College Spotlight: Davidson College
Overall Information
The last college I visited on my tour, (don't worry I will be writing about the other schools soon enough) was Davidson College in Davidson, North Carolina. When you ask most people in the Northeast to say something they know about this college, most will say Steph Curry. Yes Steph Curry, who recently won the NBA championship with the Golden State Warriors, graduated from Davidson and dominated the national college basketball scene. However, what people do not know is that Davidson is home to one of the very best liberal arts educational institutes in the world. You do not hear about them too much, but Davidson is an incredible place to study and turns out some of the very best and brightest every year. The school has just under 2,000 students and is located in a quaint little town of just 18,000 residents. And for being a small school in the south, they have a large presence of students from all over the country, including 20% from the Northeast. For such a small student size, the campus is spread out with as much lawn space, trees, libraries and recreational facilities as a student would ever need. Also, unlike most small liberal arts schools, Davidson is home to numerous Division 1 sports, most of which participate in the competitive, A-10 conference, and they even have a D-1 football team. Yes, the campus is wonderful, and the town is welcoming, but students are also only 20 minutes from downtown Charlotte, which is the second largest banking city behind New York City. Everyone, you need to trust me, if you are looking at schools like Boston College, UNC, Wake Forest, or any of the NESCAC schools (Trinity, Williams, etc.) then you must put Davidson College on your list!
Academic Information
Davidson is your quintessential liberal arts schools with majors ranging from anthropology to physics to theatre and everything in between. Their top programs include political science, which is seen as one of the best in the country, biology (including a concentration in neuroscience) physics and applied mathematics, and economics. Students who think they want to go into engineering can do a 3-2 or 4-2 BS/MS program with Washington University in Saint Louis or Columbia. Davidson also offers an entrepreneurship program for students, which is very well funded. Students involved in this are usually given sizable grants to work with start-ups.
Now let's talk about return on investment and outcomes. Yes, Davidson is expensive on paper, with a total COA of about $61,000. However, Davidson has one of the largest endowments on the planet, and their alumni gives the most money, only behind Princeton...impressive for a school that size. The school has a Davidson Trust, which is separate from the endowment and ensures that all student financial aid packages will NOT include loans. Student packages will be made up entirely of grants and work study. They also offer various scholarships including 8 Belk scholarships which are given to incoming freshmen each year. Coming out of college, Davidson is part of an exclusive 12 school network working with students to secure jobs, and most years, 96% of Davidson graduates are employed or in graduate school within six months (the national average is somewhere in the 60s).
Admissions Information
Yes, here comes the bad part...Davidson is really tough to get into, no way around it. Most years, they accept only 22% of applicants. Here are a few pieces of admission information that will help you:
The last college I visited on my tour, (don't worry I will be writing about the other schools soon enough) was Davidson College in Davidson, North Carolina. When you ask most people in the Northeast to say something they know about this college, most will say Steph Curry. Yes Steph Curry, who recently won the NBA championship with the Golden State Warriors, graduated from Davidson and dominated the national college basketball scene. However, what people do not know is that Davidson is home to one of the very best liberal arts educational institutes in the world. You do not hear about them too much, but Davidson is an incredible place to study and turns out some of the very best and brightest every year. The school has just under 2,000 students and is located in a quaint little town of just 18,000 residents. And for being a small school in the south, they have a large presence of students from all over the country, including 20% from the Northeast. For such a small student size, the campus is spread out with as much lawn space, trees, libraries and recreational facilities as a student would ever need. Also, unlike most small liberal arts schools, Davidson is home to numerous Division 1 sports, most of which participate in the competitive, A-10 conference, and they even have a D-1 football team. Yes, the campus is wonderful, and the town is welcoming, but students are also only 20 minutes from downtown Charlotte, which is the second largest banking city behind New York City. Everyone, you need to trust me, if you are looking at schools like Boston College, UNC, Wake Forest, or any of the NESCAC schools (Trinity, Williams, etc.) then you must put Davidson College on your list!
Academic Information
Davidson is your quintessential liberal arts schools with majors ranging from anthropology to physics to theatre and everything in between. Their top programs include political science, which is seen as one of the best in the country, biology (including a concentration in neuroscience) physics and applied mathematics, and economics. Students who think they want to go into engineering can do a 3-2 or 4-2 BS/MS program with Washington University in Saint Louis or Columbia. Davidson also offers an entrepreneurship program for students, which is very well funded. Students involved in this are usually given sizable grants to work with start-ups.
Now let's talk about return on investment and outcomes. Yes, Davidson is expensive on paper, with a total COA of about $61,000. However, Davidson has one of the largest endowments on the planet, and their alumni gives the most money, only behind Princeton...impressive for a school that size. The school has a Davidson Trust, which is separate from the endowment and ensures that all student financial aid packages will NOT include loans. Student packages will be made up entirely of grants and work study. They also offer various scholarships including 8 Belk scholarships which are given to incoming freshmen each year. Coming out of college, Davidson is part of an exclusive 12 school network working with students to secure jobs, and most years, 96% of Davidson graduates are employed or in graduate school within six months (the national average is somewhere in the 60s).
Admissions Information
Yes, here comes the bad part...Davidson is really tough to get into, no way around it. Most years, they accept only 22% of applicants. Here are a few pieces of admission information that will help you:
- They offer Early Decision 1 (11/15) and Early Decision 2 (1/2), and last year, 45% of the incoming came in this way...with much fewer applicants. They also had about a 45% acceptance rate in ED, compared to 22% overall...
- They have a mandate that the school must be 50% women and 50% men
- Middle 50% SAT:1230-1440, ACT:28-32
- Demonstrated interest matters!! If you can, visit, and even set-up an interview!
-Joseph D. Korfmacher
