<p>Has anyone done a tour of Northeastern in Boston? And where is the college visits section?</p>
<p>Here you go: <a href=āhttp://talk.collegeconfidential.com/visits/[/url]ā>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/visits/</a></p>
<p>Thank you, Booklady!</p>
<p>pugmadkate - if you look at the left side of the screen while youāre on this page, you should see the āCollege Visitsā option in the Discussion Menu.</p>
<p>LIMom, our guy didnāt walk barefoot, a little chilly, he was short and blond and from Massachusetts. I didnāt warm to Tufts, 37 years ago, and I didnāt warm to it this time either. Thereās nothing wrong with it, so I donāt know what my problem is. Itās a pretty hefty reach for S2, so itās okay with me if he doesnāt fall in love. Iād never seen Brandeis and liked it much better than I expected. My mother grew up in Weston, and I have a brother in Gloucester, so I have a pretty good feeling about how easy it is to get into the city if you want to. I thought it was interesting you didnāt have to use the T - and that students found the Bran-van easier and more convenient and it runs later.</p>
<p>Just a quick update from nordstroms in Seattle where I have relegated to the sidelines while DD cruises the sale racks. Some people might say that the trip has been a failure as none of the 4 colleges will make her list. On the other hand, I view as a sucess in that she has been able to really improve her criteria for what she is not looking for. No ādorms like dungeonsā, no urban campuses, no massive lecture halls, and no schools that are growing too fast. Iāll post a more in depth report later when I have a computer rather than just a phone!!!</p>
<p>scualum, I think that was a worthwhile visit, better than applying blind to any of these schools and then realizing later they do not meet her criteria. I hope we can visit most schools D is interested in.</p>
<p>just read mathomās visit reports.</p>
<p>am I the only one who doesnāt like the new layout of the visit reports? I liked how I used to be able to navigate through the set for a particular school, ie 1 of 7, then next to 2 of 7 etc. I donāt see buttons like that anymore. I had to go to the list, click the first one, return to the list, click the second one, etc. Am I missing something? Yeah I know I should post this in the forum issues area but I donāt wanna.</p>
<p>mathmom - not the same guy - ours was dark, and from I donāt remember where.</p>
<p>Itās ok if your S2 isnāt interested in Tufts - one less person for D to compete with for a spot. 
</p>
<p>scualum - looking forward to hearing your reports. D may not be looking at west coast schools, but I enjoy learning about them anyway. And I agree with you and jackief that those visits are worthwhile too. We had one of those yesterday ourselves - I just forgot to mention it. Iāll tell you all about it later.</p>
<p>jackief - I havenāt really used the college visits, except to read the new visit reports, so I never used the features youāre talking about - but now Iāll have to investigate that area a little more closely.</p>
<p>Heās interested, but still likes Vassar better I think. I think Tufts will ding him on grades. I agree that the navigation of the visits page is annoying.</p>
<p>I was happy when ds was able to articulate what he didnāt like about Bard. Now we can eliminate all the really small, rural LACs.</p>
<p>Visited CMU and Pittsburgh today. It was raining on and off all day, ugh. I will write up full reports later and link them, but for now:</p>
<p>CMU - Pretty campus, surprisingly compact and green. I could live with this kind of urban campus. Library, one of my irrational decision-factors, was unimpressive. No tour or info session offered; I was mostly just walking around and taking pictures for a friend who is extremely interested in SCS.</p>
<p>Pitt - A bit too urban for my tasteāno matter where you stand on campus, you can see a street with cars passing through. The Cathedral of Learning is gorgeous; green space was not up to CMUās level, felt more like urban-planned-park than a college green. Honors college info session was GREAT; the dean, an elderly physics prof from Caltech, was an engaging and honest speaker. I am concerned about class sizes: largest class is 350 Intro to Psych, 6% are >100, 63% are <30ābut compare to Oberlin at 70% <20. I do think I may prefer Pitt over my state flagship UDel, and I have a decent shot at full tuition merit there; but weāll see. Iām not enamoured of the urban.</p>
<p>I should probably try to get back to sleep since itās 2:30 am in Palo Alto (woke up to a car alarm.)</p>
<p>Denise C and ILoveLA: Yes, I am ever amazed that XXXXX Tacos has such a following! Anytime I drive by there, which is fairly regularly, the lines are long so the popularity continues.</p>
<p>Iām not up to writing a trip report at this hour, but I will note that DS is sold, sold, sold on Stanford and will be applying restricted early action. He loved the campus, liked the vibe from the tour guide, was taken by downtown Palo Alto (loved the small dessert places NY cheesecake and the clothes shop with naked mannekins in the window (with paper fig leaves in the appropriate spots) with an eclectic sign which read, āShop Nude.ā) He even liked the idea that the school mascot is a color (Cardinal, not the bird), since it matches his wry kind of humor.</p>
<p>In case we missed it, he underlined it for us. He said, āYou know how youāve said itās hard for others except for you guys to know when Iām excited about something? Well, I am excited about the idea about applying to Stanford.ā I think this has given him the incentive to study hard for round 2 of the SAT and on whatever summer lab job he ends up with this summer.</p>
