Colleges you/child crossed off the list after visiting

Parents Forum
4361

<p>Good point, Charlie. However, I still would expect the admins. to be more of the face of the school than the tour guides, since they would be more polished and trained in how to present the information. </p>

<p>As for fin. aid offices, we have spoken to quite a few (!), and have gotten different responses, but the “personality” of the players had little to do with the generosity of the school. We have spoken to warm and kind fin. aid officers who didn’t give an inch, and cold and distant ones who came through with amazing offers.</p>

4362

<p>When I was a tour guide in the mid-seventies, I used to show my room. My roommate and I had lofted beds (in the early days when you had to build it yourself), matching bandana bedspreads, a blue braided rug, and curtains on our window and closets that matched everything. NO ONE on our campus had a room like ours. It was groovy.</p>

4363

<p>^^ Groovy??? Haven’t heard that in a while. Love it:)</p>

4364

<p>turtletime - that’s so funny because one of the main reasons I LOVED Claremont McKenna was my tour guide – although a freshman, he was funny, smart, and a clear example of someone who loved learning. Isn’t it weird how your tour guide and/or just that one visit can make such a difference?</p>

4365

<p>I hated Penn by the drive-by. but… GET OUT OF THE CAR AND GO IN THE CAMPUS! Once you enter the close campus. You TRULY are in a different world. Quiet, beautiful, etc. You can’t hear the city at all!</p>

4366

<p>My son & I have seen 12 colleges over the past 2 weeks. I did the initial research while he was away working at a summer camp (and many thanks to those in the CC community who offered their advice & experience). I tried to tee-up colleges at which my son could get a good education and has a reasonable likelihood of admission, adding a reach or three.</p>

<p>Some schools were architecturally striking.
Others had over-the-top facilities (tho’ I don’t think any were truly wanting).
Still others had awesome locales.</p>

<p>As our trip unfolded, it became clear to me that, with perhaps one exception, my son was drawn to colleges which were, for him, the most *[haimische](<a href=“http://www.yiddishdictionaryonline.com/dictionary/היימיש.html"]haimische[/url][/i”>http://www.yiddishdictionaryonline.com/dictionary/היימיש.html)[/i</a>], places where he could identify with the students. Prestige, facilities & location didn’t seem to factor into the equation.</p>

<p>Of the 12 schools we visited, my son voiced the strongest interest in OWU, St. Mary’s (MD), St. Lawrence & Susquehanna, and a continued (but less strong) interest in Allegheny, Goucher, Muhlenberg, & Wooster. Arcadia, McDaniel, Ursinus & Wheaton (MA) came off the list.</p>

4367

<p>@expatCanuck… Just dropped off my S at St Lawrence last week. I can not say enough about the school. We are from CA, so big change. I was EXTREMELY impressed with everything. Great move-in process, HUGE dorms, the FYP is unbelievable… truly the best! Texts daily raving about the food, his friends, classes, and professors. He took a gap year and was concerned in his general Chem class because he hadn’t had math in a year and half.(pre-med) He talked to his chem professor and she told him they had a refresher math class just for gap year kids. I literally don’t think he has a negative thing to say about it. A SERIOUS hidden gem… and I would describe it as a very haimishe place:))</p>

4368

<p>I just learned a new word! Thanks for the usage and the link, expatCanuck.</p>

4369

<p>DD visited the University of New Mexico. She didn’t like it as she felt the campus looked dirty and she didn’t like the surrounding city area. She said that they took them on a bus tour of campus so they wouldn’t get mugged walking around the area. Obviously, she was being a bit extreme. Teenagers can be very critical and see things in a different light than we do.</p>

4370

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<p>Since there was use of a Yiddish term, I will assume that you or your family are MOT.</p>

<p>Therefore, fyi, just in case you are not aware, Susquehanna U. is affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church.</p>

4371

<p>

Indeed. Still, SU does have a rabbi on staff.</p>

4372

<p>^^^^</p>

<p>Very cool! Thanks.</p>

<p>I think I recall seeing something on their website about their “open” approach and the relatively high proportion of non evangelical students.</p>

<p>Not exactly on my daughter’s radar but does look like a nice place.</p>

4373

<p>Starting on on second and final process w youngest Toured 4 schools in the past 2 days, as our schools don’t open until next week thanks to the Jewish holidays.</p>

