Women-friendly campuses

bluestar7
Thu, 03 Aug 2006 17:43:24 +0000

My parents seemed ridiculously chilled out in the college process, to the point that my father sat back and told me that I have good judgment and he’ll support any decision I make.

Safety was a discussion that my family never sat down and had, actually. I grew up in NYC – they trusted my street smarts and common sense and knew that I understood that bad things can happen anywhere, so I should always be cognizant of my surroundings. Then again, all the schools I looked at are considered safe-- most had enclosed campuses, most (if not all) boasted about having those blue light phones and a campus police force as opposed to “rent a cop” security guards (we have both).

They wanted me to be at a top school, with a lively on campus scene-- friendly students, interesting courses, fun activities… and the ability to go off campus and do something fun too. They wanted a solid reputation, good job placement, etc. But that’s also what I wanted, so whatever.

Honestly, the most vocal my parents got were when my mom didn’t like a core curriculum since she felt it was too restrictive (my dad liked it, on the other hand), and my dad really felt strongly against me attending a school with a “cutthroat” academic culture-- where kids would steal books from the library or sabotage projects or things of that nature… they liked the idea of me going to a more “supportive” school where students work together and stuff. They also didn’t like some of the top schools on the list because they felt that they were too narrowly focused on academics and that the campuses felt cloistered and cold since all the students did was study-- parents felt a college experience is more than just that.

Ultimately wound up at Duke, and parents honestly couldn’t be happier-- only if Duke was closer to home.