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

[happy1]

Deleted. Sorry.

[bridzz]

Deleted. Sorry.

[goldbug]

University of Washington (Seattle): UP for everyone

This was our last college tour (she said, optimistically) and it really delivered.
I went back through my copy of Fiske Guide recently, which has dozens of small sticky notes tabbing various schools, color-coded by “likely, target, wild card, reach”. Amazingly I didn’t even have a sticky note on the UW page. Why? Because at the beginning of our search we were looking for a liberal arts college (I thought) for a shy, smart kid who wasn’t sure what he wanted to do in life and was pretty lousy at navigating bureaucratic systems. We only started adding state schools back into the mix once he expressed interest in engineering, and for the most part we focused on likelies (Oregon State) and matches (CU, Minnesota, Pitt). UW was a long-shot for him but he wanted to apply, and somehow he got in. So we went to check it out.

What we appreciated right away: you can walk off the plane out of the airport, and onto a light rail that takes you straight to campus for $3. It’s clean, safe, and frequent. Seattle really knows how to do transit.

We disembarked right next to the Husky stadium and ascended a wide walkway up to the scenic campus, Mt. Rainier peeking behind us. I don’t know if anything prepared me for how lovely and traditional the campus would feel. I had this vague memory of U-District being kind of gritty and sort of expected something akin to Pitt or maybe U Minn (which has some quads and classic college architecture but also city streets criss-crossing campus). Instead, honestly, it reminded me of Princeton (lots of collegiate gothic buildings mixed with more modern styles and abundant trees). And right off campus, along the “Ave”, my son discovered every variety of Asian cuisine and all the shawarma his heart could handle (along with a two-story H-Mart, bookstores, boba, thrift shops, etc.) He was in heaven.

I can’t think of many schools in the country that combine these features – a) a gorgeous classic campus within walking distance from b) a vibrant college town area and public transit to all kinds of urban amenities (a car is completely unnecessary) and c) access to all kinds of outdoor adventures (the nearest downhill resort is about an hour away, students can rent kayaks down at the waterfront, there’s a vast and accessible network of off-road bike trails, etc.) I don’t think I’d quite put together how important each of these things would be to our son.

The tour was apparently fine (full disclosure: I nestled in a purple armchair near the fire in the student center and nursed the my blisters instead of going out in the rain to revisit the greatest hits). One nice factoid that both husband and son picked up on: students with disabilities can qualify for priority course enrollment. Five minutes after returning from the tour, we paid the deposit and said yes to UW. After 18 months of agonizing and visiting colleges all over the country and thinking about all the different tradeoffs, it turned out to be that obvious. The trickiest decision of the day was which sweatshirt to buy in the bookstore.

The next day my son tucked into a table in the library, put on his headphones, and finished a bunch of remote course requirements that he’d been punting on for ages. Then he met up with a high school classmate and walked around campus checking things out. They chatted up students from the cycling and badminton clubs, both of whom were friendly, and were impressed by the gym.

I don’t think there are any perfect schools out there and every option involves trade-offs. I’m glad we didn’t visit UW early in our process because it would have been tough to get him to apply anywhere else. And of course it’s a large school in an expensive urban setting and one has to apply to one’s major (so it probably feels a bit more competitive than some of the other options we were considering, e.g. WPI, Case Western Reserve, etc.)

But if you have a kid who enjoys both city amenities and the outdoors, a kid who appreciates a good gothic library but is also discerning about their banh mi? this place should be on your list.

[CFP]

Case Western Reserve

Attended open house day at Case Western Reserve University: Up

Summary: 7.5/8.0 out of 10. Very solid but probably not D26 first choice.

D26 had already been on many college visits (about 12) a couple of years ago with D24. Neighbor recommended we visit CWRU so here we are.

First impression. Easy to get to. Stayed at the Metropolitan 9 Marriott downtown Cleveland. It was an easy 15 minute ride with little traffic during morning rush hour. Not sure if this is normal or because it’s Good Friday (maybe a combination of both).

Got to the Tinkham Veale center around 8:20am for the morning information session. 10/10. Did a great job of selling the university in a natural format that didnt seem contrived or forced. Discussed all the opportunities and resources at Case with a few vignettes of students. It was a nice blend of academics and post graduation outcomes. Also highlighted some interesting facts about Cleveland without hyperbole. Talked a lot about the Sears Think Box which seemed very interesting and a good draw if you’re hands on and intellectually curious. One of the better information sessions we’ve attended. They had professors from different departments spread around the auditorium and were there to answer questions - nice touch. Classics was quite popular.

They had several concurrent sessions so we split up. The mechanical and aerospace engineering professor was great. He was easy to understand, down to earth and not an egghead professor (self described). He got his undergrad at CWRU and a PhD at Cal Tech. Seemed very approachable and congenial. 10/10.

Here was the first con. Class size. It’s normal to have large class sizes freshmen (maybe sophmore) years. However, even in upper level classes, the smallest number of students that he has is one of his aerospace courses with 77 people. The rationale is that once admitted, you can take any classes and since CWRU is a STEM focused school, you have a lot of interest in all the engineering classes. He also said that large classes makes it more collaborative and not cut throat since everyone has access to whatever they want to study. Hmmm.

It seems like a 100+ person upper division class may be normal. Maybe I misheard this since it was in the Q&A session and we werent sitting at the front but if true, is a major red flag if someone likes a smaller environment.

Next, we went to see the dorms. They were fine. No air conditioning. Must live on campus first 2 years. Not great, not the worst but heard some dorms werent the best. Visited a nice little coffee house across the street - good sandwiches and drinks.

Split up again. I attended the admissions and financial aid. MSRP is over $92k all in but I get the sense that few people pay this. Merit scholarship is somewhere between $15-$40k, average is probably around $25-$30k/yr. MSRP is probably very inflated and they make parents feel better with a “$25k merit scholarship!”. Personally, I think most good students get this so it seems kind of fake but whatever. Final cost for full pay families is probably around $60-$65k/yr.

