Sarah Lawrence College | Student Reviews | Best College

Student Profile

Anya

Class: Sophomore
Major: Other
Gender: F

High School: Nyack High School
Transfer Student: N

Big Picture

I love Sarah Lawrence. I definitely have had my share of complaints... but at the end of the day, there is no school I would rather be at. And I'll try to explain why. The location is great for anybody who enjoys quiet neighborhoods with easy access to the city. Personally, since I am originally from New York, I didn't need to be *in* the city all the time. It was old news for me. It's great that it's close... but I'm definitely very happy to be in a college where I can find peace and quiet that isn't necessarily indoors. I love being able to sit outside on the lawn(s) without the constant drone of traffic in the distance. Sarah Lawrence is in Bronxville, which is... in my opinion, pretty dull. There's one bar that everyone goes to locally... and not much else. I would definitely say that most people leave Bronxville/Yonkers to go to the city for a good time. I would personally recommend having a car... or befriending someone who does. Being a freshman here (when I didn't have a car) was REALLY frustrating for me. I got really sick of bronxville/the campus and got sick of taking the train to the city. Also... SLC is really small. Its comforting at times, but most of the time it's just really frustrating. I also recommend living off campus after your Freshman year. You'll save a ton of money and won't feel so trapped. Lets see... don't come here if you want to play sports seriously, and don't come here if you want to attend college football games... and don't come here if you don't want to participate in class discussions (I'll elaborate later on that.) Despite our lack of sports teams... I'd say we all have a good amount of school pride. Sarah Lawrence is really special and different and I don't know anyone who isn't proud to be going here.

Academic Life

Ok, the academics are THE BEST part about this school. First of all, there are no majors. This doesn't mean you can't come here if you have a definite idea of what you want to do. I knew before I came to college that I wanted to do Theatre. And you can certainly focus your studies in a certain area. However... unlike most schools all classes (aside from some fine arts classes) are open to anybody. So... even though I do theatre, I can take whatever psychology, science or I dont know... history class I want. No classes are off limits. If you're someone who has a lot of interests, this is DEFINITELY the place to be. I actually discovered that I am really into GLBT studies (maybe even more than theatre).. I don't think I would have made this discovery if it weren't for the opportunities given to me at SLC. Second of all, the classes are tiny. About 15 or so max. (I was in a class last year that only had 5 people.) To give you an idea about the structure of most classes - you get an assignment, whether it be to read a portion or a whole book, write a short story or poem, or go see a play... and then everyone comes back to class and talks about it. For 1 and a half to two hours. If you're opinionated and open-minded... this environment is soooo great and rewarding. Then the best part... conferences and conference papers. There are (almost) no tests at Sarah Lawrence. Instead, we write papers. Long papers. We meet with our teachers on a bi-weekly basis to discuss our "conference project." I'll give an example. I took a social psychology course. It was a general class. I chose to write my paper (which I worked on for the entire year) about the social psychological effects of wearing school uniforms. Someone else wrote about the psychology and significance of all the Bond girls, someone else wrote about the effects and failures of anti-smoking campaigns. Conference projects are a way to make the class your own. The teachers are very flexible. It may sound stressful, but it's not - the point is... you get to write about EXACTLY what you're itnerested in. So it's not boring or tedius... you chose the topic so why wouldn't you want to learn more about it? In terms of our relationships with teachers... it's very different from most schools. We call them by their first names... and they know each of their students quite well. It's really helpful to have this support system. We also have "dons." Each first-year student picks a first year studies course that they take the first year. The teacher of that course becomes your don. You meet with your don throughout all your 4 years at school. Most everyone I know LOVES their don (including me) and is really thankful to have him/her around. Oh yeah... and there are no grades. Well, there are. But you only see them if you want. You have to go to the registrars office and request to see them. Instead of seeing a grade each semester.. your teacher writes an evaluation for you.

Student Body

Sarah Lawrence is very LGBT, religious, racial and soci-economic friendly. There are a trillion different types of people that go here. Most of them are intellecutual and quite liberal. But other than those two things.. everyone varies. Actually, most everyone is caucasion. Which is unfortunate... I'd like to have a more racially diverse student body. But that doesn't mean we aren't racially tolerant... because we all are. There are probably like... under 20 republicans on campus. Maybe not even that many. Poeple are from ALL over.