Ripon WI vs Westminster MD?

February 21, 2007 11:14 AM

Contemplating a move: Anybody know anything about Ripon College and Ripon Wisconsin, or McDaniel College (formerly Western Maryland College) and Westminster Maryland?

I have done the obvious pure-factual web research, now looking for quality of life and other subjective info.

Couple in our 30s, egghead academics, not much money. No kids yet, but thinking about it. We like pedestrian-accessible cities, charming old houses, friendly people, New England weather, want to teach bright, academically serious undergrads.

posted by anonymous to work & money (15 comments total)

When I was on an exchange program a few years ago, my roommate was a junior at Ripon College. Obviously I'm just recalling what he said about the place, but he described it as very small (you will know everyone, and everyone will know you), quite serious academically, and fairly encompassing in terms of extracurricular stuff -- it seemed like most people were quite involved in campus life/events/clubs.

It's also the birthplace of the Republican party.

This is not all that specific, but I hope it helps in some way.
posted by freudenschade at 11:26 AM on February 21, 2007

It will be colder and probably not as much snow in Ripon than typical New England weather. Houses, even gorgeous huge old Victorians will be very cheap there. I don't know much else about the town, except that it is an easy drive (less than 1 hour) to Madison, Milwaukee and Green Bay, if you need a dose of smallish-mid sized city life.
posted by sulaine at 11:28 AM on February 21, 2007

I don't think you will find many "academically serious undergrads" at McDaniel. As far as I can recall it's kind of a safety school for people who couldn't hack it at U. of Maryland, my alma mater and a pretty average school in its own right.
posted by drjimmy11 at 11:41 AM on February 21, 2007

My dad went to Ripon College, randomly, with the school's two most famous alums: Harrison Ford and Al Jarreau. His side of my family lives there, so I spent every thanksgiving there as a kid. It's a smallish Wisconsin town still centered around main street. The people I know there are nice--a bit reserved, at least at first. There are definitely some big old Victorians, but, on the whole, I wouldn't say that it's as beautiful as many New England towns.

But if you end up moving there, I can refer you to a great TV repairman (my uncle).
posted by umbú at 11:52 AM on February 21, 2007

I liked Ripon the small amount of time I've spent there, been to a few conferences at the college over the years, students seems on the high side of quality
posted by edgeways at 11:53 AM on February 21, 2007

My friend went to Ripon (and I was born roughly ten miles from there). It's in a really small town, and you'll have to drive an hour in most any direction (I might be off for Madison, though) to get to a large city (if that appeals to you).

The college seems nice though, with plenty with in spread out walking distance and the added advantages of small town life.

During the winter it will definitely be colder than New England, but the rest of the year it's pretty nice.
posted by drezdn at 12:01 PM on February 21, 2007

My co-worker, who is himself a 30-something egg-head intellectual type, went to McDaniel back when it was Western Maryland. I'm posting this for him.

I attended WMC over a decade ago, so some of this may be out of date. My summary line on the place was that it was a college where you could go to get a good education if you wanted to, but that you didn’t have to if you didn’t want to (in other words, academically serious undergrads didn’t appear to me to be as much of the majority report as I would have wished). There is an honors program and Phi Beta Kappa. The pre-med program was very strong when I was there. There were some excellent members of a very teaching-oriented faculty throughout the college. I feel like now I would recommend it only to pre-med students who wanted to get a reasonably good liberal arts education in a small college, semi-rural setting. I understand also, however, that the newly-appointed Provost has been a salutary influence.



They say the campus is only 50-66% Greek, but often fail to pair that statement with acknowledging the prohibition on fresh. pledging. I don’t know if that has changed, but the figure then should have been 90-95%.



Westminster is a nice town, although it was in the midst of a housing boom when I was there that has probably continued. The NW Expy made it into more of a bedroom community to Baltimore than it otherwise was, but it still has a downtown and a full set of local institutions. Since you indicate that you might like to live in a pedestrian-friendly setting, it’s probably worth finding out what the housing demand has done to home prices in the areas accessible by foot to campus. It’s a beautiful part of Maryland, though, and has relatively easy access to Baltimore (30 min.) and D.C. (1hr.+).

posted by craichead at 12:08 PM on February 21, 2007

My family used to stop at the cookie outlet in Ripon on our way from Minneapolis to Oshkosh each summer vacation. I don't know that you'd choose a college or city based strictly on the availability of tasty bargain cookies, but I think this should at least count as a point in favor of WI. They're really good.
posted by vytae at 12:28 PM on February 21, 2007

My 89-year-old grandmother lives in a retirement community down the street and around the corner from McDaniel. It is a beautiful, still fairly rural area, although the housing market has increased. A lot of the kids from McDaniel work in the cafeteria/dining room at the retirement home as well. In the summers, I believe the Warren Moon football camp still uses the area (and possibly some of McDaniel's fields), so there are a lot of kids around.

