Kid knows where she’s going now (Colby) so I thought I’d do a quick summary of college visits over the last couple years FWIW. She was considering two paths - more art focused (for animation or cinematography) or LAC, and as time progressed she gravitated towards LACs (a summer session at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn last summer helped her recognize that she didn’t want to focus on art all the time in college).
Summer after 10th - saw:
- Boston College - liked the campus a lot, architecture, feel, proximity to a city.
- RISD. She wished there was more of a campus green there, but loved that it was close to Brown and she loved their quad.
- Conn College - it was summer so few kids on campus, but she liked the campus, the proximity to the water. But none of these three schools immediately said “home” to her.
11th - saw:
Winter break went to southern Cal and saw: - Oxy. WAY UP. She loved it and could see herself there. She did a day-long program and this moved to one of the top schools on her list. I think this would have been her first choice had she not gotten into ED2 school.
- Scripps. UP. She thought it was beautiful and loved the consortium with the other Claremonts. She wasn’t sold on all female school yet (but she ended up applying ED1, didn’t get in).
- USC. She loved the facilities, especially the film school, but it just seemed too big to her (and impossible to get in). She ended up not applying.
- Cal Arts. I thought this could be a winner, but she hated it. It felt “like a high school”, she didn’t like the location, and I think this was the beginning of the end for more art-focused schools.
Back on the east coast, through the year we visited Williams (though she thought it impossible to get in, and too close to home, she did admire it), drove through Middlebury many times (but again too close to home for her), UVM (she liked this even though it was bigger, based on its location in a bigger town in Vermont and lots of hustle and bustle when we were there).
We also visited Wesleyan, which I thought could be a great fit for her since they have a fantastic film building, but for some reason (and we did two visits there), she wasn’t 100 percent sold due to some unexpressed “vibe” that I couldn’t figure out.
We also saw Trinity. She liked the campus a lot, and could see herself in the mix of people, but, though she said she wanted to be in or near a city, Hartford (and especially Trinity’s neighborhood) was not her idea of urban bliss.
As I mentioned, she did a progam at Pratt (4 weeks in the summer), and she loved being in Brooklyn, and liked Pratt’s campus well enough, especially the green space in the city. BUt she said the dorms and the food weren’t top notch. On the day I picked her up from the program we saw NYU (she eliminated it because of the lack of a traditional campus) and Barnard (she liked the campus and considered it, but decided in the end not to apply).
Our LAST college visit was after she had applied to Colby, during MLK weekend. Even though she had said she wanted a school in or near a city, something about the campus really spoke to her and she really really liked it, despite its being over an hour to Portland (which is not even that large of a city). The new art facility really blew her away. She asked the admissions office if she could switch her regular application to ED2 and got in! This goes to show a) even though you think you know what you are looking for, it always pays to visit; b) keep an open mind, priorities can change; c) people’s reactions about a college can differ greatly (see post above a bit with a completely opposite - and I’m sure equally valid - reaction to Colby).