<p>^ Grinnell does the same thing–actually, their website points you to the Common App site, where the supplement is past deadline. Annoying.</p>
<p>Hey all! So… I am a junior in high school and are going to visit four colleges in upstate NY starting on Tuesday morning (Cornell, URoch, Geneseo + Binghamton). I’m really excited, but kind of nevrvous because I don’t really feel prepared. I am not really sure what questions to ask and what questions to avoid and what to see/do ARGH. Can any of you in this forum give a newbie some advice? Thanks =)</p>
<p>My S found a good safety school today; Columbia College Chicago, which has open admissions, and if you want to major in the arts (as he does) and live in a big city it’s a good situation. Price is about the same as any good liberal arts college. Past reviews have stated that it is not as challenging as one might want, but now that college is so much more competitive, I think we’ll see a lot more academic qualifications implemented.</p>
<p>Columbia College sounds cool to me too.</p>
<p>First 3 visit reports, in full:</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/visits/carnegie-mellon-university/6119852.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/visits/carnegie-mellon-university/6119852.html</a>
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/visits/university-of-pittsburgh/1547415.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/visits/university-of-pittsburgh/1547415.html</a>
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/visits/oberlin-college/6941053.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/visits/oberlin-college/6941053.html</a></p>
<p>Shorter reports on Wooster and Denison to come–plus I’m visiting UDel “officially” tomorrow (versus just walking around campus, which I’ve done a lot given that I live 20 minutes away). Whew.</p>
<p>Thanks for those links, K. Your Oberlin report was a good refresher of our trip there last summer. D also loved those “womb chairs”.</p>
<p>Keilexandra, there’s a funny story about the library at Carnegie Mellon - the money was donated by a guy who made his money in aluminum and he insisted on an aluminum facade. It really doesn’t match the rest of the campus, but at least it’s not as ugly as the current computer science building.</p>
<p>mathmom:</p>
<p>That is a funny story about CMU. The School of Architecture Building at Berkeley is no feast for the eyes. Our tour guide said that’s because it’s supposed to be a kind of learning lab for the students to be able to see exposed systems. We thought it was butt ugly, period. Also the grounds of Berkeley, which I think are one of it’s nicer features, were much less prevalent on this section of the campus.</p>
<p>Lot’s of us must still be on spring break mode, not much posting going on.</p>
<p>Good news regarding responsiveness from the Common Application site (although granted, not much should be going on right now.) After sending them an email stating the Stanford supplement was not accessible, they sent a response back tsaying o check the Stanford site and if it wasn’t there, they would provide a copy. Indeed, that was the case, and in under 12 hours after advising them so, they send a PDF of the supplement.</p>
<p>mcvcm–You might want to look at the college web sites beforehand so you have some basic info on each one. If you’re on the road, have a laptop so you can do this before each visit, otherwise it gets too confusing. </p>
<p>Your first visit is a “learning experience.” After that, you will be able to compare and contrast.</p>
<p>It’s like buying a large appliance. The first one you look at you have no clue what makes a good one–but with the subsequent ones you know to ask how many BTUs or fan speeds or available colors or whatever so you can compare.</p>
<p>Well, I am back from Seattle. All in all, a great trip in further developing DD’s understanding of what she is looking for in a school and what she is not looking for in a school. </p>
<p>Bottom line to the trip - “Well Dad, I’m not going to school in Seattle - and those Oregon schools look really good”</p>
<p>I’ll post the links to the various trip reports as I do them - but the short form is:</p>
<p>University of Puget Sound - A poorly done info session followed by a weak tour didn’t help. DD did not like the area around campus (too gritty). Campus itself was OK - but not nearly as pretty as some of the others she has visited. Dorms were mediocre. Incredibly nice new science building. Library has “over 400,000 volumes and you can get through interlibrary loan millions of others.”</p>
<p>Seattle Pacific University - on the north side of Seattle - pretty neighborhood. Campus is tightly integrated into the community - with small streets running though parts of campus. Not much green space. According to the tour guide, “campus weight room does not need a stair master - we live in a stair master” and he was sure right. Built on the side of a hill, steps everywhere. Three mid 60s dorms - terrible, dark, moldy - and one brand new dorm that was one of the best I have seen with huge light and airy rooms. Great cafeteria and a top notch coffee shop (I researched that one personally) School is very religious - methodist heritage but no longer formally affiliated. Admissions advisor claimed that the professors bring “Christ into all of our classes”. I was tempted to ask even calculus but decided to behave myself. Library has “over 250,000 volumes and you can get through interlibrary loan millions of others.”</p>
<p>Seattle University was our third stop. A very urban campus overlooking the city of Seattle, the school felt overcrowded and from all indications is overcrowded. It is a school of about 5000 undergraduate and 2000 graduates. Students get housing for first two years and then move out. School also felt somewhat like a commuter campus. Library has “over 500,000 volumes and you can get through interlibrary loan millions of others.”</p>
