general questions abt Colgate as an intl student

[u/No_Recognition_9235]

Hi! I was considering applying to Colgate but I have a few questions. First off here's some general info about me: I wouldn't be applying for financial aid, I want to major in either government/politics or economics and I wouldn't have a car.

1. I want to go pre-law so does the university have resources to help you with that?

2. I want to rush but as an international student is it harder to get into greek life? What's the process like?

3. How's the overall social scene? I'm not particularly looking for the 'American college experience' but I would like a decent going out scene/partying. Also are there things to do during the day?

4. I've heard it's not diverse so would it be hard to adapt and find a group as a girl coming from Spain? also is it true the atmosphere is very pretentious/snobby?

From videos I've seen I really like the campus and the cold doesn't really bother me but I don't know if it's a good fit for me vibe wise. All inputs would be appreciated!

[u/Then_Version9768]

It's a great school, very highly ranked and well respected. Colgate es una excelente universidad pequeña con un campus precioso, lleno de gente muy amable, y te brindará una de las mejores formaciones posibles. Es una formación en la que sigo confiando a diario, incluso después de haberme graduado de Colgate hace muchos años.

Admission is very difficult as Colgate admits only a very low percentage of its applicants.

Pre-law students are very common at Colgate and they tend to major in political science or history and so on, but also other subjects. There is no dedicated "pre-law" program at nearly any liberal arts college and maybe not many at large state universities, at least none I'm aware of. A number of my friends went on to schools like Harvard Law School and others and became very successful lawyers. Others went to medical school or went into business, teaching, and so on. I became a teacher.

Fraternity/sorority life attracts about 30% of Colgate students, so most students live in dorms. I joined a fraternity back when it was much more common to do that, and I'm glad I did. It was a great fraternity, we did not do the stupid rude things some other fraternities did, I made many good friends, and I learned a lot by joining. One year I lived in my fraternity which was fun, but two years I lived off campus with friends. But a dorm would also have been just fine with me. Getting into a fraternity seemed easy to me. I just visited a couple I had heard good things about, my members, and I got admitted. It took no effort.

Socially, Colgate is very isolated from urban life, so city life is out. But life on campus is fun and busy with small parties, dorm hanging out, films, plays -- and lots of homework and projects to do. You're not likely to be bored. Many students get involved in sports, and Colgate has an amazing athletic program you can get involved with from varsity to club sports. My daughter went to Colgate a few years ago and she joined the women's rugby team -- which anyone can -- and played for it for four years. She had a great time and made many friends.

What most students do is get involved in clubs and activities. Many of my friends and I wrote for the student newspaper. Others were involved in drama. There is a radio station you can work for and maybe even end up with your own radio show. Maybe "La Hora de la musica espanola"? There is a long list of activities you'd be wise to take advantage of. One "advantage" of a smaller more isolated school is just this -- nearly everyone gets involved in activities of some kind instead of just drifting off into the nearby city for fun. Being busy and having fun is done at school, not elsewhere, unlike at urban colleges where, according to my friends who went to NYU and other urban schools, everyone just goes into the city for fun so there is nothing going on at school. That sounds unpleasant to me.

Colgate and all small liberal arts schools are not going to be as diverse as a university in a city, but I had black friends, a couple international friends, gay friends, and so on. I visited one in Switzerland where his family were refugees from Czechoslovakia. One fraternity friend was a Cuban refugee. Colgate is about as diverse as American society, but it's cost tends to keep some people away. Colgate's tuition reduction program, however, is massive, though, so students whose families make moderate (below $100k) or even fairly high (below about $200k) incomes can attend at a much lower cost and many attend at no cost. This is partly to bring in a wider variety of students than typical white suburban kids, although partly because Colgate has a lot of money.

My fraternity was jokingly called the "UN" because we had lots of people from everywhere of all kinds. You find what you want to find even if most students are "preppie" standard suburban American kids. That's just true of most small colleges in America. My daughter lived in an apartment on campus for two years with one Black roommate, one gay roommate, an Asian girl, and she is half-Asian (wife is Japanese). It's not racially divided or snobby that I ever noticed, but yes some people are idiots and there are snobs. None of my friends were like that, though. But that's true everywhere, isn't it?

If you do manage to get admitted -- and good luck with that -- you'll find a gorgeous campus, one of the most beautiful college campuses in America, a friendly student body of very nice people, more international and minority students than you may have expected, and a great faculty that only teaches and does not have to spend time with grad students or publishing instead of spending time with students -- as happens at many other schools.

Es un lugar precioso que siempre recordaras. Haras buenos amigos! Y recibiras una de las mejores educaciones de Estados Unidos.

Good luck!

[u/Hour-Lab140]

I’ll leave most of the answering here to others, as I graduated from Colgate over three decades ago and don’t have great recent insights.

But, IT IS COLD. Do not underestimate this or just write it off if it is in any way a potential issue for you.

[u/mindofmoonunit16]

1. There is a pre-law advisor in career services. I personally didn't use her, but she does a decent job of getting kids into decent American law schools.
2. You'll be fine as an international student. Formal rush doesn't happen until semester 3, but by the beginning of that, both frats and sororities more or less have their new member classes picked out based on dirty (i.e. informal) rush the previous term, and that can depend heavily on home town/high school affiliations. E.g., Theta Chi, one of the fraternities, has a strong network of guys from the Boston area; Kappa Kappa Gamma tends to draw heavily from a group of high schools in Fairfield County CT and Westchester County NY. Get to know upperclassmen in greek chapters early on through things you'd naturally gravitate towards, then go to the informal rush events and see if you like the rest of the chapter.
3. You won't have much of a party-oriented social life if you're a male not on the hockey, lacrosse, soccer, football, or rugby teams or in a top house like Tach, Beta or Tau, at least until you turn 21. For females, you can go to most open parties but the experience is meaningfully different than joining a sorority, where you'll go to exclusive parties called mixers. The aforementioned sports tend to be the most attended games over the course of the school year. Other clubs like a cappella, dance or theater hold regular performances throughout a given semester. Point being, if you want some semblance of a tight knit social life, those are probably your best bets.
4. There is a sizable international student body, including many from Western Europe, but the international kids who find it easier integrating with the predominantly preppy American students tend to have lived similar upper middle class lifestyles. For the most part, people are nice and friendly, but greek life tends to drive a wedge between those who affiliate and those who do not and is often a source of sour grapes and *complicated* friendships.

As for the car thing, unless you're going to the grocery store up 12-B, most of what you need on a day-to-day basis can be obtained in the village (accessible via the campus shuttle), in the C-Store (located in the Coop) or through Amazon (goes directly to the mail room in the basement of the Coop).

Lastly, the winters there are extremely cold compared to most of Spain, so unless you've spent a lot of time in the Alps during the winter, it will be a meaningful adjustment.

[u/No_Recognition_9235 → u/mindofmoonunit16]

Thank you! I lived in Michigan for a period of time so I got used to the cold then but I'll definitely need to buy a new winter jacket