Goucher College

Responses from the Student Interview

From a student  who identifies as Major: Business Administration
Minor: None
Student Self Identifies as: White Pansexual Female

Summary

I’m a student-athlete on two teams and I participate in the Food Recovery Network.

Background

Gender Identity: Female
Race/Ethnicity: White
Sexual Orientation: Pansexual

High School Experience: Public school in Northern New Jersey with a graduating class of about 200 students. There was a culture of going to college.
First-Generation College Student: No
Major: Business Administration
Minor: None

Extracurricular Activities: I’m a student-athlete on two teams and I participate in the Food Recovery Network.
Did any of your extracurricular activities have a particularly big impact on your experience? In what ways?
The sports teams definitely have. My [varsity teams] have here because that’s where I’ve made a lot of my friends and I feel like I’ve improved so much being part of them. The Food Recovery Network is really cool because we take food from the dining hall and bring it to a homeless shelter in Baltimore, so it’s really cool to see the people who you help.

Academic Experience

Can you describe your weekly coursework for your major?
It depends on what classes you’re taking. For my organizational behavior class, we had more papers to write. In general, there are a lot of semester-long group projects with benchmarks throughout the semester and you’ll also have to turn in a paper along with it. We also have a lot of exams.
Is there anything you feel your major’s department does especially well or poorly?
I think it really helps you learn to work with people because you do so many group projects. I feel like I’ve improved so many skills just through group projects by working with different people and presenting as well. I also like that our professors really care that we learn the material rather than perform well on the test. If we do poorly on an exam, we can take the problems we got wrong, find why it was wrong, show where you found the correct answer in the textbook and what the correct answer is, and then get half of the points back. In that way, it matters if you put in the work and learn the material in the end and not whether you did well on the test.
How would you describe the learning environment? Do you think it’s particularly competitive or collaborative?
I think it’s very collaborative because of the group projects. You have to work with people you may not know and get to know them. Most of our classes aren’t graded on a curve, so people help each other learn if they don’t get it.
What has been your favorite class you’ve taken so far for your major?
I think my accounting classes. I really like numbers and not all of the business classes are super numbers-oriented. I also really liked International Business because I listen to the news all the time but I don’t really talk about that with my friends, so I was able to bring in the current events that I learned about through the news and talk about then in relation to international business in class.
How accessible are your professors?
They’re really accessible. They have office hours, but if you have class during their office hours, you can just email them and all of them are very willing to meet. You can just email them questions and they’re still helpful.
Why did you pick your major? Are you happy with your choice?
I was first a Chemistry major but then I realized that chemistry is really hard, so I switched to Environmental Science, but realized I still have to take chemistry with that, so I switched to business. I’m really happy with my choice because I get to use numbers, but it’s not hardcore chemical equations. I also like that I get to use presenting skills and stuff like that.

Reasons to Attend

1) The small class sizes.
2) It’s a beautiful campus with lots of outdoor spaces.
3) We just got a new dining hall that’s really cool.
4) We just got new freshman dorms that are nice.

Reasons Not to Attend

1) If you don’t want to go to a small school, don’t go. [Goucher’s so small] that it’s one of those things that you almost don’t understand until you get there.

Around Campus

Where have you lived on campus?
Freshman: Stimson Hall in Winslow House with one roommate.
Sophomore: Stimson Hall in Wagner House with one roommate.
Junior: I went abroad in the fall and came back and have a single in Bacon House.
Senior: I live in an on-campus apartment.
How was transitioning from New Jersey to Towson, MD?
I thought it was really easy because I live by New York City in New Jersey, so I’m used to being in the suburbs and close to a city, but also close to farms if I go the other way. I feel like Towson is the exact same as that because you can walk to bars and restaurants around campus, drive into Baltimore city, or drive to farmland.
Can you describe the level of safety you’ve experienced on and around campus?
Goucher is a very safe campus. We have the blue light system. The campus is really quiet and it’s far away from the bars and the rest of Towson. All that’s on campus are the students and public safety. Public safety can be annoying because they break up parties and are uptight, but it makes the campus safe.

Social Opportunities

What kind of weekend activities or nightlife do you like to participate in?
I go to bars and sometimes there are parties on campus, but they aren’t big parties. There is also hiking nearby so my friends and I will go do stuff like that too. People go out Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, but I don’t go out as much anymore now that I’m older. There are a few sports teams with off-campus houses that will throw parties and those happen Friday or Saturday depending on when they have a game, and the rest of the nights people will go to bars.
How happy are you with the weekend options at Goucher? Is there anything you would change about them if you could?
I think they’re really good. There are a lot of options. Some people will go to bars downtown as well, but that’s less common. It’s easy enough to take the Collegetown Shuttle to get downtown or go to other areas of Baltimore too. The only thing there’s not a ton of stuff going on on-campus. There aren’t big parties and, if something is big enough, public safety will usually shut it down. People more so hang out on campus.

Campus Culture

How did you meet your closest friends?
From my sports teams.
How would you describe the overall social scene at Goucher?
I feel like it’s split up into two different groups: people who are athletes and people who are not athletes. The people who are not athletes tend to be more like hippies and they have their own activities. The people who are athletes, which is the group I’m more a part of, make their friends from their sports teams and that is how you find out which teams are having a party during the weekend. We don’t have Greek life here, but joining a sports team is the closest thing to joining Greek life here.
To what extent do you think people of different races and sexual orientations mix socially?
I think they mix a lot. Goucher is a very accepting campus. Being a different sexual orientation is not a big deal at all. In terms of different races, we don’t have a ton of students of color, but I still think they mix really well. There are also groups for students of color to join with other students of color but, apart from those things, they mix really well with everyone else. [The undergraduate population is about 56% White, 16% Black, 10% Hispanic, and 4% Asian.]
How do you like the size of Goucher in terms of undergraduate enrollment? How has it impacted your experience? [There are about 1,480 undergraduates.]
It’s really small, which has its pros and cons. I like it because there’s a ton of attention from your professors. It’s so easy to meet with them. But, it feels like everyone knows everyone else’s business at times. [The average class size is 17 students.]
Do you think people are generally happy with their choice of Goucher by senior year? Do you think people leave loving Goucher?
I think so. A lot of people complain about Goucher, but the people who don’t transfer realize that they wouldn’t be any happier anywhere else. We have a pretty high transfer rate, so the people who stay after freshman year is a better indicator of who you’ll graduate with. [The first-year retention rate for the Fall 2017 freshman cohort was 76.9% and the 6-year graduation rate was 70.8%.]

Careers

Have you learned any computer languages or software that will be helpful to you professionally?
I have not.

Financial Aid

Have you used financial aid? If so, how easy is the office to work with?
Yes. I had to meet with them the other week and they were super helpful. They’re very nice.