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celebrian23
Member
| Joined: | Sun Mar 5th, 2006 |
| Location: | Ohio USA |
| Posts: | 18 |
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Posted: Sun Mar 5th, 2006 11:09 pm |
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Well this unknown university, even in it's state, is underrated in my opinion. It is in Springfield, Ohio, about 50 miles away from Columbus, the state capital. It's a liberal arts college, with an enrollment of about 1,000ish. When I went on my visit it was quite cold, especially on the tour, but it was pretty typical winter Ohio weather. For being a small school, the campus is nice and spread out. Springfield is a typical Ohio town- incredibly small and boring. But there always seemed to be something to do on campus. Club sports seemed to be a big deal. They recently rennovated their science building (which houses biology, chemistry, physics, math, and biochemistry) so it has a lot of new computer technology. There's a seperate humanities building, which has a writing lab and the science building has a math lab.
The dorms are pretty nice. There pretty big and like the classroom size, and student-faculty ratio, the residence halls are small, and it seemed like it's very easy to get to know people. The largest residence hall was 10 stories, but most of the others were only 1-3 stories.
They are pretty free with financial aid, and I easily received a half tuition scholarship there. They are well regarded in their teacher education program. Volunteering is huge, and the campus is involved in helping out the Springfield community.
I had an interview with one of the admissions officers, and he was very nice and open about everything. Everyone was very warm and open. The sciences aren't weak, but majoring in humanities is more common.
That's about it.
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quiltguru
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Posted: Mon Mar 6th, 2006 12:58 am |
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| celebrian, I just had to come read your review because I, my husband, and my sister are all Wittenberg U alums! We all loved our experiences there. And, no the sciences aren't weak, they are very strong, though some departments are small. My hubby and I were 2 of only 11 chemistry majors in the class of ....well, I won't tell you which class. We both went on to med school, the military, and finally the faculty of a Big 10 med school where we are now. My sister was a poli sci major who went to law school and is now general counsel and vice president of Libbey, Inc. For what is technically a 3rd tier LAC, it was a great place and provided us with a great undergraduate liberal arts education. I adored my required classes and explored all kinds of things including East Asian religions, economics, and the history of the South. And a pretty little campus, too!
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Northeastmom
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| Joined: | Sun Mar 5th, 2006 |
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| Posts: | 518 |
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Posted: Mon Mar 6th, 2006 05:32 pm |
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| quiltguru, I am glad that you shared this with all of us. My son has a friend that was admitted to Wittenberg. I don't know if he will attend this school, but now I know something about it.
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ChicosBailBonds
Member
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Posted: Sat Mar 3rd, 2007 07:21 pm |
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My D and I visited Wittenberg in the late fall of 2005, her junior year. Prior to that time, she had seen other schools, including Earlham College for a two week summer program after her freshman year, but this was probably the first visit where she was thinking seriously about applying to college. She is interested in theater tech and Japanese, and Wittenberg has a well-regarded theater program as well as an East Asian Studies program that publishes the East Asian Studies Journal.
Wittenberg is located in Springfield, Ohio, which is between Dayton and Columbus. Springfield is a smaller industrial city which has seen better days (this seemed to be a common theme for schools to which my daughter applied). The campus is very pretty. There are a several old buildings clustered around Myers Hollow, the main "quad" on campus, including the Admissions Office and a dorm. The school has about 2600 students. As compared with some other D3 schools my daughter looked at, athletics seems to be taken somewhat more seriously. There also seems to be a real commitment to service in the local community; it looks like the students are very involved in the local Habitiat for Humanity and in mentoring local school kids.
We toured the campus with about 6 or 8 other prospective students and their parents. The tour guide was friendly and knowledgeable, and my D actually asked some questions. The athletic facilities are nice and are being upgraded. The science building has recently been renovated. The student union was also fairly new.
After the tour, we returned to the Admissions Office. Although we had not signed up for an interview or a class, the school signed my daughter up to visit a math class (she said it was easy, and she's no math whiz), an interview and a meeting with the head of the Theater Department. She was apprehensive about the interview, but it apparently went just fine, and she enjoyed meeting the Theater professor, who has kept in contact with her since then.
My D was impressed with the school, applied, and was accepted with significant merit aid, even though her stats were average for the school. Last weekend, she did an overnight. She stayed in the new freshmen dorms, which she described as very nice (she said that the upperclassmen are jealous). She also met with the East Asian Studies head, and sat in on an theater class, where she did some improv.
All in all, Witt is near the top of my daughter's list.Last edited on Thu Sep 20th, 2007 01:57 am by
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jocelynDAD
Member
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Posted: Sat Mar 3rd, 2007 07:40 pm |
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CBB: Thanks for the review.  Our D3 will be visiting it in April.
