Small Liberal Arts School Essay

Almost all of my criteria are flexible, with one exception. I very much want to go to a small liberal arts school, or a school with a sum experience very similar to a small liberal arts institution, although I do not care if there are graduate students there. I grew up on the campus of a college like that, and I am extraordinarily comfortable with this environment and design. In a school of that size, there is often a low student to faculty ratio (10:1 or so) and this directly translates to a lot of individual attention and help from professors. I do not want it to be too small, because although I like a smaller campus, I do not want to go to a school where the student body is so small there can not be variety in the school’s population.

It is also a college and has a population of 1,376. It is significantly less diverse than Wellesley, with a white population of 68%. It has an alternative grading system, with narrative evaluations given in place of grades. I feel as if that would be very beneficial to me, because it would encourage me to be engaged in a way grades cannot. At the end of each course, “Detailed written evaluations reflect students' engagement and performance in courses, internships, field work, projects, study abroad, and other evaluated learning activities.” It also eliminates many facets of the academic competition that makes me uncomfortable. Hampshire emphasises inquiry- and discussion-based learning instead of learning by rote memorization, which is something that I would very much appreciate. However, it is in state, which is, again, a major drawback.

McDaniel is a small liberal arts college with a population of 3,206. It has 1,706 undergraduate students. It is very white, with a white percentage of 74%, which is not a plus. It is a safety school, with the 75th percentile ACT composite score of 27. It has a sign language program, which is something I am relatively interested in, as well as the requisite Women and Gender Studies degrees. Even though it is a safety school, there is an honors college that would definitely challenge me after my admittance. I have yet to make a visit, but it is relatively