Colleges your child crossed off the list after visiting, schools that moved up on the list. Why? (NO REPLIES)

[bjmiller75]

My son who is gradauting this year and my 10th grade daughter took a winter trip to visit Univeristy of Florida, Florida State and the Univeristy of Georgia while traveling from Northern Virginia. It was a lot of car driving.

University of Florida- Way up
I was hopeful this would check all the boxes and it did for most. Really nice campus that looked very inviting while walking around. He wants to get away from home and this is his top target while applying. I loved it and wonder now why I went north when going to college. Everything seems newer and both children felt very comfortable on campus. We enjoyed Lake Alice and was liked the different touches around campus such as the history museum and bat houses.

Florida State- Way down.
Son applied and daughter had it in their plans. My son now wants nothing to do with it even though he will likely get accepted. Campus was beautiful. Landis walk was a fun green area on campus but both really disliked Tallahassee and didn’t see themselves being able to do 4 years there. Nothing they could point to other than that but I think my daughter now has this firmly off her list.

University of Georgia- Up
Campus is huge. Son really liked it. Daugher liked it. Son did not love it but my son doesn’t seem to need to fall in love with a school. Son was accepted with a good scholarship so far so it would be affordable. Some of the campus seems a little dated and need of upgrades but the business school which he was accepted in seemed brand new. He loves sports so high end D1 sports is a plus. He is hoping for a school with a more academic feel whatever that means but this is a good school that he is happy to have as a choice. The downtown Athens area by the arch seemed cool and that pushed it up a bit as he sees himself down there on his downtime.

[ChipsandGuac24]

We did a New England SLAC tour last August with our D25 just to get a feel for what she may want in a school.

UP:
Bowdoin: Wonderful tour guide who was totally daughter’s type of kid, loved the campus, Frosh Outdoor Ed trips, CS department looked great. Currently top choice!

Mt Holyoke: Most gorgeous campus we had ever seen, and we’ve been to some beauties (Middlebury, Williams etc.) Loved our quirky tour guide who named her plants after Taylor Swift songs. My daughter isn’t pro or con an all-woman’s school but this one was impressive. Also love the 40-50% admit rate.

Middlebury: Visited on a whim and had an amazing tour guide who was super real and lovely.

DOWN:
Tufts: Loved the campus but the tour was SOOO long and the guide reiterated every fact we heard during the info session. They are very proud of their “Cheese Club”. We heard about this multiple times. Our daughter decided the school was too big and did not like that students don’t live on campus after soph year. It’s out.

Smith: Housing situation is a deal breaker. Best part of the tour was the boy and his mom who were there. Mom didn’t know it was all-women’s school and asked “where the boys dorms are.” Tour guide handled it very well. Mom and boy promptly left in a huff, saying school needed to explicitly say it was all-women.

Williams: Tour guide was very meh and had zero personality or sense of humor. Others on the tour were constantly talking about intergenerational matriculation at Williams: “When grand-poppy went to Williams, this building was the library” etc. Of all the SLACs we visited on that trip, Williams felt like they were trying to compete with the Ivies and needed to prove themselves. It’s off the list.

Up next, visiting midwest SLACS: Macalester, Grinnell, St. Olaf, and Carleton

[Franklynn]

Obviously people like different stuff, but what was unappealing about Smith housing? I feel like that’s usually a selling point for them.

[ChipsandGuac24]

True! I think the housing at Smith is either a huge attraction or deal breaker. My daughter didn’t like that it felt like a sorority and that each house seemed to have reputation or vibe. Some of the houses are also really small and that wasn’t appealing especially if you could be randomly assigned to one of the houses as a freshman. I think the woman who led the tour was really into the housing and possibly made it sound less-appealing than it actually is, as we have spoken to several Smith alums who debunked much of what the guide told us. Nonetheless, my daughter wasn’t feeling it!

[Wjs1107]

We spent the holiday weekend in Santa Cruz and decided to take a tour of UC Santa Cruz with S26 before driving home. It’s early to start looking but nice to get a couple of visits in when it works.