They had some informative statistics. If you have a 4.0 UW GPA, you have about a 39% chance of being admitted. 1500+ SAT, a 43% chance of admission. I’m assuming if you have a 4.0 and a 1500+ SAT, your chances are probably decent. Not a slam dunk but not single digits either. They are still test optional and they do award $2500 for NMF if you select them. And then the usual holistic process discussion, rigor, leadership, community involvement, blah blah blah.

The campus tour was fine. Campus seemed really big but it could be because we had no idea where we were going. Some reallly old buildings, some regular brick ones, and a few very modern structures. Mixed bag. If you want that classic goth architecture, this isnt the place.

Wrapped it up with a couple of student led sessions which were ok. They had a good cross section of different interests. It was obvious they have a ton of resources and if you are ambitious, they have a lot to offer from study abroad to research and internships. Students did a good job of explaining what they did and why they enjoyed them but the moderator didnt really tie in how CWRU helped them get access to those experiences.

D26 didnt get a good feel about the social life on campus although it seemed to be collaborative.

Her assessment: CWRU had a lot to offer to help you succeed academically with very good post grad outcomes. Biggest unknowns are social life, how easy is it to make friends, and the class sizes which are a concern.

The weather was nice but Im sure it can be really awful in the winter if you dont like cold weather, especially given the size of the campus and how much walking you may have to do.

Overall, a solid 7.5-8.0. Really fine university that has a lot to offer.

[TheMonaLisa]

We really appreciated this thread so much that we want to give back and share our impressions on some schools! I will edit this post to add more schools. We toured 5 schools this past week! My S26 wants to major in Creative Writing or major in English with a concentration in Creative Writing and possibly double major in History. The purpose of these tours is to introduce/show S26 big schools and small liberal arts schools and to see which one he’d prefer.

University of Richmond, Richmond, VA. UP for my S26, SAME for me. 3,100 + undergrad, 730+ grad students. Both of our impressions: Gothic style buildings nestled within lots of trees. Lots of nice pockets of places where one can study in peace. Huge lake in the middle. Gorgeous campus. Very suburban, but the campus wasn’t dominated by cars/roads. Very walkable. S26 loves that they have a major in Creative Writing, but we did not hear anything about the major specifically. This trip gave a very general info about the school, stats, resources, and a campus tour. Additional impressions from me: Our tour guide was very informative, eloquent, but walked too fast! Apparently, tour guides have a strict policy against walking backwards. One-third of the students participate in greek life. S26 does not plan on joining a fraternity (for now), so I wonder how the social life is for students who do not partake in greek parties on the weekends. There are no sorority or fraternity houses. The campus is situated within a neighborhood, so to get to shopping centers, you’ll need to take a shuttle that runs on Fridays and Saturdays. Freshmen are allowed to have cars on campus - about 30% of freshmen do this. Campus has a preppy vibe, very little diversity. This school will stay on his list for now for a deeper dive into the creative writing program and into the culture of the school.

Susquehanna University, Selinsgrove, PA. 2,200 undergrads, 6 grad students. UP for S26 and SAME for me. This school was highly recommended by many here. We were floored and agree that this school is worth visiting. The area surrounding Susquehanna is a mix of residential, commercial, not impressive. We started at their admissions building which was beautiful and modern. The info session was very helpful, very informative. They communicated what they want their students to learn from their 4 years at Susquehanna - a list of soft skills that they got from employers. I thought that was impressive. S26 got a very personalized, one-on-one tour of the campus!! Our tour guide was a Creative Writing major, and wow, what a wealth of information she gave us about the campus AND about being a creative writing major. She plans to get an MFA in Creative Writing and plans to teach! Along our tour, she introduced us to one of her professors in creative writing who was with a former Susquehanna student studying at Iowa for his MFA in creative writing! She invited us to an event that evening to unveil many of their lit mags. They have 10 literary magazines and journals. TEN! For a college that small, that is a lot. What stood out to S26 was their Publishing & Editing Major which he would like to pair with a Creative Writing Major. Their Creative Writing Major gets huge thumbs up from us. Now the cons, for us: Their campus seems very outdated - the buildings look old from the 70s? and does not appear as well maintained, especially the dorms. The campus was underwhelming to say the least. Not as inspiring as U of R. They have a shuttle to and from a shopping center on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Freshmen can have cars. LGBTQ presence exists on campus which I always take as a good sign. We saw some POCs on campus. Greek life is 30%, housing available off campus. I wish I asked about what others who do not participate in greek life do. This school will stay on his list as a safety school. He said he will need to revisit should this school make it to his top 5. Definitely a strong contender due to the creative writing program and the Publishing & Editing Major.

Bucknell University, Lewisburg, PA. 3,900 undergrads, 29 grads. DOWN for S26 and me. We drove just 20 minutes north of Susquehanna to check out Bucknell. By the time we got there, the wind picked up, it got cold, and it started to rain a little. We will always wonder if the weather affected S26’s impression on Bucknell. We started at their Admissions Office. They were very welcoming with snacks and water for us to take. Then we were brought to another building for the info session. Info session was led by a student. She spoke too fast (IMO) and just recited what we could easily find on their website. S26 and DH were falling asleep! After 45 minutes, student tour guides introduced themselves and we were off for the campus tour. It was cold and slightly rainy so we stayed indoors as the tour guide talked about what buildings there, their resources, etc. Once the rain dissipated, we stayed outside but it still felt a little cold. The campus was lovely, lots of open spaces, but not as impressive as U of R’s campus. Greek life is huge at Bucknell, almost 40%!!! Many students from CT, NY, NJ. Preppy vibe, not much diversity. Off-campus is a quaint downtown area with restaurants. It’s a distance from the center of campus, but not impossible to walk to. Great view of the mountains from their central quad. We did not get an info about their creative writing major, but S26 was not interested in finding out more, so it’s off his list unfortunately.