<p>University of Washington was our final stop. I won’t bother writing it up - we got there early and did a walk around campus. Great library building, overall campus is very impressive. Went to admissions where they sent us out on a tour along with 348 of our very closest friends - and one tour guide. After 5 minutes we walked near the parking garage - quit the tour and left. Since UW knew they were going to have that many people it was inexcusable in my mind to have one tour guide.</p>
<p>Despite the less than successful visits, DD came out of it with a new appreciation for smaller suburban/rural colleges - and a greater understanding that she needs to be finding more on that end of the spectrum. </p>
<p>We also had some great father daughter time - and these days that is worth a lot as well.</p>
<p>Puget Sound report here:</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/visits/university-of-puget-sound/7569398.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/visits/university-of-puget-sound/7569398.html</a></p>
<p>Seattle University here:</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/visits/seattle-university/5874528.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/visits/seattle-university/5874528.html</a></p>
<p>Wow, 350 people and ONE tour guide? That is definitely inexcusable.</p>
<p>I just came back from a tour of my local state flagship, UDel. Thoughts are mixed, but one thing I did like was the method of organizing tours–after a typical marketing info session, the large group was divided up into 10+ tours by prospective major interest (garnered from info cards that we filled out beforehand).</p>
<p>Yup - 350 was my best guess as to how many. I counted 200 at one point before the tour started and a bunch more came in after that. It was insane.</p>
<p>Keilexandra, we’re going to UDel on Saturday. I know that for someone who lives close by it’s not the most exciting place, but for S, an hour away and out-of-state, it’s got the right mix of size, location, etc. that he may appreciate. Glad to hear the tours are well-run! I’ve been on campus, and it was an attractive place, although Newark is not exactly the most exciting place to be. Is there a ‘college town’ feel to it?</p>
<p>scualum, sounds like your D learned a lot, which is great. And that father/daughter bonding time is invaluable. H did all D’s college touring with her, and they still talk fondly of their trip up the east coast in a torrential downpour. D’s advice to her brother: try to see a campus when the weather is really bad. If you love it anyway, that’s a good sign!</p>
<p>Wow, 350 people!! There were probably about 20 on our Texas tour, and that seemed like a lot!</p>
<p>Aww, we just missed each other, Booklady–I was originally planning to go this Saturday, since parking is free in Newark on the weekends (plus!), but my dad took off work today so we just decided to go. It’s definitely a bit too close to home for me, but I enjoyed the visit and am now weighing it seriously against Pitt. Newark definitely feels like a college town, well-integrated with a great Main Street. My dad commented that the Green is the prettiest he’s seen.</p>
<p>And I see you’re from PA, Booklady! Do let me know your thoughts of Pitt vs. UDel (Pitt has the Cathedral and stronger academics?, Delaware has a prettier campus overall and preferred college-town setting). How is Pitt for English, Linguistics, and/or CS, particularly with class sizes and TAs? Everyone talks about TAs “only” leading discussion sections, but in the humanities, I think discussion is MORE important than lecture, so I consider TA-led recitations still TAs teaching.</p>
<p>I liked how our Bates tour separated kids with one guide and parents with another. They even had to shoo one mother away from the kid group 
(it definitely was not me)</p>
<p>D replied to grandparents yesterday that Midd is her top choice. Too bad she was so focused on Dartmouth during our visit last summer that she didn’t really give it a chance at that time, but has since grown on her. We will revisit sometime, don’t know when we can do it with classes in session.</p>
<p>My big announcement is that I got my invitation to the National Society of HS Scholars today. I was worried as people in other threads already had theirs, I thought they realized I was not an exceptional student after all! (gasp) It really deserves its own post later, there are a few choice lines I must quote.</p>
<p>My biggest thought these days is whatever will we do next April. We do not have break in April and there is only one school day off on the calendar next April. D’s list of schools are not early announcers. I don’t know how we will do accepted student visits. Since I have already been worrying about this for a while, I will be sufficiently crazy next year.</p>
<p>I haven’t read everyone’s reports, but look forward to doing so soon!</p>
<p>DH and S2 are back – Carleton, Macalester and Chicago were hits; S made return visits to Tufts and Bowdoin to visit classes and talk to profs; BU did not excite him so much. Did an interview at one school – was supposed to take a half hour and it went for a little over an hour. Also talked to coaches.</p>
<p>The big news is that he has gotten a handle on how to approach essay, an academic focus, etc. It was like someone turned on the switch.</p>
<p>Went to visit a class at UMD today, and he found he liked it better than he has other large schools. Most of the classes he is interested in are offered on Tues./Thurs., so he will try to get back there again (if not this spring, then in the fall), but fortunately we are local. The important part is that we may have a likely admit he’d be happy attending.</p>