Hometown: Chapel Hill, NC

Freshman Hall Hallmarks
Davidson's Residence Life Office takes care to compose diverse, compatible halls for first-year students. That pays off, says Joe Morrison '14. "We've got guys from Jamaica, Belgium and France. In one three-room stretch, there's a sampling from all over the country: Ohio, Florida, Seattle, the South, and the Northeast. The camaraderie is nice, and it's good to branch out from there." He spent the first five days of winter break snow-skiing for the first time ever with his New Hampshire roommate.

Harmonious Notes
Fall semester, hidden talents on the hall came to light on a regular basis-especially musical ones. "You'd have 15 people in a dorm room with a piano, making music. That's not an experience you would have in a school that's not as close-knit as Davidson." After fall break at home, he brought back his electric guitar, which freed him to share his acoustic guitar with hallmates and hall counselors. "I haven't seen it in over a week."

A Good Sport
"People say Davidson is one of the most athletic schools in the country by percentage of Division I athletes. There's so much opportunity here for athletics and club sports. If you want to, you can play a sport." His hall's flickerball team's 36 members made it to the campus championship game for that sport, unique to Davidson. "First semester, I had to figure out just how much I could handle." Next up: club soccer and open-mic nights at the Alvarez College Union. "You have to really make a focused effort if you want to do an activity, because there's so much to do it's easy to get sidetracked!"

Academic Rigor 24/7
Pleasantly challenging," he says of Davidson's renowned rigors. "Professors here seem to grade as though they're grading a colleague. They expect work at the highest level." It's more than fine with him to have classmates expertly quoting weighty works like The Federalist Papers, even though it means he had to shift from expecting A's every class to "being ecstatic for a B." Even during exams, Davidson camaraderie shines on. "If you're still up studying and need support, there's always someone up. Never a dull moment."