From a few years ago, my very outgoing daughter toured all the colleges mentioned in your post and only loved Carleton in that group - she could see herself there. (also didn’t like Wes or Brown - she was 100% about academic and social fit and loved her 2 safeties too) I attended all of these tours and we agreed the energy and overall student vibe was great, several students spoke with us, our tour guide knew so many kids and he was so outgoing, she went to a class and the professor engaged her in the conversation and she thought the town was so cute and the flower in mailbox tradition just drew her in more. I even had 2 students and an admin join me in the dining hall when they saw me eating alone before my daughter met back up with me.
She ended up getting into her early app school - otherwise she told us she would have been very happy to attend Carleton if admitted - it was her strong #2. Remains one of my fav schools and with twins and very different college lists - I attended over 20 tours between them. Some schools have bad days, some just don’t seem right and so great when each kid finds their fit. We are very fortunate to be able to tour - as it really made a difference to our 2 kids to be on campus.
Her twin sister didn’t even want to tour the school
she now attends and was admitted ED to that school - we made her come on the visit since we were together and already touring for her sister. We usually toured separately, as their lists had little to no overlap. She admitted very sheepishly over lunch that she loved it and it made for a great personal essay for her to write about her reluctant tour and how it was originally on her sister’s list.
Wishing your daughter well with her transfer apps.
This was a big hit with our D30! Although our tour guide joked it was usually for friends, enemies, or lovers, and our D30 said she hoped it was mostly enemies (she can get a little dark).
Thank you to you and to @NiceUnparticularMan for the intel on Carleton. I didn’t know much about it, since my S24 twins refused to look at any LACs. But D26 for the past year has been saying “I love Minnesota and want to go there for college!” And that’s because she and my husband travelled there in 2022 to see the women’s college basketball Final Four. Now that it’s time to focus on her college journey, I’m glad to know about a school that sounds amazing for her. She’s the sunniest person, super social and kind and an excellent student. Carleton’s student population sounds like it could be a real fit. That’s what’s so nice about these forums–having a preview that’s not the college’s website.
You are very welcome, and I would just emphasize you can really put together a great list of LACs just in Minnesota! Carleton, Macalester, St Olaf, Gustavus Adolphus, Saint Benedict and St John’s (associated women’s and men’s colleges respectively) . . . all cool options.
Sorry to chime in on this so late, but two years ago my brother asked if I had a suggestion for the spring break college road trip he was planning for his daughter, somewhere between Michigan State and Georgetown. I said, “Everyone seems to love Pitt, you could stop there.” His daughter fell in love with it, never looked back, and is happily finishing up her freshman year.
Love hearing that there were students out and about at UAH on a Saturday…thanks for that tidbit! We visited UAH on a rainy Tuesday, so it was hard to get a sense of that kind of vibe, but it is definitely reassuring. Thanks @Luanne !
I loved Hamilton and thought it was just right for my son. He was admitted and was excited, but ultimately, he decided not to go to admitted students day. It’s a great school. I’m glad your son likes it.
I think you lucked out on your GWU tour–we have done 2 regular tours (1 junior year and 1 right before admitted students day) and we never got to see the inside of a classroom !!! We got into the lobby of the new engineering building. We did get the chance to see dorms on Admitted Students day (and D24 has a friend on campus so we got to see her room). We expected a more BU feel with the urban campus but were pleasantly surprised by how cohesive and inviting the GWU campus is. (she made her choice to go to GWU after our 2nd visit/Admitted Students day)
Congrats to your D! We had an outstanding tour guide for sure - very genuine in her enthusiasm for the school. GW left a big impression on S25. Maybe he’ll get the chance to check out the dorms next spring… we shall see. Best wishes as your D embarks on her new adventure!
We didn’t cross UC Davis off of our list, but when we visited recently they would not let us in many buildings.
The student tour leader was apologetic and a very impressive young woman, but the admissions people above her didn’t seem to be pulling out all the stops.
UAH was the last school that my kid said no to when accepting at Clemson (alma mater for both parents). It was a struggle - kid loved their clear communication throughout the process. Our visit coincided with a summer orientation right before move-in, and people were very friendly. I think if we didn’t have such strong family ties to Clemson, that’s where kid would have wound up.
Ursinus wasn’t on my radar and I went to that other website (let’s call it “Alcove”) to check it out. This postioning slayed me. #760 in professors is THE BEST thing they could say? Sheesh.
I don’t find “alcove” terribly useful – I didn’t know about Ursinus at all until going through the Tuition Exchange list, but then read about it on the USNWR, where it’s in the mix with a bunch of similar tier SLACs that are all a part of the TE network, and it seemed worth checking out.
Yeah, I should be clear that I wasn’t endorsing their questionable analysis (I use that site for quick data, e.g. what are the most popular majors at this school? etc.). I think their ratings are confounding. Mostly I shared because I saw this and laughed out loud – talk about damning with faint praise.
D was recruited hard by Ursinus and for her, academically and athletically, it was definitely not the right fit but we decided just to visit so in her mind, she could definitively cross it off her list. The coach of the team was great, and it’s a cute little school, but we (and D) were struck by how incredibly small it felt and most students/athletes she talked to lived close by. It felt almost like a high school. Again, to each his/her own, and everyone was super nice, but immediately upon driving onto campus, D said absolutely not and then it was a very long rest of the day because she was committed to meeting the coach/team at that point…
Makes sense! S25’s high school experience is, he goes to a large high school in NYC that draws students from all five boroughs. I don’t think any of his friends live near the school, and after school Manhattan is their “playground”. So the self-contained “neighborhoody” high school in a suburb or small town vibe is not his high school experience at all.
The first school my daughter looked at was Presbyterian, recruited by a coach who had reffed a tournament and really liked my daughter’s style of play. Presbyterian is the smallest D1 school. Smallest of all. I knew driving onto campus that daughter wouldn’t be going there, but it took her about an hour to figure it out (and we were stuck there for about 5 hours). The coach was really nice, the athletic facilities not bad, but oh that school is small and it was smaller than her high school. What clinched it was that the physics department had 5 professors! What if she didn’t like one? What if a favorite left?
She decided against it and it turns out the coach left before daughter would have even started (job change by coach’s husband). And oh it was a small small town. I wouldn’t have lasted 5 minutes.
A few years later I asked her boyfriend who also played lax if he regretted not going to one of the schools that had stronger lax teams. “NO!” Many of them were in really small towns with nothing else to do. He said Mt. Olive is a pickle factory, that everything in town, even the pizza place, closed at 6 pm. He was okay playing on a team that didn’t win as much but in a town/city that had more of a college life, had an airport nearby, had cities within an hour away with concerts and professional sports, festivals, stores.
I am dying laughing at this. My brother in law is from Mt. Olive. When my boys were little they loved pickles so much and they thought he was a super hero being from Mt Olive (which might as well have been Mt Olympus to them). One year he gave them both little Mt Olive stuffed pickles - with faces and arms and legs like some kind of pickle stuffed animal. I laughed so damn hard at those things. (Both boys still have them.) I don’t know anything else about Mt. Olive, or the relative merits of the town, but this made me smile.
So, unrelated to everything else, but thank you for randomly jogging happy memories.
