no". We consider ourselves farily liberal, but IMO, from what I've read, that place is over the top.

doddsdad

Iderochi,
My S is also not interested in joining a greek organization. From the students I talked with, both greek and nongreek, they seemed to mix well and it doesn't seem that greek life dominates the campus. OTOH, I think that many/most of the weekend parties are greek, although most are open to everyone. I think the greeks have influence on the campus, but they don't dominate it. The greek houses are owned by the college, clustered in one corner of the campus, and they are relatively new, but not very big or impressive/imposing (unlike Depauw). I posted a Centre review on the Parents forum a while back in case you missed it. I hope it will be helpful.
The Transatlantic Search for Fit or the Grand Am Boogie

Splashmom,
My S didn't like Oberlin, but I kinda liked the place. It was different, but not always in a weird way. Much more intense than Centre (and every other school we visited.) I don't intend for that to be a slight on Centre or Oberlin, they were just different that way. In fact, I guess they are different in many ways.

SplashMom

lderochi, I didn't want to rely on memory from what I heard Saturday regarding greek life, so I found the following from http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/col...1961_brief.php

Number of fraternities: 5
Fraternities with chapter houses: 5
Fraternity members: 46%
Number of sororities: 4
Sororities with chapter houses: 4
Sorority members: 62%

D has pretty much said she's not sure a sorority is for her, but said the number of greek members at a school wouldn't really make a difference to her. The girls whose room we visited were split. One of them was greek, one was not. When we asked them if the campus was cliquish, they immediately said "no" and said that everyone knows everyone. They said although they don't find it to be cliquish at all, there are times when gossip is spread ... that goes back to the everyone knows everyone thing.

doddsdad

Iderochi,
You raise a valid point about the length of the study abroad experience. I was curious, so I checked the website and they stated that over 100 students each year study abroad for a semester. Since they have just over 1000 students, that would be about 10% of the students abroad each year. I could be mixing stats here, but it sounds like about 40% of the students will study abroad for a semester during their four years, which leaves 35-40% who must study abroad during the winter term. These percentages were derived via intensive extrapolation of the data, which I define as "fancy guesswork."

fireflyscout

Splashmom - thank you for the report! Yes, I was the one that recommended the Shaker Village (where I had quite a bit of trouble not buying everything in their store, but managed to leave with just a mixing spoon).

To get discussion going again, is anyone's child interested in glass blowing? That looked fascinating.

doddsdad

Firefly,
I think I would be interested in glass blowing, but I don't think my S is interested. Maybe DD, but she'll only be in 9th grade next year. If I had could do it all over again, I wonder where I'd go and what I'd choose for my major(s)?????