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<b>DePauw: You can learn to love Wal-Mart</b><p></p>

 
Published Sept. 4, 2013

Greencastle, Ind.

Distance from home: 1,025 miles NW

Private 4-year university

Admissions: Finish high school and prep tests with a B a and couple extracurriculars. Or earn a C, with several activities. Get As? Merit scholarship!

School size: 2,400. Your high school might be bigger, but you won't even know everyone in your class when you graduate.

Tuition: $32,800

Known for producing: Everything, if you put the effort in. Aim high? Founder of ESPN, Barbara Kingsolver, a Nobel Prize winner. Aim lower? Thousands of successful, self-sufficient alumni in countless fields. And our fair share of MRS degrees.

People: Welcoming. From the incredibly curious to the entirely apathetic. From single moms to the vigorously single. 4.0 academics and the occasional 0.4 BAC patient. The Rich, who drink copiously and ride the coattails of social mobility to degrees. Foreign students quiet, dynamic and everything in between. Composting vegetarian environmentalists, future doctors, lawyers, preachers and teachers, writers and artists, and football players who love comics. You name it.

Social Scene: The cool kids hit the Greek houses. Seventy percent of students join one. Some enjoy duplex and apartment parties. Of age? ID into one of three walkable bars. Plan to enjoy the company of your friends without major distractions, or drive 20+ miles to real movie theatres and restaurants.

Athletics: Division III ('nuff said). Sadly neglected football team, except at the fall Monon Bell rivalry game with D-I excitement. Prepare to hate Wabash for no good reason. Spring features a big bike race. Women's basketball is successful, and committed athletes compete in each sport, with occasional celebrations that are a big deal for the team and the campus news.

Campus and city: Walk anywhere in 10 minutes or less amidst beautiful landscaping, and architecture to lower your mandible at. The G-Castle is a burnt out old mining town in the middle of cornfields — small and fading, but with wonderful people, stores and resources should you take the time to explore. Medium city (Indianapolis) is 50 minutes away. Chicago? 3-4 hours.

Places: Marvin's Diner and the famous Garlic Cheese Burgers (GCBs). The boulder, and the lewd traditions surrounding it. The Nature Park, with hundreds of surprisingly beautiful acres of re-claimed limestone quarry. Wal-Mart (Supercenter!). Amber waves of grain. Oh I mean cornfields.

Surprise plus: Going to Wal-Mart will be useful, fun and social!

Surprise minus: Going to Wal-Mart will be useful, fun and social!

Pros: No classes over 40, and incredible interaction with professors who love teaching. Truly great alumni connections, any extracurricular you can dream up, financial aid. Tight-knit residential campus. Cheap: No clubs or fancy restaurants. Attractive sorority and fraternity folk.

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Cons: Being woken up by the attractive Greek folk, late at night or early in the morning during rush. But don't knock it 'til you try it (I'm Greek and never thought I would be. Really). Have a hard time just hanging out? Might get antsy. Crave huge sports games? Non-existent. Little name recognition outside mid-west and professional circles. Easy to get over-committed and supremely busy.

Reviewed by: Andrew Maddocks, DePauw Class of 2011