<p>I went to Yale and majored in English because I liked to read and was a pretty good writer. Played football for four years but not quite good enough to get a lot of varsity game time. The English did not work out so well because we spent most of our tiem reading ancient poets. For me, if I did it again, I would likely aim for a NESCAC school like Middlebury or Bowdoin where I would have measured up better as a football player and would have majored in American Studies. For a bigger school where I might get in with today’s stricter admission requiremnts (and forgetting football for me), I would be tempted by UVA (my daughter goes there , and it is wonderful) or Miami of Ohio.</p>
<p>Whoops, I guess it wasn’t mathmom who opened the thread. Well, thanks to the OP!</p>
<p>I went to Humboldt State in the 80’s, and I’d go back again–and, no, not for the drugs. But I would go in as a double major: Theater (my current degree) and German (I have a passion for Brecht and Durrenmatt).</p>
<p>I would not change a single thing and return to my beloved Ohio State which was instrumental in making me what I am today. The opportunities and experiences afforded me as an undergrad would hopefully still be available and my only disappointment is that none of the professors in the CEEGS Department are still teaching though Prof Wu is still active in a non-teaching capacity.</p>
<p>garrity: this is a pretty absurd post. you claim that your very familiar with bowdoin, find it horribly isolated, and recommend middlebury college as an alternative? i’m not sure where you get your information, garrity, but it’s inscrutable. the town of middlebury, vermont is smaller than even williamstown, which is itself a quarter of the size of brunswick and both of which are far more isolated. dartmouth, while bigger, is also isolated. and the drinking culture at bowdoin, middlebury, or dartmouth is not substantially different. if your experience with bowdoin was from 30 years ago, perhaps you have ground to stand on about drinking, but you should also account for changes, now rather old changes, that bowdoin has made, which make it a college far less focused on drinking today. certainly less than dartmouth. those with an inkling of knowledge about these colleges today would find your comment confusing.</p>
<p>Sign me up for Williams (if I want to be cold) or Rice (if I didn’t have my hatred of high humidity). I think I am a southerner at heart and always have been, so UVA would have been good for me.</p>
<p>I think I would have liked Evergreen. Yes I know it is still in Washington, but I like the interdisciplinary studies, I think the campus is gorgeous ( if you don’t look at the buildings) and you work hard, ( but not as hard as Reedies)
not any Div1 sports but I don’t care about that.I think it would be great to study environmental science/public policy.</p>
<p>I also think I would like Whitman- and I am looking forward to looking at Humboldt for my junior daughter.- she doesn’t like the rural so much though.</p>
<p>Reed of course- where my older daughter graduated last year, seems like the perfect college- lots of community feeling and events, great city, but I don’t think I would fit in, at a school where students spend so much time in the library that they don’t go back to their dorm to sleep or shower during finals.
When I was college age, I also was way too interested in young men, and I hadn’t noticed that Reed had much of my type- ;)</p>
<p>However I also think I would like a womens college, especially one in a consortium, like Smith or Holyoke.
See I haven’t used up my alloted 4 years of college yet- so I could still give it a whirl! 
( except for the writing papers-what I would like to major in now is recreational studies- which I think meshes with environmental policy because I would run retreats for executives who make decisions re manufacturing practices etc. in the Cascades or in the Rockies, and illustrate to them the importance of preserving and expanding protected lands)</p>
<p>Garrity, </p>
<p>Visited SLU in the summer. Must have been the wonderful tour guide D and her friend had. I liked Dartmouth too, but since I’ve read alot on CC about the drinking, and would spend less time drinking, I chose SLU. </p>
<p>emeraldkity4- recreational studies or recreation management crossed my mind.</p>
<p>I was at Bowdoin a few months ago and am close to a former admissions person. I have contact with Bowdoin parents whose sons love it there,but it is a very heavy drinking school. I did not mean to offend any Bowdoin folks,but this tends to be true re: rural,isolated schools in bitterly cold climates. St. Lawrence kids are wonderful and SLU may be the best school regarding generous financial aid. SLU is aware of the drinking issues which came from a lot of alumni complaints. SLU closed down the problem frats and expanded study abraod options to get kids out of the frigid and isolated area,and,of course, to benefit students development. SLU really cares for its students,as does Bowdoin,but the rural isolation during the frigid winters combined with the highly social student body does lead to a lot of alcohol consumption. IMO the way to do SLU is to spend a year abroad and to attend a summer session. Same advice re:Dartmouth. Middlebury kids are exceptional with an international and intellectual flair that,combined with their typical well roundedness,makes this a truly exceptional school for all 4 years. I do not care what Bowdoin reports as its stats,I think it is overrated for a 4 year experience.Great place to spend a year or two,but then what. Visit Middlebury and then visit Bowdoin-they should not even be in the same league.</p>
