rcruppert

heyy everyone! first off congrats to everyone who's been accepted lol

i was accepted to both susquehanna and drew, and since both are beautiful small LAC on the east coast i'm having a hard time deciding between them. i figured i'd come to you guys since the people on these forums seem to know alot about all this college stuff! in your opinions, which one is better? do any of you have negative/positive feedback about these colleges? thanks so much =]

pupkin

My son is very interested in both also. Anybody with any experience at both or one. Thanks for the help.

Debruns

DREW:
Setting suburban
Religious affiliation: Methodist
Costs: 2008-2009 Tuition and Fees: $36,470
Room and board: $9,978
Selectivity: more selective
Website Drew University
Average financial aid package for full-time, first-year students: $28,903
Overall score: 58
Tier 1
U.S. News rank: 71
City: Madison
School name: Drew University
State NJ
Zip code: 07940-1493
Average financial aid package for full-time undergraduate students: $27,649
Number of faculty: 158 full time, 64 part time
Student faculty ratio (2007) 11:1
Classes with fewer than 20 students: 72%
Classes with 50 or more students (2007): 1.9 %
Fall 2007 Acceptance rate: 61.0 %
Average high school GPA: 3.4
SAT/ACT 25th-75th percentile (2007) 1030-1280

My son likes his time at Drew and is doing well...his best plug is the small classes and professors have 90% been wonderful. He wasn't a self-starter so doing clubs, trips, etc. took a while, but he adjusted and feels comfortable there and doesn't complain except to say he wishes they had a few more students. I know he will miss it when he graduates.
It is rated better in general and seems to give more aid than the other two colleges, but that can vary. Each will have something special just to that school.

Debruns

Catholic University of America
Washington , DC
Year founded: 1887
Setting urban
Religious affiliation: Roman Catholic
Costs: 2008-2009 Tuition and Fees: $30,670
Room and board: $11,320
Selectivity: selective
Website The Catholic University of America
Average financial aid package for full-time, first-year students: $21,209
Overall score: 36
Tier 1
U.S. News rank: 116
City: Washington
School name: Catholic University of America
State DC
Zip code: 20064
Average financial aid package for full-time undergraduate students: $18,248
Number of faculty: 347 full time, 349 part time
Student faculty ratio (2007) 10:1
Classes with fewer than 20 students: 54%
Classes with 50 or more students (2007): 6.8 %
Fall 2007 Acceptance rate: 80.0 %
Average high school GPA: 3.3
SAT/ACT 25th-75th percentile (2007) 1030-1230
We didn't look at CU with my son, but one of my girls is interested because of the location, potential majors and she would be comfortable with some religion having quite a bit in grade school. She would have to visit, sit in on a class, etc. because of conflicting reviews and would like to see things for herself.

Debruns

Overview : Susquehanna University

General Information
Year founded: 1858
Religious affiliation: Lutheran
Academic calendar: semester
Total number of undergraduates: 2,039
Setting suburban
Fall Admissions
Application deadline: 3/1
Application fee: $35
Fall 2007 Acceptance rate: 86.0 %
Selectivity: selective
Expenses
Costs: 2008-2009 Tuition and Fees: $31,080


I am looking into this college and want to see about aid, endowment, etc. If anyone has visited, I'd like to hear your impressions. The location might be too isolating for my girls, although they wouldn't mind the decrease in greek life, not being the "party animal" type.

boysx3

What is the social life at Drew like? We live in Ohio but the Drew website has interested my son. He is worried that he would be the only one not from the NY-NJ metro area and that he would be alone on weekends,

cadbury

Greetings!

My D is a sophomore at Drew this year. As I understand it, about half the students at Drew are from the area. But Admissions has been working very hard to increase geographic diversity. My D is from Massachusetts; Debrun's S is also from New England. D knows current Drew students from all over the country. Drew has made a substantial commitment to increasing diversity on campus, so there are also lots of minority and international students. Obviously, I can't speak directly to the social scene. However, here are a couple of things worth mentioning. Drew is in a gorgeous, affluent part of NJ. The campus is lovely. There are even some deer roaming around! The town center is a short walk from campus. Students can catch a train from there to NYC for about $15 RT. (BTW the train is free to students one week per semester.) Incidentally, the Methodist link mentioned in Debrun's post is purely historical. Students come from all religious (and nonreligious) backgrounds. Indeed, the current president is Jewish. Hope this helps!

