Hi mamaedefamilia and porcupine98! I’m going to try to answer both of you at once so hopefully this works.
NOTE: my original comment was way too long so I will be posting this all in several different parts.
First of all I completely agree that certain schools work for certain types of people. Some love Wooster, but I think their misadvertising draws many to the school that probably don’t belong there (I’l further explain below).
- What drew you there initially? (What schools did you choose it over?) A lot of things initially drew me to Wooster, it was my dream school and first choice. I loved the IS program and thought it would be a wonderful opportunity as well as great preparation for grad school. It's nationally recognized and highly impressive.The research opportunities seemed far better than any other colleges, which was very important to me as a science major. I also loved the feel of Wooster, everybody I met was so friendly. I did an overnight weekend and went to a trivia night at the UG (a bar/ nightclub on campus that is now closed) and saw a performance by the campus's improv comedy group "Don't Throw Shoes." I had a blast the whole weekend and thought going to college there fulltime would be equally as fun. Finally, I really wanted to go to a smaller school for the smaller classes and closer relationships with the professors.
- What did you expect to find that you did not find? Unfortunaetly almost every reason I listed above for why I chose to go to Wooster was either different or not there at all once I really got there. I only went for my freshman year so I obviously can't talk about IS, but I can talk about the research for underclassman. I did go through the process of applying for sophomore research, which they say in admissions that everybody does but they really don't. First of all I was shocked by the lack of research opportunities available in the first place. I was (I still am) a chemistry major, and there was only one research posting for chemistry that I was unqualified for because you needed to have taken three semesters of biology (which is impossible for a freshman...). I asked my professor if he knew of any research available for me next year and he told me that professors rarely take sophomores into labs, despite how much the school advertises it. I did have a friend who was a sophomore that did partipate in research, however he said the professor and seniors in the lab working on their IS did not let him do much. It was mostly along the lines of filing paperwork, etc. In fact, he didn't even put the fact that he did reseach on his resume because he didn't really do much. Furthermore, all of my other friends (most of whom were science majors, but I knew a couple of poli sci, English, and foreign language majors too) who applied for sophomore research either found that there were no positions available, they didn't meet the requirements, or their applications were rejected. In short, the research opportunities available at Wooster are blown vastly out of proportion and pretty much every student will openly admit this. Along with other disappoints were the classes themselves. I took four classes (also Wooster limits you to four classes a semester, which is very weird if you know anything about how most other colleges work), and I had two professors I loved and two that were terrible. I had a chemistry professor that was a mess, and that's the nice way to put it. He was a wonderful person but he couldn't teach. He taught lecture wrong half the time, and the other half he walked in and gave a worksheet then left without saying a word. Several of my friends failed out of the class and are currently retaking it. He was a visiting professor and visiting profs are notorious for not being too good. The problem is Wooster has a lot of visiting profs. A lot. Professors come to Wooster and leave all the time, not because the school is bad but because the school actually pays them very poorly. The turnover rate is crazy. This is bad for students because then we get visiting profs and it negatively impacts our education. The other bad prof I had was for my FYS (first year seminar). I took a seminar about the government, and it was taught by a music professor. The worst part is that your FYS prof is your academic advisor. So I was a chemistry major with an academic advisor who was the director of the jazz band. Since this is how they assign advisors it is not at all uncommon to get assigned to an advisor who is completely out of your field of study, which is ironic since Wooster prides themselves on interdepartmental mentorship. My advisor never held advising appoints and he told us one day in lecture that he couldn't help us register for classes because he didn't know how. Luckily I had a few friends who were upperclassman science majors because without them I would've been beyond lost. Also, as a science major if you don't take exactly the right classes during the right semesters it can seriously risk your ability to graduate on time. Finally, as more of a general comment on the classes, the relationship with the professors were also lacking. I had some profs who didn't know my name even though I went to office hours, and I don't really believe that my education was vastly better sitting in a lecture hall with 30 other kids than it is now sitting in a lecture hall with 100 other kids. This is all just my personal experience, and I understand that every college has its good and bad professors. My only problem is that Wooster is very good at leading you to believe that they have all of the best professors in the country and that running into problems like I had is very uncommon. Wooster does have some wonderful profs, but they too have their fair share of bad apples despite what they'll tell you on a visit day.