<p>I appreciate the input and understanding (and company) on D’s quest to find that school that might give her merit, but isn’t populated with the types of students she’d prefer to avoid…that she’s seen in high school, and are just academically disinterested. I don’t think she hopes for all super achievers. She doesn’t want to be the underachiever in the bunch lol. She just wants to be somewhere where the students are engaged and interested in the academic pursuit. She is not outgoing and doesn’t make friends easily, so seeking out like minded people can be difficult. When we visited FSU she said it was nice, but she envisioned herself pretty much sitting in her dorm and going to class because going out and checking out clubs and events seemed like a major endeavor. She just needs someplace where she’d feel more comfortable exploring, and where the odds of just running into “her people” is more likely. </p>
<p>Oxford at Emory: The Oxford campus is about 40 minutes from the Emory campus. It’s in a little town, with a few things around, but not much. It’s a pretty campus, all set around the quad. Very small. They have a new a modern library. It has a couple classrooms in it. Since our tour was “such a large group” ( I think there were 12 of us) lol…we had our info session in one of those classrooms. Most of the rest of the campus is much older buildings, some apparently said to be haunted. This campus was the original Emory campus, pre civil war. Students who come to Oxford, spend their 1st 2 years there, then head to Emory when they are juniors. As juniors there isn’t guaranteed housing, but most live in the Clairemont campus, which seems to be a dedicated residential section…with apartments and lots of amenities, attached to the Emory campus.<br>
Benefits of Oxford are small classes ( about 900 students total) no upperclassmen to compete with, individualized attention. Students still have access to all things Emory. They emphasized that those students ARE Emory students, just on a different campus.<br>
Drawbacks, not much to do in the area, have to make the transition to Emory campus, and though there is some transportation provided, it didn’t sound frequent…I will have to learn more about that.
Our tour guide was very bubbly and energetic. She joined a sorority on the Emory campus and felt that would help her transition since she already has ‘sisters’ there. I asked how she was able to do that and she said having a car really helped. Students that go from Oxford to Emory have their own orientation when they come to Emory, to help with the transition. The tour guide said there isn’t any distinction once they are there that these are Emory students and those were Oxford students. One issue I hadn’t thought of with Oxford is that if you come in with AP/IB credits, then you may be a junior a semester early. Our Oxford tour guide said a lot of students do graduate ( they do a ceremony at the end of the 2 yrs at Oxford) early and then go right to Emory. She said she didn’t recommend that, since the first and last semester at Oxford were the best, and she recommended getting the most out of Oxford. So that possible early graduation is interesting…not sure how it affects the transition…and if you choose not to transfer over, I’m not sure if that means you just lost the financial benefit of those AP/IB credits. Definitely something to consider. She said it has been that Oxford would take up to 16 credit hours of AP/IB, but they are changing their system where some classes are 3 credits, some 4… So not sure of the affect of that. Overall kind of a quaint campus, a few new parts, a few very old…creaky floors and all. D said it felt too small, but I suspect it feels different with students on campus…still small, but lively. The tour guide said most people are in 2-3 or more clubs on campus, and here it really did seem like it would be easy to start one if the 80+ they have didn’t suit you. </p>
<p>Let me know what you find shoboemom, and I’ll enroll my daughter along with yours. :)</p>
<p>Ditto! ^^</p>
<p>planner,</p>
<p>My 2012er and I really liked Penn. At first, it was really bizarre to see this campus smack in the middle of a city, but I got used to it. My son liked the energy. We were visiting a friend in the wellness/sub free dorm and we both enjoyed meeting kids there.</p>
<p>I would love my 2015er to apply there as they have a game program, but I think it’s academically too intense for his low energy.</p>
<p>I would definitely encourage you to check it out.</p>
<p>@shoboeman your concerns were mine for my D. I found a guide very insightful on one of our tours and it was at a small school. D was concerned about being bored or out growing it. The guide simple said if you don’t go outside your room whether its on a big campus or small you will be Bored and you will Outgrow the walls of your room.</p>
<p>She then told her to forget about the fluff and ask about what interest her (D). She also told her to ask how orientation is handle? Which was a different take on the whole college tours because she told D that during orientation you will find at least 1 person to eat with and may find 2.
