Dominant culture of a college

Parents Forum
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<p>In our house, our approach to college visits is a little different and it has enabled both kids to really have a sense of college cultures and fit. </p>

<p>More than half of their visits were made after acceptances came, and they never stayed less than 2 nights at the places they visited. For us, it was more a monetary issue - simply couldn’t afford to fly around the country looking at many far-flung places until they became a real possibility. (Or, to be fair, chose not to - it is all a quesion of priorities.) </p>

<p>D did RD before EA became so available; S did EA this year. With money an issue, we wanted to see those merit offers first before falling in love with anyplace. We relied a lot on Fiske and what we knew of the campuses anyway (H is a prof.)</p>

<p>But back to college culture. If you are on a campus for 2 or 3 nights, you really do get a different feel than you do on a day or half day visit. In one case, we managed it by doing a college trip at the end of August when schools were in session but HS wasn’t. In another, we spent a long weekend in Feb. looking at the EA school after acceptance and merit offer came. A third strategy had our D doing a 5 day visit in April to the top two contender schools.</p>

<p>My S remarked that he couldn’t believe anyone could pick a school after a whirlwind visit of seeing 7 schools in 10 days. And when he’d ask a friend about a school they’d seen, the most common answer he got was “I don’t know.” Most knew little more than what they learned and saw on an hour long tour.</p>

<p>I realize that for many the only possible visiting is the whirlwind strategy, and that if you want to do ED my suggestions are problematic. Please don’t flame me - I am just telling you my experiences with learning colleges’ cultures, and for us, it involved arranging longer visits. </p>

<p>On the other hand, I agree with Jamimom - kids often come to love the school where they are! I also remember an informal and unpublished survey some Harvey Mudd kids did, that found no correlation between intensive college searches and happiness once you got there – at least among some Mudd freshman 10 years or so ago, including a family friend!</p>

22

<p>I kinda like your strategy, wish-it-were-april (I kinda wish your user name was shorter though!) - and in fact, although we did not follow this strategy to a T (we did do some college visits and interviewing bedorehand) he did not interview or visit five of the seven schools he eventually applied to. Of the two (both reaches) he did visit and interview with, one rejected him, the other WL then eventually accepted him. He got into the other 5 colleges with lots of merit aid, visited three of them in April, and chose the one he’d been most lukewarm about (cold winters). That school, by the way, was the only one that had come up as a Match when he took the Princeton Review Profile. And he loves his school. Ironic…</p>

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<p>With the push by one minority of vocal Americans to make the United States more like a theocracy, some of the cultures of places you might not suspect are changing:</p>

<p>[Non-Christians</a> Claim Bias at US Air Force Academy](<a href=“http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4630490]Non-Christians”>Non-Christians Claim Bias at Air Force Academy : NPR)</p>