Points you are making resonate and are well taken, thank you! No matter what the outcome, it’s so important to weigh all of the consequences of their final decision when they reach it, and go onto their path clear-eyed.
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Thank you so much for sharing your junior’s experience, and I’m happy to hear that they are enjoying their time at Bates! Thank you for the offer to ask any questions that might come up, I appreciate it. As an economics major, has the Center for Purposeful Work been a resource that students use and benefit from over their years at Bates? @Shelby_Balik shared some great links for the Center, the Business Society, and Entrepreneurship at Bates, so C25 and we have been looking through those. C25 was going to reach out to some students on the “Ask A Student” Bates webpage too. Thanks again!
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I think they are in this place of lots of different interests and a need to explore at this point, and I very much appreciate the engineering advice and information you shared, thank you so much!! College course catalogs, printed out, pored over and highlighted, will be their best time spent - that what I keep communicating to them currently, with four course sequences so they can see what each would require. Thanks again!!
That’s great info to know! Thank you so much for the Bates/Lehigh/Lafayette info, and for the Academics link for Bates, I will have C25 take a look at that and read the course catalog for Bates closely. Thanks again!
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This really varies. My kid has a double major (environmental studies and classical/medieval studies) and a minor (history). It does take a little planning ahead, but she didn’t start freshman year with all of these programs in mind, and she’s found that the curriculum is definitely flexible enough to accommodate all of these programs, even with a semester abroad. @Mom270 , I’m not sure why your friend’s kid was told not to do the double major. It might have been that they didn’t start early enough, or maybe tried to add the second major too late, or maybe there was going to be a scheduling problem with prereqs or required courses … who knows? It might have been that one of those departments (and not the college) had some restriction in place for their own majors. I know English doesn’t have a minor. But my kid has found that the curriculum has been flexible enough, with a minimal core curriculum, for her to do a double major + minor, and she knows a lot of students who have double majors.
It’s true that some programs exist only as majors, and a few (mostly languages, I think) that exist only as minors. The one challenge to doing a double major is that most majors require a thesis (some have slightly more flexible capstone projects), so double majors need to balance two significant research projects during their senior years.
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Bates is a wonderful school, but it seems as if it would disadvantage several major/career paths that are of interest, whereas both Lehigh and Santa Clara cover all of the bases in terms of engineering and business in addition to liberal arts.
Is there a reason that Santa Clara seems like an afterthought, as compared to Lehigh? To me, they both seem like potentially great fits, but the “vibes” are quite different. I definitely don’t think weather is the only point in favor of SCU, though! Maybe @Thumper1 can say more about why your student might consider Santa Clara more seriously.
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I know from past discussions we just don’t agree about flexibility at Bates. I know my friends were pretty disappointed about not being able to have the double major or minor in English and I don’t think the student is to blame. Just looking at all the subjects you cannot minor in is significantly different than the colleges my children chose. Good luck to the OP with their decision!
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Hi! Thank you for this (all great points!) and Santa Clara has been talked about less recently by C25, but so so many great aspects of SCU that would make this a great place to land for C25. Hopefully we can either plan a tour or go to their admitted student day over April. Thanks again!!
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I’m sorry I was off the thread for a bit - were you able to visit Bates and get the rest of your questions answered? One of the things I have really noticed now that my student is a junior is how close the students are with their professors. That is a huge advantage of the small liberal arts colleges. Juniors and seniors are doing so much research in the community and in the labs (with professor guidance) – mine presented on two projects just last week (both in psychology). Other psych professors and her advisor attended these presentations. Also, for her friends who are seniors, they have an amazing event where seniors get a chance to show their thesis work to the entire college community (many posters on easels!). It’s a wonderful culmination of 4 years of study, and something that I think sticks with them for years to come. So that is an additional “plus” for Bates that you might not hear about. Good luck with the decision!
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Did you get to the SCU Preview Day? We were there and S25 really enjoyed it (we had never visited campus before). The sessions at the business school were very informative and the students presenting were impressive!
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We were able to visit Bates for the first time last week, and it was an informative trip for them and for me. Great admitted students day programming and tours.
It seems like Bates has expanded access/hours for studying/lab work in the science building and some of the other academic buildings. That was good to see, as that was a request from students to the administration.
For athletics/social aspect - C25 was wondering what your student’s experience has been at Bates. They would be interested in joining club sports, dance/yoga classes, and the outing club. They wondered too about social aspects - were athletes typically socializing with their teams more so exclusively or if there’s a culture of including non-athletes and athletes socially?
They learned about the Mount David Summit - senior thesis presentations/poster session - C25 seemed comfortable with majors, minors, and the areas of concentration options. Some of the students on the student panel were double majoring. Lunch at the dining hall was great. A very worthwhile trip.
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They were not able to get there. Thank you for sharing your experience!
That’s good to hear! As for socializing, it’s a little different this year with juniors studying abroad. They kind of hang out with whomever happens to be around. Some house parties, but also the Goose and the Cage (both near campus). I’m sure there are small private parties that might happen with just certain sports teams, but I can’t really say. Juniors also will hang out with seniors quite a bit, since seniors often have off-campus housing (full apartments with kitchens). My friend has an athlete at Bates and I’ve heard through her that the athletes do like to branch out and meet other people since they are with their teams so much. Hope that helps!
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I can also answer this question. I think there are some athletes who are a little cliquish and party together, but in general, social groups are mixed. My daughter (non-athlete, sophomore) is friendly with some athletes (mostly on club sports). Her closest friends come from a combination of a few people she befriended right away during her first year, plus a group of seniors who are close with the older sister of one of her friends (sadly, all of them are about to graduate), plus people in her classes/majors, people on the newspaper (she’s actively involved), friends of friends, etc. She’s definitely not an extrovert, but she’s never lacking for things to do and people to do it with.
Club and intramural sports are definitely available. My daughter has friends who do club skiing, sailing, and water polo, and she’s done intramural dodgeball. There are lots of fitness classes available. Highly recommend the outing club – you can join or just sign up for trips. My daughter’s not a member, but she did a camping/river rafting trip with them last year during short term, and the Bates Birding Club (which she co-founded) is planning to do some joint trips with the outing club next year. It’s very active.
I’m glad you and your kid had a great admitted students’ day. Feel free to chime in with more questions!
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This is super helpful to know, thank you for sharing about the social aspects, especially how junior year unfolded for your student. In talking with a colleague about athlete/non athlete social culture at their D’s school, their D and team mates branched out intentionally to widen their circle outside of their sport-which benefited them and non athletes on their campus too. Good to hear of something similar at Bates.
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Thank you so much, it sounds like your student is thriving and loved to hear about their newspaper, and outing club experiences. It is also great to hear that the college is supportive of students founding a new club.
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Closing at the request of the OP
Opening at request of OP.
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