Recent Violent Incidents at College Campuses - Negative Affect on Applications?

altmom · 10-23-2009, 08:45 AM

Parents of current HS seniors - has your son or daughter reconsidered applying to a school this year because of recent coverage in the news of violent crimes that have occurred on that particular campus?

toledo · 10-23-2009, 10:14 AM

I've been reading the online college newspapers for the handful of schools my daughter is considering. One of them just reported that their crime rate had tripled last year, including 3 rapes in May alone. That was enough to scratch that university off the list.

rodney · 10-23-2009, 10:16 AM

^^give it up, toledo......

toledo · 10-23-2009, 12:21 PM

The sad truth, rodney, is that this description probably matches several dozen colleges across the U.S. This particular one happens to be in Pennsylvania. My advice is to check as many crime sources as possible before choosing your school.

rodney · 10-23-2009, 12:26 PM

Thanks for narrowing it down to one of 50 states at least.....JW if it was a school on my d's list; don't think so....

mathmom · 10-23-2009, 01:01 PM

No, but I do hope they catch the guy who is preying on Georgetown women.

I went to school at Columbia in the early 80s at the height of the crack epidemic. Had my school locker broken into and my radio stolen and had my wallet stolen once as well. I figure just about everywhere is better than that was, and I never felt overly unsafe though I got more cautious.

altmom · 10-23-2009, 01:09 PM

Rationally, we all probably agree that random crime or alcohol overdoses can happen anywhere. But have recent news stories have made anyone cross schools off their list - acting, I guess, irrationally. If your S/D has a long list of possible places to apply - are they crossing off schools like UVA or Penn State right now? Just wondered if news like that has an impact.

beth's mom · 10-23-2009, 01:43 PM

None of the schools my D is interested in has had recent violence, but I'm sure there are more than a few people who will choose not to apply to a school with recent violent incidents on campus. Presumably the whole idea behind the Clery Act is that people might make different decisions if information about campus crime is made available to them. I doubt most people avail themselves of the Clery Act information that's buried on college websites, but it's hard to miss what's getting major press coverage.

northeastmom · 10-23-2009, 01:53 PM

It can happen anywhere. There was link in "Inside Higher Ed" today to this article. It really made me think about suite style living, especially if students do not know the other students in the suite exremely well:

Student from Santa Clara beaten to death in his Sac State dorm - San Jose Mercury News

My heart just aches for the Hawkins family.

DougBetsy · 10-23-2009, 02:39 PM

I've poked around the crime stats on this site once or twice. College Navigator - National Center for Education Statistics But it never occured to us to eliminate a school with the wrong stats. It's more like a "buyer beware" factor.

For example, living in the Baltimore burbs, I know that one side of the JHU campus can dangerous. But I'd still let me kid go there if he or she wanted to.

zoosermom · 10-23-2009, 02:42 PM

When we visited Drew, there were wanted posters all over the campus concerning a recent sexual assault on the campus. It was high on her list before that, and at this point I'm not sure what she's going to do.

4gsmom · 10-23-2009, 02:49 PM

There's lots of talk in our town about the recent murder at UConn, but I don't know if it's actually making anyone think twice about applying.

Debruns · 10-24-2009, 05:49 AM

Zoosermom, was that from the 03/22 incident? That was the last sexual assault I remember hearing about (they email the parents) He had his composite put up, but I haven't heard of anything else like that in the 3 years my son has been there.
I know that the UConn stabbing caused a lot of talk, but it seemed personal, not like an angry student lashing out at anyone, so students tended to be sad, upset, but not feeling personally vulnerable. Some female students felt more threatened from hearing about rapes than a fight, although they seemed to happen most often in off-campus apartments at UConn being more isolated.
I don't think any campus is "safe" because the outsiders can be the perpetrator or students as in many cases.
DougBetsy, looking at some stats on College Navigator, the colleges my twins are looking at , Mt. Holyoke had more sexual assaults than any of the others, most colleges being 1 or 2. I don't think any I've checked had none. Burglary seems to be the highest numbers.

JustAMomOf4 · 10-24-2009, 09:01 AM

>>>>>>>>>When we visited Drew, there were wanted posters all over the campus concerning a recent sexual assault on the campus. It was high on her list before that, and at this point I'm not sure what she's going to do. <<<<<<<<<<<<<

I would take this as a good sign. It means the student body is not complacent and is demonstrating their unhappiness to the administration. Before I took the school off the list, I would go ahead and bring it up with someone in the administration. Also get the school newspaper - probably back issues are online - and read about it.

If I had a high school senior, I would not prevent them from applying to UConn or Va Tech.
When my daughter applied to Temple several years ago, many parents told me I was crazy - they would never let their child go there. But they would let them go to a small 4th tier college nearby which happened to be in the top ten of most dangerous cities in America. What they didn't know- besides the "bad" neighborhood is that Temple has the 5th largest police department in the commonwealth of PA.

Debruns · 10-24-2009, 09:12 AM

Justamomof4, Drew police did put up that poster so if anyone saw him (or if he saw it) they would to report it and were being pro-active. They have a lot of info available to students and courses on self-defense and what to do to help prevent incidences from happening. They try to involve the students in coming up with ideas and have a survey out now. My husband was in campus police and always checks those things out.