Hanover info

[doddsdad]

<p>Hanover should have some posts of this board, so I’ve cut and pasted a “review” I wrote after I visited it with my son. It also contains from info from Icemaker. The next message will have info that Fredo learned from a Hanover student that she knows well. BTW, Hanover College is in Hanover, IN on the Ohio river. </p>

<p>From Doddsdad

Hanover! It was our last college and we had to leave by 1200 to make it to the airport in time for our evening flight. So we had a slightly rushed visit at Hanover. The visit coordinator created a compact schedule that included a class, a tour, meeting with a professor, and an interview all before noon! It was impressive scheduling and it actually worked, although it was a hurried interview. Hanover has a beautiful campus set on the high bluffs above the Ohio River. The main entrance (also referred to as the scenic entrance) is a road that winds through a forest on the edge of the bluffs until you arrive on campus next to Greek row. The campus buildings are consistently red-brick, primarily in a Georgian style that blend together pleasantly to my eye. It almost looks like they planned it that way. Hanover the college blends with Hanover the village. At least I think it was a village. We didn’t drive through since we were driving the scenic route, so the village must not scenic. Madison is a town almost next door. The town-gown relationship is very strong. Madison is a historic city in IN who values Hanover College as its primary asset. The AC said the Madison mayor will sometimes ask, “How are my students doing over there?” Hanover the village doesn’t have a mayor, so that supports its status as a village. About half of the Hanover faculty live on the campus. The students say they can’t have pets, but the professors’ dogs and cats are friendly. </p>

<p>Everyone was very nice, friendly and they seemed pleased to have S visiting from overseas. Some of them were curious about how we knew about Hanover and managed to find it. I explained that we were originally from KY and I had known some Hanover graduates in the past who were good people. One of them attended Hanover while Woody Harrelson was there. She said he seemed to get “lost in the smoke,” or something like that. I don’t think he graduated, so he probably suffered the fate of most school dropouts. (I didn’t tell them the Woody Harrelson part) Even the dean of admissions came out and talked with us a few minutes, or maybe we were blocking his path to the coffee pot. Not really, he was welcoming us. I just remembered. The Kenyon dean greeted us too. (Please tell kclady I didn’t forget)</p>

<p>With S off to class, I walked around to take pictures, but no naps this time. As I said, the campus is beautiful, but it looked a little ragged and needed the grass to be cut in some of the quads. Predictably, that occurred during our tour and when I was sitting outside trying to read a book. I don’t know if the AC had extra time that morning or she liked us, but she talked with me for some time while S was in class. She had been a manager for a Fisher House at Travis AFB for a few years, and she knows the manager of the Fisher house here in Germany at Landstuhl Hospital. Fisher houses are military versions of Ronald McDonald houses. I’m digressing again, but the point is that she was friendly, helpful, and soon started telling me about the merit aid opportunities at Hanover. How can you not like a college that tells you they may have money for your child? The merit aid scholarships for students with S’s stats were substantial, especially since Hanover COA is about $10,000 less per year than most of the colleges we had visited (Centre is the exception). In addition, they will stack some scholarships together to increase the package, rather than supplant smaller scholarships with larger (Centre tends to supplant). </p>

<p>Our tour guide was a senior who had an unusual double major: premed and studio art. She did a good job on the tour, especially since she had to shout over lawnmowers at times. Hanover’s facilities appear to be in good shape and they have several newer buildings. The student center has recently been renovated and the students seemed to like it. We didn’t go inside, but the athletic/wellness building looked impressive from the outside. My S’s biggest concern was that most of the dorms are not air-conditioned. Hanover won’t allow the students to bring a window unit although a box fan is acceptable. I can tell you from considerable experience that the Ohio Valley can be hot and humid as early as late April, and through September. Our guide said they have one or two dorms with ac for students with health conditions, so S’s allergies might finally do him a favor. The academic buildings are air-conditioned and they are supposed to be working on upgrading the dorms soon, but I think students could be uncomfortable for a few weeks every year. Of course, that might inspire them to get out of bed and get to an ac classroom. Also, Hanover is on a 4-4-1 schedule with a May term. Most students study elsewhere in May, but many remain at Hanover for their class. Our guide said she didn’t know if she’d been accepted to medical school yet, but she seemed confident she would get in. She said she had been academically challenged at Hanover, and she had to study or read about three hours for every hour in the classroom “for many classes.” </p>

<p>That leads to our biggest concern about Hanover. My S attended one class and there with only four regular students. He didn’t know if students were absent, or whether that was normal. The professor was presenting and discussing some information from a writer’s work which had not been part of the class reading assignment. S had recently read part of the piece in an AP class. He felt like he dominated the discussion and the other students were not particularly engaged. Of course, they were probably angry with the smart*** high school kid who was visiting, but he escaped unscathed. Our guide had said many students were at a conference making presentations, so maybe this was not the usual class, or they were tired from studying for finals the next week. Unfortunately, S was not impressed with the students in the class. He later met with a different professor who was engaging, challenging, and interesting to S. </p>

