Like the atmosphere, school itself, reputation, etc.
This is just for fun 
With only 500 students at my college when I attended, I didnât think it would be a good place for my D and never mentioned it as a possibility. But with a doubling of the student population through the years , it really became a thriving campus. Lots of arts festivals, multicultural events, more emphasis on reaching into the local city for volunteering and sending students out globally for missions.
Entrepreneurship and Social Issues are meaningful parts of the college experience, and the isolated campus location just doesnât seem so isolated anymore.
It is interesting to see how a college can grow and change through the years. I enjoyed my college experience, but could see some negatives regarding the small size. Not all changes are good, but in this case I am proud of how my college has improved.
Many things are the same at my alma mater, UW-Madison, but one thing thatâs very different is its selectivity: I think that when I graduated from high school, in the 1970s, admission was guaranteed to any Wisconsin resident who graduated in the top half of his or her high school class. In contrast, when D1 applied, we were surprised that she was accepted, with âonlyâ a 3.4 GPA and a 34 ACT score.
When I went through RPI for EE, the minimum number of courses was 42. Yep, 5 every semester except 6 each for the two semesters of junior year. We also had 6 required PE credits. Of the roughly 1200 who started with me, only 500 or so graduated in 4 years.
Todayâs curriculum is 36 classes and two-thirds graduate in 4 years. It is still difficult but seems to have become a kinder place.
How about doing CS programming assignments and projects on an 80x24 terminal connected to a shared computer that had a tiny fraction of the compute speed, memory, and storage that a college student has in his/her dorm room or pocket?
When I started my MBA at NYUâs Stern School of Business, I was one of gazillion part-time students, and the standards for PT students werenât terribly high. (After one semester I switched to full-time, but thatâs another story.) I donât think I could have gotten in with todayâs standards. The business school has really come up in terms of reputation and standards.
I did my undergrad at K college, one of the 100 oldest colleges in the US. Itâs very different now. The K Plan was âalteredâ, and not everybody does foreign study nor do they do it at the same time. âBack thenâ the juniors all went on foreign study and sophomore spring everyone did their career internship - none of which was in the least âcommonâ at colleges so very unusual and unique to Kalamazoo and was my second choice after Middlebury where I was accepted but my parents nixed as âtoo far away.â Day of Gracious Living which began when I was there and was a âday offâ to play and relax (âThe end of learning is gracious livingâ is engraved on one of the dorms) and is now more focused on giving back to the community. It is still ranked among the top among all U.S. institutions for graduates earning PhDs in chemistry (6th), the life sciences (16th), the physical sciences (15th), and psychology (33rd) but there is much emphasis on social justice and preparing students for a life in human rights with the addition of the Arcus Center for Social Justice and other âmodernâ issues. I think itâs also more diverse than when I was there with more internationals. This year the students at Kalamazoo College represents 43 states and 32 countries. I know for fact that we had maybe 7 or 8 kids total that were from out of the country during my time there and half of those were ex-pat kids. My roommates were from Georgia, Maryland, Detroit, New York, Chicago, Alaska, Ohio and a few other places.
The other huge difference is the EC amenitiesâŠnew gym, new field and field house, new rennovated student union, more tennis courts :-), everytime I visit Iâm amazed at the non-academic additions. And finally there is a counseling office with 10 therapists and psychiatristsâŠwe had Babette Trader, bless her heart, the Dean of Women.
I enjoyed my undergraduate and it took me far as it was and still is well recognized in academia nationally although not well known in CC land. We all had to pass a comprehensive exam in our major senior spring in addition to our senior thesis to graduate. I know one now lawyer who had to take his poli sci exam a couple times tee hee. Not sure if K is that rigorous anymore. It was a place full of pretty serious kids, I think it still doesnât have a huge party rep but I think the kids seem to have broader interests than just studies. I hope that current students grown and learn as much as âweâ did back then.
momofthree, my Ds applied to K, and we really loved that place. They applied for the music scholarship, and the building was so pretty. Light streaming in thru stained glass. The sports amenities were amazing for tennis, my Ds sport.
Nothing to speak of in my educational experience, but as a faculty kid and then later, grad school spouse at ASU, that place certainly has changed, just as a drive by observation. They have always been progressive in terms of solar energy, but now all the parking structures are covered with panels, and they really work on their energy consumption. They have one of the first schools of sustainability as well.
My alma mater is very, very different than it was when I attended ⊠even the name! It was General Motors Institute, and it was owned by GM. We had to not only be accepted by the school, but we also had to interview with and be accepted by a division/plant as a co-op sponsor in order to attend. We had to complete 177 credits and a thesis to graduate. Our course load was 19-23 credits every semester - and if you flunked a class, which many students did a time or two along the way, you had to retake the class as an overload. The program was 4-1/2 years of alternating work and school semesters ⊠every 6 weeks when I started, with the school semester lasting 12 weeks - so we had to remember stuff from the 1st 6 weeks when we had finals 18 weeks later - but the program changed to 12 week/12 week sections while I was attending. Then we had a final semester spent at work, researching and writing a thesis. We had only 2 weeks off each year for our summer vacation. Half of us were in school while the other half worked, so half the student body didnât know the other half. It was hard work, but my friends and I enjoyed our time there. The best part was, it was really inexpensive, and we were paid well during our co-op terms. Oh, and we had jobs when were were done.