<p>Some of us like fridgid winters and snow. Middlebury was originally my second choice. I didn’t actually visit Bowdoin - D wasn’t interested, but from reviewing their information and it being closer to Boston I chose it.</p>
<p>Again,I am just stating my informed opinion.Doesn’t mean that I am right,just that,based on my knowledge and experience,that these are my conclusions. If it helps, I am not a fan of Colby or Bates either. Regarding Bates the up again,down again barbed wire fences and the crime are of serious concern, unlike the heavy drinking cultures found at Colby and other frigid,isolated schools. I love cold weather too. I just prefer more intellectual,social and cultural stimulation than is found in Brunswick,Maine at a small LAC. Middlebury and Dartmouth offer spectacular cultural options throughout the calender year both on and off campus.</p>
<p>I liked my school (Carnegie Mellon) but I would have applied to BSIM in GSIA (now Tepper) instead of H&SS. What can I say, my parents held the pursestrings…</p>
<p>My father was a very smart man. He started at my birth whispering UCLA into my ear. He had attended Cal and UCLA, but had never finished those last 10-15 credits for graduation. UCLA became my dream school. There were so many great things that happened to me there, but also one of the most disappointing. In retrospect, it was not the place in the early 70’s to be a female computer science major in their engineering department. By the end of my sophomore year, almost all the women had been weeded out. I’ll always regret having bailed out, and I won’t forget the lack of support by the engineering professors/TA’s. Fortunately, the math department was happy to take most of us and were a much more collaborative group to learn from. My D at an LAC known for its tough natural science programs gets all the support in the world as one of 7 female chem majors in her class of 23 majors. If I could start again now, I’d love to be part of Smith’s new engineering school or perhaps give Harvey Mudd my best shot.</p>
<p>Earlham (though if I could change my gender, maybe Smith). Evergreen would be great as well, but it’s in my home town, so it might get a little old…)</p>
<p>However, I wouldn’t go to either Earlham or Smith as it was in 1967, and Evergreen didn’t exist. Swarthmore of 1967 would be just fine for me (but not as it is today.)</p>
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<p>Other than the fact that it’s no longer lily-white and has much more extensive student support services, I don’t think the school has changed one iota. To be sure, there aren’t many Weathermen around and the Afro-American Students Society isn’t likely to take over the admissions office anytime soon, but that’s a reflection of a different era and kids with a very different perspective on how they can go about improving a very different world. Less pot, more study abroad.</p>
<p>I’d go back to Harvard in a heartbeat if they’d let me. I could do ten undergrad degrees without running out of things I wanted to do – but in a second go-round, I’d major in History & Science.</p>
<p>All the nostalgia on this thread reminds me a of a great moment in Tom Stoppard’s “The Invention of Love.” I saw the play in London with my family during Christmas of my senior year. In one sequence, the protagonist dies and Charon punts him across the Styx, saying, “Here we are…Elysium.” The stage is suddenly lit by a a pattern of sunlight filtering through trees. The protagonist steps out of the boat, smiles, and says, “Ah. Oxford.”</p>
<p>In the theater, my father leaned over to me and whispered, “Just like you.” And it’s true. If there’s a heaven for me, I think the first words I’ll hear will be: “Welcome to Freshman Orientation…”</p>
<p>I do sometimes wonder if the best use of a second round would be to choose a school as different from the first as possible, where I’d get a chance to live in a whole new world. Ole Miss comes to mind as a possibility.</p>
<p>I went to UNC, and if I had to, I’d do it again. The only thing I’d change- I’d spend a little more time studying during my sophomore and junior years.</p>
<p>I would still go to Lafayette, since my study interests (Economics & Mathematics), is now a major in itself instead of something I had to design with my advisor, and it still manages to be a Division I school despite its small size, but at times I wish that the student body there would be a bit more diverse - I think one review said that it “put the homo in homogeneous”. that is why my D will not apply there…</p>
<p>“Other than the fact that it’s no longer lily-white and has much more extensive student support services, I don’t think the school has changed one iota.”</p>
<p>I think (being a closely connected Friend) I know quite a bit more about the changes than you do, but it is hardly worth arguing about.</p>
<p>If I could go to college again . . . . I would take a gap year before I went. I really don’t think I was mature enough when I went to college straight out of high school to get out of it what I should have. I have a lot of regrets about that. </p>
<p>I’m not sure if I would have gone to Williams again, if I had to decide now. Having gone through the college selection process with my daughter and having seen how she is thriving in her first year at Harvard, I think I would probably have perferred Harvard to Williams (not that I had that choice back then). If I went the LAC route again, I think Swarthmore or Carleton would be my top choices.</p>