26 colleges with the happiest freshmen

(MoneyWatch) 

I got an anguished email recently from a mom whose daughter's freshmen year in college was hellish.

The daughter, let's call her Samantha, lived in California, but she decided to attend the University of Dayton in Ohio. The straight "A" student was assigned to a four-person freshmen dorm -- never a good idea in my opinion -- and her roommates appeared to take their cues from Animal House. Here's an excerpt from her mother's email:

The first week, they had boys staying the night, partying all night long, blaring the TV and music, and the final straw was a boy urinating on my daughters bed! Of which the roommates stated that it wasn't their problem! We were able to get an emergency move after much threatening and many, many phone calls...

Roommate problems continued even after she switched dorm rooms twice more before leaving the school after her first year.

When my daughter finally returned home to California, she was humiliated because she had a 4.5 GPA leaving high school and now her only option was to attend a junior college to get enough units to transfer, the mother wrote.

Of course, you never know what will happen when a child leaves for college. Some teenagers can handle tough situations better than others. One way to boost the odds of a successful transition, however, is to look at how happy a school's freshmen are. You can do that by checking an institution's freshmen retention rate. That is, how many freshmen return for their sophomore year.

How happy are the freshmen?
The federal government keeps statistics on freshmen retention rates and you can find the figure for any school by heading to the federal College Navigator. Of course, 100% freshmen retention is ideal, but most schools don't come close to that mark. The University of Dayton's freshmen retention rate is 88%, which is above average.

I used the college search engine over COLLEGEdata.com to search for schools strictly by freshmen satisfaction and came up with a list of 26 schools with the happiest freshmen. (I eliminated schools with less than 500 students.)

Colleges with the happiest freshmen

Columbia University 99%
University of Pennsylvania 99%
Yale University 99%
Brown University 98%
Cal Tech 98%
Carleton College 98%
Harvard University 98%
Harvey Mudd College 98%
Princeton University 98%
Stanford University 98%
U.S. Naval Academy 98%
University of Chicago 98%
University of Notre Dame 98%
Wesleyan University 98%
Dartmouth College 97%
Duke University 97%
Johns Hopkins University 97%
MIT 97%
Northwestern University 97%
Pomona College 97%
Tufts University 97%
UCLA 97%
University of S. California 97%
Vanderbilt University 97%
Washington U. St. Louis 97%
Williams College 97%

Do your homework
I'd urge students to always check freshmen retention rates when evaluating schools. I'd also stay away from four-person dorms, which is the type of housing where Samantha experienced her problems. I think a freshman's odds of surviving his or her first year is better if they only have to deal with one roommate. After your first year in college, you select your own roommate(s) so it's only freshman year where it's a real crap shoot.

Happy freshmen image courtesy of Flickr user Jason Hargrove.

[udalum]

My name is John Spellman. I am an alumnus of the University of Dayton. My daughter Kathie is an alumna.

Dear Lynn,

Let me get this straight.

The major indicator posited in this article for determining whether a university has "happy freshmen" is the retention rate for returning freshmen. The University of Dayton has an 88% ("above average") retention rate. Doesn't that make the case?

It seems disingenuous to set a standard, to admit that the University of Dayton meets that standard ("above average"), to present a single case of a person in the 12% minority who had an "unhappy" freshman year, to fail to present a single conter-balancing opinion from one of the 88% of students who (by the standard set) had a "happy" freshman year and to expect that the article would have any journalistic respectability.

While I take issue with the standard (there are so many intangibles to consider, including social relationships which last a lifetime), once it is posited and met it does not seem honest to lead a reader through a single case study to a point of predictable incorrect extrapolation.

My daughter and I loved (and still do) our university. We would recommend it to anyone. Go visit. Make your own decision. Don't be dissuaded by a single complaint email of an obviously disappointed parent. I'm a happy one.

[collegedirection]

I agree that the University of Dayton was not a good example. As a private college counselor, I have sent quite a few kids to school there and they have loved it. One of my daughters also went to Dayton and had a wonderful experience. She was the only one of my five children who was never homesick and fell in love with the school from the first day. I know there are other schools that you could have used, but Dayton should not have been one of them. I have had a relationship with the university for more than twenty years and have never heard of anything even close to what this mother is reporting. It sounds like "Samantha" had some issues of her own if she had to switch dorm rooms two more times and things still didn't work out. This is a good example of how one student can ruin the reputation of a school. All parents need to read is that anecdote and they cross the school off a a potential college choice.