Debruns

I second what Cadbury says, there is definitely more diversity on campus in many areas,than a few years ago. My son has had roommates from as far as Texas and he knows others from the midwest, south, etc. Even students he has met from MA and New England areas, stick around, because they still have a 4-5 hour drive home. Threre are many international students this year and I think they had an article on that in their newspaper.
The religious tone is minimal,but if you want to get involved you can.The Hillel is pretty active and Drew has quite a number of Jewish students, along with other religious groups which help in meeting new friends.

letitbe18

NOOO!!!
My boyfriend is a freshman at Drew and I've spent some weekends there.
DREW IS A TERRIBLE PLACE. he got into several higher ranked colleges but chose Drew for it's proximity to NYC.
drew is HORRIBLE. HORRIBLE HORRIBLE.
He is studying as hard as possible and has a 4.0 GPA because he wants to GET OUT OF THERE!
it's horrible. Professors seem to not care about their students and the campus life is nothing more than despicable.
The students are NOT well-rounded. Most of the time they were brats from long island (no offense) and were only at drew because they got rejected from their top choice. My boyfriend's roommate is horrible, he wakes him up at 3am to ask for a cupnoodle. He's really really unintelligent and uneducated. I know, one could say it's one person and not the whole school. But i met close to all of his class and they were all carbon copies of his disrespectful roommate.
On top of that, he doesn't dare tell his RD because the one man who is in charge of all of Drew's housing is under the impression that all complaints come from students who just want singles.
His RA and others are realllyyyyy really dumb. to say the least. one didn't even notice a girl on her hall was slowly slipping into a coma due to alcohol poisoning.
The theatre students are convinced that Drew trumps Tisch, clearly students just trying to comfort themselves.
PLEASE. DO NOT APPLY TO DREW. for your child's happiness, don't apply to drew!!!
if you're looking for a great liberal arts college, look at BARD!

Debruns

I'm sorry his experience was so awful, but I've heard good/bad about almost every school including Bard. I even had a neighbor say her experience at Yale wasn't great (there's always someone)
My son's professors have been excellent, very engaging and always there to talk or meet with him.Maybe it depends on the major/minor. He had a bad match for a roommate first year, but survived and it's been great since then. He's noted a mixed bag with the students but said there are some very nice, bright kids and he didn't find many snobs. Again, if you are in a certain dorm, with certain students, your experience might be different, but there have been many happy students there.

MSUDad

The nice thing about Bard is that no one has bad roommates and the RAs are all cool.

cadbury

Whoa, letitbe18! Drew isn't perfect, but no school is. Your BF's experiences (and yours) are clearly colored by the nasty experience he's having with his roommate. Freshman year is hard enough without having to put up with that!

A few particular responses:

"I know, one could say it's one person and not the whole school. But i met close to all of his class and they were all carbon copies of his disrespectful roommate."

Seriously? You met most of the 400 students in the freshman class over a few weekends? WOW! (Even meeting most of the students in a single class with 25 people would be quite an accomplishment! If you can bottle that ability, you'd be rich!)

"Most of the time they were brats from long island..."

You don't think there are spoiled kids aplenty at every well-known LAC (including Bard)? Good one!

"His RA and others are realllyyyyy really dumb. to say the least. one didn't even notice a girl on her hall was slowly slipping into a coma due to alcohol poisoning."

Based on what I've heard/seen, the RAs are mostly smart, savvy, interesting people. But again, there are always exceptions.

"The theatre students are convinced that Drew trumps Tisch, clearly students just trying to comfort themselves."

FWIW Princeton Review has consistently placed Drew in the top 10 for theater programs. Whether or not it "trumps Tisch" is irrelevant. No "comfort" needed.

