If I’m current on this topic, the OP has planned to see four colleges of primary interest during this trip, of which two are in New York State. To skip NY would be to skip half of these intended visits.
We did a big tour of schools last summer, from SUNY Purchase to UVM to Concordia in Montreal with small lacs in between. We had gotten used to sitting anonymously in the audience for the pre-tour talk by the time we got to Bennington and rolled in some 15 minutes after start time to find everyone (maybe 10 people total, sitting around a conference table in a small meeting rim, my daughter’s name and high school on a name tag waiting for her with the receptionist outside. Very embarrassing! Leave extra time to park and find the building because you never know how personalized these sessions could be.
I believe she has some detailed reports in the thread about ‘what schools moved up/down after a visit’
Yes but in this thread the OPs top choices are specifically in Ohio. Our experience through the several kids we know who went to these schools from our suburban NYC area is they liked the schools but not the general area.
Outside of the colleges and the small towns they are in, the surrounding areas are very conservative and very different that the area we live in. The kids we know noticed the differences and did not feel as comfortable in these areas. IMO outside of Oberlin because of the conservatory, that you can find schools similar to Kenyon and Denison that would be more appealing places to spend four years overall.
The food is a minor point but what’s the old saying, “eat to live or live to eat”
I’m replaying episodes.
Again — that’s not specific to Ohio. Most small towns (with the exception of New England) are pretty conservative. Look at it this way, it’s a chance to experience the broader world and step out of the echo chamber. Isn’t that what college is all about?
I would have to respectfully disagree, speaking as a former New Yorker previously biased against Ohio. My son chose Denison over schools in other parts of the country, including the Northeast, and he actually found Ohio to be a very appealing place to spend four years. He grew up in Tokyo, and he wanted to experience living in a place that was very different from the area he’d been living in. In Ohio, he kind of had the best of both worlds. Granville is a small, pretty village with a couple of good restaurants and shops, but it is also just a half an hour from Columbus, which is a seriously terrific city (with a lot of seriously terrific food). He’s an Asian kid, but he felt very comfortable in Ohio - as a track athlete, he was all over the state during his four years there. Midwest Nice is a real thing.
Yeah, we live in a community not unlike those being described (though bigger). Our kid is loving attending college in a midsize city with a lot of diversity in a blue state. I think it’s nice for kids to experience something a little different than their upbringing, whether it’s geography, political climate, size of town, whatever.
Kids can rule schools in or out for whatever reason they want, but there are a lot of gems in Midwestern college towns. I wouldn’t rule them out preemptively unless the kid knows they don’t want that environment.
I’m glad your son had such a great experience at Denison.Our S20 goes to school in the Midwest. It happens to be 20 minutes north of Chicago in a small city suburb. The second day he got there he called up said “Wow everybody is so nice” I don’t have the same specific experience that you have only passing on the comments that we have heard from the students who went to these schools from our area.
I don’t want to take this too far off topic. Again the OPs top schools are in Ohio. Just was sharing the input we had from students from our area about those Ohio schools specifically and that these perspectives could be helpful in the OPs decision making. Our son goes to a school when you walk accross campus you feel like you are a meeting of the United Nations definitely not an echo chamber.
Had a come-to-Jesus conversation this week with a friend and realized that we really really don’t need to travel to the northeast this spring break. Junior year has ramped up academically and my son is doing homework until midnight or later. He has 4 AP tests + the SATs in May. He’s playing a varsity sport. I think dragging him on a grueling cross-country trip on a week when he could be relaxing/catching up on sleep seems risky.
He might do a 2-week intro-to-robotics program at WPI this summer and if we fly out there to drop him off or pick him up, there’s no reason we can’t casually check out a couple more schools in the area.
The exchange student just got back from a school-sponsored trip to colleges in central and southern California (Cal Poly SLO, UCSB, UCLA, LMU, and maybe a couple of others). He reported back that his favorite was Loyola Marymount because it was pretty. And he rejected Cal Poly SLO out of hand because of the brutalist dorms. I know I shouldn’t be irritated by his jejune certainty about the comparable merits of these schools – kid has no skin in the game. For him, it’s like fantasy football or ordering ice cream at Baskin Robbins. And yet the idea of schlepping him across the country to hear him weigh in on Brandeis fills me with dread.
This is a very good friend.
Is SLO a school that your son is interested in? (I confess that I haven’t read this entire thread ). I know your son was looking at LACs, but I also know that some students who like LACs also really like SLO, because of its small classes.
Maybe even more than other colleges, you really can’t appreciate SLO by just looking at the outside of the buildings (although many people do love the campus and setting). My son had originally written off SLO for being “in the middle of nowhere” (), but he gave it a chance by going to admitted students weekend. His opinion of SLO changed completely after the major-specific part of the visit, where they visited workshops and labs and talked about exactly what they would be doing over the course of the four year degree. It’s all about that “learn by doing” education.
I think my son would probably love Cal Poly SLO. What’s not to like? (Aside from the dorms, I guess…)
The challenge is that he’s somewhat uncertain at this point what he wants to major in…and the schools he’d be most likely to apply to at SLO are quite competitive. His sophomore grades are definitely below par for this school and they don’t consider either test scores or senior year grades. (Not sure whether the courses DS will take online this summer would count.)
I think he’d probably apply and see what happens but I’d consider it to be a real reach school for him. I think he’d have a better chance of getting into Virginia Tech and WPi if he decides to go that way. TBD…
Good plan. Nothing wrong with taking a break, especially as you’ve said you want to do a Pacific NW tour too.
Good plan. I’m slightly dreading our trip out East in a week, but I do think that D25 “needs” to see the Maine LACs. Part of me is still hoping that she won’t like any as much as Macalester.
Let me know what you think about Bates in particular. Trying to sort out whether it’s worth a special trip and an early decision app.
I’m biased as my daughter got in ED to Bates and I’m an alum (but seriously didn’t care if she attended) but I do think that Bates is really special. The emphasis is SO MUCH on the whole person, admitting people who care about each other, and collaboration vs. competitiveness - all of these principles were very appealing to my daughter. Over the summer before her senior year, we happened to meet a current student who had applied and been accepted to all the schools my daughter was interested in, and perfectly encapsulated why Bates was the best fit. We attend accepted students day in a month and I can report back with any new info! Or feel free to ask any questions.
Our family had Covid during February break of S24’s junior year, and then he had a leg injury and was on crutches for much of the spring. As a result, we did much of our college touring in the summer, and we all thought it was perfectly fine. We did not feel that we got a much better sense of the campus vibe during the tours we did when school was in session. If summer tours are an option, I would absolutely go ahead. (S24 is on the quiet and shy side. If you have the type of kid who walks up to strangers and strikes up conversations, then maybe tours during the year would be more useful.)
Great post. Very well put.