<p>^^^ Funny that I am reading this post while listening to NPR reported that LL Bean is offering free shipping year-round. Retailers already know that this is consumers “mental sticking point” and everyone else will follow suit, why not colleges? Brilliant marketing!</p>
<p>Vitrac, you win. I had to pay for the blanket. ;)</p>
<p>This thread is the only reason I now read CC. I love the humor and good spirit.</p>
<p>It also brings back fond and funny memories. (Our child should graduate in 2012.)</p>
<p>It’s funny what makes a difference to our kids. When D was trying to decide which school to attend, one of her biggest cons was she didn’t get a free t-shirt during accepted students day at one of the schools. Luckily she was able to overcome this hurdle :rolleyes: and is currently very happy as a freshmen at this school.</p>
<p>^LOL. I notice that too! They did get shirts at orientation though I think that’s pretty much de rigueur these days.</p>
<p>Actually, I think there were a lot more t-shirts in 2007 than in 2010.</p>
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<p>When we were at orientation at my d’s school, we were handed a bag of popcorn. The gentleman then said to us, “Here’s your popcorn. That’ll be $49,000.” (Oh, we also got an energy saving light bulb and a pen!)</p>
<p>Laf: You’re not being mean and I got a good laugh out of your posts. No, we’re not picking them by that, but it makes it easier to scratch some off when the campus feels dirty and you get that nickel and dime feeling like someone else mentioned. We are using our impressions of the schools to scratch them off the list…not necessarily to choose a school if you understand my meaning. I figure if my D chooses schools that are in the $50K range, the printing should definitely be included! I also see what the other poster said about cheaper college = lots of printing and laundry money…believe me, we will take that into account as we narrow our list. I just think its strange how two schools will cost about the same and one includes more in their tuition than another (i.e. parking, printing, laundry, whatever). It’s kinda like a nice perk. 
I was just posting things we noticed and how we are narrowing down our lists…you either get a good feel for a school or you don’t. My husband and I got the same vibe from WFU in our info session as well as the tour. We may have had another impression had we visited on another day, but that’s what we got. </p>
<p>paying4: You are so right! Visit impressions vary greatly. I love reading what other people think of a school after they see it. I swear they took us by a building that looked like the blinds had been run over a few times by a tank and then rehung in the door. Like I said, going to WFU right after Davidson may have had something to do with it. It was just so much cleaner. I actually missed the tour of the laundry area because I cut out early to go eat my lunch, but D liked the whole school. It remains on her short list. My D also loved Duke (and remains her first choice) although I didn’t see much difference between it and some of the other older colleges. If you haven’t seen Furman, you should go there if your kid is interested…beautiful school!</p>
<p>jack: We have been looking at Dartmouth online…please tell me more about your visit there. :-)</p>
<p>Energy saving light bulbs! When S moved in freshman year, facilities came around and offered to swap out all his regular light bulbs for energy-savers. He had one of those “octopus” lamps with 6 bulbs, so that was a significant amount of money. He’s now a 2nd semester senior, and hasn’t had to replace a single one of those low-energy lightbulbs - they really do last.</p>
<p>Also S’s $49k college cleans the dorm hallways and common baths daily M-F. D’s $34k college cleans them once a week (luckily she has a semi-private bath which the girls clean themselves).</p>
<p>So I guess that’s a bit more of the $15k difference.</p>
<p>OTOH, both my S’s and D’s campuses are beautiful, well-maintained and clean (other than the dorm hallways). S has had 2 “large” lectures of about 50 people, both intro courses. D has not had any - her college doesn’t do them. S’s student:faculty ration is 10:1, D’s is 13:1. The part that really gets me is S’s college’s endowment per student is ELEVEN TIMES larger than D’s - yet D’s college seems to offer almost as much academic benefit as S’s, and does it for $15k/year less. They are in a cheaper part of the country (NC vs PA) but not 30% cheaper. </p>
<p>I’m a huge fan of my S’s college, but I really don’t understand why they charge so much more - or maybe I just can’t figure out how D’s college does it for so much less.</p>
<p>Sorry for the thread hijack! Back to feedback from college visits!</p>
<p>gluckie: I know exactly which building at WF had the tank destroyed blinds – it was one of the fraternity dorm suites – I also noticed them because our tour guide picked that exact spot to stop and talk about Greek life. Those blinds had really been destroyed! I don’t think my daughter picked up on those poor abused blinds, however, because by then it was the end of the tour and it was clear to me that by that point she had already decided that she loved the school. (We also saw Davidson first and drove directly from Davidson to Wake Forest – wonder whether we were at some of these schools on the same day. We definitely noticed that we were following the same path through North Carolina as a couple of other families!) I would have loved to check out Furman, but for some reason I haven’t been able to sell it to either of my daughters as a school they might like.</p>