The campus environment is stunning. From athletic fields overlooking the Pacific Ocean to dorms tucked neatly into redwood groves, it’s hard to imagine a more quintessential Northern CA experience. It’s also enormous and spread out, though many of the residential colleges seemed clustered together. The buildings blend nicely into the environment, too. It’s like going to college in a campground.

Housing is guaranteed for freshmen, and 96 percent live on campus. The tour guides said that second years also get housing on campus if they want it—though many choose to move off campus then. Juniors and seniors do not live on campus, and they are the first priority for parking permits.

One cool thing we learned is that an on-campus farm supplies a lot of the produce in dining halls, and that they often come with very inexpensive produce for sale, too. Students can work on the farm and get free food that way, too.

It’s hard to believe there are 19,000 students on this campus. While it’s a holiday weekend and perhaps many went off campus, it was a ghost town. We saw very few kids walking around and the dining halls and coffee shops we passed by were closed. It was very strange. I remember thinking this when I did a self-guided tour with D22 in Covid times, but we chalked it up to the pandemic. Oddly, today gave me the same experience. Where is everyone? (My D22 is at UCLA, which is always teeming with people. Even when I showed up on the last afternoon of her finals week, the dining halls were bustling, the campus was busy).

I’d like to see UC Santa Cruz to stay on S26’s list—he’s interested in astronomy and it’s well-known for that. Plus the price is right. But neither of us could really get excited about it… that lack of “human” energy is palpable and not particularly inspiring for a prospective student. We will keep looking for info about where the kids hang out and more input on the social scene.

PS, after some searching we found this… perhaps it was a holiday weekend thing…
https://www.reddit.com/r/UCSC/s/otCQkWOcdd

[L_NewEngland]

Crossed off:
Champlain College (Burlington VT)
Cute campus, Burlington is great, but the general focus from both info session and 2 tour guides was that they only really cared about the gaming majors (of which there are many). Child didn’t like small dorms, and though I liked the idea of a small community feel, I agreed common areas were tiny and not really conducive to actually hanging out. Also the library was closed on a random Saturday in middle of semester. I was floored.

[Sapphire_G]

UVM Down
I had high hopes because S24 loves to ski and the school has a decent reputation in my area. Campus buildings none too attractive & old. I can usually look past this since many colleges are old but S found it depressing.

I couldn’t look past what seems to be a wild drug problem in Burlington starting at the edge of campus. In a bigger city there is more to balance out drug use & homelessness but here is felt like the central piece.

[OregonMom2024]

Same for us, I really wanted to love it. We have a large homeless problem too so that wasn’t my main issue, I found campus disjointed and seemed to be a lack of community.

[anniep625]

We are residents of Southern California. D24. Interested in kinesiology, public health, and health and human services.

Schools visited:
Sophomore (February 2022):
Loyola Marymount
CSU Channel Islands
UC Santa Barbara
Cal Poly SLO
University of Southern California

Loyola Marymount UP: This was the first college she visited and it gave her a good idea of what college was like. She liked the campus and the area of the campus. We did the official tour.

Channel Islands DOWN: too small, a large commuter population, and we visited during the pandemic (sort of, I guess) and there were still a lot of people not on campus. The tour guide was great though but just not what she thought she would want.

UCSB NEUTRAL: She didn’t hate this campus but she didn’t love it either. She thought it felt like Long Beach State on the ocean. It was beautiful but she wasn’t sure she could see herself there.

Cal Poly SLO UP: she liked the college, the city, and the location which is close to the mountains and the beach.

USC UP: I wasn’t sure what she would think about this school but she really liked it. The tour guide was okay (and a little full of himself if I am being honest) but he did go over a lot of information that made her like this college.

Summer 2022:
University of Utah: I think this school ranked somewhere between neutral and up. It wasn’t really on her radar. We walked around on the last day of a trip during our summer vacation as we had some time to kill before heading to the airport. She liked the campus and the surroundings. She liked that they had a lot of pre health related majors. She liked that they have a wide variety of sports and are big with football (her high school team was not very good; and since she was on the dance team had to cheer for them).

