Early Action Accepted Candidates Weekend

I actually don’t think the EA weekend was very well organized. I have been to many campus visits with my D (as I am sure many here have). Some to some very large schools. The registration process at Villanova was a nightmare and disorganized, with no indication of who you had to speak to. Waited in one line, only to be told “sorry, you have to go to the other table.” Go to the other table, wait in line, no folders left. These are the types of things that make you wonder - is dealing with the school “bureaucracy” going to be just as frustrating and disorganized?

Then go into arena. I appreciate the time the speakers took out of their schedules, but they were not that interesting or inspiring. One current student even went so far as to say that “I am not going to tell you that you should come to Villanova, because it isn’t right for everyone.” But then proceeded to tell everyone why they should come to Villanova. :slight_smile: OK, so she was a college student, not a professional speaker - I will give her a pass (once again, thanks for taking the time), but I didn’t really get from any of the speakers why Villanova really should stand out.

Then on to the dining hall for lunch . . . there were several stations open, but they each served the exact same thing: a pasta dish, a chicken dish and wraps, with salad. Paper plates and plastic silverware. Chips, cookies and brownies. But it was absolutely the worst showing from a dining hall of any campus we had visited (~25 schools). I understand there were a couple thousand people they had to serve, but this is not the way to show off the dining halls. No one even mentioned that this was a “limited menu”, so we very easily could have walked away thinking that this is what the dining hall would be like if D attended.

Regarding the honors program . . . well, it has the appeal of being flexible, but not as enticing as other honors programs (e.g., BC’s). But admittedly this is definitely personal choice - Villanova’s program would appeal to many “non-writers” (BC’s is centered around the classics and appears to be extremely writing-focused) - at Villanova, you can approach any professor and request to do extra work and turn a regular class into an “honors” class. Also, there are some honors-specific classes for which honors students have priority registration (although other students may fill empty slots). Really fairly standard compared to many honors programs at other universities. Only real criticism here was that D was very confused by Friday’s presentation (I wasn’t there as I was ill, so can’t vouch for this). Took Saturday visit to the Honors building to really understand what the program was all about.

There are some positives: we loved the campus (as snowy as it was) - could see that it would be gorgeous in the spring. D loved the class she attended (Russian). Students seemed very friendly and enthusiastic (only one or two other schools could really compare in this regard). the academic offerings are diverse. And it’s relatively close to our north Jersey home.

But the EA weekend really didn’t sell the school the way it could have. Certainly room for improvement.