8 Colleges in 4 Days: How I Spent My Spring Break

Parents Forum
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<p>Re Case: I absolutely don’t mean to disrespect it at all. I am quite sure a very fine education can be had there. But I felt like it was a place more for the kid who has already decided he wants to be an engineer, doctor, nurse, etc. and is single-mindedly methodically checking the boxes towards those goals. </p>

<p>Since you guys are liking this, I’ll add in the other 6 colleges we had previously seen, prior to spring break:</p>

<p>GRINNELL: Students: Quirky, earnest, brilliant. Values: Celebrating differences and diversity. Warren Buffett has been very good to this campus – top notch facilities. Only drawback (IMO) is the smallness of the town.</p>

<p>COLORADO COLLEGE: Students: Outdoorsy, fresh-faced, a bit granola, and down to earth. Values: The environment and experiential learning. The Block Plan enables them to treat the world as their oyster. D highly impressed.</p>

<p>GEORGETOWN: Students: Intense, tomorrow’s leaders. Values: Steeped in their history and traditions; Jesuit approach to inquiry (but very accepting of all); top notch professionalism in how they presented themselves (both the adcom and the student tour leader). I admit to being very biased since I nearly went to Gtown 25 years ago, and only wish I could have bequeathed my unused admittance to my internatl-relations-loving son :-). I couldn’t find a thing to dislike about Gtown. Seriously. </p>

<p>GEORGE WASH U: Students: Hurried. Values: Taking full advantage of hustle and bustle of vibrant DC setting. S didn’t care for the very-urban campus, but of course that’s just personal preference and other students will really like it.</p>

<p>AMERICAN: Students: Activist yet amiable. Values: Learning comes through on-the-job / internships. S liked – I’m a bit concerned about too much internship focus and not enough life of the mind, but I went to college already :-)</p>

<p>LAWRENCE U: Students: Friendly, smart but also chill. Values: Collaborative learning, leveraging diversity of experiences. Quite an amazing international outlook, not what you’d expect from a small city in Wisconsin. A hidden gem (CTCL).</p>

<p>We have Macalester, Carleton and NU waiting in the wings. It’ll be interesting for me to take off my alum hat and view NU dispassionately as a parent of a prospective student. To this point, I didn’t think that I could, but after these tours, I’m more confident that I’ll be able to.</p>

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<p>PG, you do have a way of summarizing schools very succinctly.</p>

<p>And I agree that 2 schools that are close together in a day are very doable. Just don’t do it like goaliegirl and I did it one day in St. Paul - 2 schools each with an admissions interview, a coach meeting AND watching a full hockey team practice in addition to the tour. Literally a 14 hour day - and the schools were only 2 miles apart. That I would not try again.</p>

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<p>Good lord! I forgot 2!</p>

<p>BRYN MAWR: Students: Enthusiastic and spirited with plenty of presence, but not over-the-top. Values: Strong, strong sense of community. I adore this school, as does D. It got her over the hump of looking at women’s schools. (And thanks to Bromfield’s D for making this one happen! I owe you!)</p>

<p>HAVERFORD: Students: Quieter and a mix of types - prep, jock, quirky, etc - but all thoughtful. Values: Honor Code, in spades. And then the Honor Code, once more.</p>

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<p>^As my friend said recently re: Haverford–you know the Honor Code is important when the tour guide spends 5 minutes delivering a lecture on it as a tour stop in itself.</p>

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<p>I really enjoy your “values” snapshots.</p>

<p>Given your D’s like of Bryn Mawr, have you considered Reed? A friend of mine chose between the two fours years ago (and picked Reed). The seem to have the same “academic school spirit” and intensity.</p>

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<p>Hmm, they never struck me as similar in spirit, but perhaps I’m mistaken. Reed always struck me as a bit more cynical in spirit.</p>

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<p>Reed and Bryn Mawr are both very “academic,” but I think Bryn Mawr is altogether more friendly. Cynical is a good word for Reed (in good spirit–says she, a self-described cynicist).</p>

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<p>I think PG should run around the entire country and publish a book of these. I wish I’d had these two years ago. Seriously. concise and really accurate.</p>

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<p>Oh - one other thing that stood out for Kenyon. We asked where the student center was - and was surprised that there was none (though the cafeteria seems to stand in and play that role). But I felt a strong sense of community and the way that the campus is laid out, it was very easy for people to gather in common areas.</p>