Fall 2022, Junior Year trips with school (no official tours just walking tours led by counselors):

UCSD DOWN: didn’t care for the atmosphere/vibe of the school. She said it was a smarty pants/hipster vibe.

SDSU UP: she was surprised how much she liked this school because she had always heard it was so big and there were a ton of people. She visited mid week so it was a pretty accurate assessment of what the school year vibe is like for a regular student.

USD NEUTRAL: she thought it was beautiful of course but she wasn’t sure about the overall feel of the school. She thought it might be too much like her Catholic high school.

UCLA UP: another large school she really liked. She said it felt like college and even though there are a bunch of smart people there it felt more real than UCSD.

Cal State LA DOWN: too much of a commuter school.

USC UP: second visit; nothing changed except they walked around the University Village which we did not do on our original trip.

Loyola Marymount UP: still had a positive vibe from the school.

Junior Year Spring Visits:
SDSU UP: took an official tour on a Friday so the campus was kind of dead but it still gave her a good feel of what the campus feels like.

USD UP: this went from neutral to up but she said she still liked SDSU more. We had a good tour guide though and she started thinking maybe she would apply.

Chico State DOWN: she liked the campus and kind of liked the college town atmosphere but she wasn’t really exited about it. Kind of far from a decent sized city.

Sonoma State DOWN: too small and a little too far from a city; didn’t really care for the bedroom community feel of Rohnert Park.

Santa Clara University UP: I added this school to the list because we had a morning free (with a Cal tour in the PM). She had zero clue about this school and I think was honestly kind of annoyed that I dragged her here but she ended up loving it. She had a great tour guide, she liked the campus, and she felt like it had the right amount of people.

Cal NEUTRAL: she didn’t love it but she didn’t hate it either. She wasn’t a huge fan of our tour guide and the vibe on the campus the day we went seemed to be very laissez faire. It was an odd feeling honestly.

UCD NEUTRAL: she didn’t dislike like it but it wasn’t love at first sight either. Our tour guide wasn’t great and he grated on my nerves a bit. He didn’t go off script once even when answering questions. What I found funny about this visit is that this was my hometown area university growing up (I didn’t get accepted but still went there a ton anyways when I lived in the area) and I found myself annoyed with the feel of the campus (doesn’t hurt that I almost got ran over by a bike).

Fall 2023 with school:

UCLA UP: still up. She actually ran into people on campus from her high school who had graduated in 2023 and saw another kid who had graduated in 2022.

USC UP: took an official tour this time as well and still liked it. Third visit to the school.

Long Beach State: Not sure how this ranks honestly. We used to live 2 miles away so it was in her backyard for many years.

Chapman University DOWN: it just didn’t do anything for her. Liked the small downtown feel of Orange but she wasn’t overly excited about it.

UCI DOWN: she was not inspired by it at all. Kind of like UCSD.

She ended up applying to:
University of Southern California, UCLA, UC Berkeley, San Diego State, Long Beach State, Cal Poly SLO, Loyola Marymount University, Santa Clara University, University of San Diego, and University of Utah.

[Boraxo]

Background: Student attends large suburban high school in California. Favors large national schools with strong D1 sports.

Crossed off list: Dartmouth, (too rural), Cal Poly SLO (same) Columbia, NYU, BU, Chicago (not a fan of city campuses esp. where there is no real “campus”) Maryland (yuck), Idaho and WSU (to be fair these were never really in contention).

Liked campus but did not apply: American, Northwestern.

Applied and accepted at several Big 10 schools, still waiting to hear from UCs and a couple of highly selective top 20 reach schools.

[M_Fun]

St. Olaf - way up!

D24 is already admitted but we had never seen the school. I went in knowing I already loved it, and I was right. The info session was about 30 minutes, and just the right amount of information where we didn’t grow bored. We then split up for tours. Our guide led us and one other mother/daughter, and was great. She showed us a good amount of campus, definitely hit all the major spots. She was engaging and funny, and answered questions well. She also was honest if she didn’t have an answer.

Following the tour we checked back in at the admissions office and they had lots of AOs available for interviews or just to ask questions and chat. We declined an interview since she is already admitted, and chatted for a few minutes before heading to lunch in the dining hall which was included in the visit.