University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA. 17,600+ undergrads, 4-5,000 grads. DOWN for S26 and I’m biased because it’s my alma mater. I guess I was hoping S26 would love UVA, but it didn’t do anything to him. He said it’s beautiful, but you had to apply to get into their equivalent to a creative writing concentration after your sophomore year and it’s very competitive. What will happen if he doesn’t get in? So that totally took UVA off his list. I’m grateful that my son recognizes that it’s not just about the pretty campus, but it’s also about the program as well. Now for those who are curious about the UVA tour, we started at Newcomb Hall theatre with an info session led by one of their admissions counselors. Very informative about the school’s stats and the application process. We were then divided into very large groups to tour the grounds. Our tour group was HUGE, but the tour guide did an excellent job giving us a student view of the school.

Last but definitely not least, Kenyon College, Gambier, OH. 2,200 undergrads. WAY UP for S26 and me. S26 couldn’t wait to visit Kenyon. He initially was thinking he could wait until this summer to tour the campus (he was accepted into their summer residential writer’s workshop), but at the very last minute he decided he wanted to visit sooner. We started with a personalized one-on-one tour of their English Quad, led by a student who’s an English major. Amazing one on one tour which included the home of their Kenyon Review and info on their Interns, study abroad opportunities, and classes. Then we had an hour and a half of free time to roam around the campus and for lunch. We walked to the dorm that S26 will be staying in for the writers’ workshop (which he appreciated seeing) and then we circled back towards middle of the campus to Peirce Dining Hall to eat lunch (they gave us complimentary dining hall tickets). The food (IMO) was fabulous!! Fresh, very healthy, and a huge variety - not your usual nuggets and fries offering but more! We learned that 40% of their food comes directly from their school’s farm. S26 is a picky eater, but he LOVED the options and the food. We dined in their older dining hall that resembled the Hogwarts dining hall minus the floating candles lol. We didn’t learn until the official campus tour that most athletes, fraternities, and sororities eat at that dining hall. We did not even notice that about the students there. After lunch we headed back to the Admissions building for a Student Panel. Five students spoke candidly about Kenyon, facilitated by an admissions counselor. Super informative to get student views on everything from diversity, the food, housing, classes, why they chose Kenyon, and more! The feeling was relaxed, casual, and the admissions counselor was very authentic, engaging. For a school as selective as Kenyon and where I’m sure they get thousands of applicants, they really worked hard to get you hooked and yes we were hooked! Admissions counselor gave helpful tips on their application process which was invaluable to S26. After the student panel, we were led by a tour guide who was not only a Creative Writing major, but also plays the trombone like S26!! So you can imagine what an incredible tour this was for S26! The campus was beautiful, enchanting, almost other-wordly, and very inspiring to S26. We were grateful to learn that all students at Kenyon live in dorms all 4 years. I guess when you’re in the middle of nowhere you have to live in Kenyon lol. New dorms are being built. Single rooms available for freshmen! The new library is amazing. So many great things about Kenyon that we left not really caring that it was in the middle of nowhere. Freshmen can have a car, but our tour guide felt that his first year, there was no need for a car as you spent most of your time getting to know Kenyon. But wow, that price tag and further away from home make it challenging but it is staying on S26’s list unless his experience this summer at Kenyon will change that. We left Kenyon loving it a little bit more, and S26 cannot wait to go back this summer!

Overall, this trip made S26 realize that he prefers the LACs. He will keep Va Tech on his list though because they have his major and it’s in-state for us. But for now, U of R, Kenyon, and Susquehanna top his list. There are more schools to visit, but it was great to visit while students are still at school to get the feel for the student/campus vibe.

[sbinaz]

Embry Riddle Aeronautical University - Prescott Campus:

• ~3250 undergrads
• located in Prescott, AZ, about a 2 hr drive from the Phoenix airport

We live in the Phoenix metro area, drove up for the day. From the looks of it, a lot of other families did the same. Must be college tour season for juniors! Large tour group. Tour guide was very informative, really nice, very approachable, thought he represented his school well. Tour guide was a sophomore aviation-something major from CO.

We must have picked, like, one of the few days this year in which there’s weather in AZ because it rained the entire tour. So because of the rain (and dumb dumb here didn’t check the weather report, so didn’t bring an umbrella) and walking distance from visitor center to dorms & dining hall, the tour skipped both of those so everybody wouldn’t be drenched.

Saw lots of engineering labs. Those were pretty cool. My kid is interested in their cybersecurity and intelligence majors.

Small class sizes. Biggest lecture hall sits ~60-ish students. Average classes are ~ 20 students, according to what the tour guide said.

PROS:

• this is an awesome school if you’re a serious student, are into STEM, and are interested in pursuing a career in aerospace, aviation, engineering, and/or fed gov’t/defense industry sorts of companies & jobs.
• If you want to get a job as a commercial airline pilot, you should seriously consider this school. Major airlines hire students for internships which turn into job offers before graduation. You can also get your commercial pilot’s license while attending. Part of the tour went to the local airport because they have a training center there. We skipped that part because my kid isn’t interested in becoming a pilot.
• If you want a career as an air traffic controller, this is also an excellent place to go. Lots of opportunity.
• All of the professors have industry experience.
• Career center has fall & spring job fairs with >150 employers
• Great school if you’re not into Greek life. There are no frat or sorority houses.
• great location if you’re an outdoorsy person. Tour guide said he’s gone on trips hosted by the college to various parks in northern AZ and southern UT, where everybody signs up and the college provides a big van for everybody to pile into, and away you go.
• first college tour I’ve been on where there were actually a boatload of students actually in the library. Both studying and just hanging out and chatting. Like…the library was a hub of social activity.
• lots of nerdy, serious students, but vibe felt…how do I put it…grounded, kind of down to earth & goal-oriented.
• ROTC available on campus if that’s your thing.
• students from all over. Cars in the parking lot from CA, NV, CO, TX, Montana, Vermont. Literally all over the place.
• there’s grocery stores, Walmart, etc. not that far away.
• lots of student clubs which are career focused.
• the engineering labs & equipment on campus is pretty great.
• hallways in all of the major instructional buildings featured undergrad students’ senior projects. Lots of big posters of graduated students featuring their bachelor’s degree & what type of job they’re currently in.
• decent amount of diversity
• when our tour was starting, there was a Native American robotics team finishing up their tour. Looked like the college had coordinated a special tour for them. I really liked that. Northern AZ has a good amount of Native American residents. Nice to see that the college is being supportive of encouraging Native American students to pursue STEM careers.
• 99% of undergrads have a job offer at graduation or go straight to grad school. Lots of focus & support at this school for getting a job at graduation. There were TV monitors in many campus buildings advertising internship & job-related events on campus.

