Ok, we’ve visited a few colleges in the midwest while seeing family and we have a crazy spring break planned seeing schools in the southeast. Looking at S25’s initial list and what he has liked so far, I feel like we should do one more trip, but two more seems like too much.
My thought is either Villanova and Lehigh or Claremont McKenna and U of San Diego (maybe throw in Santa Clara too). I’m leaning towards Pennsylvania because I know Lehigh is big on demonstrated interest but it’s another trip across the country for us. We’re in the PNW. S25 is interested in all four schools looking online.
S25 wants to study business. He isn’t taking the SAT until May so assume test optional at this point, his PSAT wasn’t great. 4.0UW 4.3W will have 10APs, 4s and 5s on the ones he’s taken so far. Good ECs but not great, lots of service (500+hours), competitive climber, knowledge bowl, works as a lifeguard.
So far S25 likes Notre Dame, Denison, SMU (Cox), Miami Ohio. We’re visiting Furman, Elon, W&L, U of Richmond, Wake, and W&M over spring break.
Without thinking too hard about the schools, I’d recommend going east in the summer, because it’s a lot easier to get to CA from PNW for a quick weekend visit for some or all of those schools. I assume you’re aware of this, but your CA schools are not at all close to each other…
Yeah, I’m aware. I thought we could probably manage USD and Claremont McKenna in one trip but Santa Clara makes it more difficult. He’s less interested in SC anyway.
I’m guessing that with the schools he likes, your PA trip might be more fruitful. And they are easier admits than CMC. If you do find time for another jaunt or have an access in hand, one in your time zone might be easier to swing.
Yes, he has very little chance at CMC. And he’d probably get into USD without a visit (he attends a Catholic school with a good acceptance record there). If he wants to apply we could always visit USD later I guess.
Yeah, my gut reaction was the PA schools might be on or off the list based on visits, but you could put the CA schools on the list without visits, and then visit only if they make a short list following decisions.
For Lehigh, engaging in online sessions is definitely counted as demonstrated interest. Due to the sticker price and reputation for not giving much merit aid, Lehigh wasn’t initially high up on the list and my student didn’t visit until after being accepted regular decision. We are from the PNW as well.
If you do the PA trip, maybe try to see Drexel when you’re at Villanova, and Lafayette and Muhlenberg when you’re at Lehigh. Actually Lafayette doesn’t have a business major, but Muhlenberg does.
Based on his liking Denison, you may also want to see F&M, Bucknell and Dickinson while in PA, all of which have business programs, albeit of different types.
We are from central oregon. Daughter visited Villanova and Lehigh, and Lehigh is one of her top choices. It’s gorgeous. Downtown Bethlehem kinda reminds me of Bend, if you know Bend.
She also got into Santa Clara, they also like to see interest. I wouldn’t waste a visit on USD unless he loves the idea of being by so cal beach, as he’s likely to get in there. Santa Clara is a nice mix of PNW kids with beach and skiing nearby and the campus is like a movie set, pristine.
Slightly different view than the consensus from me. I’m just not sure how helpful a summer visit to PA will be for a PNW kid. Campus culture and (winter) weather are the two big variables on which you’d be seeking clarity, and neither is really available in the summer.
Could be a fun vacation but if college is the only reason, I guess I’d be more inclined to check off other visits and then visit the east coast next winter if still applicable.
I don’t see the point of a CMC visit at this point with the low probability.
Maybe a day trip to Santa Clara would be a better use of time. So convenient to the airport and a short flight from PNW.
Is UDenver on the radar? That’d be a pretty easy visit too without the commitment of a cross country flight. Colorado Mines could be coupled with that if the business interest is on the analytics side (they have a business engineering degree); but that’s an engineering school so might not be appealing to him.
Thanks, I get your point about campus culture, we would definitely have to make a return trip.
Winter isn’t as big an issue, we lived in Boston at one point and our family is on the east coast so he’s aware.
A CMC visit would be only if he was interested in Early Decision. He does have a perfect gpa and 10 APs and CMC is pretty friendly towards test optional applicants. That said, it is a huge reach and he already has Notre Dame as a big reach. I’d like to limit him to just one or 2 big reaches.
Sorry, didn’t answer your other questions! U of Denver is on his radar. Santa Clara is as well. Mines is not, although it should be, he’s anti engineering.
I’ll be contrarian and say go visit CMC. My D was interested in the Claremont colleges and focused on Scripps (she’s humantiies/art focused). I think I watched every 5C video I could find. We visited last Feb break. She applied ED to scripps and didn’t get in (got in to her east coast LAC for ED2, she’s thrilled, and we are on the east coast, so we can drive her, so ended up in a good place) but I was very impressed with the 5Cs. Given your kid’s liked schools, I think he’d like CMC a lot. If he does, ED would be the way to go. Either way, I found that seeing colleges was a useful exercise for the kid - she learned on every trip. I thought she’d love Wesleyan bc they have a great film program, but after the visit she wasn’t feeling it. Some schools she liked on the tours (Conn College, UVM), but a few she really loved (Colby, Oxy), and I couldn’t always tell why. So I’d encourage a trip somewhere, and the weather’s better for a trip in Socal!
So LMU has kind of a wild reputation at our Catholic high school. Lots of drugs and partying. Any idea if that’s a justified reputation or just sheltered PNW kids talking about LA?
