flowers & 3am's

Hi, I'm a transfer student and I'd like to hear any opinions on Beloit College (WI) versus Clark University

I'm interested in psychology and philosophy. I am leaning toward medical school for psychiatry (which means, of course, that it would help to attend a college that is also good in sciences). However, I am also considering research in social psychology or ethics.

Here is my limited point of view so far:

Clark is lower ranked, but has an especially reputable psych dept that seems to offer a lot in the field. Clark also seems to offer many more classes, so I could possibly take more classes in things I like. I don't know if this matters though, because how many classes will I get the chance to take if I enter as a junior? Also, Clark has this thing where a student can get a free fifth year for a masters if she/he has a high gpa. I don't really know if I could do that, but that would be cool if I could apply for med or grad school with a psych masters already under my belt.

Beloit is higher ranked and also seems to be rising in prestige. This makes me wonder if I'd find more friends at Beloit, as they might be more like-minded/academic. Beloit, despite not offering as many classes as Clark, has a major called Health and Society that seems to be a really good combination of what I'm interested in (though Clark has an Ethics and Public Policy concentration that I'd probably do if I attended, at Beloit I'd have a predeveloped major that I could move around in more easily). However, I don't know if a limited class offering will make things annoying for me. Beloit also is only undergraduate (Clark has grad students), so I wonder if I'd get more individual attention there. Both schools are small though, under 3,000 students.

I don't know much about the towns of either, except that neither have much and both are cold.

Here is what I prefer socially:

Tight knit community/future best friends.
Smart, socially aware peers.
Students who are enthusiastic and active in the school.
Really involved profs and advisers.

Here is what I'd like to avoid:

A party school.
Cliquey students.

Please help. I'm sorry if anything I said offends students or alumni, but this is just my summary of the schools in comparision to one another. If I am wrong on any counts, I'm happy to hear why!

THANKS!!!

aroundthecorner

I can only speak for Clark.

I'm a Psychology major here, and I really do enjoy my major. There are a great variety of courses and if you want to do research, all you have to do is ask. It's not hard at all to either tag along with a professor or graduate students' project, or to start your own.

I was premed early on in my first year, and there is a really great premed adviser here. He helped me a lot. You get great individual attention here, I am close with a lot of my professors. Hell, I even go to lunch with some of them. And don't worry about not getting any attention because there are graduate students. You should view graduate students as potential advisers. I work with one on a project, and she helps me so much with gaining a new perspective on graduate school.

There are parties. It is a college. And there are cliques, because people naturally form groups everywhere. So I believe those things are unavoidable.

People are smart here and there are great many organizations around a ton of issues. I wouldn't say that the majority are extremely academically driven. You might find yourself sort of like a big fish in a little pond if you take all the opportunities given to you. You will find like-minded people, but I wouldn't classify Clark as a place with total academics.

I originally did have frustrations early on with not finding people who are as insane about school and career paths as I am. But I ended up finding people who accept that part of me, while still pulling me to have fun. And I did find a best friend who is as insane as I am with grad school stuff. It works out.

But you have to get the feel of it yourself. Come visit and meet people. Spend an overnight.

Also, PS-- Clark does not offer a free masters in psychology. They do in other areas though, so do search around their website for info.

Hope this helps!

markr

Can't comment on the two psychology programs, but my S and I visited both colleges last year. These were our impressions. Both colleges have tight-knit, politically liberal student communities without the influence of frats. Both have dedicated professors and a real emphasis on teaching. Beloit seemed like a particularly happy community to us, and it may be that the students are generally a bit more academically driven than at Clark (but this may be an inaccurate impression of ours). We were not impressed with the town of Beloit, which struck us pretty rundown. However, the Beloit campus is nice and the town of Beloit does not influence how one feels on campus. Beloit is somewhat isolated. It is within a couple of hours of Chicago, Milwaukee and Madison. Clark is located in a lousy section of Worcester, Mass. (a relatively poor city), and the campus, which is small and compact, does not feel very removed from the city. Therefore, Clark has an urban feeling, but is in a city that offers many of the negatives, but few of the positives of being in a city. Worcester is around an hour from Boston. You definitely should visit both campuses before you apply.