<p>My son and husband just finished visiting Trinity, and so these impressions are second-hand. I just finished speaking with them this afternoon. They thought the campus was beautiful, and the students were engaging and friendly. Despite Hartford’s horrible reputation on this board, neither of them found Hartford to be particularly frightening; in fact, Hartford has its charms. At least, that’s their conclusion!</p>
<p>The adcoms at Trinity were very upfront with everyone about the drinking/drug scene at Trinity. Apparently they characterized it this way, “Trinity has all the problems of society at large.” They claim to have seen some changes in the student population, which they described as becoming more bimodal: one section of the population, perhaps a slightly growing section, does not engage in drinking/drugs; another section of the population is drinking more heavily than ever. If a student is found passed out, or nearly passed out, a warning is issued the first time; a second incident brings counseling; a third incident brings expulsion (or so they said).</p>
<p>If my son were to attend, he’d be part of that small, but growing section that isn’t into drinking/drugs. I found it interesting that most of the individuals on this board assumed that he was a conservative Christian. He’s not. Just not into substance abuse.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, the Japanese major/minor at Trinity has only two instructors, neither of whom are tenure-track faculty. After a close look and conversation with members of the department, it became apparent that the program there is just not broad and deep enough to really meet his needs. </p>
<p>I think Trinity should begin some serious recruiting among California public high schools, especially if they’d like to bring in more students like my son. The only reason he learned about the school was because, when he did a search on the College Board website for schools that offered Japanese and that “matched” his scores, Trinity was one of only around 60 schools in the country. None of us had heard of the school before (my apologies to any Bantams reading this). But it sounds as if Trinity has quite a lot to offer and is looking to recruit students beyond its historic prep-school applicant pool.</p>