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CarolynLawrence
Administrator
| Joined: | Sun Mar 5th, 2006 |
| Location: | USA |
| Posts: | 3396 |
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Posted: Tue Mar 6th, 2007 02:25 am |
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CBB, Thank you! That was great. We are still plotting how to work our spring trip. We thought we had everything all mapped out until I found out that Lawrence won't be open over Easter weekend. So, now we have to figure out a different path. Son wants to see Macalester, Carleton (and I'm throwing in a stop to St. Olaf), Grinnell, UChicago and he also wanted to see Lawrence.  The problem is airfares are cheapest direct to chicago, and son and husband want to get home as soon as possible (I was hoping to visit my daughter at the end of the trip). Any thoughts or suggestions?
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ChicosBailBonds
Member
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Posted: Tue Mar 6th, 2007 03:30 am |
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Carolyn:
Unfortunately, Minneapolis to Chicago is farther than LA to San Francisco. Your itinerary is sort of like wanting to fly into LA, see USC, and then see Stanford, Berkeley and U of the Pacific, and return to LA to fly back.
You could see if there are cheap flights between Chicago and Minneapolis. Southwest flies out of Midway, but I don't know if they fly to Minneapolis. If they do, you can fly into Chicago, see U of C, fly to Minneapolis, rent a car, and see the 4 other schools in 3 days (you could try to see all 3 Minnesota schools in 1 day and Grinnell another, but I'm not sure you'd get much time at each) and then fly back to Chicago. If you drive between Chicago, Minnesota and Iowa, you can count on burning a day getting back and forth to Chicago unless you're prepared to drive all or most of the way at night.
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jocelynDAD
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Posted: Tue Mar 6th, 2007 07:05 am |
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Carolyn:
How I would do this trip is:
Fly into Chicago, drive 5 hours to Grinnell - visit - drive 4-5 hours to Northfield, visit St Olaf and Carleton - drive to St Paul - visit Macalester - drive 5-6 hours to Appleton - visit Lawrence - drive 3+ hours to Chicago - visit U of Chicago H and S fly back, you drive to Beloit visit D.
I have done each of these drives and from O'hare to Grinnell is a fast and easy drive (some toll roads in Ill). Grinnell to Northfield is even easier, straight north from Des Moines.
It is 296 miles from St Paul to Appleton, straight across Wisc, easy drive to Appleton.
Appleton to Chicago is about 185 miles, Appleton to Milwaukee easy drive, Milwaukee to Chicago is a busier road and Chicago is rush hour all the time but if no construction delays, very duable.
If you arrive in Chicago in the AM (day 1), you will be in Grinnell by Mid day, visit overnight leave in early afternoon (day 2), you will be in Northfield by dinner, spend two days (3 nd 4)visiting the three schools and leave St Paul by early afternoon you will be in Appleton for Dinner,(day 4) visit Lawrence leave in late afternoon, you are in Chicago area by dinner(day 5), visit U of C (day 6) and fly out evening of day 6.
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Descartes
Super Moderator
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Posted: Wed Mar 7th, 2007 01:00 am |
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Basically, you want to drive around the perimeter of a 200x300 mile rectangle -and stop somewhere in the middle once, too!
There isn't much to be done that can reduce the driving, so I would focus on reducing the stress.
You could fly into any corner of the rectangle (roughly Chicago, Des Moines, MSP, and Appleton). I checked CheapTickets.Com and found that flying to Des Moines and Appleton is considerably more expensive, but flying to MSP can be done about as cheaply as Chicago, and possibly cheaper with more non-stop options. In addition, in my experience it is much easier to get into and out of MSP than O'Hare or Midway. In fact, Macalester is a reliable 15 minutes from MSP and I'm sure it will take you longer to get to U of Chicago, especially from O'Hare.
So, I would recommend coming into MSP. If you can get an AM flight, I'd proceed as follows:
Day 1 - Visit Mac in the PM (very easy travel from airport to campus). Leave St. Paul and head towards Appleton (best route: I 94-US 29-WI 47 directly to College Ave and then a left in downtown Appleton - Lawrence will be less than one mile east of there.) This is 5 hours with a bathroom break. To any driver from a large metro area, Appleton traffic will present no problems. I'd plan on overnighting in Wausau and finishing the final two hours the next day, but it could be done in one shot.
Day 2 - Lawrence, then US 41-WI 26-US 151-I-90 to Beloit for a night with your D (about 3 hours).
Day 3 - 2.5 hours along I-90 into Chicago (you probably know this route by now) - allow an additional hour for Chicago traffic any time of any day except Sunday. See U of Chicago, then drive out of the city towards Iowa as far as you prefer (I-80).
Day 4 - Visit Grinnell, then head north to Northfield (I-35). Overnight where you'd like. Total trip is about four hours.
Day 5 - St. Olaf and Carleton. It will be about 40 minutes to MSP from there - allow about 15 additional minutes (generous) for rush hour traffic on 494, if necessary.
If you fly in PM, I suggest doing the exact reverse, overnighting in the Twin Cities on your first night.
If your H needs to leave earlier, perhaps he could depart from Chicago?
I noticed that Lawrence U admissions office is open on Saturday mornings, but apparently none of your other destinations are open on weekends. You might want to consider this, too.