[collegedirection]

I agree the the University of Dayton was not a good example. As a private college counselor, I have sent quite a few kids to school there and they have loved it. One of my daughters also went to Dayton and had a wonderful experience. She was the only one of my five children who was never homesick and fell in love with the school from the first day. I know there are other schools that you could have used, but Dayton should not have been one of them. I have had a relationship with the university for more than twenty years and have never heard of anything even close to what this mother is reporting. It sounds like "Samantha" had some issues of her own if she had to switch dorm rooms two more times and things still didn't work out. This is a good example of how one student can ruin the reputation of a school. All parents need to read is that anecdote and they cross the school off a a potential college choice.

[trixie00]

This is a pretty ridiculous list of schools. As noted above, the schools are very selective top tier schools. I doubt that most students who have worked so hard to get into these schools are going to throw in the towel after just a year, no matter how miserable they may be. Better to go to a college rating site where you can read comments from real students. The respondents may be self selected but at least you will get a wide variety of comments, even from those who were miserable for four years but stuck it out.

[trixie00]

This is a pretty ridiculous list of schools. As noted above, the schools are very selective top tier schools. I doubt that most students who have worked so hard to get into these schools are going to throw in the towel after just a year, no matter how miserable they may be. Better to go to a college rating site where you can read comments from real students. The respondents may be self selected but at least you will get a wide variety of comments, even from those who were miserable for four years but stuck it out.

[ArchieMcNally]

Did no one no else notice that the student switched dorm rooms THREE times. While I don't condone the behavior the student told Mama occurred, it appears that the daughter may have issues. Four sets of room mates and none were acceptable? I suggest a private room at her next college.

[jsterling716]

Wow, I am amazed that this author used U of Dayton as her "bad example." Poor choice, Ms. O'Shaughnessy. While this one student may have had a negative experience, I can assure readers that this is not the norm at UD. My youngest son attended UD, and my oldest attended one of your Top 26 "Happiest" schools -- and, believe me, UD provided the happier and more socially-healthy experience of the two. Parents of high schoolers, please do not let this one story dissuade you and your child from considering UD. It's a great place -- and as a parent forking over $30-$40K+ a year for college tuition, etc. -- I honestly believe I received the better value at the University of Dayton.

[shibuyarocks]

It bothers me that the author does not comment on the fact that the list of schools are all highly selective. My brother attends a school on the list and he had a rough freshmen year because he was put into a triple occupancy room, which was really built to be a double occupancy dorm. The school is building more housing to guarantee that everyone can live on campus for four years but my brother feels they should focus instead on building enough housing so freshmen don't have to live in triples.

Bad roommates are an issue everywhere, I had problems in my freshmen year as well. In the worst case, if the university hadn't have solved the problem, I would have broken my housing contract and my parents would have allowed me to find a place to live off campus. It's actually cheaper than the dorms. My parents would never let me quit school because of it. When I had a tough first semester, they insisted I stay at the school a minimum of a year. Now I'm in my third year and happy with how things have worked out.

[Lisagustwiller]

My son attends UD and he loves it. He also did not like his roommate at first but I taught him to be open minded on everything. As a parent I know I can not stop the things he chooses to do there I can only tell him you always pay for your mistakes and he has. Maybe Samantha should take some responsibility for the things she did. Most of the problems at any school are because of lies and kids not owning up to there part of things they do. I cannot for one minute think that UD would not have helped her in anyway. It is one of the most friendliest places I've been to also one of the cleanest. I think someone just wasn't very honest.

[ria_amp]

Every one of the schools on the list of "26 Happiest" is a highly selective school. To get into those schools the students have to be exemplary students which means having the self-discipline to study and complete coursework. They also probably spend a good portion of their teen years taking on extracurricular activities in leadership roles. They've likely learned something about getting along with other people.

In other words it's not about the school. It's about the student body.

To live with other people well takes a certain amount of maturity. It's the willingness to adapt one's own behavior, to listen to feedback, to communicate fully, and seek the common good. I've been thinking about this a lot since I wrote "Sharing Housing, A Guidebook for Finding and Keeping Good Housemates" and have a website of similar name: www.sharinghousing.com.

Every residential college of young people between the ages of 17-23 has to deal with figuring out how to manage roommate issues. Kids spring from high school and jump to college where they are on their own for the first time. This is when it's time for them to start to grow up. It's too bad Samantha didn't have a better experience, however striking out three times suggests to me that she had a role in causing her situations to fail her.