What are your child's "trivial factors" in college selection?

[emeraldkity4]

#6
Off topic but what is the relationship to soda & the southern states?
My Ds BF is from Alabama and as far as I can tell he drinks it at every meal, even breakfast.

[amandakayak]

Ds wanted to see a Starbucks on/near campus. (Hardly cut down any colleges off the list.) DD wants NIH funded stem cell research on campus and a store selling kimchee within walking distance. Her list is short.

[Erin's Dad]

For DD2, small classes and trees to climb.

[sally305]

@amandakayak: UW-Madison?

[fireandrain]

There's a poster asking on a number of college forums (Brown and Harvard for two) whether there is a Chipotle nearby. Apparently his son cannot live with a Chipotle.

[FlyMeToTheMoon]

For our rising senior daughter, her list of trivials are:
must be in a city or large town
must have a substantial grassy area on campus
must be in the NE or NW section of the US
must have air conditioned dorms (why if you are in the NE or NW, but what do I know?)
must NOT operate on the quarter system
must have nice dorms (nice has not been defined, and she hasn't found any so far that she would assess as "nice")

[emeraldkity4]

Private schools are often on semesters.
I think both my kids schools had pretty nice dorms, but don't know if they were air conditioned. In the NW we usually just open a window.

[UDUBHUSKIES]

FlyMeToTheMoon:

Sorry if this seems totally random, but University of Washington goes on the quarter system. I'm thinking of applying there, and it is my dream. Just putting it out there if she's not seriously considering it but applying anyways.

[swizzle13]

Here's my list of "must haves":

-Be in a large city (this rules out three schools on my list, but they're mainly home-state safeties)
-Be out of state (again, the three schools are out, but whatever)
-Large library
-Multi-person dorming for upperclassmen (it's the cheapest dorming at the schools I'm looking at)
-Preferably a Greek presence
-Must operate on the semester system

[emberjed]

I'll be applying this fall/winter (unlike many teenagers, I do not have a child). Uncommon factors that I care about in a college include:
-non-isolation of its city/town (though I'm still applying to Dartmouth)
-not being in my home city's metropolitan area or state
-walkability
-being well-rounded aside from my major and minor/concentration
-not being the same temperature all year round
-open-mindedness of locals (not to be confused with liberal political affiliation)

None of these factors makes it or breaks it for me, but they're all definitely considered.

[Proudpatriot]

My son wanted a school with a Division 2/3 football team. He just does not think he would be happy at a school where he could not play football but he is not big enough to play Division 1.

[toledo]

Mountains...That narrows things down a bit.

[emeraldkity4]

Especialy if you want mountains to look like mountains.

[Longhaul]

My son:

Music scene, music performance minor or just plain enough folks to jam with.

green space, preferably with water. And if the water is a fountain it must be bigger than what folks put in their home yards (Yes - one school was knocked for discussing the "awesome" fountain that looked like it came from Target).

Mountain view preferred

A/C preferred

Walking distance to a store

Walking distance to class - taking a shuttle to all classes nixed our flagship

Food available at most hours of the day. Since he really was heavy on the LAC front, the 2 hour increments of dining hours at many schools frustrated him. Schools with "grills" and flex dining dollars became significant.

I was happy for the trivial, because he cast a wide geographic net and needed some items to narrow the focus.

[beth's mom]

My D was interested in Division 1 sports, nice dorms and good food. All non-academic, but since they were important to her, I don't consider them trivial.