I had heard that St. Olaf has great food and that was an understatement. The number of options was almost overwhelming. Everything was high quality. Dishes like Shrimp Fra Diavolo actually had good sized shrimp, etc. They had leg of lamb. Honestly we were blown away.

They only have one dining hall, by design. Outside there are cubbies and shelves where all students leave their backpacks and other items, the idea being that they will talk to each other during meals rather than be glued to a device. (Our high school does the same, so it is a familiar concept.) I can say that while we were there, at least 95% of students were engaged with each other without phones out. Faculty and staff were sitting with students.

While eating, my daughter confessed to me that she had only applied because our CC had pushed her to do so, and that she really had never had any thought about actually attending, but went on the visit because I wanted to. And now … she loves it and can see herself there. So high praise!

Oh, and being a Friday and in keeping with their Friday Flowers tradition, my daughter was given a rose when we left. Nice touch.

[tsbna44]

Do they take reservations for dinner? Sounds like a place I need to eat!!

Congrats on a great visit.

[13street]

We loved our visit to St. Olaf in 2021 for S22. He opted not to apply to LACs, but the architecture of the buildings, and friendliness of the admissions staff and students endeared St. Olaf to us.

[M_Fun]

Thanks! Apparently, folks from town actually do go and just pay for a meal there. A student at our high school (boarding) is from Northfield, and he has eaten there several times. He told me several times how good the food was, and today he stopped by my desk and asked me how I liked it.

So in short, no reservation needed!

[skieurope]

Those looking for college suggestions should start a new thread. As mentioned before, off-topic posts are subject to deletion without comment.

[sbinaz]

Centre College
Visited yesterday from AZ. D24 got accepted EA w/merit scholarship. 1st time seeing the campus & the area + D24 had a vocal audition for a music scholarship (up to $5k/yr for music performance scholarships if you’re not a music major).

My general thoughts:

• We flew Southwest Airlines into Louisville. 1.5 hr drive to Danville from Louisville. That was a bit long. Lots of small towns in between and we passed several bourbon distilleries along the way. If either of my kids were to attend here, they’d definitely need to fly in & out of Lexington instead.
• Tour guide said there’s no Uber or Lyft in Danville.
• The college arranges for airport transportation at the start and end of the semesters. But if you want to go home for a visit in between those time frames, then you’re on your own to figure out transportation to & from the airport. Tour guide & admissions counselor both said that many students are from Louisville and Lexington and will offer you a ride and even professors offer rides to the airport.
• We met w/admissions counselor before the info session & tour. DH asked a million questions. He really wanted to know when financial aid packages will be coming out and, of course, the financial aid office just didn’t know yet. So DH will have to wait.

Campus vibe:

• collaborative vibe on campus, not competitive amongst students. This is a huge plus for our family.
• students seemed happy to be there. Our tour guide was a junior international student from India. He loves the school.
• about 50% of students are in fraternities or sororities, but frat parties are open to all Centre College students and nobody is excluded. Campus police dept is right next door to the houses on Greek row.
• you can’t rush as freshman until spring semester. This is on purpose so freshman focus first on getting connected with the community on campus instead of isolating themselves right away by only hanging out with their frat/sorority people. Lots of Greek-nonGreek friendships continue here apparently. This was a big plus for D24 because she doesn’t want to rush a sorority, but also doesn’t want to be isolated from a social life because of not being in a sorority.

