Centre College
Visited yesterday from AZ. D24 got accepted EA w/merit scholarship. 1st time seeing the campus & the area + D24 had a vocal audition for a music scholarship (up to $5k/yr for music performance scholarships if you’re not a music major).
My general thoughts:
- We flew Southwest Airlines into Louisville. 1.5 hr drive to Danville from Louisville. That was a bit long. Lots of small towns in between and we passed several bourbon distilleries along the way. If either of my kids were to attend here, they’d definitely need to fly in & out of Lexington instead.
- Tour guide said there’s no Uber or Lyft in Danville.
- The college arranges for airport transportation at the start and end of the semesters. But if you want to go home for a visit in between those time frames, then you’re on your own to figure out transportation to & from the airport. Tour guide & admissions counselor both said that many students are from Louisville and Lexington and will offer you a ride and even professors offer rides to the airport.
- We met w/admissions counselor before the info session & tour. DH asked a million questions.
He really wanted to know when financial aid packages will be coming out and, of course, the financial aid office just didn’t know yet. So DH will have to wait.
Campus vibe:
- collaborative vibe on campus, not competitive amongst students. This is a huge plus for our family.
- students seemed happy to be there. Our tour guide was a junior international student from India. He loves the school.
- about 50% of students are in fraternities or sororities, but frat parties are open to all Centre College students and nobody is excluded. Campus police dept is right next door to the houses on Greek row.
- you can’t rush as freshman until spring semester. This is on purpose so freshman focus first on getting connected with the community on campus instead of isolating themselves right away by only hanging out with their frat/sorority people. Lots of Greek-nonGreek friendships continue here apparently. This was a big plus for D24 because she doesn’t want to rush a sorority, but also doesn’t want to be isolated from a social life because of not being in a sorority.
The town:
- Downtown Danville is really cute. Especially at night. Main St has string lights on the trees lining the road and it’s very very charming.
- lots of restaurants all within easy walking distance of campus. This was a huge plus. We ate breakfast yesterday morning at a cafe attached to the campus bookstore (which is downtown). The food prices at all of the restaurants we ate in were cheaper than restaurant prices in the Phoenix metro area (where we’re from).
- Centre College is definitely a big part of Danville, KY life.
- everybody we spoke with was really genuinely friendly. Really nice people.
- Ate dinner Sunday evening at Mi Pueblo, which has a location that’s walking distance from campus. Our server said that on Fri & Sat nights, it’s packed with Centre students. Our tour guide said it’s his favorite place to eat off campus. We thought the Mexican food here was pretty decent (and we’re picky about Mexican food).
- D24 also chose dinner for night #2, which was at a Japanese place really close to our hotel. She gave the food a thumbs up.
- Had breakfast at a local breakfast/lunch diner (only open until 3pm) this morning called the Red Rooster Cafe. Sort of one those classic small town America diners. simple food, but the breakfast was good. D24 liked the biscuits & gravy. DH was happy that they had Cholula hot sauce available there.
- Danville has a Lowe’s hardware, a Walmart, movie theater, Kroger grocery store, an Aldi, lots of restaurants, lots of banks.
- there’s a Papa Johns, Domino’s, and a Baskin & Robbins literally right next door to campus.
Campus:
- very walkable. About 15 min to walk from one side of campus to the other.
- brand spanking new sports facility which just opened. It has an indoor track and last month, they had their first collegiate indoor track meet there.
- very traditional red brick college buildings. The campus is old, like from the 1850s.
- lots of trees and green spaces all over campus. It was cold while we were there (high’s in low 40s), but I’ve seen on their social media that when the weather is better and warmer, professors will do lectures outside. There’s even this one small amphitheater area with a white board outside for this very purpose.
- students have access to study in the academic buildings at any time 24x7. You do not have to reserve a study space like you do sometimes at a big school like Univ of Arizona.
- D24 thought that the campus was pretty. I thought so, too. There’s many spots with adirondack chairs circled around firepits.
Dorms:
- got to see inside of a freshman dorm. Freshman dorm rooms are a decent size. Freshman dorms have communal bathrooms. Girls on 1 floor and boys are on a different floor.
- every year you progress at Centre, the housing gets a little better. Sophomores on up can do suite-style rooms. Starting junior year, you can get a single room. And seniors get 1st pick at townhouse-style row houses which all circle around a center courtyard (with a firepit w/adirondack chairs) where everybody gets their own bedroom & you share a living room and kitchen with something like 4-6 people. the tour guide was raving about this. I’ve seen the videos online and it’s very nice.
- couple of the freshman dorms just got renovated last summer. Next summer, another dorm will be renovated with student ID entry for getting into your dorm room.
- All students live on campus for all 4 years.
- All of the housing is close to everything. You can bring a bike, but honestly, I don’t think you need it.
Academics:
- students don’t declare a major & minor until spring of sophomore year.
- you have a faculty advisor for that first year and a half and then you switch to your major advisor once you declare your major in spring of sophomore year. These advisors help you make sure to sign up for the right classes in the right order, and help you figure out what to take if you need help or guidance on that. They also help with figuring out research opportunities & internship applications.
