Totally exhausted after taking my Junior son on back to back weekend college tours. Saw Colgate, Hamilton, Siena, St. Lawrence, Wesleyan, Bates, Bowdoin, Colby and University of New Hampshire. Over Easter we saw University of Vermont and Middlebury.
Most surprised by St. Lawrence and University of New Hampshire, which pushed a lot buttons despite being lower ranked. UNH, Great little town near somewhat larger charming places like Portsmouth and an hour by train to Boston. We expected to be impressed by the others but not UNH. St. Lawrence lovely campus and nicest student center we ever saw.
My niece had hoped to go to Columbia Engineering, but was waitlisted. She ended up at UNH and really liked it. (Her parents liked the price too.) She’s now gainfully employed with her employer paying her to get a masters. It sounds like you saw a nice variety of colleges - which is good I think.
We did. More to come as well. UNH was on the way home so we figured what the hell but it was the surprise school. We also had enough time to see the surrounding area and it was very nice.
We had expected the others to be nice.
Burlington was probably the best of all the college towns we saw by far. At this point Bowdoin, Bates and Colgate are still the top three, depending on the day of course.
We visited a lot of the same schools as you did, including UNH. I liked it more than my S, but it was a good safety for him as he sails and they have a team. Portsmouth is a really nice little city.
St. Lawrence was his second choice. He would have gone there if he hadn’t gotten into Bates.
A good friend’s son went to UHN. Loved it. He is now a marine biologist at Woods Hole.
My son HATES shopping, and seeing colleges is glorified shopping in his book. So we’re taking it slowly. We’ve seen 4 this far (and he loved 3 of those, and could tolerate the 4th.)
He would be very happy for me to TELL him where he’s going to school, but that’s out of the question. I’m not paying all that money to HOPE he likes a school.
That’s a lot. I have friends interested in Colgate, Middlebury and Hamilton. I know people who go Siena. Bowdoin is in a great area-my cousins live up there.
My older son (also hates shopping) balked at looking at colleges after I dragged him to see four in California unior year. So he didn’t look at any more, but applied to a bunch sight unseen. Wouldn’t you know it, he didn’t get into any of the ones in CA. The good news was that once it was actually a matter of making a decision he was willing to do the visits and look at the colleges more carefully. Academics in his major had always been his main concern so the choices were fine, but it made for a rather harried April.
I remember with fondness the college shopping trip with our daughter. She was boundlessly enthusiastic and we visited colleges in 4 countries. The US (SLACs in NE) was way too expensive. Happily, her first choice was in the UK, where she is going at about 1/4 the cost. Now we are getting ready to take our son on the same itinerary.
Wow, you saw a lot of schools. Here is some unsolicited advice. … If you didn’t do it already I’d suggest that you write some notes on things that specifically struck you at each school. We also set up a a file bin and kept the brochures, directions etc. from each school organized. This helped out later in the process when my kids write supplements (ex. they had some specific things they liked about each school to include) and when we re-visited the top choices and made final decision. Good luck with this process-- sounds like you are off to a great start.
a couple of hints - keep your own notes - and let him keep his own notes (no matter how short they are). He will own the process more. My son kept a tiny 3x5 pad with notes that were just his and his alone.
Keep it to 2 visits on the same day (preferably one)- they do start to blur together - really. If you want to make your son NOT like a school visit a LAC on Sunday morning - it will be eerily quiet
I have visited almost all of those places with my 2 kids - curious to hear his thoughts after the process
My D is at Lafayette and loves it so if you have any particular questions about that school after your visit, feel free to PM me (we also visited Muhlenberg, Lehigh, Dickinson & Siena from your list among other schools).
Another hint: take videos and talk. Or take pictures and upload them with comments. D created a private tumblr account for her pictures and comments. It became a little journal and helped her sort through the different schools. (I found that even if I kept it down to one visit a day, all the schools ran together after a month or two)
@cofb2020, wow! That’s an itinerary I would expect from a professional – and we get tired, too! You will have laid down a good base if you ever want to go into the field.