Last edited on Wed Mar 7th, 2007 01:20 am by Descartes
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deloar
Member
| Joined: | Tue Oct 31st, 2006 |
| Location: | NE OH |
| Posts: | 33 |
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Posted: Fri Sep 21st, 2007 11:44 am |
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Witt has just come on to my daughter's list. She has decided that the magic number of "5" is what she should apply to. My concern has been having enough schools in the mix that are financially reachable for us. She has a 4.0 unweighted, #1 in her class, 32 ACT and 2090 SAT plus in her desired area of music (vocal, oboe, piano) a vast array of experience including 3 international tours of a choir she sings in outside of school (she is a vocal music student in a magnet visual and performing arts program at her high school). H She's been to Italy, China, Germany, Austria and the Czech Republic. Her present list is St. Olaf, Elizabethtown, Heidelberg and a safety of Bowling Green. She has had Alma on the list but has waffled on that. I am encouraging her to apply to 6. So now she is looking at Wooster, Wittenberg or Ill Wesleyan as her last one. She hasn't been to the last two to visit. We have heard that Witt has both a very good music dept and is great with merit aid. I think she will be accepted at all, but am concerned that once the aid packages are offered she has some choices to make that are financially reachable. I have heard that St. Olaf is not as extravagant in its merit aid as some of the others on her list like Witt, Alma, and Etwon. So...anybody have any observations on Wittenberg in regards to music and/or aid? We will be going down soon to visit since she has to get application in and then schedule vocal auditions at the schools she wants to try for ultimately.
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ChicosBailBonds
Member
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Posted: Fri Sep 21st, 2007 10:48 pm |
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Deloar:
Check out Witt's website. Your daughter would be a good candidate for a full tuition scholarship. Witt's scholarship offer to my daughter was the best she received, and she had nowhere near your daughter's grades.
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deloar
Member
| Joined: | Tue Oct 31st, 2006 |
| Location: | NE OH |
| Posts: | 33 |
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Posted: Sat Sep 22nd, 2007 02:58 am |
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Thanks CBB! I checked out their web site and found the info very helpful and very encouraging.
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Engineeringmama
Member
| Joined: | Thu Mar 16th, 2006 |
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| Posts: | 65 |
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Posted: Mon Sep 24th, 2007 08:09 pm |
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deloar, I don't have first hand experience but a very good friend of my S's is at Witt and very happy. She received a very nice package from them, I know that Witt was the best financial package of all the schools that she applied to. I know that it was lower than attending a state school, I was told that by her and her parents. She is very involved in the choral program in HS and was very impressed by the program at Witt. She told me that Witt was the only school that she visited that the choral director took time out of his schedule to talk to her and really made her feel welcome.
Her ACT scores were not as high as your D's but I know that she received a 14,000 a year scholarship plus a fine and performing arts scholarship (of which I do not remember the amount). I have a information package in front of me and it looks like your D would get 16,000 a year plus add. money for her choral involvement. I wouldn't be surprised if she is in the running for a full tuition scholarship as I think her scores and GPA would put her at the top of Witt's field.
I do think that it's a school she should visit before she applies.
Another school to look into would be Ohio Wesleyan. A very good friend of mine has a D there, she's happy so far and involved in a lot of activities including choir. My friend (who does not qualify for any need based aid) said that OWU was very generous in merit aid for her D.
Another school if the finances could be worked out would be Kenyon. A neighbor is at Kenyon and is very happy. She has a beautiful voice and picked Kenyon because of the choral department. She met with them and was very impressed. She has had quite of bit of training and Kenyon was recommended to her by local choral directors. I do know that Kenyon is much harder to get into and I don't think that they offer merit aid but I do know from her father that they met her need very nicely. He was very happy with the package and I know that she is so happy there. I'm only mentioning Kenyon because it is (maybe much) more academic than Wittenberg and because of it's outstanding choral program.
I have an information package from Witt including a fee waiver. It is a general fee waiver and does not have my D's name on it. If you didn't receive this mailing and want the fee waiver, PM me and I'll send it to you. My D is applying to engineering programs and won't be applying to Witt.
Last edited on Mon Sep 24th, 2007 08:12 pm by Engineeringmama
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Asdad
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| Joined: | Wed Mar 22nd, 2006 |
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| Posts: | 39 |
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Posted: Tue Sep 25th, 2007 09:08 pm |
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deloar, she might want to check out Lawrence also.
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deloar
Member
| Joined: | Tue Oct 31st, 2006 |
| Location: | NE OH |
| Posts: | 33 |
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Posted: Tue Sep 25th, 2007 09:50 pm |
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Thanks for the suggestions. We visited Ohio Wesleyan a year ago and it was a bad visit. Lawrence has been on the list, but she is also looking at St. Olaf and decided not to consider Lawrence. And she was turned off by Kenyon's style. We also had the impression that Kenyon is not as strong on aid.
Last edited on Tue Sep 25th, 2007 09:51 pm by deloar
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Northeastmom
Member
| Joined: | Sun Mar 5th, 2006 |
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| Posts: | 518 |
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Posted: Sun Nov 4th, 2007 10:44 pm |
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| chicobailbonds, or anyone else who applied and was awarded merit money, what is the gpa needed to keep the award? Thanks.
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