Today, the school is called Kettering University. GM âcut tiesâ in the early 80âs. Itâs no longer the bargain it was when I attended, but that is tied to the fact that it is no longer corporate-operated. Kettering still has a strong co-op program, but it is no longer required in the way it once was. Academic programs have expanded, credit loads are similar to other colleges, transfer credits are allowed, and many other things have changed. A recent alumni magazine highlighted some really great programs, and I am thoroughly impressed by todayâs offerings. It is certainly a different place, but I think the school has done a very good job of making itself relevant as an independent school.
Thanks for sharing everyone! You all have awesome stories and experiences! @powercropper @rosered55 @Magnetron @ucbalumnus @VeryHappy @momofthreeboys @âgreat lakes momâ @kelsmom
I attended a brand new UMass campus in Boston and rooms were converted into classrooms in several old buildings. Classes were held next door to a police station, and next door to the infamous Combat Zone, and next door to a few pubs. Our neighbors were bankers, cops, hookers, and derelicts. No extra charge for those perks.
No dorms, no athletic program or gym, and the library was inside an old armory. Because I was a Vietnam Era vet my tuition was free. My graduate school was Boston State College and it was later absorbed into the UMass system.
Today the new UMB rests next door to the JFK Library in Dorchester. The new campus has dorms, a decent athletic program, and a great view of the ocean. Graduate programs have been added. I have to revisit my school next year and take a tour.
@veryhappy:
Stern discourages part time MBA students (if they allow them at all these days), they want either full time or people in executive MBA programs last I heard.
My alma mater was NYU, when I went there it very much was primarily a local NYC school and still had as part of its operating mantra trying to make it accessible a wide range of kids (for example, we had a weird schedule where we started in latter September, to allow kids to transfer in or apply late and get in), they had night classes in the UG area, lot of students were working students who took classes at night for exampleâŠand that changed right after I left the school, they went on a massive fundraising binge, went from having relatively little real estate to practically owning large swaths of the Village, and went decidedly upscale, dropped the night program (they have something you can get a degree at night, but it is part of SCE, not the main university), and built dorms and actively went after full pay foreign students while they also went upscale with the requirements to get in. I could tell when I walked into the bookstore a while ago, the kind of stuff they were selling I doubt many of going in my time could afford it. In some ways it is a lot better, there are better facilities, lot more of them, but in others it is much worse, given the cost of the place, and how little aid they give, it to me isnât worth it, it is in a wonderful location, has NYC as a campus, but it to me isnât worth the price of admission, and I refuse to give money as an alumni when they spend 20 million bucks buying a townhouse to attract a âsuperstarâ professor to live in, while not doing anything to make the school affordable. I would rather give my money to where my wife went, they still have the idea of trying to give kids a chance to attend college who otherwise might not go, and they serve a lot of kids like NYU once did who were first generation going to college.
I went to Ohio University as an undergrad. I went to visit last summer for the first time since graduating 40 some ears ago.
I loved the school when I was there, and the general atmosphere seemed the same. But the newer facilities and programs were notable! New facility for allied health professions is awesome. The college now also has. D.O. program which is relatively new.
The downtown area is sprinkled with trendy restaurants,mand the like. Very neat! When I was there, it was really pizza places and bars (drinking age was 18).
I just find it funny how schools that were pretty much safeties when I was applying back in 1980 are sometimes now pretty hard to get into (Northeastern being one of the biggest example, also GWU and sure there are many more). Or schools were very regional that now are attracting kids from all over. Of course, the ivies were always difficult to get into, though not like today.
I attended Carnegie Mellon U in the late 80âs. Nerdy then, nerdy now. :-B
My FIL graduated from Northeastern in 1964. Over the summer D went to visit it as a prospective student and brought Grandpa with her. Boy, was he blown away by the changes (the husky used to be outside!). He LOVED the experience of getting to revisit his old stomping grounds, though.
Thats so sweet! @MotherOfDragons
Northeastern has radically changed in the last 40 years both physically and academically. From mostly a commuter college to a residential research university. Back then the campus was âfunctionalâ now I see it described as âbeautifulâ! The impetus for this was the founding and growth of UMass Boston in the 1960âs. They siphoned off the blue collar, working class students who had been Northeasterâs market. BU and BC also transformed a decade ahead of Northeastern for the same reason. .
I went to UCDavis for law school. It looks totally different in both composition and size now than when I was there decades ago. You had to walk past the pig pen to get from the grad dorm to the law school. I could see no trace of the pig pen when we visited!! It is much larger and has a HUGE % Asian student bodyâmuch higher percentage than when I was a student.
I have not re-visited UOregon, where I got my BA, but suspect it has also changed a lot. When I attended, there was a bowling alley in the basement of the student union. My niece who attended more recently said she never heard of such a thing, so obviously itâs been removed.
Neat story! @HImom
MotherofdragonsâS was accepted at Carnegie Mellon. We attended accepted student weekend and I think he felt it was too nerdy. The trouble is, he didnât realize he was/is a nerd. Or, more likely, he wanted to stop being a nerd. So he choose a top LA which had more of the student type he was not. He loved the school, but it really didnât turn out all that well. He did graduate with a physics major and math minor. But the social seen didnât help him I think.
Kind of wish he choose CM.