<p>Adding to the list- visit a lot of restrooms in different buildings- it will tell you how well the physical infrastructure is being maintained, how good the plumbing is, and what the general cleanliness level is.</p>
<p>You could check out the library and see if anyone is there or check out the bookstore. You could explore the neighborhood immediately around the college - are there restaurants, bookstores, cute boutiques? How safe/isolated/friendly does it feel?</p>
<p>Love all the suggestions - and have done them all - except zoosermomâsâŠlol. Maybe I should invest in one of those hats this week, since weâll be visiting a few schools.</p>
<p>LOVING all these great suggestions!</p>
<p>So true about the student papers! I really enjoyed reading the paper at UNF while D was attending a class. Gave me a feel for what was going on. They even had âpolice blotterâ of ever crime-related event that happened on campus. Very interesting. It actually put my mind at ease about the rumors Iâd heard about crime in the area. hey - if theyâre publishing it, at least theyâre paying attention to it!</p>
<p>Something I have added to my list of must doâs on a college visit - I stroll the perimeter of the campus - not the pretty side they take you on the tour but all the way around the outside. See what they donât show you. </p>
<p>I also do the coffee shop and read the student newspaper.</p>
<p>Another Rochester note: They offer a guaranteed 22k scholarship for NMFs. I would have never found it poking around their website, but the official rep on CC has confirmed it multiple times.</p>
<p>LIMOMOF2: DD did a program at Vandy 2 summers ago and loved it; although somewhat expensive (roughly $1000/week) I thought it was a great introduction to dorm life and (in the 1st programâs case) it made her realize that while she loved the idea of forensic anthropology, it wouldnât be easy to make a career out of it (her instructor was quite blunt about academiaâs rush to take advantage of interest in the area due to CSI, Bones, etc. by having programs in forensic science, however, there are not that many jobs out there.) This year she is taking a 3 week class called Medicine, Health and Society, which I think will be right up her alley 
In addition to the class, they work with this group on college essays, and they have to participate in an Arete class (which is a physical, fun class of their choosing; think yoga, karate, step classes, etc.) I also work at Vanderbilt, but Iâm not exposed to undergraduate life. </p>
<p>1sttimemom: Iâd love to hear about your visit to GWU; itâs on DDâs list, but Iâve told her thereâs no chance weâre going to see it unless she gets admitted. </p>
<p>Thought youâd all find this amusing; I was reading some post on here when DD walked by and asked âoh, are you looking at that nutter website again :)?â She appreciates my information gathering, but is amused by the handwringing by students and parents alike. </p>
<p>Thanks for the tips on what to do while waiting. I havenât had any alone time on the campus tours yet, but I will tomorrow as DD will be sitting in on her 1st class. I was figuring that I would chat up the librarians (professional dialogue and hit the coffee shop. </p>
<p>Books: Have yâall read âThe Overachieversâ by Alexandra Robbins (who also wrote âPledgedâ) or âLooking Beyond the Ivy Leagueâ by Loren Pope (who also wrote âColleges That Change Lives.â)? I read the Overachievers last year (and DD has since) and Iâm currently reading the Pope book; I donât necessarily buy everything they say (especially Robbins as I think she profiled the most extreme cases in one of the most extreme HSâs) but it certainly helps to give pause and perspective to some of this college insanity :)</p>
<p>RobD - good call. if I had it to do over again, i wouldnât have planned to see any out of state schools until sheâd been admitted to them.<br>
sigh.
live and learn.</p>
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<p>Pretty much my Dâs reaction too. Though yesterday she spontaneously asked me âSo, whatâs the latest on C.C?â. Maybe it is just her being indulgent, in the same way I used to ask her a few years ago âSo how are your Neopets doing?â.</p>
<p>1sttimemom: donât say âGood Callâ yet. Weâve been OOS to look and will be again later this week, but theyâve all been a 4 hour drive or less and weâve combined it with some fun/friends or family. Weâll be up in NJ/NY for a chorus trip & weâve penciled in a trip to Princeton as it is on DDâs list, is located smack dab between her two aunts houses and we can stop at Halo Pub afterwards for ice cream (a favorite from her childhood, when her pediatrician was located in Princeton.)</p>
<p>Where she wonât get to see before admittance are places that are out of the way for any preplanned trips. So George Washington and Northwestern will be no-goâs; WUSTL (if it remains on her list) could be a weekend trip and TulaneâŠwell we keep saying we want to take a long weekend to New Orleans, so itâs possible. </p>
<p>I remember at Youth Sunday at our church 2 years ago (in May; they have a graduating senior give the homily) this young man started by saying âmy parents and I have visited 26 college campuses over the past 2 years.â I leaned over to my DD right then and said âyou wonât be doing that :)â</p>
<p>Re: post 4861â
Vicariousparent-- we did that at UConn-- more out of neccessity than explorationâ
We were suprised to see life-size cutouts of their top male and female basketball players in the ladiesâ room. Pretty weird.</p>
<p>RobD - Lucky you to be working at Vanderbilt - Iâve heard itâs beautiful. Thanks for filling me in on the Vandy summer program - it sounds great. D declared that she planned to work this summer and didnât want to participate in a summer program. While Iâm okay with that, it would be nice if she had a definite job in place. </p>
<p>My kids have had some choice words about the CC website too. ;)</p>