NEUTRAL THINGS:

• campus vibe is a little right of center. Pro-military, so if you’re uncomfortable with that, you shouldn’t go here.
• If you’re into the arts, don’t come here.
• campus is sort of on a hill, feels removed from rest of Prescott.
• scenic location
• lots of parking
• Prescott & Prescott Valley have a combined population of ~85,000, but there’s a Costco in town. And even an “At Home” store, which I didn’t expect.
• 1st floor of library has a gaming lab. Was full of students. College has a game design major.
• there’s no football team, I think, so don’t attend here if you want football & basketball games that are the center of campus life.
• there’s definitely LGBTQ+ club(s) on campus, but if I had a trans kid, I’d probably want to steer my child elsewhere unless a career in aeronautics/aviation and/or space-related stuff was really their jam.
• this is not a college where you are going to see a lot of student protests because everybody’s busy studying and doing HW.

CONs:

• definitely need a car
• limited dining options on campus, would get pretty old quickly if you have no wheels
• although grocery store, Walmart, etc. are not that far away, you need a car to get to it.
• driving route from our house to the college was a pain. So much road construction on I-17 and there’s still lots of sections where the freeway’s roadway is barely holding it together. Found that to be stressful and annoying.
• Weather was a huge no from D26. The rain during the tour didn’t bother us, but on the drive home, the rain turned into a mix of rain and snow, like accumulating on the car and here it is almost the 3rd week of April. However, we were at 5000 ft elevation.
• D26 doesn’t give a rip about outdoorsy activities, so none of the proximity to hiking and outdoor recreation mattered.
• D26 thought there would be nothing to do on weekends. Did not like how it felt like nothing was near campus. Did not like the feel of Prescott area. Although downtown Prescott is lovely…but it’s frequented a lot on weekends by older adults/non-college students.
• So although my kid wants to major in cybersecurity and intelligence, she felt like the campus was a little ‘off’ for her. I think it might have been the tour guide mentioning briefly about the Christian student group he participates in and D26 has a really close friend who identifies as non-binary, so D26 leans a little left of center in terms of social issues/topics. She really liked the vibe on campus at University of Arizona instead, so that school is still at the top of the list after the Embry Riddle school.

Prior to the drive home, even though D26 was sort of “meh” on the college after the tour, once it started to half-rain/half-snow, she said, “Nope! That’s it for me! Not gonna happen!” Prior to that, she was like, “I’ll probably still apply anyway. I mean, I want to keep my options open.” My kid is definitely a delicate desert flower.

** edited to add **
After the tour before heading home, we ate at an Italian restaurant in downtown Prescott called Limoncello. Out of this world authentic Italian pizza. Had some amazing gelato there, too. Food was phenomenal.

[sbinaz]

One more thing about Embry Riddle-Prescott:
A LOT of students at this school are there for aeronautics. And due to the FAA drug testing requirements, it’s safe to assume that illicit drug use at this school is low.

Also, ~36% of degrees conferred there are engineering. 27% are transportation.

[NemesisLead]

D26 and I recently went to Denison University and Kenyon College.

Denison has a really hilly campus. I was not expecting that in Ohio. Very nice views from the top and the town of Granville is very cute. We went to the famous Frozen Custard shop (Whit’s) in town and it was really good. We arrived on a Friday night with school in session and the kids were having fun. A really, really nice vibe. We had pizza in Silverstein Hall which was the only dining area open and the food was pretty good. The campus is dominated by nice red brick buildings and everything was neat and tidy. Denison had lots of staff cleaning up after the kids and generally supporting the kids. The staff were “Midwestern nice” which is to say very, very nice.

The information session was excellent. We moved into the campus tour and something odd happened. They broke the (large) info session group up into smaller tour groups. However, some groups had 1 or 2 kids and other groups had 6 or more kids. It was odd and it left some people feeling like they were VIPs and other people feeling like they were somehow less. You could see kids/parents either delighted or annoyed depending upon which type of group they were assigned to. We were part of a 2 person “VIP group.” I suspect that Denison thought that my daughter was a volleyball player as the other family that we were with was a sports family. My daughter IS a volleyball player, but she is not sure that she wants to do this in college.

Our tour guide was absolutely terrific and gave us a great tour. The dorms were good and the athletic facilities were absolutely stunning. The academic quad is surprisingly small. The school seems to have a TON of dorms covering huge areas and a TINY academic area. We completely missed the academic area on our first, solo walk through.

The Eisner Center for the Performing Arts was excellent. The school also had a really nice Wellness Center. You got the sense that Denison has a large endowment and is a school on the rise.

Overall, D26 really liked the school and the vibe. Denison/Granville have a really wholesome, Middle-America feel.

We were late for the Kenyon info session. We checked in and saw the last 15 minutes or so. When it was time for the tours, it was our turn to feel that we were not VIPs. D26 was assigned to a huge tour group and looked with envy at tiny tour groups. Our tour guide was actually just OK. She seemed to be rushing us through and just wanted to be done. Sure enough, right after the tour we saw her run over to a dance class which she was late for.

Kenyon had a really interesting campus. An odd mix of seemingly brand new buildings and ancient buildings with what seemed like nothing in between. The Middle Path starts down by the 1st year dorms, goes through the “village” of Gambier, goes through the “Gates of Hell” and then goes onto the campus where it dead ends at Old Kenyon Hall. There are lots of little white houses that used to be the houses of professors when Kenyon required them to all live on campus. Those houses now contain small administrative functions. The campus is mostly in the Gothic style which my daughter loved. Lots of art is scattered about the campus. Kenyon oozes intellectualism.