<p>Like his sister, S1 didn’t like Lehigh and couldn’t articulate why…</p>

<p>Drexel - no football team. Off the list! </p>

<p>He loved Villanova! It was a last second addition as he didn’t like the urban vibe of Dexel, so I knew Temple would be a waste of time.</p>

4374

<p>I am the parent of kids who never met a school they didn’t like…lol.</p>

<p>We visited quite a few different schools (big, little, city, country, public, private, Catholic, etc) in order to try to narrow down the list. The only school that was crossed off the list was Yale…didn’t like New Haven and a police officer at the local Starbucks told my kids that it is unsafe to go running in New Haven…that made a big impression on them even though they liked the school.</p>

<p>S1 was unsure about Notre Dame, but ended up applying anyway…he did get in, but decided to go elsewhere due to the lack of diversity and he believed it to be “too Catholic”…we’re Catholic and he ended up at a different Catholic University…</p>

<p>S2 tagged along with S1 and has told me that he has seen everything he needs to see, so we won’t do any visits until after he finds out where he is accepted. Thank goodness!</p>

4375

<p>Regarding dorm rooms…I went with my niece to visit several colleges, including Wellesley, my alma mater. While she was impressed with everything else there, they showed us the WORST dorm room BY FAR that I have ever seen in four years on that campus. Very strange.</p>

4376

<p>

GolfFather, Evangelical Lutheran is NOT AT ALL like “Evangelical Christian.” It is the most liberal branch of the Lutheran denomination. The ELCA has had a huge rift with the more conservative Missouri Synod over the ordination of women and gays. The ELCA members I know (including a pastor) are progressive, intellectual and open-minded.</p>

4377

<p>^^^^</p>

<p>Cool. Thanks for the info!</p>

4378

<p>On the ELCA church, they have female pastors and gay people, and everything else. We used to belong to that church, and all that was fine. Where my parents decided to leave is when they started talking about when it is okay to abort a baby, listing financial reasons as one. So, I would call the ELCA church as more liberal than many people, regardless of religion, in general.</p>

4379

<p>I visited Baylor, which I expected to not like at all, but ended up loving. However, I won’t be applying because the NPC says the financial aid won’t be good enough at all. I mean, they give the worst financial aid of any school I have ever looked at, and I have looked at the NPC for a lot of schools. They scholarships are odd too, with having to maintain a 3.6 to keep them, and often requiring reapplying every year.</p>

<p>When I visited Carleton, I expected to love them. I did not at all. The tour guide seemed very distracted and knew little about the school. He was wearing sunglasses and kept saying he needed his coffee and then laughing. He acted very “off.” We barely saw the insides of any buildings. He kept saying to ask questions, but when we did, he seemed angry that we did. He never had an answer. He also forgot to wear his pants. He showed up in boxer shorts that were clearly underwear boxers, not just funky shorts. And a very thin ratty t-shirts. Since the admissions office saw him show up in that condition and still let him lead tours, I figure this represents what the school is like. Oh, he and the other guides, when together, kept laughing and making what seemed like inside jokes.</p>

<p>I saw St Olaf before Carleton because I did not expect to like it. I thought it would be fine, but not much to see. Instead, I fell in love. It was so great. The tour guide seemed to know everything about the school. The campus was gorgeous. When the admissions counselor asked my mom to come in, my mom didn’t really want to, because she had my brother with her, and he has autism. But the counselor was very nice and welcomed them in and even had a toy for my brother and did not seem bothered at all when he kept trying to ask her a question, the same one, over and over and over again. I would have thought the interview was ruined, but instead, I felt like the counselor liked my brother! My mom had not expected to be called in at all or she would not have had him with her. She left him behind the next day when we went to Carleton.</p>

<p>TAMU I am a bit cold about. It is ok. But, I always run in to no one really knowing what the next is doing, or what policies there are or otherwise. I still applied, but they are definitely a back up school at this point. </p>

<p>I still have a few schools I want to see, but I think we have run out of time. I did not want to see any southern schools in the summer. It is just too hot! And I have mostly southern schools on the list.</p>

4380

<p>I needed to add something about Baylor. Everyone I know who has gone there, since I live not far away, I know a lot, has ended up not liking it. They say all the best stuff is at the admissions preview days, but the actual school is horrible. It seems hard to believe, but since we cannot afford it anyway, I guess it is fine. On the same token, the same thing that keeps me interested in TAMU is that everyone who went there, even if they were not that in to it, ended up loving it. I am thinking it might turn out that way for me too.</p>