dittogal88

hey guys, i went to the colgate website the other day and i must say the campus is absolutely A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!! being a girl, this actually matters, uhm...a lot!! well, i've got a few questions if you guys dont mind:

1) how good is the political science/IR department here? im planning to go 2 either columbia or harvard LS to focus on international law. is there a good grad school placement at such schools? what are internships and special programs like?

2) i've heard that because the school is isolated, there's a lot of drinking. now, i dont mind partying a few times a week, but alcohol is defenitly not my thing. can you still have fun and make good friends easily without it?

3) how approachable and friendly are students and faculty?

4) Is it true that the classes here are really really hard? How feasible would a double major be?


thanks for any answers!

gellino

I would agree that Colgate is my favorite campus I have seen, unbiasedly before I applied anywhere and don't know if you saw this on the site, but so does a guy who's seen 324 of them.

http://www.colgate.edu/DesktopDefaul...6013&nwID=4077

1. The Poly Sci/IR Dept. is pretty strong and had friends get PhDs or MA in IR from UChicago, Columbia types of schools. For law, off the top of my head can't think of anyone who went to Harvard or Columbia, but knew many who went to the 6-14 range right below them (i.e. Penn, Duke, Cornell, Northwestern, Georgetown). There is a semester trip to DC for Poly Sci where I think internships are weaved in as part of the program as well as a mostly Poly Sci focused study group in Geneva, Switzerland, which I would highly recommend as a great overall experience with a lot of different field trips to different international organizations (~ three weeks worth) built in.
2. You can have lots of fun and make many friends without alcohol. I knew many people who drank little to none in hs who certainly loved Colgate. You will also find that your attitude towards it will change over time as well.
3. Students are friendly and faculty is very approachable and friendly. I had many dinners at profs' houses, rides back to school from profs for Fall Break and profs give out their home #s and meet me in their office for questions the night before exams and to read papers before I turned them in, etc.
4. I didn't think most people considered the classes really hard. I guess Colgate is a little more known for not giving out quite as high of grades as other schools and may have more classes where the avg grade is B/B- vs A-/B+ for a Princeton or Harvard. I would estimate that maybe 1/4 of the students have a double major and most wouldn't consider the workload excessive.

dittogal88

thanks for your help!! that about answers everything, very informative!