<p>I’m going to cheat and give you a link to one of Curmudgeon’s threads with Icemaker giving a nice overview of Hanover. I’ve also cut and pasted it below but I don’t know how to put it in those nice boxes. I think Icemaker’s overview both alleviates and confirms my concerns at the same time. </p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com…ead.php?t=52549%5B/url%5D”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com…ead.php?t=52549</a></p>

<p>“Icemaker- Hanover overview</p>

<p>I know a little bit about Hanover, so maybe I can be a bit of help there. I am from Indiana and I have several friends who went to Hanover. </p>

<p>Academically, Hanover is a solid school and is strong in the sciences. The level of academic seriousness of the students is pretty wide ranging. Some students will be very serious about their education, while other students are likely to treat their time at Hanover as a four year cocktail party (that is, if they last the entire four years). The person I know who was an Econ major there complained that he felt there were too many students at Hanover who lacked an academic focus. However, the Chemistry major I know (and wife of the Econ major) had no such complaints and felt like the academics at Hanover were very strong. By the way, they both went onto grad school, live in Chicago and are doing quite well for themselves.</p>

<p>Hanover is also well known for putting together generous aid packages. Given your daughter’s academic credentials, I bet that Hanover will offer her a ton of merit money. My guess is that out of all of the schools you have listed, Hanover will end up being the most affordable, if that is a factor.</p>

<p>While I have never personally been on the Hanover campus, in a rare moment of unanimity my parents indicated that the two most physically attractive campuses they ever visited were Hanover and Kenyon (my brother played D3 football and they went to virtually all of his games).</p>

<p>My impression is that if your daughter is as serious and self motivated as she appears to be, then she would likely get a fine education at Hanover.”</p>

<p>Me again. I liked Hanover and my S liked it too. It’s a very good college, and I believe S would receive a fine education there. But I’m concerned about whether he will be consistently challenged academically. I’m confident Curmudgeon’s daughter is “serious and self-motivated” but I don’t know if that describes my son. Right now he wants to apply. I’ll certainly support that, but I’ll feel better if he can visit again and attend some more classes. Or maybe someone else like Icemaker will have experience with Hanover. Or maybe I can make a deal with Curmudgeon. We can both send our kids to Hanover and she can kick my S’s butt if he tries to slack off. I’d have to get him to lend his boots to her though. Or maybe we can make the same deal for Centre… package deals…didn’t you already doodle up this idea Curmudgeon?

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[doddsdad]

<p>From Fredo

The scoop on Hanover </p>

<p>For Doddsdad and C-Mudge and any other interested parents.</p>

<p>I spent lunch with the girl I know who’s a jr. Let me start by saying that she loves Hanover. She came out of our extremely large (3500+) HS having taken many honors/AP classes (had a 3.69 GPA). Hanover is ~1100 students so it was a big switch. But she has enjoyed it immensely.</p>

<p>She strongly feels that Hanover is academically rigorous. Her GPA there is measureably lower than her HS GPA. She has found the classes to be challenging and finds the classroom discussions very stimulating. Professors (as at many schools, particularly small LAC’s) are extremely accessible and helpful. She definitely feels that there is an active learning environment throughout the school. </p>

<p>She says that she thinks that students who come there are surprised by how difficult classes can be. Hanover is not the pushover school that some kids think it is. She was telling me about the new curriculum change (called Academic Vision, I think?) that has beefed up requirements for interdisciplinary courses and broader knowledge base. She said she feels that the university is trying very hard to up the ante academically through the new curriculum reqs and through faculty hiring and through course offerings.</p>

<p>She told me that this has actually caused quite a problem with this year’s freshmen class. She said that 90 (out of a class of 400) are not returning next year. Some because they couldn’t cut it and some because they don’t want to try - again, turns out the school is not the “easy” school some students anticipated. Now I cannot confirm any of her numbers so please take that comment with a grain of salt.</p>

<p>She tells me she has lots of intellectual conversations and professors do challenge the students and the students are motivated to do well and challenge themselves.</p>

<p>She really praised the quality of the English Dept. (which she said has all of 7 rising seniors) and the professors are top-notch, in her view.</p>

<p>What doesn’t she like? Well, the food wasn’t too great. But she said that students circulated a petition and talked to administration to get that improved and they responded and now the food is much better. She feels that the administration sometimes clamps down too hard on drinking - particularly in the greek houses. As she pointed out, in dorms there’s an RA on every floor serving as the eyes and ears and “enforcer” of anti-drinking rules on campus. But in the frats, there’s only a house parent, and the inhabitants can tend to run a little more amok. So whenever there’s a problem, the university comes down hard on those groups as if to show its’ might. Again, this is her view.</p>

<p>As to the Greek scene, 50 % of girls join sororities and 30% of guys. She told me the issue with guys is that lots of them have grade issues (and min. GPA for a frat is 2.0). Most parties are Greek. Hanover is relatively isolated but that didn’t seem to bother her much.</p>

<p>She told me over and over how much she loves it there. This is an outgoing girl - bright but not super polished socially - and she has thrived. She’s a double major (english and communications) with no idea what she’s going to do after her senior year. She can’t believe that she’s going to be leaving school in a year - she says she’s scared and I think it’s because she’s been having such a good time at Hanover.

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