I assume you're in the market for a college next year. If you are shooting for Bard, I wish you luck; but I've also got some news for you. First, it has MANY good points. But students there complain about the food, the dorms, etc all the time. Also, while it's beautiful there, it's in the middle of nowhere. I can appreciate why your BF wanted to be near NYC. My D (who got into Bard BTW) went into the city several times freshman year. Getting to NYC from Bard is a time-consuming, expensive proposition. In contrast, it's a 50 minute train ride from Madison. So when you apply to schools and then sign on the dotted line, remember that every school has it's pluses and minuses.

MSUDad, I assume your comment is tongue-in-cheek, yes? Sometimes subtlety is missed online. ;-)

cadbury

A quick follow-up to my earlier comment - I was just reading a CC thread on retention. One poster mentioned that students at Harvard tend to stay (high retention rate) even though they're dissatisfied with the place relative to peers at other schools. Or put another way, even some (many?) students at arguably the greatest university in the world in one of the coolest college locales (Boston/Cambridge) are dissatisfied! Maybe humans (especially those with plenty!) just need something to complain about. Hmmm....

Here is a key excerpt and a link to the article:

"Student satisfaction at Harvard College ranks near the bottom of a group of 31 elite private colleges, according to an analysis of survey results that finds that Harvard students are disenchanted with the faculty and social life on campus.

An internal Harvard memo, obtained by the Globe, provides numerical data that appear to substantiate some long-held stereotypes of Harvard: that undergraduate students often feel neglected by professors, and that they don't have as much fun as peers on many other campuses."

Student life at Harvard lags peer schools, poll finds - The Boston Globe

hudsonvalley51

I think it should be obvious that letitbe18's impressions of Drew are not rooted in reality. Perhaps her boyfriend has an unpleasant roommate and it is conceivable that the RA was unaware of the condition of the student who had ingested too much alcohol. Aside from that, I don't think the rest of her diatribe merits much consideration. For instance, while I've heard students complain that too many students come from New Jersey, contributing to a perception that Drew is a "commuter school," I've never before heard about the "Long Island problem." In fact, 53 % of the most recent class hailed from New Jersey. Fewer than 15% came from NY State, probably fewer than half that number went to high school on the Island.

Drew's Class of 2012 is also more diverse than many, if not most, Tier I&II liberal arts colleges. About 8% of the new class is African-American and 7% is Hispanic. Only 60% of students identified themselves as "white."

As for Theater students comparing Drew to Tisch, those students I have known who were interested in Drew's theater program were generally those looking for a LAC environment and were also looking at Muhlenberg, SUNY Purchase and Wagner.

letitbe18 is right about one thing -- Bard is a very good school. But again, like all colleges, it will not appeal to all students. Less politically and socially liberal students, and those who shun the drug -- primarily reefer -- culture, may not feel as comfortable at Bard as they would at Susquehanna or Drew. This is not to say all Bard students smoke the weed or are members of an Acorn task force; I've met some Bardians who don't drink or smoke and who are politically moderate (I'll admit I've never met a Limbaugh Republican at Bard). Bard is a great school for many kids. So is Drew and Susquehanna.

lasercat

after getting accepted at nine other colleges, i decided on drew after i felt an immediate connection between the campus and the academic programs, mainly the english department. the students that are in my classes are intelligent and respectful. class discussion is a prime focus in many of my classes this semester. the professors are knowledgeable and extend support to their students. the campus is getting revamped after many donations from the trustees even though its physical beauty is striking. plans are being drawn up by the president to continue drew's rapid ascent as one of the respected liberal arts colleges in the east. having students come from the likes of california, texas, and even afghanistan, only illustrates how impressive this university is by attracting students from different backgrounds and geographic locations. overall, i have been thrilled with my freshman experience.

also - a lot of my friends turned down schools like carnegie mellon and university of rochester to attend drew. obviously, they decided that they preferred drew's atmosphere and did not feel drew was a last resort of any sort.