A mom’s perspective of Denison

birch45
Sun, 26 Mar 2006 20:06:02 +0000

Great review Weenie. Everything you touched upon especially the uniqueness of Granville is right on target. The food isn’t miserable just mediocre. Where this school really falls down is housing. First years get a good deal especially if they get into one of the former frats as my son did. Sophs and Juniors are crammed in doubles, triples and moresomes. The students have no social spaces so they use one of their allotted bunkrooms as an added social room.
My son slept his entire junior year in one room with three other friends. His grades plummeted. I complained to the Dean about this situation. She offered to move his back to a double with a stranger who was also a sophomore. My son refused to leave his roomates. He really struggled with illness, depression and nearly flunked out. Senior year he missed out in the lottery and failed to get into Sunset the senior apartment complex. He was forced to stay in the same dorm senior year. He recovered but friends visiting from other schools couldn’t believe the abysmal conditions for seniors. Denison is addressing this concern with additional Sunset spaces. The damage incurred junior year could not be totally made up senior year. A decimated GPA was barely lifted to a 2.5/2.6 by graduation after having been 3.1/3.2 starting out sophomore year. That was Denison’s only black spot. Great profs, good kids especially the Ohio ones made my New Englander’s life a happy one for four years almost four. Denison needs to rebuild those old brick dorms and provide far better accomodations if it ever hopes to attain the truly selective status it is chasing as a top tier lac institution.