I transferred to Guilford College from another small liberal arts school which appeared to have the exact same credentials. However, contrasting the two, Guilford College has so much more to offer when you get up close and look around.
To start with, if you are vegetarian, Guilford has it’s own farm and a vegan station in the cafeteria every day. The options are numerous. While at this nameless other school, there was a salad bar which often served iceberg lettuce and olives. If you are unconcerned with health, you can have a yogurt and a bag of chips. And then there is pizza—the easy to find, high carb, go-to meal. So if you are considering two schools—Guilford and another—and they seem to be equal and you are vegetarian, Guilford is the best choice.
Being out in nature heightens your awareness and makes you happier. Now on paper, it looks like Guilford is in the same boat as any other liberal arts school set in a city, but in reality, Guilford is bordering a woodland wilderness. At Guilford, you can take a few steps past the gym and be at the lake, which has wooded trails all around the edges. The woods are big enough to get lost in and contain streams, beautiful trees, a disc golf course, a cross country track and even a farm. Not only that, but there is history there, too. The Underground Railroad has origins there, but that is a story for another day. At my previous liberal arts college, there were several small lawns between buildings and there was a park across the street with a small pond. For reasons I can only guess at, students call the pond “Dead Hooker Pond.” This is not the kind of wilderness to send a child out to or one that a child would long to enter. So if you are interested in staying close to nature but still living in the city and in a safe place, Guilford is the school for you.
Again, on paper, Guilford seems to have the same level of expertise in the English Department as my old school. There are the same number of professors on the team and the difficulty level is rated at the same level. However, if you are interested in creative writing, Guilford has a lot to recommend it. For example, the literary magazine is not simply a club, it is a class. You may take the Greenleaf Review practicum class and learn all the ins and outs of publishing from layout to copy editing to photography design. This class has taught me so much, without taking away my independence to create exactly the kind of product I wish to create. In addition, the English majors are invited to attend a weekend long retreat for free. At this retreat, the older students direct workshops and group activities designed to help spark creativity and get you writing as furiously as you have ever written in your life. As if that is not enough to set Guilford apart, there is a new Creative Writing major and students can join a creative writing club!Lastly, the place where Guilford goes above and beyond what you see on paper in comparing one unknown school with another, is the community work program. At my previous school, I was given the chance to join a mentor/tutor program. I remember there being a lot of confusion, background checks and then disorganized meetings. I signed up but in the end I was never called back. Perhaps the program lost my information, but at Guilford, you find avenues left and right to join community work programs. The Bonner Center organizes more than 40 sites off campus from tutoring to babysitting to delivering fresh produce to food deserts. One easy way to begin finding the perfect site to volunteer is through the Community Problem Solving class in which you can research and choose a site to start at. Some students have been known to put in 60 hours of service in one semester! Once you get started and meet all the wonderful people out in the community, you do not wish to stop. I have had the joy of learning from those I was teaching and now I know that Greensboro is one of the top cities in the US for helping refugees. Transportation is often provided, meetings are frequent and if you ever need help, you can walk right over to the Bonner House and ask. Guilford is not just a run-of-the-mill liberal arts college, Guilford is a paradise for learning and loving.
If you are vegetarian, love nature, like to write or want to help others in the world, please take my advice and apply to Guilford over that other, average school on your list.
