I am so grateful for the expertise here and for the generosity of these responses! I’m intrigued to see a second recommendation for Charleston. I would have passed right by it, thinking it was too Southern, but with this new context, it’s right at the top of my list. Trinity, Ithaca and UVM might also have some appeal for her.
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I’ve been to DU many times and will be next week - it’s not urban - i.e. in the action. To me, it’s suburban - not residential….but business like that you’d have in a residential area, if you will. I guess you can say I’m comparing to a down town.
The schools I listed above in my posts were related specifically to a down town - had I read what was being sought.
DU - when you move off campus, if it’s as was before, you’ll lose some aid. They used to provide an on campus housing extra scholarship.
Worth a look for sure.
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My husband teaches there. I take the train from my suburban neighborhood to my downtown campus, and it goes by DU’s stop. If you know the lay of the land in Denver, you know that south Denver is not downtown, but also not the suburbs. It’s in a vibrant residential/commercial urban-but-not-downtown neighborhood.
This was the preference. Many urban-but-not-downtown schools fit the bill.
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I note some kids seem to get very pragmatic about this sort of thing, as long as you have open discussions with them about your total available resources and really make it clear it is ultimately their decision to make.
There is sometimes a term used for this development form, “semi-urban”. Walkable neighborhoods, rapid transit into the central districts, but not the same high levels of density associated with “downtown” districts.
This was an extremely popular form of development in the era between horses and automobiles, aka the streetcar era. In fact, they are also sometimes called “streetcar suburbs”, although many were ultimately annexed by the central city at some point.
But since they mostly fell out of favor for new developments in the automobile era, at least in the US, they are not necessarily immediately familiar to a lot of people.
If you know what to look for, though, often you can immediately spot them on something as simple as Google Maps. Like I can immediately tell from the way the blocks around DU are laid out.
And if you are interested in the actual role streetcars played, often it is easy to find relevant resources:
My two cents is these can be GREAT settings for college. Perfectly fine for students without cars, even if they move off campus, but also very pleasant places to be.
But of course it is entirely up to any given individual.
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If DU ends up high on her list, let me know. My DD attended and had a great experience (and we live nearby - which was a big negative for her)
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Just a note, we ended up feeling a bit regretful about talking about money as much as we did with our D26. Towards the end when she had acceptances in hand, she struggled a lot with considering options that were not the very cheapest, because she felt guilty about spending our money, even though we assured her over and over again that we were happy with any cost within the agreed budget numbers. So as a parent, you need to know your child. Will the finance conversation just help them to be pragmatic and make rational choices, or will it feel like a heavy burden of guilt? If I did it over again, I might have preferred to just say to D “this school is within budget” or “this school is not within budget,” rather than talking a lot about how much each one cost, so that she wouldn’t feel pressure to choose the cheapest.
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For the student, is this potentially a quality-of-life thing (e.g. state laws hostile to LGB or T students, or which limit access to medical care that providers are afraid to offer because it is too abortion-adjacent), or something where state politics can limit the academic offerings of interest, versus “just politics” that would not have a direct effect on the student?
However, could this be complicated by considering potential professional school costs after, if the parent is willing to contribute the leftover college money for that if the student chooses a less expensive college?
Yes, that is why we talked as much as we did about money. In her case, with some options, she would have money left over in her 529 which could be applied to further education or other purposes. Our older child is a very different person, who approached these conversations with a purely practical mindset, so I didn’t anticipate that D26 might feel guilty about spending money. In hindsight, I think we could have managed these conversations better. That’s why I say that you need to know your child.
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How interested is she in the west coast?
U of SF is quite generous with merit; for California kids that they want, the merit often brings them to cost-parity with the the UC’s, which are mid-40’s for full-pay in-state students. I have seen quite a few kids with stats like your daughter’s get those merit offers. USF is smack-dab in the middle of the city, and has a ton of public art on campus 9 Stunning Landmarks That Make USF Unique | University of San Francisco (There’s also a recent SF Chronicle article entitled “This SF school has become one of the city’s best free art museums,” but it’s paywalled.) There’s a ton of community involvement (example: Students Take Art to the Streets of San Francisco | University of San Francisco) and great connections with the local museum scene. An Art History & Museum Studies major with possible minors in architecture, public policy, public service & community engagement, business… could cover the bases really well. Worth a look if she wouldn’t mind being that far from home.
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A grand number of potential fits have been mentioned, and an additional one came to mind that I didn’t find in this thread (TBH, I scanned… hehe):
U of San Diego
- Mid-sized
- Has Greek life, but it doesn’t command the culture
- In a large city
- Lovely campus (you didn’t mention that, but it can’t hurt…)
- Could be affordable with merit. (? – check NPC)
I tend to think that, beyond affordability, academics is the most important “fit” variable. To that end:
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not sure how big is big for cities, but Univ of Rochester has lots of majors and is a few miles from a small airport with lots of connections (and 60 minutes EASY ride to a substantial one - better than Ithaca on airport front IMO). NOT rural… Would be great for exploration of majors. Rochester is a surprisingly LGBTQIA+ and pretty liberal city, IMO. (I have a kid at RIT). Not sure about finances, but I think campus vibes would align - very undergrad focused- run NPC though… great school I think people forget about a lot.
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I think URochester is right there with schools like BU, Case, Brandeis, Lehigh for overall academic quality. Great school that, you’re right, is often overlooked.
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This is a useful distinction. My daughter is not part of any marginalized group, so there are probably no direct risks to her except for those associated with being a female of reproductive age. But we live in a state where academic freedom is being actively limited, and she is eager to escape.
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I appreciate this perspective. The daughter I described is a twin. Her sister has the same kind of guilt complex as your D26. It’s so hard to convey the right tone about money—maybe because this is uncertain ground for us parents, too.
I love this suggestion. Thank you.
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I used to live and work near DU and even spent some time in the library there. It absolutely fits what I had in mind when I asked for a city school.
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