Wheaton College (MA): DOWN (but not off). S25 really liked it based on the website/virtual tour, but found the tour a bit underwhelming, and I think was imagining it as being more in the Boston Metropolitan area than it functionally is. S25 toured with his dad so I don’t have an impression.
Brandeis UP: S25 thought it seemed like a vibrant solid community, a campus with a lot going on, and like the students were smart and nerdy in a good way but also, as he put it, “chill.” Also toured with his dad, but I am very familiar with the campus and a fan of the school.
Muhlenberg DOWN (and maybe off), same/positive for me: I thought we had a great tour guide and I found the campus charming and clearly well-resourced, and I appreciated that they stressed how vibrant their Jewish community is (something I have been concerned given the zeitgeist moment on campuses), but something about it didn’t click for S25. He didn’t hate it, and found some parts of the campus beautiful, especially the chapel (because of the stained glass), but said that he couldn’t really get a sense of how he would fit in there (I do wonder if it being a summer tour had to do with it, but he assured me this was not the case). The Maybe Off part is because we will be applying through TE, and the TE website for Muhlenberg basically says they reserve TE for early decision students. Given that S25 obviously did not like it enough to make it his ED school, I don’t know that there is a point in wasting a TE spot on it.
Ursinus UP for both of us. It was on our list of Pennsylvania SLACs in the TE/CIC networks to check out, but we didn’t have any particular expectations. S25 liked the variety of the specific majors, minors and concentrations they have, their “Shark Tank” like center for supporting student ideas/innovations, and what he heard about the walk-on possibility for sports (S25 is very athletic, but his current sport of choice isn’t a college sport, so no athletic recruitment for us – but he is interested in possibly playing a team sport in college, seems feasible at a D3 school). He also liked the diverse housing, and that upperclass students could live in Victorian houses converted into dorms across the street from the main campus. And the proximity to Philly. I liked the common intellectual experience set-up they have (I know most SLACs have something like that, but I liked specifically the way theirs is organized), and that the campus is full of public art. I am a little concerned about some feedback on the internet about issues with mold in their dorms, but then again they are far from the only college where this issue comes up from time to time.