Keene State College (KSC)

Affordable Keene State College is a liberal arts school with a strong pre-professional bent located in a "classic New England" town. While this school is "best known for its teacher education program," there's a host of other majors including architecture as well as unique programs in holocaust and genocide studies and something called safety studies. Much of the "well-equipped" physical campus is pretty new, and several buildings are "state of the art." "Professors here at KSC are hit-or-miss." "There are some brilliant, effective, and extremely devoted instructors at Keene State in every department," promises a history major. "Most professors are genuinely invested in giving you a good education and not wasting your money," agrees an education major. "They make themselves available to students and will try to keep class interesting." However, those professors who form the weak link "don't help students outside of class."

For the most part, everyone seems to get along at Keene State. These students are "mellow" "normal kids" who "are pretty accepting of anyone." "A typical student is someone who has the ability to balance school, work, and other school activities along with a social life." There are students "who are less interested in their education." "The nerds and bookworms are flourishing," too. There's "always a ton of students studying in the library." There are also athletes, "crunchy granolas," and "more than a handful of hipsters." "There is very little ethnic diversity here," "but it is New Hampshire after all." While students have roots in quite a few states, students tend to come from "close to home." "New Englanders" predominate, and the majority hails from the Granite State. "A lot of people seem to come from Connecticut," too. About a third of the students here are the first members of their families to attend college.

Keene State has "just the right number of people" and is the perfect size—"right between a large university and a very small school." The campus is pretty—"especially in the fall"—and, weather permitting, "the quad is always filled with Frisbees and footballs." Students tell us that Keene State is "a very social institution." Sports are reasonably popular. "The clubs and organizations are extremely well organized." "There is some Greek life," but it's nothing huge. Partying can definitely be a part of life at KSC for those seeking it out. Other students cringe at this description. "There are a lot of alternative activities to drinking," students say. The campus here is nicely situated in the town of Keene. "Everything is walking distance," and there's a decent selection of "shops, bars, and restaurants." The Keene Pumpkin Festival in the fall involves thousands of jack-o-lanterns and is quite a big deal. Don't miss the big gourd-carving free-for-fall called Pumpkin Lobotomy on campus. In the overall scheme of things, though, the surrounding area is "rural environment" "in the backwoods of New Hampshire" where "it gets pretty cold" for the better part of the school year. On the plus side, "there is a lot of" skiing, snowboarding, "and, of course, sledding."