Sarah Lawrence College Review

First Impression: I should start by noting that it was incredibly hot, the day we toured Sarah Lawrence College (SLC). This made all the roads and hills feel longer and steeper. Nevertheless, I liked what I saw.

Pros:

• SLC is 30 minutes by train from NYC.
• Bronxville is a nice town, both quiet and pristine.
• The campus is small enough that you can walk to any part of it, in no time at all.
• The student to faculty ratio is 9:1. 
• The curriculum takes a very liberal approach to education. You can design your own major and course load, and the faculty will support you and give you the tools to do it.
• The school is beautiful. The grass is a deep green, and the buildings are all tutor style.
• The music, theater and visual arts departments are fantastic.
• The admissions process is personalized. It's all based on personal statements, essays and interviews. They don't even require SAT or ACT score submissions.
• Financial aid is very generous.
• Joining or creating a new club is unfathomably easy.
• Connor Miller goes to SLC: huge plus.
• The rest of the positive aspects of SLC are true of all schools we visited: excellent academics, committed alumni network, brilliant professors, etc.

Cons:

•  The undergraduate population is very small. I don't want to go to a college with less students than my high school.
• The school's main focus is on writing and theater. Although those interest me, I want to explore greater options than that.
• It's really hilly.
• A school of that size, with that much of a focus is bound to be somewhat homogenous. I want to go to a really diverse school: racially, culturally, economically, politically, etc. For that, once again, I need a larger population.
• It's not a university, so no groundbreaking research is being performed there.
• SLC suffers from the same problems with me as every school on the East Coast: extreme weather, 3000 miles from home, people use "mad" as an adverb, etc.

 My thoughts: In essence, although SLC is a great school, I don't think it's right for me. I'm glad I toured it though, because it helped me determine what I'm looking for. Maybe my opinion or interests will change in the next couple years, but at the moment I'll have to look elsewhere.