The town:

• Downtown Danville is really cute. Especially at night. Main St has string lights on the trees lining the road and it’s very very charming.
• lots of restaurants all within easy walking distance of campus. This was a huge plus. We ate breakfast yesterday morning at a cafe attached to the campus bookstore (which is downtown). The food prices at all of the restaurants we ate in were cheaper than restaurant prices in the Phoenix metro area (where we’re from).
• Centre College is definitely a big part of Danville, KY life.
• everybody we spoke with was really genuinely friendly. Really nice people.
• Ate dinner Sunday evening at Mi Pueblo, which has a location that’s walking distance from campus. Our server said that on Fri & Sat nights, it’s packed with Centre students. Our tour guide said it’s his favorite place to eat off campus. We thought the Mexican food here was pretty decent (and we’re picky about Mexican food).
• D24 also chose dinner for night #2, which was at a Japanese place really close to our hotel. She gave the food a thumbs up.
• Had breakfast at a local breakfast/lunch diner (only open until 3pm) this morning called the Red Rooster Cafe. Sort of one those classic small town America diners. simple food, but the breakfast was good. D24 liked the biscuits & gravy. DH was happy that they had Cholula hot sauce available there.
• Danville has a Lowe’s hardware, a Walmart, movie theater, Kroger grocery store, an Aldi, lots of restaurants, lots of banks.
• there’s a Papa Johns, Domino’s, and a Baskin & Robbins literally right next door to campus.

Campus:

• very walkable. About 15 min to walk from one side of campus to the other.
• brand spanking new sports facility which just opened. It has an indoor track and last month, they had their first collegiate indoor track meet there.
• very traditional red brick college buildings. The campus is old, like from the 1850s.
• lots of trees and green spaces all over campus. It was cold while we were there (high’s in low 40s), but I’ve seen on their social media that when the weather is better and warmer, professors will do lectures outside. There’s even this one small amphitheater area with a white board outside for this very purpose.
• students have access to study in the academic buildings at any time 24x7. You do not have to reserve a study space like you do sometimes at a big school like Univ of Arizona.
• D24 thought that the campus was pretty. I thought so, too. There’s many spots with adirondack chairs circled around firepits.

Dorms:

• got to see inside of a freshman dorm. Freshman dorm rooms are a decent size. Freshman dorms have communal bathrooms. Girls on 1 floor and boys are on a different floor.
• every year you progress at Centre, the housing gets a little better. Sophomores on up can do suite-style rooms. Starting junior year, you can get a single room. And seniors get 1st pick at townhouse-style row houses which all circle around a center courtyard (with a firepit w/adirondack chairs) where everybody gets their own bedroom & you share a living room and kitchen with something like 4-6 people. the tour guide was raving about this. I’ve seen the videos online and it’s very nice.
• couple of the freshman dorms just got renovated last summer. Next summer, another dorm will be renovated with student ID entry for getting into your dorm room.
• All students live on campus for all 4 years.
• All of the housing is close to everything. You can bring a bike, but honestly, I don’t think you need it.

Academics:

• students don’t declare a major & minor until spring of sophomore year.
• you have a faculty advisor for that first year and a half and then you switch to your major advisor once you declare your major in spring of sophomore year. These advisors help you make sure to sign up for the right classes in the right order, and help you figure out what to take if you need help or guidance on that. They also help with figuring out research opportunities & internship applications.
• D24 is a pre-health student, wants to be a PA (physician assistant). Centre said that last year, they had an 83% acceptance rate to med school. Admissions counselor told us that Centre is known by the KY in-state med schools as doing a really excellent job of prepping students for med school, and now there are some med school faculty who did their undergrad at Centre College.
• the school has a reputation for having tough academics (like, you’ll be doing a lot of reading!), but also has a reputation for preparing students really well for whatever they do after college.
• class size is maxed out at 30 students for each class. Even for intro freshman courses. Huge plus for D24.
• many of the professors have interdisciplinary fields of study. So if you are interested in more than one thing, then this is a good place for you.
• D26 is really really into history and they seem to have a good history program, so we’re going to keep this school on the ‘maybe’ list for her when it’s her turn to look at colleges in a couple of years.

Study abroad:

• 85% of students do study abroad. Some are for a semester, some are for their 3-week “Centre Term” in January. You can do Centre Term abroad starting in sophomore year. Lots of really cool Centre Term options for study abroad. Several are listed on their website.
• They also have a lot of ‘study away’ options, too, if you want to remain in the US. They have ‘study away’ options for Centre term, but also you can do a semester away in NYC or DC. AND our tour guide said that if you do the NYC or DC study away, your housing fee stays the same as if you were living in a dorm on campus that semester at Centre.