I thought that Kenyon’s dorms were terrible, but my daughter liked them. Funny how different people have different perspectives.

Kenyon gave us lunch vouchers which I always love and appreciate. The kids at Kenyon don’t swipe cards for meals. They just go into the dining hall and eat whenever they want. No one was even there to take our vouchers. We tried different things and found that the food ranged between excellent and terrible. But with experience, a student could pick out the excellent things and so we would say that the food was really good overall. Both the “Old” and “New” dining halls were really nice.

Kenyon also had an amazing sports facility. Oddly, it looked VERY similar to Denison’s. Probably the same contractor built both facilities and around the same time to boot.

The problem, for D26, is that the kids at Kenyon did not seem to be her people. There were a huge number of “theater looking kids” at Kenyon, i.e., wearing thrift store clothes, smoking, very artsy, many Gothic, lots of 1970s flower prints, and obviously very liberal. These are obviously not bad things, it just isn’t my daughter who is more preppy and athletic.

The other issue is that the town of Gambier is TINY. If you go to Kenyon, you are pretty much going to live in a Kenyon bubble. Denison’s hometown of Granville seemed like a metropolis by comparison, but in reality Granville is pretty darn small too.

My daughter wished that she could take the kids from Denison and put them on Kenyon’s campus. Then she would plop Kenyon into Granville. That would be ideal, but is unfortunately not possible.

Overall, both Kenyon and Denison rose a bit. I had to make my daughter visit Kenyon. She had taken it off of her list because of YouTube videos claiming that Kenyon is haunted. Upon visiting, I do admit that some of Kenyon’s on-campus art /buildings are kind of eerie and I can see how Kenyon got the “haunted campus” reputation in the first place. The center of campus cemetery helps with that as well.

[L_Abbott]

Amherst college- down. Beautiful campus. Very hilly. Lovely tour guide however, the info session at the beginning was killing me. So dry. Not that that really matters, but they have no regard for the comfort of the people that were there. I know that sounds stupid, but the room was hot and the seats were uncomfortable and the info session was over an hour long. I was done after 15 minutes. And then when we saw dude Bros playing a drinking game behind one of the dorms while we’re on tour in the middle of the afternoon, my daughter was done with it. She’d like to take a couple of classes there with the five college consortium, but she has no interest in living there.

Mount Holyoke moved up for me and moved down for her lol. I thought it was gorgeous. The grounds were beautiful, South Hadley is lovely and safe and seems like such a wholesome place. And the interiors of the buildings were gorgeous. The science building was amazing. she was just so so about it. I think when we got there and we could not find a center of town to grab a bite to eat and get some gas, she was discouraged. She wants to be in a place where there’s public transportation, and that is walkable. we live in the woods at home. We’re in semi rural Maine so she’s looking for the opposite and Mount Holyoke was not opposite enough.

Smith college moved right up to the top of the list. Northampton is amazing. I knew she would love the town, but she loved it more than I expected. She wanted to explore every avenue and pop into every shop and buy bubble tea and get slices of pizza and have curry and Ramen and all the fun things. Our tour guide was so genuine and sweet and that really made a difference. I love the idea of the five college consortium and an all girls college. You get the best of both worlds. She loved the idea of the PVTA bus coming right to the campus every 20 minutes or so to take kids all over the place. She loved the idea of no cars for students for the most part. She hates driving and is pumped to not be allowed to lol. She loved the open curriculum and she loved the vibe. It’s a very liberal vibe which she identifies with. And she love the idea that there is a train station off campus so she could take a train to New Haven and transfer to a train to New York City for a weekend away. She loves the city.

[DivineMarshmallow]

Here’s a summary of some of the major schools we toured:

Kansas State University: for us, up. Manhattan KS is an awesome college town, the campus is pretty with lots of that Kansas stone and trees, we were there on a perfect fall day and went to a really fun football game that night. My daughter hated everything about it.

University of Oklahoma: for all of us, way down. The campus is beautiful, traditional, charming, walkable. We also saw a ton of rich Greek affiliated kids driving brand new BMWs and Mercedes. It was also mid March and I have never been that hot before in my life (and we lived in Texas for 3 years.) Was not a fit in any way whatsoever.

Oklahoma State University: initially up, then down. Campus felt new, modern, expansive, clean. Major negative for us was Stillwater, which is too tiny and isolated for my daughter. Loved seeing kids wearing western gear. When the admissions rep touted over and over again how they guarantee admission with a 3.0 GPA, my daughter said: “I’m not going here.” When I asked an admissions rep about students with medical disabilities and she asked “you mean like dyslexia?” I ended up agreeing with my daughter.

University of Arkansas: way up for my daughter. She liked Fayetteville a lot; a student stopped and gave us directions when we were obviously lost, my daughter liked the campus. I was pretty neutral. I thought parts of campus looked run down, I thought Greek life was obviously too big for my daughter’s preferences, and it is really hilly. My daughter did not apply.

University of Arizona: neutral. The entrance to campus is gorgeous…truly stunning. The palm trees, the historic architecture, the views
of the mountains….all very special. We were there on a perfect 72 degree morning. What really killed it was the tour guide. She did not sell the school. There were comments such as “this school is not for everyone” (repeatedly), comments about how the school is too large, comments like “the library is free” (LOL). She did not come across as intellectually engaged. Additionally, my daughter was already admitted, and there was no recognition of that or engagement from admin. My daughter also did not like that engineering is across a 6 lane road. It was really close, but not a home run for us.

University of Colorado Boulder: way up. Stunning campus, the views of the mountains that look like they are a painting, a perfect fall day, the aspen trees, kids on bicycles, Boulder the town…the school sells itself. Absolutely nothing not to like. Daughter was admitted but won’t be attending.

Baylor University: WAY UP. We went for their invitation only scholarship weekend. When we went, my daughter and husband were going just to go. To their great surprise, we all fell in love with it. We got there a day early, but could not get on a tour group. We showed up at the student center and they found someone to give us a private walking tour. Twenty minutes in, and my husband and I knew it was a real possibility for our daughter.