<p>Wow, congrats to your S for finding his perfect match!</p>
<p>Iām off to my 9:45 Oberlin interiew. Wish me luck!</p>
<p>FAP - so glad your S loved Stanford, and I wish him a lot of luck. Nothing like having those big reaches in sight - a great incentive for hard work. </p>
<p>Keilexandra - glad you liked CMU and sorry about UPitt, especially since youād have a great chance at the merit money. </p>
<p>So, D and I visited Columbia. It was an absolutely gorgeous day, probably the nicest weāve had yet this year. The campus was beautiful - truly. K - this is the type of urban campus you would appreciate. D and her friend both seemed taken with the look of the campus, and they both got very excited as they perused the course books. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, the guy who spoke at the info session (he didnāt introduce himself, so Iām not sure who he was, except that he worked in admissions and graduated from Columbia 2 years ago) quickly made them lose interest. He spent way too much talking about the stuff there is to do in NYC (I think everyone already knows that NYC is full of museums, music, shows, etc.), and no time at all talking about what goes on on campus. Very little info about the admissions process except that when it comes to the essays, please donāt say you want to go because āitās great,ā or because āyouāve always wanted to go to school in NYC.ā Also, when it comes to the book essay, he said donāt just talk about one book, and donāt talk about Harry Potter or The Gossip Girl books (Iām assuming the same goes for Twilight, though that wasnāt mentioned). He also said, please donāt say āI donāt like to readā in your essay. Other than the stuff about the essays, nothing else he said was especially helpful.</p>
<p>About a dozen Columbia students filed in at the end of the info session. They introduced themselves, stating their names, where they came from, their year and their majors, and then divided the group up based on where you were sitting. Sort of a free-for-all, and we just joined the group with a girl who was a senior and talked the loudest. We only did a partial tour - saw most of the South Quad which is where all freshmen live, in one of three dorms. One dorm is all singles, one is doubles, and one is suites and consists of freshmen, sophs, jrs and srs. and that dorm is the Living Learning Center (sorry, I donāt remember exactly what that means). We saw the lobby of the Butler Library which is quite beautiful, and the lobby of the John Jay dorm which is where the main cafeteria is located. Lots of security was present on campus, though the neighborhood is beautiful and safe. Lots of security for the dorms. Visitors have to be signed in by the resident of the dorm. If youāre a student there, you have to turn in your id to the front desk and pick it up when you leave - that way they know which students are visiting the dorm at all times.</p>
<p>We only did part of the tour because D had signed up to have lunch with a group of Columbia students. She said that the food was really good. Her problem was that while the students were all pleasant, she felt like they couldnāt answer what they did for fun on campus any better than the guy at the info session had, and that disappointed her. Iām pretty sure that as much as she liked the campus and the academics, she wonāt be applying because she is looking forward to the fun parts of college life as well as the academics, and she just didnāt get a fun vibe there. Sure, living in NYC is probably lots of fun, but since sheās grown up going to the city on a regular basis, thatās not enough of an draw for her.</p>
<p>Probably not posting in the College Visits section because Iām being lazy.</p>
<p>Good luck, K. Iām sure youāll do beautifully. Is this your first interview?</p>
<p>One more thing about S and Stanford. We had dinner in downtown Palo Alto at a Burmese restaurant we found on yelp.com. Care to guess what the fortune from his cookie read? I kid you not: āYour present plans are going to succeed within the year.ā (I tucked this inside one of the windows of his wallet while we slept last night.)</p>
<p>He teased us that we didnāt need to see anything this morning in SF after breakfast with a friend since, āIām going to be in the Bay Area next year, so you can see stuff when we come visit me.ā Nice confident thinking and an indication he wouldnāt mind a visit.</p>
<p>Overall, this has been a good trip for all. S was very wiling to talk about college related topics at length, in detail enough to prove to me he has been thinking about this all along, even though he wasnāt quite ready before to talk about it much.</p>
<p>:) 
want to give you a thumbs up FAP but smilies will have to suffice :)</p>
<p>and good luck to you also K hope your interview went well.</p>
<p>FindAPlace - love the fortune cookie part of the story - thatās excelllent!</p>
<p>Thatās very funny about the fortune cookies. My S2 hated Stanford - good thing too since has even less of a chance than S1 who did apply, but didnāt get in. Itās nice when they are finally ready to talk a little, I got some college talk too in between large bouts of Finnish metal music (which has been growing on me and does keep you awake on long drives!)</p>
<p>Finnish metal music? Pack the Tylenol!</p>
<p>What helpful college visit reports. I love the fortune cookie story also.</p>
<p>Good luck with your interview, Keilexandra! You will do great.</p>