Dining:

• there’s only 1 dining hall.
• dining hall food vendor was changed this school year. Students are much happier with the food now. The bread is all made on site in house and lots of stuff is locally sourced now. Tour guide said the food is much better this year and everybody’s a lot happier as a result.
• there’s also an Einstein’s Bagels in the library.
• there’s a quick-serve sort of place in the gym which has stuff like flatbread pizzas and sandwiches also. Plus a lot of local eateries all within 10 min walk of campus in downtown Danville.

Research experiences, internships, etc.:

• like the other 2 CTCL schools D24 applied to, Centre guarantees you’ll graduate in 4 years and that you’ll have the opportunity to study abroad, do an internship, participate in research if you want.
• Tour guide told us that if you do a summer research project w/a professor, then most of those are PAID and you can live on campus in the dorm for free. Research w/a professor during the regular academic school year is done for credit hours and is not paid.
• Summer internships are also often paid for by the college (i.e., student gets a stipend). Lots of connections used w/Centre alumni for this. There’s an office on campus that helps students locate, interview for, and get placed at internships all over the place.
• lots of pre-professional societies & groups at this school. Pre-health has specific advisors to help students through the process and they have connections with several local healthcare providers to get students the shadowing hours, volunteer hours, etc. that they need for whatever healthcare profession grad schools they plan on applying to. Similar situation for pre-veterinary, pre-law, etc.
• unlike Austin College, though, Centre does NOT have specific partnership programs with physician assistant grad schools.
• admissions counselor told us that in the state of KY, Centre College has a really excellent reputation and having a Centre BA/BS ends up opening up a lot of career doors down the road, which is a plus if you plan on staying in KY after undergrad. D24 does not plan on remaining in KY after undergrad, though.

Music program:

• really excellent performing arts center on campus, which regularly has traveling Broadway & other musical acts & groups perform on campus.
• this is where 1 of the vice-presidential debates was held 10+ years ago.
• a music professor gave D24 a tour of the performing arts center, showed her the practice spaces & music classrooms. Explained all about the music scholarship and the wide range of options you have for the required classes you have to take for it. D24 was really interested in this.
• at a lot of colleges, there really aren’t performing arts scholarships for non-music majors. But this college offers up to $5k off of tuition per year.
• not related to music, but there’s a hot glass studio on campus and you can fill your fine arts general ed requirement by taking an intro to glass blowing class there. The tour guide said that it’s one of the most popular classes on campus and a lot of students love it so much that they end up doing a fine arts minor in almost entirely all glass blowing…and these are students who are all sorts of majors (humanities AND sciences). D24 said that if she went there, she’d probably take that class to try it out.

Like we’ve done w/our other college tours, I asked D24 to name 3 things she liked about the school and 3 things she didn’t like as much. Here are the “pro’s” that she gave me:

1. town is cute, really safe
2. liked the small class sizes
3. really good music program
4. music scholarship requirements are only 1 class away from a minor in music
5. lots of opportunities to travel overseas w/choirs at Centre.
6. music professors that D24 met with “are really nice”
7. close knit community
8. Greek life isn’t pushed a lot
9. very easy to do undergrad research

“Cons”:

1. harder to get to/from airport compared to Austin College or Southwestern
2. No Uber or Lyft in Danville. have to use taxi to get to airport or bum a ride from somebody.
3. no large city or big suburb nearby. Kid said that it made the college feel a little isolated.
4. too cold
5. 83% admit rate to med schools, but no partnerships w/PA grad schools
6. a little too far away from home. “If it was a little warmer in the winter and if it was a little closer to home, I could totally see myself going here.”

D24 said that she probably won’t attend here because it’s too cold and a little too far away from home for her. However, I can see why our senior college counselor at school mentioned this college a few times to the seniors at D24’s high school. It’s a pretty cool place. Definitely a liberal enclave in the middle of a red state. Definitely a place where you can explore all sorts of interests that you might have. And they have really good merit scholarships available. I’m a little disappointed that it’ll end up in the “no” category. If you don’t want to feel like ‘just a number’ at college, this is a great school to consider.