Econ is very different.
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Oh i know! She is thinking it’s the closest to marketing - but I think she would be better off with English major/econ minor. But what does mom know?! 
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Econ a better major but kids have to study what they’d enjoy.
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I agree. I told her after a while she won’t want to come home anyway. But without that life experience it is hard for her to wrap her head around it at this point. Appreciate the reply!
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My youngest disliked the organized tours as well. We did a few, and they all seem to cover the same parent-focused topics (safety, library, how dining plans work, etc.) I even noted at one large U that the tour was essentially the same as when I took my older daughter 6 years prior. We pivoted to doing the self-guided tours and my daughter did her own additional research. Every kid has their own list of what’s important in choosing a college and sometimes the tours don’t hit those items (and no one likes a parent or student who monopolizes the group tours with their own agenda).
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I would consider a second tour or an overnight to give the school a second look. Was this an accepted students event? It may be worthwhile to wait for that
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@Wjs1107 Regarding UC Santa Cruz, I would look into those housing claims. That campus is notorious for having housing issues. I know the construction completion of their new dorm was delayed. Maybe it opened and is relieving some of the pressure.
We toured UCSC several years ago. One of the things my son didn’t like was that it lacked a central area where students congregated. It was a beautiful campus, but lacked the energy and sense of community that he saw at other UC campuses.
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We will keep an eye on it. S26 won’t apply for a couple more years… maybe something will have been sorted by then.
I agree that there’s a lack of central energy on the campus. Maybe it’s just so spread out—though this reddit thread seems to suggest it can be quite busy: https://www.reddit.com/r/UCSC/s/1Tj05j8VCV
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Unfortunately, this is something that will really come down to your daughter’s preference and comfort level. What do you think is the farthest she would consider?
My kids have all thrived being away (5 hours, 14 hours, and the third one planning on as far as she can possibly get), but that’s what they wanted and they were excited for the change. If you daughter isn’t comfortable being that far from home, I’m not sure exactly what you can say.
I’d start with the fact that six hours is an easy day’s drive. I go back and forth to visit one son (5 hours each way) all in a day.
And we know (but she doesn’t yet) that once she gets there, she is going to find that she doesn’t want to come home very often anyway.
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“Mom and boy promptly left in a huff, saying school needed to explicitly say it was all-women.”
That’s what websites are for!
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Reminds me when I took middle kid, then an 8th grader, along with the eldest when visiting Wellesley. Middle kid, who was a bit slow in maturing socially, was standing in the Admissions office, when she said in a loud voice, “Hey, there aren’t any guys in these brochures!”
We thought she knew that before we visited…
More on the topic though, my eldest, who hadn’t really considered Wellesley, really liked it (she was disappointed to be waitlisted). Middle kid did not want to apply to a women’s college, though she was very impressed by Wellesley’s junk food snack shop, which stocked an amazing array of chips and candy.
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I loved Wellesley in the 90s when I visited. They showed us a dorm that had an old fashioned bell system for ringing the dorm rooms and the room they showed us had a fireplace. I was sold.
In the end though, I was too boy crazy and didn’t attend!
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6 hours isn’t bad! Mine is 8 hours away. A flight is super short, and there’s a train as a last resort. It’s 10+ hours.
We really liked St Joes. It has a lot to offer. A Catholic school turned out not to be the right fit, but it’s worth visiting for sure.
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Re advice on the six hour distance…
Take a look at the school calendar and their breaks, long weekends, parents weekend, etc., and block out the chunks of time between trips home and/or parent visits. It can make it feel less overwhelming to see the semester as a series of 3, 4, or 5 week chunks, rather than an entire semester away from home. And if any chunk looks too long, maybe allow for a short weekend trip home to break it up, especially for the first semester.
Also, doesn’t seem to be an issue with the schools you are considering - but when considering a school more than a couple hours away, make sure that most students stick around on the weekend.
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We visited a lot of schools. Too many. But, it definitely showed us the high variability in quality of tour guides, and the impact they might have on your view of a given school.
But the very best school tour we had was one we arranged ourselves. We could only be at the school on a day when there were no official tours. We found two current students (here, reddit, insta) who played our kids’ sports. They spent hours with us. Showed us everything, everywhere, in all sorts of different buildings (big school), shared all sorts of stuff with our kids. So incredibly informative and helpful.
So @u2kelly if you do decide to do a 2nd visit, maybe try to find a student in your daughter’s intended major. Or a sport or club she’s interested in. Ask them if they’ll show you around. We made a small gift to the students’ sports teams (club sports) as thanks. They were super happy as they didn’t expect anything at all.
If I had to do it over again (which, thankfully, I do not) these are the only types of tours I’d do 
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@Sapphire_G
“I couldn’t look past what seems to be a wild drug problem in Burlington starting at the edge of campus. In a bigger city there is more to balance out drug use & homelessness but here is felt like the central piece.”
Very disappointed to hear what has happened to Burlington, VT. We visited there many times on the way to visit my son when he was at McGill. It seemed like the ideal small city. But that was 25 ears ago.
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I second this advice. D22 went to the east coast for college (what I refer to as “inconvenient east coast”–more than an hour to a small airport, 1.5 hrs to a real airport, but a super convenient drive for people from NYC, NJ, Boston, etc.). We are in midwest city. I felt like I saw her all the time!
We went there for parents weekend (end of Sept.), she came home for fall break a month later, Thanksgiving was a month or so after that, and then just a few weeks to winter break. And she was home for a whole month! Similar schedule in the Spring. I think I see her more now than I did when she was in high school. 
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It was disappointing. I hadn’t been to Burlington in 10+ years and I remember enjoying it as well. This was like one of the side streets off Mass & Cass. Not as dense as Cass but similar to walking the side streets to BMC.
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I wonder how many potential students Binghamton loses due to hiring the wrong tour guides? Ours was awful as well.
Or maybe if you like your tour guide, you’re a fit for the school? lol.
Downtown Seattle, Portland (Oregon), & San Francisco are worse than Burlington, Vermont.