<p>Cool that your D will be sitting in on a class. My D hasnât been interested in sitting in on any classes yet, so I havenât pushed her.</p>
<p>And yes, Iâve read Robbinsâ book and no, I havenât read Popeâs. I can see why you might feel that way about Robbinsâ book, but I also feel like my D and some of her friends could easily be substituted for the kids in that book, so they may not have been as extreme as you think. They just feel like they have to do so much to be competitive.</p>
<p>For those who find The Overachievers interesting, then I would recommend listening to âGetting Ahead in School: How We Are Creating a Generation of Stressed-Out, Materialistic, and Miseducated Studentsâ by Denise Clark Pope. To find it, go to iTunes University (on iTunes), choose Stanford from the let hand column, choose Education from the left hand column, then choose Teaching and Learning. It will appear in the list of free podcasts. Pope followed students at a Palo Alto high school and came away with much the same opinions. One can also begin here: [Stanford</a> on iTunes U](<a href=âhttp://itunes.stanford.edu/]Stanfordâ>http://itunes.stanford.edu/)</p>
<p>My kids have come to love my chat room obsession. Keeps me busy and keeps me from calling them!</p>
<p>I have to catch up on posts! S and I just got back from visiting the University of Texas at Austin. What a fun experience! We visited with the head track coach, Bubba Thornton, who was the Olympic coach at the last summer games. We also got to shake hands with the runner who was the Olympic flag bearer, and the UT football coach, Mack Brown. A little overwhelming! We met with two assistant coaches and the weight coach. All such nice, encouraging people. Just their equipment room is impressive - a whole wall of shoe boxes! The distance runners get a new pair of training shoes every month, as well as training flats and racing flats whenever their old ones wear out. They are issued two sets of workout clothes, and one set is washed for them every night (of course that would stand out to Mom!).</p>
<p>It looks like S could make the team âon books,â meaning they would pay his book costs each year. This is about all the help most of the kids get - there is just so much amazing talent out there! Weâll still be contacting other coaches and not putting all our eggs in one basket.</p>
<p>We also went to a college info session and campus tour. The campus is so big we just barely scratched the surface. The number of students hasnât changed since I was there from 1980 to 1986 (BS, MS), but they have put up a lot of new buildings.</p>
<p>We both liked what we saw, so weâre hoping this works out. UT is ranked in the top 10 for several programs in engineering. Itâs also highly regarded in a lot of other areas. I never had a problem with its large size - it just meant I could find EXACTLY what I wanted in the way of classes and friends. One of my very favorite classes was a huge US History class - 300 kids. But the prof was wonderful and always had time to talk to me. </p>
<p>Iâm glad we toured five small schools last month, so S could compare. Iâm sure small schools are great for some kids, but I know he would thrive at a big school.</p>
<p>Wowâyour S must be quite a runner, if he can make the UT team even with a token scholarship.</p>
<p>RObD - sorry for jumpping the gun on ya!</p>
<p>Weâre all packed up and ready to go! Canât wait!</p>
<p>not much going on here, post ACT, but thanks for the glimpse into a D1 athletic program MaineLonghorn. I agree your son must be amazing to be able to make that team. My D is interested in D3 athletics, not as a recruit, but just as she doesnât want to sit in on a class she also hasnât wanted to make contact with a coach. I hope I can persuade her to do one of these soon, she probably would realize what sheâs been missing.</p>
<p>But my big news is we bought the prom dress, she put it on hold with her friends yesterday, when she showed me the two she was considering I liked the same one she and her friends did, it is long and very elegant, I would call it more of an evening gown.</p>
<p>Working on her Gold Award application rewrite now. </p>
<p>She had an APUSH study session this morning, they did the multiple choice questions from an old test and she told me she didnât do very well on them. Iâll have to find the score ranges, I remember when she took Psych last year it was more generous than I would have thought.</p>
<p>ttfn, I like the nutter website reference.</p>
<p>I may be treading on the âMom who has Two Headsâ territory by doing this, but I have a mental exercise for my S during spring break. (Well, he also has work for the AP classes as well.) I pulled down the Common Application and printed off the page with the essay prompts. Iâm exposing him to the kinds of topics found here and will ask him to just imagine how he might attack answering them. No pen to paper, just thinking.</p>
<p>The dinner party with the math profs was interesting. Check this out. Entry level size of calculus classes at the following places: Berkeley up to 500; UCLA 200; USC and Northwestern max at 75 but usually less. Even at 75, thatâs more than 5 times larger than my Sâs AP Calc BC class in HS. Phew! That Berkeley number is just a stunner but thatâs what I heard. Luckily, a 5 on the AP Calc BC exam will take a student past this to the next class.</p>
<p>Backing up the bus a little bit.<br>
Things to do on campus while you wait: Ask if there is an art gallery. </p>
<p>At some of the colleges, we wandered down the hallways and looked at some very interesting displays. My favorite was a display with clippings about some of the âpranksâ that had occurred over the years. </p>
<p>Check out the career center, and the associated students center to see what kind of activities are offered. Definitely read the campus newspapers (some of them were appalling, and an eye opener).</p>