Also across from McDaniel is Baugher's, a farmer's market and family restaraunt. Baugher's provided a lot of joy throughout my childhood, with their smiling, apple-faced mascot. In the fall, if you ask nicely enough, or maybe you bring a native Maryland grandmother with you, you can find unpasteurized apple cider there, and you can leave it out on your porch in the crisp Maryland air for a while and let it get hard.
posted by sarahnade at 1:45 PM on February 21, 2007

Ripon to either Oshkosh or Fond du Lac is about 20 miles. There are likely many more job opportunities in those towns vs. Ripon proper.
posted by sulaine at 2:13 PM on February 21, 2007

Baugher's provided a lot of joy throughout my childhood, with their smiling, apple-faced mascot.

My local grocery store in Baltimore sells Baugher's cider and apples. Cider and apples both are so good. Really, so so good.

But more to your point, a co-worker's wife is a professor at McDaniel (unfortunately he is off today), but I do know that they have only one car, which he uses to commute into Baltimore.
posted by Airhen at 5:23 PM on February 21, 2007

You need to ask this over at the Chronicle for Higher Ed forums.
posted by LarryC at 7:09 PM on February 21, 2007

This is info from 20 years past, so take with a grain of salt...

I went to Western Maryland for 2 years before transferring to NYU. I can second that it was highly Greek and academics were not taken seriously by the student body as a whole. That being said, it had a pretty good liberal arts education if you wanted to take advantage of it. Campus was small, but nice - charming in fact.

I personally didn't care for the insular nature of a frat/sorority school, where being an "independent" was looked on with a bit of disdain. It wasn't my cup of tea and I moved on to something more appropriate, but lots of people really enjoyed there time there.

I will say that I had the best relationship with professors there, as they (at the time, anyway) really took an interest in anyone who wanted to have a dialogue with them. I was particularly impressed with my ethics and sociology professors and had regular beer nights with my philosophy prof and several other interested students.

Basically, the school was a poor man's (intellectually, it actually cost a pretty penny back then) Gettysburg - and I don't think that's saying much. It may have improved since then, but it was the place you went to if you had the dough but not the ambition or grades to go somewhere else. The faculty made it possible to get a great education, but the student body didn't encourage that.

I went there out of a misguided attempt to stay close to my H.S. girlfriend. I would suggest that be a lesson you avoid learning yourself.
posted by qwip at 2:33 AM on February 22, 2007

I actually attend Ripon College currently. I moved here from mid-Michigan less than a year ago. I'd agree with sulaine that it very likely is colder here. If you want to know anything specific about the town or the college, I'd be more than happy to fill you in. Please feel free to email the address in my profile.
posted by andythebean at 5:55 AM on February 22, 2007

I know I'm coming into this late, but I served a religious mission in the Milwaukee area, and Ripon was one of my areas.

Actually, the area was Fond du Lac, and Ripon was in the Fond du Lac area.

I can say for sure that Fond du Lac and Ripon are beautiful cities. It's true that Ripon is still a Main Street-type town. The cookie outlet was fun to visit, and the people there were nicer than in most of my other areas.

I still have friends in Ripon. I was last there in 1998 or so.

Fond du Lac has a regional hospital, St. Agnes, and there are many, many jobs there. There's also a nursing college that serves St. Agnes. (Marian College? I think? Oh, yep.) Lots of nursing students, lots of medical career types in both cities.

Madison, Milwaukee, and Chicago (by way of Beloit) are all fairly close.

Of the six areas I served in (about half of which were inner-city), Fond du Lac/Ripon was by far my favorite.

One warning though: It was also my coldest area. I knocked doors in Fond du Lac in -40.
posted by SlyBevel at 2:44 PM on February 23, 2007