Baylor’s campus is gorgeous, with a nice blend of modern and traditional architecture, green trees everywhere even in winter, tons of students out. Students were running, playing pickle ball, getting coffee, hanging out in Adirondack chairs, at the library. We loved the river, the people, the vibe, everything. It felt totally different from every other school we had visited. It felt like just the right size and that if you are smart and nerdy you can still fit in. The only thing we don’t like is the interstate right on the edge of campus. Then their scholarship/recruiting event felt top
notch and very detail oriented. Nothing feels cheap or not well thought out. Impeccable from start to finish.

Other schools we have visited (but not on official tours ): UNL, JMU, UVA, Clemson, U of FL, NC State, UNC, most of the UCs, USC (both of them), Duke….

[NE710]

We made some real progress this week on D24’s college list.

Williams: Down and OFF. Williams is a top academic choice for many kids, and the campus in Western Massachusetts is undeniably gorgeous. Several amazing kids we know are/were very happily enrolled here and for good reasons, which is why we visited. But, depending on where the student is from and what kind of high school they went to, it really can feel exactly like high school 2.0 or boarding school for adults with rich parents. It’s TINY. Remote. Sporty / preppy. Our tour guide made sure to mention which extremely expensive, extremely competitive private high school in Manhattan they graduated from. Then a couple of students in our tour group mentioned rival high schools in Manhattan that they currently attend. It was a love-fest. For them. For everyone else on the tour, it was cringey. Like a satire of what a Williams tour might be! There’s not a lot to do around campus unless you love outdoor recreation (many do of course), and the student body is TINY – roughly 2000. Yes, Mass Moca and the Clark museum are nearby, but that’s of limited appeal to most kids. We heard what happens socially on weekends from the afore-mentioned students there we already know, and it’s definitely not museum visits. The academics were very impressive (at least to me! ), but not enough to outweigh everything else and so this is off the list for us. Fit is so important and this visit really opened D26’s eyes to that.

Wesleyan – neutral. The campus in Middletown, CT is very nice, but not nearly as beautiful or well-kept as Williams. But it is in a big town, so the campus feels more alive. What we loved were the students. These tour guides (and their many friends that said hello or popped into the tour) were welcoming, smart, hilarious, creative, bold, well-spoken, and humble. Just…wow. We each went with a different tour group to hear different things and all came away impressed. Wesleyan seems like a terrific school for creatives interested in film/TV, theater, and writing. There’s still the sporty prep NESCAC element. But the excellently weird artsy vibe seemed more pervasive. We loved that it was slightly bigger – 3,000 students. The weekend shows/performances and activities put on by the students sounded truly spectacular. So much to do–how would you choose? Not sure she will apply, but we loved our visit.

Wellesley – UP + LOVED. This campus is one of the most beautiful we have ever seen. Really a fairy tale of a campus. It’s 12 miles outside of Boston and cross-registration with MIT is easy (we heard that cross-registration with Olin and Babson, depsite being advertised as easy, is anything but), so that’s very appealing. Wellesley is only slightly larger than Williams, but the fit felt infinitely more right. Strong academics, so many activities that D26 would be delighted by (like a disco-arts/crafts-pizza party), and super impressive and friendly students with easy access to a major city. It was funny how this campus did not feel like high school 2.0 to us, but I suspect that’s all about the personal lens of the viewer. I think it could to some other applicants, so would recommend a visit. The one thing I didn’t like was the fact that a non-tenure track professor strike had caused major disruption for many students who had already had their schooling disrupted by covid. The strike was in effect when we toured and we drove past a picket line. I’m in favor of unions and fair pay. And I certainly don’t have all the facts here. Just saying I really feel for these students. I would not want to be paying $$$$$ tuition for…weeks of uncertainty + no classes in some cases. Yikes. So, we’ll be keeping an eye on this. The strike is resolved, but we hear neither side is happy.

Tufts – UP / We loved this tour. The campus is lovely, the 6,800+ undergrad student body felt like an exciting but manageable size. Academics are so impressive. Our tour guide was HILARIOUS. We saw really nice dorm rooms. The only thing I didn’t love is the campus food wasn’t great. But there are many easily accessible in-town options and grocery stores. Plus Boston is an on-campus T stop away. Tufts is a vibrant community and D26 could see herself really having a great time here.

Smith – LOVED. The campus is beautiful, the town of Northampton is cute and fun, and a train and bus station are right nearby. The dorms we saw were charming and beautifully appointed. Loved the bio lab and the greenhouse. Our tour guide was terrific. This is likely going on the list.

Mount Holyoke – neutral. Very beautiful campus (though not as gorgeous as Wellesley), friendly students, great academics, but this is likely in too small a town. We’re going to visit again when a friend enrolls next fall to get the real scoop.

And that’s our week! I know it might not sound like a lot of progress on our list, but believe me we were in “shrugs and I don’t know” land for months and months. We are no longer there! That’s huge.

[MAmom111]

We visited a few schools rarely mentioned on here. We are from the Northeast so these are very OOS for us.

Eastern Tenn sSate Univ- (UP) Hadn’t done much research on this school but added in a visit as we were fairly nearby. Campus was beautiful. Our tour guide was a great kid who was pre-med. The admissions desk was in the student union which I thought was a brilliant idea. The student union was super active with lots of clubs selling things or recruiting members. One club was handing out roses to random students. Cafeteria looked nice and there were lots of fast food options. Instead of an info session they showed a film and it was good. Not too long and it just highlighted what various students like about the school. Buildings were nice, dorms seemed older but not bad, and the whole campus was very walkable. Johnson City was a very small city and it looked like it had everything a college kid would need. Only concerns were that there weren’t dedicated freshman dorms and not sure if there are too many commuters or kids that go home on weekends. Overall the student body seemed fairly liberal but definitely a mix. And we got a free t-shirt.