<p>Lafa–where are your kids at school? Both sound great! Love the student:teacher ratio!</p>
<p>^^^ S is at Lafayette, D is at Elon.</p>
<p>Lafalum, I keep hearing different things about Lafayette’s campus…some say it’s beautiful and others say it’s terrible. What’s your opinion of its appearance and design (compact? things laid out in an orderly fashion? etc.). What are some significant differences between Lafayette and Bucknell?</p>
<p>I think Lafayette’s campus is beautiful. It is a mix of architectural styles - some people like that, some don’t. It’s clean, well-maintained and nicely landscaped. I wouldn’t call it “orderly” - there isn’t a dorm section and a classroom section, for example. It’s laid out around a central quad, but dorm buildings are mixed in between classroom buildings, the chapel, dining halls, etc. It’s only about 100 acres so it’s fairly compact, but it still has nice green space and trees. With only 2400 students, it doesn’t need to be “orderly” - there’s just not enough buildings for it to be confusing. I actually prefer it that way, living and learning are mixed together and all part of the same whole - there’s not one area for “learning” and another for “living.” It is very self-contained, there are very few college buildings that are not “on campus.”</p>
<p>If there are negatives about Lafayette’s appearance it’s probably not the campus, it’s the surrounding area. Easton is an older industrial small-city. Lafayette is located on a relatively flat area at the top of a very steep hill - it’s literally separated from the city on 2 sides by being on top of a cliff. College Hill isn’t a bad area, but just beyond foot of the hill is the highway. The college has bought some old/abandoned industrial buildings at the foot of the hill and is re-purposing them, one is now a nice visual arts studio, another is a college nightclub, and another is being re-done into additional theater space.</p>
<p>[Visit</a> Virtually](<a href=“http://virtualtour.lafayette.edu/]Visit”>http://virtualtour.lafayette.edu/).</p>
<p>Differences between Laf and Bucknell… hmmm… well architecturally, Bucknell is all Georgian (so far as I know). Otherwise I’d say it’s location. Lafayette is in Easton, which is 90 minutes from NYC and Philadelphia. It’s a free campus bus ride from shopping centers and Lehigh Valley Mall. Bucknell is in Lewisburg. I haven’t been to Lewisburg in years, but looking on a map it still looks really remote. I can’t say much else about Bucknell because I truly don’t know much about it, other than that it’s in the Patriot League (like Lafayette) and is a very solid academic school.</p>
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<p>I just came back from my Smith College visit. </p>
<p>I’m speechless. The campus was beautiful. There’s an amazing view of the lake/waterfall thing. You can see it from different parts of campus at different angles. The houses (no dorms) were cool too. The newer buildings were more traditional college-dorm style, but most of them were old style houses. Small houses, big houses, beautiful houses. I liked the empowering atmosphere of a single sex school, moreso than the vibe I got from moho. Smith is small, but not too small. Northampton is a great city (town?.) </p>
<p>I didn’t like how they didn’t have different kinds of engineering. Just “engineering” was the major. It’s an engineering science, so you study all types of engineering. But they have neuroscience, so that makes up for the lack of specialized engineering. I plan on doing computer science + neuroscience. New engineering/sciences building is state of the art. Theater hall is amazing. Everything on campus is within a 20 minute walk (not totally sure about this.)</p>
<p>Smith just moved to my #1 spot.</p>
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<p>^ When my daughter visited I loved Smith and Northhampton … and you also have access to consortium and another great college town (Amherst).</p>
<p>Yesssssss!</p>
<p>I’m so full with excitement lol. </p>
<p>Just realized this is a “colleges crossed off” thread. Oops.</p>
<p>See the OP- this thread is also for places you love, and it sounds as if you feel that way about Smith. Congrats for finding a place you really like!</p>
<p>Vanderbilt…went from “the only college I want to go to” to “I’m not even applying there”!! When pressed no real reason given (how typical of a teenager…) just didn’t like it …Dad took her for that visit so I can’t add any bad experiences that might have been had…</p>
<p>Duke…was just a maybe prior to visit …now is the “only place I want to go”</p>
<p>I think we need more college visits…Suggestions please??? She is flexible on major (going to vet school) but leaning to biology or physics (or animal science …but that is a rare offering)</p>
<p>Well, katie, if she’s looking at Duke and Vandy, I have to put a plug in for Wake Forest. :)</p>
<p>Katie-You probably know that for a kid who wants to be a vet, her home state’s school with Animal Science is a good bet. For example, Cornell in NY, Penn State or Penn in PA, Univ of Florida in Florida.</p>