Three Minnesota visits this weekend.
First- St. Olaf College
Admissions presentation- pretty standard information, not too long.
Tour- we ended up with a tour guide who is in the dance company, and only one other student on our tour so got to ask lots of dance related questions. She was a great tour guide and very knowledgeable. She told us she had always wanted to go to Carleton, until she visited. The students were there and seemed friendly - it was the last day of finals before Spring break. The campus felt really welcoming and friendly, and the building interiors were bright and clean with art on display. The buildings were all cohesive and of similar stone construction, mostly on a central quad. The library was lovely. It has most of the things my kiddo is looking for in a school, except the ability to easily get away from campus. The food in the cafeteria was delicious. She had an interview and the admissions officer was extremely helpful. We had no expectations going in, it was a complete unknown but it definitely is in the running.
We then headed into Northfield and checked out the quaint town, not exactly a bustling city but cute. Just a tad far to be walkable from St. Olaf.
Next- Carleton- this actually moved off of the list. Located in Northfield and very walkable to the cute part of town with shops and restaurants. That was pretty much the only thing my kiddo liked. The students were already on break and we tried to overlook that and not let it influence our impression. But it definitely had a very different feel. The building style is more varied and it seemed shabbier that St. Olaf. The admissions presentation (maybe because it was the second one of the day) was too long and dull. It just seemed cold and meh. She is not going to submit her application.
Third- Macalester. We used to live in the neighborhood so I am very familiar with it. We could not get an official tour because it was admitted students day and they didn’t have room for a potential transfer student to tag along (applications are due in 10 days for transfers). However, a friend connected us with the ballet teacher there who is absolutely lovely and she showed is all around their beautiful center for the art. The studios, theaters , costume shop, set building spaces all were impressive. Then we went to admissions where they had a packet for my kiddo and gave us a swipe card to get into buildings. It would have been nice to get the informational tour, but we were able to get a feel. The campus is a mix of very ugly (to me) modern buildings and older historic ones. The library was adequate, not necessarily an inspirational study space. It felt grittier than St. Olaf (which actually felt a bit like the perfect bubble of kiddo’s boarding school). We then ate at Shish on Grand, where she said she would go every day if she went to Macalester.
It will stay on the list. She feels like Macalester would offer more to do outside of the perfect college bubble, and be more of a real world scenario, and she could live off campus if she wanted. We know people in the dance community and there could potentially be opportunities for dance outside of the school. She needs to really dig into the website for all of the information we missed by not getting an admissions presentation/tour. Two very different schools and scenarios to decide between if she is accepted to both.