UNC Asheville (down and off)- We loved the city of Asheville. So many great restaurants and shops and very walkable. And of course the Biltmore was amazing. We were the only ones on our tour. Tour guide was a transfer student from Asheville: She was fine but not very engaging. Campus was beautiful. Sat on a hill and very woodsy. They even have their own botanical gardens. They also have public buses that run through campus so you can take them into Asheville. Buildings were older and dorms seemed nice. You can live on campus all 4 years. Student body was extremely liberal. Kind of gave me UVM vibes. My S just felt like he wouldn’t be able to find his people there so it’s off the list.

Western Carolina- (UP). Campus was gorgeous. Surrounded by mountains about an hour from Asheville. As you drive in there is every fast food place you can imagine and some other restaurants and a cute small town, Sylva, all about 5 miles from campus. Once you get to town, there is nothing but the school. Info session was good. There were about 14 families and 6 tour guides. Rather than breaking into groups, we all toured together and each tour guide talked at different points. The nice part was you could talk to the tour guides as we were walking between stops. They have 3 brand new freshman dorms that were gorgeous. The new science building was also beautiful. Other dorms and academic bldgs were pretty standard. There were two cafeterias and lots of fast food options and a Chilis on campus. Camous was walkable but they also have lots of shuttle buses running around. Loved the huge rock wall and the outdoor club offerings. Two concerns were having nothing in town and same as ETSU-do too many kids go home on weekends. Cost here is amazing even OOS, as it is an NC promise school. Also got a free t-shirt here.

[sandokan]

Context: this was an exploratory type of road trip to figure out what matters and what doesn’t. He had been thinking of CS but now maybe Engineering but wants a broad education.

Georgia Tech. Up
Big, vibrant campus, self-enclosed and in a safe neighborhood with restaurants, pharmacies, grocery stores, etc.. Lots of bland brick architecture. STEM-oriented obviously, but they made a point of mentioning their non-STEM offerings, how they weave STEM into them and their arts programming. Students seem well-rounded not nose-to-the-grindstone super nerds. It comes across as collaborative, not competitive. They make a point of having Study Abroad options that the engineers can participate in.

LOTS of time spent discussing the career center, internships and coops, less mention of research. They have huge career fairs, apparently the CS one was so big they rented out the Mercedes Benz Stadium! Huge maker spaces, specific to each individual engineering major. We got to peek into the MechE ones. It seems like it does what it does very well and would be a good fit for an ambitious, fairly savvy kid. Not much mention of traditions, students only live on campus for one year and then it seems like there’s a ton of apartments nearby.

Atlanta is great! I didn’t go in with high expectations but it feels very vibrant and fun. Car-centric, but otherwise a lot to like. Walk around the Beltline.

Duke - Up but probably off
The most beautiful campus we’ve seen so far, both the grounds and the buildings. Not a piece of grass was out of place. All very faux Gothic. It has an interdisciplinary bent and lots of flexibility around changing majors and double majoring.

The engg. school is only about 30% of the undergrads, so feels fairly cozy. It sounds like you see the same faces in your classes as you move up. The guide didn’t seem to find it too hard and kids in general seemed social and happy. She mentioned strong advising. She was also basketball-mad and had done the camping out for many weeks thing to get tickets to the game.

The dining hall was amazing. We had lunch there and marveled at the food and architecture (modern cathedral vibes). Very fancy. Given the size of the campus (big and we only saw one half), I was surprised that there were almost no bikes or scooters anywhere. Not sure what the story is there. Overall it felt like a very curated, luxury experience with great academics.

Raleigh was forgettable. It felt dead and the restaurants and stores we saw were meh. My son couldn’t imagine living somewhere with no town in walking distance, so I think we’ll focus our reaches elsewhere.

UNC Chapel Hill - Down
We realized we bit off more than we could chew and canceled our NC State tour since we were staying in Chapel Hill. On reflection, we should have stuck with NC State and canceled UNC CH as it doesn’t seem to have much of a reputation for STEM. Anyway.

The campus extends off the main drag of Chapel Hill the school is big but not huge. Lots of big, beautiful trees and old architecture. Felt a little scraggly compared to Duke, but still pretty. The info session was alright as was the tour but we weren’t taken inside any buildings, so it was harder to get a sense of the place. It reminded me a little of UC Davis in some ways. Again, lots of double majoring and unstressed students. They emphasized research opportunities and the great network you’ll have. It didn’t seem nearly as career- focused as either GT or Duke. Very humanities, social science-oriented. Students overall seemed all ‘one type’ and very conformist dresswise, with a lot of CH merch. We both found that off-putting.

Chapel Hill itself did not appeal. I had thought it would be a charming college town but it’s about 4 blocks of merch shops, vape/weed shops, a surprising amount of homelessness for the size of the town and a few very mediocre restaurants. My son called the town ‘a net negative’.

Elon - Down and off
Elon is in a small, fairly remote town with more suburban sprawl around it. I’d already started to realize this was a dealbreaker but we stuck with the tour anyway.

There’s something about modern brick that I just don’t like and there’s a lot of that at Elon so I found it hard to love visually. Lots of construction and they are deliberately expanding. In the info session and during the tour they heavily emphasized their low faculty to student ratio and their attention to the student experience. In fact, when they called out the guides, they had so many that there were no more than I think 3 families per guide and we were assigned by name.

The faculty seemed very approachable and our guide seemed to be on first name terms with many of them. We chatted with the head of the CS department, which seemed pretty small. They’re in the process of creating an engineering college and moving CS there on what sounds like a 1-2 year timeline. Very modest maker spaces.

We ate at the dining hall which was not great. Limited options, not that tasty. The campus felt too big for the student body in that we barely saw anyone walking around which didn’t appeal to my son. Students seemed to be a bit of a mix, a fair amount of ‘quirky’ students, supposedly a decent number of frats/sororities though we didn’t see any.

Davidson College, Down and off
We stayed at Carnegie Lodge, Davidson’s on-campus guest house, which was quite charming and a nice break from the chain hotels.