- D24 is a pre-health student, wants to be a PA (physician assistant). Centre said that last year, they had an 83% acceptance rate to med school. Admissions counselor told us that Centre is known by the KY in-state med schools as doing a really excellent job of prepping students for med school, and now there are some med school faculty who did their undergrad at Centre College.
- the school has a reputation for having tough academics (like, you’ll be doing a lot of reading!), but also has a reputation for preparing students really well for whatever they do after college.
- class size is maxed out at 30 students for each class. Even for intro freshman courses. Huge plus for D24.
- many of the professors have interdisciplinary fields of study. So if you are interested in more than one thing, then this is a good place for you.
- D26 is really really into history and they seem to have a good history program, so we’re going to keep this school on the ‘maybe’ list for her when it’s her turn to look at colleges in a couple of years.
Study abroad:
- 85% of students do study abroad. Some are for a semester, some are for their 3-week “Centre Term” in January. You can do Centre Term abroad starting in sophomore year. Lots of really cool Centre Term options for study abroad. Several are listed on their website.
- They also have a lot of ‘study away’ options, too, if you want to remain in the US. They have ‘study away’ options for Centre term, but also you can do a semester away in NYC or DC. AND our tour guide said that if you do the NYC or DC study away, your housing fee stays the same as if you were living in a dorm on campus that semester at Centre.
Dining:
- there’s only 1 dining hall.
- dining hall food vendor was changed this school year. Students are much happier with the food now. The bread is all made on site in house and lots of stuff is locally sourced now. Tour guide said the food is much better this year and everybody’s a lot happier as a result.
- there’s also an Einstein’s Bagels in the library.
- there’s a quick-serve sort of place in the gym which has stuff like flatbread pizzas and sandwiches also. Plus a lot of local eateries all within 10 min walk of campus in downtown Danville.
Research experiences, internships, etc.:
- like the other 2 CTCL schools D24 applied to, Centre guarantees you’ll graduate in 4 years and that you’ll have the opportunity to study abroad, do an internship, participate in research if you want.
- Tour guide told us that if you do a summer research project w/a professor, then most of those are PAID and you can live on campus in the dorm for free. Research w/a professor during the regular academic school year is done for credit hours and is not paid.
- Summer internships are also often paid for by the college (i.e., student gets a stipend). Lots of connections used w/Centre alumni for this. There’s an office on campus that helps students locate, interview for, and get placed at internships all over the place.
- lots of pre-professional societies & groups at this school. Pre-health has specific advisors to help students through the process and they have connections with several local healthcare providers to get students the shadowing hours, volunteer hours, etc. that they need for whatever healthcare profession grad schools they plan on applying to. Similar situation for pre-veterinary, pre-law, etc.
- unlike Austin College, though, Centre does NOT have specific partnership programs with physician assistant grad schools.
- admissions counselor told us that in the state of KY, Centre College has a really excellent reputation and having a Centre BA/BS ends up opening up a lot of career doors down the road, which is a plus if you plan on staying in KY after undergrad. D24 does not plan on remaining in KY after undergrad, though.
Music program:
- really excellent performing arts center on campus, which regularly has traveling Broadway & other musical acts & groups perform on campus.
- this is where 1 of the vice-presidential debates was held 10+ years ago.
- a music professor gave D24 a tour of the performing arts center, showed her the practice spaces & music classrooms. Explained all about the music scholarship and the wide range of options you have for the required classes you have to take for it. D24 was really interested in this.
- at a lot of colleges, there really aren’t performing arts scholarships for non-music majors. But this college offers up to $5k off of tuition per year.
- not related to music, but there’s a hot glass studio on campus and you can fill your fine arts general ed requirement by taking an intro to glass blowing class there. The tour guide said that it’s one of the most popular classes on campus and a lot of students love it so much that they end up doing a fine arts minor in almost entirely all glass blowing…and these are students who are all sorts of majors (humanities AND sciences). D24 said that if she went there, she’d probably take that class to try it out.
Like we’ve done w/our other college tours, I asked D24 to name 3 things she liked about the school and 3 things she didn’t like as much. Here are the “pro’s” that she gave me:
- town is cute, really safe
- liked the small class sizes
- really good music program
- music scholarship requirements are only 1 class away from a minor in music
- lots of opportunities to travel overseas w/choirs at Centre.
- music professors that D24 met with “are really nice”
- close knit community
- Greek life isn’t pushed a lot
- very easy to do undergrad research
“Cons”:
- harder to get to/from airport compared to Austin College or Southwestern
- No Uber or Lyft in Danville. have to use taxi to get to airport or bum a ride from somebody.
- no large city or big suburb nearby. Kid said that it made the college feel a little isolated.
- too cold
- 83% admit rate to med schools, but no partnerships w/PA grad schools
- a little too far away from home. “If it was a little warmer in the winter and if it was a little closer to home, I could totally see myself going here.”
D24 said that she probably won’t attend here because it’s too cold and a little too far away from home for her. However, I can see why our senior college counselor at school mentioned this college a few times to the seniors at D24’s high school. It’s a pretty cool place. Definitely a liberal enclave in the middle of a red state. Definitely a place where you can explore all sorts of interests that you might have. And they have really good merit scholarships available. I’m a little disappointed that it’ll end up in the “no” category. If you don’t want to feel like ‘just a number’ at college, this is a great school to consider.