I am a Colby parent, my son just completed his first year (he loves it, by the way). So I don’t have any personal knowledge of what Colby was like in the past and how the student experience might have changed in recent years. That said, there are two changes that I am aware of:
(1) Colby hired a new president a couple of years ago, David Greene. My impression of him is that he is a real sparkplug, and has been moving the institution forward in some impressive ways. One of the faculty that I talked to was a little more conservative in her assessment of the new president, but in my experience college faculty generally are pretty conservative when it comes to institutional change (I am one). Overall I think President Greene has been very respectful of the core values of the college, and that the changes he is bringing about only serve to highlight and enhance those values. I think the results will be positive for Colby students, and for their already very strong alumni network.
(2) Applications to Colby have been increasing in significant numbers in recent years. Some cynics think this is all due to changes in application requirements (e.g. dropping a supplemental essay), presumed to be an effort to game ranking systems by appearing to be more selective. Others will point to Colby’s expanded recruitment efforts across the country, bringing Colby to the attention of capable students who might never have heard of or considered it previously. The truth is probably some combination, but the fact remains that Colby is becoming more and more selective and is attracting better and better students.
All in all, again, I think these changes will be positive ones for the student experience at Colby.
As to all the discussions being old, have you perused this thread: http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/colby-college/1946433-why-colby.html ? Colby is a relatively small school (less than 2000 students), so I wouldn’t expect there to be as much activity on this discussion board as there might be on the boards for other larger schools.
Hope this helps; good luck in finding a great fit for your son, as we have for ours!