The women leading the info session (current student plus one young AO) were quite woke and there were lots of pronouns, none of which we’d encountered anywhere else on the trip. There was lots of talk of the honor code (leave your stuff out, no cheating), a culture of caring and empathy, and how well you can get to know your professors. Ample research opportunities available and a post-freshman year summer research option that lots of students take advantage of. There’s also a cool ‘matching’ type program they have to get Davidson students working on research with professors elsewhere.

It’s a beautiful campus, again with old trees and old brick buildings. More approachable than Duke, more elegant and well-tended than Chapel Hill. High quality art everywhere, you can even rent a piece of art for your room. It wasn’t huge, though big for the size of the student body, and I think that translated into a sort of stillness. The town itself was charming though small, maybe 4 blocks of stuff. Shops and restaurants seemed fairly upscale rather than student-oriented. If you were looking for a small, intimate community with a lot of support and shared politics, this would probably be a good place. It felt like a cocoon. Not much mention of rigor though presumably it’s there. Seemed humanities-oriented though maybe that was just who we talked to. Something about the college felt very female overall, and the vast majority of guides and AOs were women. Not a good fit for my son who wants more energy and maybe something a little harder-edged.

UGA, Neutral (Not intending to apply)
He was never going to apply here, I just wanted him to visit a huge campus, so we ended up canceling our tour and just self-touring. When they say it’s a big campus, they’re not kidding. The maps on campus show walking times and I think end-to-end it was 45 minutes! The old parts are beautiful — more old trees and grand brick buildings. But the vast majority of it feels much newer, a little hulking and is much more bland. There’s a stadium on campus, which I guess translates into fun game days. Students seemed happy, friendly and social. Again a fair amount of conformism with most students dressed very similarly and not what I would call fashion-focused. Overall, this was starting to feel too big though my son didn’t seem to hate the size. It was also too sports-centric. A lot of shuttles and big roads going through campus.

Athens was great though! When I think college town, this is what I had mind. A few streets, not just a few blocks and it had great restaurants, stores and music venues. It felt like a place people lived and had some personality. We hung out in a board game cafe for a few hours and had a great time.

Emory, Up
Good presentation and tour. Overall, I’d say the college feels very well run. No brick! The campus is mostly very modern and stylish. They’ve hired great architects and the buildings are well thought through, not big, bland slabs. It creates a very different feel from the other schools. The older parts are also not brick, and instead are marble, again creating a different feel. Since they have their other more SLAC-like campus, the Atlanta campus is much more compact than you’d expect just looking at the school’s overall population. We liked that, because it translated to more energy and walkability. It did lack the big green spaces and huge old trees we’d seen elsewhere though.

The Coca-Cola affiliation is an odd one, but it seems to have translated into lots of money for the school. There’s a tradition where they hand out Mexican Coke bottles to incoming freshmen, they toast their four years and can then get their name engraved on the bottle.

The CDC is right next door, there are three Emory-affiliated hospitals and they seem to have very strong Bio and Chem departments. Our guide was pre-med though and said only about 10% of students are. It felt like more. They have a strong creative writing department and a focus on writing across all majors was mentioned a couple times.

Very strong advising (you even meet your advisor virtually before you show up) and there’s additional major-specific and grad school oriented advising. Less career talk than GT and it felt like a lot of the kids went onto law school, med school, etc.. Lots of school traditions including a skeleton that gets dressed up and roams the school and they seem to do a lot to help first years integrate into the community. It seems like they’re quite intentional about school spirit without it being all about sports. Unclear how the split campuses affect social life and if the two groups integrate in the upper years. 50% of upperclassmen live off campus and the rest live in on-campus housing that’s a shuttle bus ride away. Some Greek life but sounds like it’s not at all dominant.

The neighborhood was suburban with just one little block of restaurants, so that wasn’t great. Safe though. Supposedly a 15 minute drive into Atlanta but it felt like it was pretty far away spiritually.

[pancake2]

Environment of the school was very important to D25:

Crossed off: Holy Cross, Hobart & William Smith and Purdue because she didn’t like the surrounding area and/or town

Moved up: Davidson, Sewanee University of the South because they each had a beautiful campus and lots of athletes.

Some she crossed off because of no school spirit/good school spirit around sports:

Crossed off: William and Mary (the tour guides said they never go to sporting events and like to stay in and bake cookies on Friday night)
Moved up: Virginia Tech (fun, and nice college town)

[albanat]

Emory University-- way up
Pretty and unique-looking campus in a charming neighborhood. High energy campus with lots of students going to and fro in small groups. Impressed by the inter-disciplinary focus-- examples of several classes co-taught by profs from different departments. Strong focus on undergrad teaching despite larhe graduate programs. Tour guide was engaging and shared lots of personal anecdotes. I would describe vibe as work hard and have some fun too. Very diverse student body.
Also highly recommended the beltline and Ponce City market for food/ fun place to hang out.

[Gbmom]

UC Berkeley- moved up to the top of the list after our visit. We had no idea the campus was so gorgeous! And although downtown Berkeley is a little rough, the Elmwood neighborhood near campus is very charming and walkable from most of the dorms.

[Ewost]

Brandeis - way up! Just visited with D26. Having read so many negative takes on their campus online, I was not expecting much, but we thought it was beautiful, modern, green, and certainly well maintained. Even though it was the very end of the semester, with their finals almost over, there were still lots of people around. It felt lively and cheerful. The weather was pretty much perfect, which certainly helped. The student body was diverse and unlike some schools with a heavy Greek and athletic presence, the vibe was pretty relaxed and “not intimidating” according to D. Our info session was pretty short but engaging. The presenting student talking about her experience was excited about her classes, her professors, internships, and other opportunities outside of class. She shared many of my daughter’s interests, which made my D feel like the school would be a good fit. The tour was informative and our guide was knowledgeable and detailed. The dorms were pretty standard and relatively spacious, not the worst we’ve seen. The campus is walkable to town and Boston is pretty accessible by commuter rail, which is adjacent to the campus, which is important to my daughter. The school has moved to the top 3 or so for her after the visit.