Goucher College

Academics

The small and innovative Goucher College, located just outside of Baltimore, boasts a welcoming, collaborative learning environment, a 100 percent study abroad rate/requirement, and a liberal arts curriculum that focuses on interdisciplinary complex-problem solving. The foundation for every major is the Goucher Commons curriculum, which creates shared, problem-based learning experiences across disciplines. The school encourages its students to live outside of their comfort zones when it comes to being “mindful” of others “so as to learn from...diverse perspectives.” Students here are “curious to learn” and “thrive on engaging in deep conversation, and are not afraid to speak their minds.” Small class sizes and a low student-to-faculty ratio promote these conversations, and “discussion and critical thinking skills are built into every class so you learn or formulate an argument around a wide variety of issues.”

As a way of easing the transition into college, Goucher also provides a course called First Year Experience (FYE) that every first-year student is required to take. During FYE, firstyear students “meet with their mentor who was with them during orientation to talk about certain resources provided [at] Goucher for safety, and other subjects about racial identity and how we’re getting acquainted with our new environment.” As for regular classes, there are a ton of “very interesting” classes, and “it is easy to enroll in a class that is either full or that you don’t have the prerequisites for.” Professors receive high marks across the board; they get to know students on a personal level and are “invested in [their] unique reasoning for being a part of the department.” They “want everyone to share their opinions and certain personal experiences that go along with the topic” at hand. “I know they see me first as a person, second as a student,” says one happy student.

Student Body

The Goucher student body comprises “a symposium [of students] to do Socrates proud.” Goucher students are “engaged, trust each other, and are brave enough to dialogue in a way most campuses don’t seem to be anymore.” The degree of political openness here is “only left-looking,” and this “delightfully weird” group tends to include “alternative, creative, artistic people who aren’t afraid to express themselves.” Students describe their peers as middle to upper-middle class and from the East Coast. Diversity and inclusivity are strong at Goucher with 42 percent of the student population being people of color and the Center for Race, Equity, and Identity supporting the sizable BIPOC and LGBTQ+ communities on campus. Keeping it in their own backyard, students love to help and “do their best to give back to their Baltimore and local community.”

Campus Life

The Goucher campus is “beautiful.” When it’s sunny, “a lot of students are outside doing homework, socializing, playing Frisbee, or doing various other physical activities.” During the week, most people work and study (“lots of people use the library as a common place”), so the weekend “is when people hang out.” Not a lot of students go off campus, so a lot of small groups and open mics form. Parties “aren’t all that common.”

Students subscribe to the idea that “a rising tide lifts all boats.” One student explains, “There is no internal competition at Goucher; we all work together.” That may be a part of why there’s no Greek life on campus, and why sports isn’t a major focus (though there are 20 Division III athletic teams, and one co-ed equestrian team). Activism is huge on campus, and if you are passionate about a cause with these seemingly “liberal, outspoken” students, “there is usually a club or student union that is already organized, or students who are more than willing to start a club.”