<p>mominsc: I had a couple I was going to suggest (Rhodes & Belmont in TN) but then I saw the engineering major portion. Vanderbilt is probably just a little too big.</p>
<p>
You should read âBlinkâ by Malcolm Gladwell.</p>
<p>CornellâŠ</p>
<p>DD and DH BOTH hated it. Too far, crummy weather, and kids looking miserable walking to class. </p>
<p>I didnât go on this visit, but I was hoping they would love it. Ithaca, Moosewood, it was a fantasy campus from my youth in Ann Arbor. </p>
<p>Oh well, I had to agree that it was too far from an airport for us Californians.</p>
<p>mominsc: take a look at Elon</p>
<p>mominsc: Elon is a beautiful campus and offers a 3-2 engineering program with partnered schools (I think VTech is one of them) but doesnât have its own engineering school.</p>
<p>I think Rice in Tx sounds like a good fit. Top notch academics, diversity and engineering. If diversity is important, you might need to look further afield for privates in the south.</p>
<p>Brave Ulysses: DS really wants to stay at the same school all 4 years. So I think we crossed Elon off the list.</p>
<p>Plus he doesnât necessarily want to go to an engineering school - but wants the option to be able to take engineering classes.</p>
<p>911C2S: Rice seems like a great fit to me, too - only itâs in TX - which is probably further away than DS wants to go. Iâm urging him to apply, so weâll see.</p>
<p>duke. it rained and the tour guide was horrible. i know that sounds superficial, but i canât help it. however, the admission info session was admittedly the best i experienced.</p>
<p>loved princeton, was by far my favorite from the moment we stepped on campus.</p>
<p>Last year, before applying, I visited a few colleges. Went to George Washington University, couldnât even tell it was a university. Just some city blocks, with a few buildings with flags that might have said âGeorge Washingtonâ if the wind had been blowing enough to make them readable. Also, I know it wasnât meant that way, but up the marble steps of their business schools, it said âWho says business is all about money? George Washington University.â I will assume it was a slogan, followed by their name, but it seemed like a question and answer. A few of the students were nice, more were rude, and I didnât even apply.</p>
<p>Conversely, when I visited Notre Dame, I loved it; great campus, great academics, great feel to the place, great people, and⊠horrible weather, haha (but I can deal with that). By far my best college visit, and Iâll be happy to be going back in two weeks for classes.</p>
<p>â</p>
<p>^^My friend goes there and loves it too!</p>
<p>
Have you considered Auburn? We did not expect to like it and liked it very much. It is surprisingly close to Atlanta given that it is in Alabama.</p>
<p>BENNINGTON COLLEGE: People were friendly and the surrounding area was very nice-- lush and green. Quite a surprise for a kid who comes from the scrubby brown Southern California ecosystem. Some of the facilities were quite nice too. HoweverâŠ</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Dorms were awful. The old Colonial houses they use for housing are poorly-lit, cramped, and smelled like my grandmotherâs house. The tour guide told us that there was a real sense of community once your 25 or 30 roommates move in, which I can envision. And theyâre coed (but Iâm not one to complain about that). One more thing: the postmodern houses, built in 2006, are much nicer, but statistically speaking youâre far more likely to find yourself in one of the colonials.</p></li>
<li><p>VAPA, touted as their arts departmentâs biggest draw, was underwhelming. They donât even have a mainstage theater. True, the faculty are some of the best and their other facilities look alright, but it disappointed me that the performance spaces were less than the theaters at every high school in my town.</p></li>
<li><p>Not sure what to make of the Plan Program. I do like the fact that youâre more in control than one would be anywhere else when it comes to managing your own curriculum. However, the whole thing seems rather abstract-- more âlearning for the sake of learningâ rather than preparing their students for the real world. They do have the Field Work Term to mitigate this, but Iâm just not sure what a degree from them is worth, or if Iâd be better off at a conservatory-style program.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Final grade: still on the Will Apply list, but its stock has taken a hit.</p>
<p>University of Virginia - We did a recent tour with the kids. We were all totally underwhelmed. I liked the early 19th Century buildings near the Rotunda and Mr. Jeffersonâs lawn, but the rest of the campus looked like a slightly nicer version of University of Maryland. The way that some people rave about the UVA campus, I was expecting something more interesting looking. The students we ran into were nice enough, but reminded me of boring Northern Virgina suburban kids. There was nothing really wrong with UVA (or U Md, for that matter), but I just think my kids would be better fits at a smaller LAC or mid-sized university.</p>
<p>Most high achievers are boring suburban kids. Maybe they did not feel you were that interesting and just wanted to get away.</p>
<p>^Nice response, Barrons. Actually, most of my friends, relatives and work colleagues find my kids interesting and very funny. If nothing else, their English accents usually make them somewhat interesting to Americans, particularly when we get outside of large US cities. By the way, when I lived in DC, I generally found the people in NoVa to be less interesting, and more Philistine, that people from DC or Montgomery County, MD. Look, as I already said, there is nothing wrong with UVA, I just donât think it would be a good fit for someone coming from an small, urban London high school, okay?</p>
<p>Things always sound so much more interesting with an English accent.</p>
<p>^ Iâm all on board for saying a school isnât right for your kid. Putting down an entire region of kids by saying they are boring, less interesting might not be your best bet here.</p>
<p>âI generally found the people in NoVa to be less interesting, and more Philistine.â</p>
<p>Ha! Jokeâs on you, John Bull. Philadelphia isnât even in Virginia.</p>
<p>{just kidding}</p>
<p>
Well, they did say âmost,â not âall,â so they werenât referring to someone in the city. For suburban, it makes sense; one would expect most âhigh achieversâ to be relatively wealthy (leading to greater educational and extracurricular opportunities), and the wealthy tend to concentrate in the suburbs (see: âWhite flightâ). Whether one finds wealthy American suburban culture âboringâ or not is subjective, but itâs a personal view and thus honest, not so much âobnoxious.â There are certainly much more exciting cultures out there, from what Iâve seen.</p>
<p>JackUK, what high school did your kids go to? Iâm from London and went to a regular school here (not international school) and I go to UVA, and it is absolutely perfect for meâŠ</p>
<p>Boston College</p>
<p>My son did not like the feel of the place. It was very different from what we expected. More suburban, less attractive, more rigid in curriculum, and the religious presence was much more apparent than expected. It is probably a wonderful place for someone where there is the right fit. It just wasnât for him.</p>