Antioch College

Antioch ('52, no grad) + wide variety AC jobs, 4 yrs WSC eng degree, + more education, / travel * education helped maturation * 3 yrs Army * Followed Antioch through the years & have definite opinions on it. 1) It seems to be a DELUSIONAL institution 2)Finances should be 1st / then a REALISTIC educational program (forget about saving the world). 3) Prepare yourself for future (career that produces wealth). 4) Student jobs * practical* around campus (painting, gardening, elect, carpentry, plumbing, etc. 5) Sex ratio s/b reversed ASAP!. 6) Students are late adolescents * immature brains * AC is parent. 7) AC should "get down to earth's realities" leave pie in sky rhetoric. [Warren Bennis is omitted from AC site, WHY? was a N hall good friend] * At 89 I think I could help AC, IF AC would read my thoughts * just an idea to help a flailing institution. LET ME KNOW re this. OK? *** good luck AC, you need it!

Alumnus Male -- Class 2000

I came to Antioch from California in 1967, attracted by the idea of living in different locations, trying different jobs, with the idea that the real world of work is often more educational that the world of the classroom. I was a good student in high school and Antioch offered me a scholarship. I took a variety of classes; anthropology, literature, French, economics, ceramics, astronomy, calculus...I was exploring the world. The courses weren't particular exciting. The classes were traditional; lecture, read the book, write a paper. One would think that Antioch would encourage more interaction, more expressiveness from students, but this wasn't the case. I think one of the most important aspects of a liberal education is to allow a young person to be outspoken, to lose their shyness, and this shyness is the result of 12 years of being told to sit in your chair and be quiet. But it wasn't going to happen at Antioch. The idea of liberalism at Antioch is to allow 24 hour open dorms and unlimited drugs. Some students never went to class, high on acid most of the time. My first coop (job off campus) was in New York. After a month, the school where I worked decided to lay off the two Antioch students because they could get student teachers from a local teachers college. Antioch did not nothing and I was swinging in the wind in New York. Luckily I picked up a job packing buttons for the hippie trade on St. Mark's Place to pay the rent. Back to school in the Spring. This was the year of great political turmoil in America. MLK was shot, then RFK. Some of us were arrested in Cincinatti protest Vietnam. But the University and it professors, despite the reputation of left wing school did nothing. Classes did not discuss these events. In August some of us went to Chicago for the convention. I was arrested and skipped town before the cops came in swinging clubs. Meanwhile, most students were back in Yellow Springs getting stoned. There were only spontaneous rallies by a local black militant group. Then, I got a letter from the financial aid office informing me that my scholarship was only for the first year. What? This was news to me. And that I would have to get loans to pay tuition and so on. Well, that did it for me.

1st Year Male -- Class 1971

Perceived Campus Safety: B, Individual Value: C-

Do your research before making any decision to come here. Don't think that just because you're quirky, indie, or hippie you'll fit in. And don't forget how banal the courses typically are. There *are* diamonds in the rough, but... Japanese classes, for instance, really only cover the most elementary level. People graduate from that program barely able to read kana and with a first year's speaking ability. The music, linguistics, and fine arts programs are bad, one-teacher's-a-department jokes. Very few students are willing to admit sociopolitical beliefs apart from the Antioch orthodoxy. Most of the student body comes in with or develops a drug or alcohol addiction. Adderall, an ADD drug that the folks here snort in order to concentrate when they're trying to write a paper, is the big thing now. I've heard stories from a trustworthy source about someone shooting up in the hall of one of the more hip dorms on campus at 10am in celebration of a snow day. It's an extreme example, funny on a certain level, but it's not at all an isolated event. Your every action will be criticized in terms of your race, and quite confrontationally. Community meetings aren't a lot more than shouting matches and events announcements. If you're not one of the 15-or-so people who's all-too-willing to stifle the rest, get ready to feel like you're unable to speak freely. Only a handful of books in the library's sad, sad selection have been added within the last twenty years. Everyone gets the runs from eating cafeteria food, and you're now required to purchase a full dining plan. The infamous Sexual Offense Prevention Policy is about as open to interpretation as Finnegans Wake, but much more likely to get you wrongly expelled from school. For how openly sexuality is displayed here, the atmosphere is very anti-sexual. Despite what some would have you believe, the students generally aren't all that bright. IMHO, they're on the right side of smart, but let's just not hold our breath till an Antioch student wins a Nobel. To be fair, this might be because Antiochians were usually the weird kids sitting in the back of class whom the whole high school rigamarole just wasn't meant for in the first place. But everyone thinks they're the smartest in the class. And those figures published in the all the glossy PR about how many Antioch students are accepted into grad school-- well, the ones available in the school's public archives, Antiochiana, were 20 years old. No one in the development office or offices I was referred to by them was able to verify any newer number. I realize I'm running the risk of being libellous; the 90% or whatever figure may be true, but no evidence of it was presented to me personally when I asked for it. A major restructuring is being effected in the school's programs, so be sure to research them. As it stands, a co-op semester costs something like $8,000. $8,000 to get college credit for a menial job at which you'll forget a substantial amount of what you learned the previous semester. Co-op stipends have been elminated now, so be prepared to shell out your first month's rent and food costs out of pocket or take out one of the school's short term loans. At least they're interest free. Moving on, there's nothing to do in Yellow Springs but what you yyourself make. Antioch kids have even ended up throwing human shit, vomit, and deer foetuses at each other for entertainment. True story. Read the archives on antiocksucks.com. Attend Antioch and you'll probably make a few good friends (who you'll have to say goodbye to every four months thanks to co-op), smoke pot in front of the admin. building at 4:20, maybe take up shoplifting at chain bookstores as a hobby. You'll break things for entertainment. Gotta cope somehow. You get the idea, enough with my rambling. Don't believe what you read in Loren Pope's book, don't expect to learn a lot academically, do expect to learn about your ability to live in intense situations.

2nd Year Male -- Class 2006

Perceived Campus Safety: B, University Resource Use/ spending: F