Kalamazoo College Visit Report by Cardinal Fang

Visit Activities:

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Campus:

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Off-Campus:

Campus Visit Notes for Kalamazoo College

Visit Description:

[I wrote this up last year when my son and I visited Kalamazoo. He is now a student there. I put a few of updates in brackets.]

My son and I just did a flying trip to Kalamazoo (literally: we flew in from California Sunday and flew back Monday night). We came away with a favorable impression.

Kalamazoo College, known as K or K-zoo, is located in the thriving small city of Kalamazoo. A five minute walk away is enormous Western Michigan University, whose 40,000 students ensure that Kalamazoo is stocked with businesses catering to college students. Kalamazoo itself has about 1300 undergraduates.

K's beautiful little campus slopes up from downtown Kalamazoo. The mature oaks and red brick buildings remind one of an Eastern campus. Indeed, K stood in for Brown University in a movie shot at K last week, and as a Brown graduate I'd say that K does kind of resemble Brown. though it is much smaller. Before the college search, I'd never heard of Kalamazoo, but it was founded in 1833. A plaque in the Admissions Office honors some 20 Kzoo students who died in the war-- the Civil War.

The snow flurries and gray skies didn't inspire me to wander around for hours outside while my son attended two classes and chatted with a third professor, despite the beauty of the campus Indeed, in western Michigan, the weather will drive students indoors frequently, so it's fortunate that K has several exceptionally comfortable indoor areas for sitting around and studying or socializing. Hicks Commons, newly renovated, contains the cafeteria, a coffeehouse, student services and some deans' offices. The floor-to-ceiling windows and seating near fireplaces beckon to the lounger. The study carrels in the library are also next to the floor-to-ceiling windows that ring the second floor
(and maybe higher floors, I didn't see). A reading room has, again, floor-to-ceiling windows, plus cozy seating next to the fireplaces at either end of the room. The architect who did those renovations knew his/her business; it's not easy to get public spaces right, but he/she did. [Update: I'm just back from Parents Weekend and even more impressed with that architecture. Hicks has warm, inviting places to sit and chat while looking out at the Quad, gorgeous with fall colors at this time of year. The library is fantastic.]

The campus quad slopes downhill from a lovely old chapel, now used for weekly forums open to all but (I think) required for freshman, on a variety of topics including spirituality and sex (not the same lecture!). A hill in the campus quad, right next to the cafeteria where there are trays, means the obvious: traying when it snows.

K is on the trimester plan, with three 10-week quarters. Students take three courses a quarters. They get December off, and finish the spring quarter late in June. [Update: The calendar probably will be changed two years from now. The quarter system will be retained. The calendar is likely to become more like Carleton's. No official decision has been made yet.]

It was obvious from everyone we talked to that Kalamazoo is all about the academics. Judging by the sample syllabi my son got from the History professor he talked to, the workload is intense: the three classes whose syllabi he saw had about 30-50 pages of required writing (in ten weeks!) and many many pages of required reading. To get the students up to speed, all freshmen take a required writing seminar, reportedly a demanding one. [Update: My son has about fifteen papers due over the ten week quarter. In his writing seminar, all papers must be rewritten twice.]

Kalamazoo emphasizes what it calls the K-Plan, the educational plan for all students. It has four parts: the liberal arts education, including the first-year writing classes and distribution requirements; career development- over 80% of K students do internships, usually after the sophomore year; Study Abroad: K is serious about having students study abroad, and over 80% do so; and the Senior Individualized Project, a substantial thesis or other creative work. Every upperclassman we talked to was enthusiastic about his or her study abroad, and this is obviously something the college devotes a lot of resources toward. [Update: this spring K eliminated the distribution requirements.]

Most students at K, currently about 70%, are from Michigan. [Fewer, this year.] We didn't see a lot of ethnic diversity. As with similar institutions, the school wishes to change this. An admissions officer proudly told us that a ten-student Posse from Los Angeles will enter as freshmen next year. A Posse is a group of urban low-income first-generation students recruited and prepared by the Posse Foundation (http://www.possefoundation.org/), sent as a group to a liberal arts school on full scholarships. The idea is that Posse members can support one another in the, to them, unfamiliar culture of a college. In such a small school, a Posse should make an big impact.

My son was impressed with K, particularly the serious academics. He will apply Early Action. [And he did, and he was admitted, and now he's there.]

Hotel/Lodging Recommendations or Comments:

Comfort Inn, just down the hill from K.

Dining/Restaurant Recommendations or Comments:

Food Dance, walking distance from the campus, is good.

Other Comments (Transportation, local attractions, parking, etc.):

If you fly into Kalamazoo and stay at the Comfort Inn, you don't need a car. If you fly to Detroit, it's a very easy, straightforward drive: Highway 94 goes right from the airport to Kalamaz