I would agree that “nice” is very subjective. I have friends with kids at some of the schools mentioned on this thread that had a really tough time and found the schools cliquey and exclusive in an exclusionary way.
3 Likes
Yeah, “nice” is more relative than, perhaps, non-competitive or collaborative environment. That seems like a more quantitative place to start, along with @merc81’s list of colleges with the most percentage of students who live on campus.
Seconding campus visits to see the vibe check - along with reading the school newspaper and seeing flyers on campus for events. My kid doesn’t have social media and doesn’t check social media much, so the campus visits mattered. Obviously, this needs to be done in an affordable manner.
My kid is just under a month at their college and has met nice, not-nice, “sup” and seen-but-not-met students. Cliques have been in extremes of the social spectrum, and in club settings as well as friend group/dorm settings. My kid has been through some extreme experiences previously so this doesn’t phase them. You just keep moving.
Every school will have this range, most likely, so vibe/values check on how the school runs classes and classwork is pretty important.
(As an aside, I was in Colorado with my kid during a freak snowfall with a small rental car and non-snow tires. We got stuck in a ditch and would have been up the creek for hours. Luckily, a gruff person of few words and a truck with a sarcastic bumper sticker offered to push us out, and did. Nice versus decorum versus mind-your-own-business… It’s all so relative.)
4 Likes
Re: Lehigh - that has not been my daughter’s experience at all so far (she’s a frosh). She’s involved in such activities as tennis, music, and engineering and seems to have only come across nice, friendly kids (from freshmen to seniors, including (gasp) kids involved in Greek life (which is not her bag - at least as of now)). Fwiw.
2 Likes
After we toured schools in the Midwest and CO, our family came to the conclusion that there are “nice” schools, but there are also “nice” towns. We experienced “Midwest nice” where people are kind and courteous because that is the culture compared to what we called “happy people nice”, where everyone just seemed so nice because they were happy. Colorado, in general, and Fort Collins/ Colorado State in particular, were full of “happy nice”. We couldn’t get over it, and still can’t get over, how nice people are. It’s not the fake nice where they go out of their way to be polite, but where they just emanate “happy, happy you are here, happy to help you, hope you love this place as much as I do”. It was hard to tell if that was the student vibe, but we definitely got it from the faculty, staff, the University President and everyone else we interacted with in town. We seem to comment on it every time we visit and it’s made us want to move there. No wonder most kids end up wanting to stay after graduation.
6 Likes
100% agree about Colorado Happy Nice. We noticed it right away, a big contrast to “Seattle Freeze” which is the dominant culture where we live. From retail employees to restaurant folks to college staff, friendly and welcoming, happy to chat about just about anything. All that sunshine and those stunning mountains might be a contributing factor? I predict my kid will want to stay (and we might end up following her someday).
5 Likes
Here are some schools where friends and family felt welcome and had great experiences:
Gettysburg College
Carleton College
Bowdoin College
1 Like
These are some schools that come to mind. Since Minnesota has already been mentioned, I threw a couple of possibilities in there.
- Hope (MI): About 3300 undergrads
- College of Wooster (OH): About 2k undergrads
- Connecticut College: About 1900 undergrads
- Allegheny (PA )…slightly smaller at around 1400 undergrads
- Saint Michael’s (VT): Smaller at around 1200 undergrads
- St. Olaf (MN): About 3k undergrads
- Gustavus Adolphus (MN): About 2100 undergrads
Are you looking for driving distance from an airport that has a nonstop flight to London? Or driving distance from family in the U.S.?
Minneapolis, Chicago, Pittsburgh, Detroit, Cincinnati and other places all have nonstop flights to Heathrow.
2 Likes
Not on the east coast, but WashU is definitely a “nice person school.” I have one child there now. Academics are tough, but it is very collaborative and really everyone is nice and the students are friendly and happy.
5 Likes
This topic was automatically closed 180 days after the last reply. If you’d like to reply, please flag the thread for moderator attention.