That orientation that have super large group activity seem to leave a lot of kids lonely. So if they break it down you should find someone to start to hang with.</p>
<p>Remember most large universities have academics going on if their is a focus on research. So again find what interest you and you will find your kind of people.</p>
<p>I also think the major you choose will dictate to some extent the type of people you will be with. Obviously if you are an engineering major you will be with bright kids. My d13 is a pre pharm major in South Carolina’s Honor college. Their honors college only has 300 students a year and they all live together freshman year. Very easy to “find your people”. My d is pretty social but wants an engaging academic experience but really is ok with weekends being with all types. Again, you have to know your kid and they need to be honest with you and themselves. Because you really should have some fun in college too outside of academics!</p>
<p>@shoboemom I’m going out on a limb here and throw out a school I think your D would find maybe her special cup of tea ;).
Antioch College; yes their will be some who noted the financial difficulties in the past but this school has a Strong network of alums that makes thing happen.
They have their ducks in order and the climate is perfect for those who want to surround oneself with people who love to learn.
This will be on S list because he definitely sounds like your daughter in your description of her.</p>
<p>@Hoosier96, it’s my understanding that Antioch is still not accredited. Has that changed?</p>
<p>It looks like this is the latest on that: <a href=“http://www.bizjournals.com/dayton/news/2014/06/16/antioch-college-hits-key-milestone-on-path-to.html?page=all”>http://www.bizjournals.com/dayton/news/2014/06/16/antioch-college-hits-key-milestone-on-path-to.html?page=all</a></p>
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<p>I grew up on that campus, almost literally. My mom got her PhD there and we lived a few blocks north and I did everything from play on the Low library steps as a kid to sneak out to frat parties and campus bars as a teen. Several of my friends went there (I refused to apply because it was almost literally in my backyard).</p>
<p>Columbia absolutely has a campus and there are no cars in/on it. The center area - where Low is, leads to several quiet grassy quads on all 4 sides, most fronting dorms. There are trees and grass and pathways and you really feel like you aren’t in the city, until you walk out onto Broadway or Amsterdam and then, it’s on.</p>
<p>Some upperclass dorms are “out on the street” but the frosh dorms aren’t and classes aren’t. If you take any Barnard courses (and the schools seamlessly cross-register, some majors are at B, some at C), you will stroll across Broadway to their equally quiet, green, smaller campus.</p>
<p>Safety really not an issue, Morningside Heights is one of the safest areas of the city. More so now than when I lived there. Lots of large institutions in the adjacent blocks - Manhattan Schools of Music, Jewish Theological Seminary, Riverside church, Cathedral of St. John the Divine…</p>
<p>Also easy access to Riverside Park with it’s bike trail that leads all the way to South Ferry and up past the GW Bridge. Central Park not far, about a quarter mile SE. </p>
<p>This is an aerial of SOME of the campus: <a href=“Facilities and Operations”>Facilities and Operations;
<p>Antioch announced that they have permission for accreditation to be determine by 2016. They can grant BA and BS by the state of Ohio.
The details were just released so I will examine them for clarifications</p>
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<p>My brother is an alum of Antioch, he absolutely loved it. He is one of the alums who are “making things happen” now. </p>
<p>@Hoosier96, Thank you. I am always open to suggestions. I keep worrying that we are overlooking great options. I have been hoping to keep the search in the Southeast, for about a 6 hour max drive (We are in NE Florida), second choice up the east coast to DC because of train access, and family in DC. Train is a helpful option since we aren’t fans of flying. We won’t refuse to fly, but don’t really want to commit to 4-5 years of it. </p>
<p>It’s tricky: We want in the south, but not southern. No football and no Greek is a plus, but we don’t want all hippies (some is fine though), must have diversity, want cultural events on campus…lots to do, but don’t want a huge campus. Emory seems at the upper limit of her comfort zone.</p>
<p>We’ve visited and crossed off:
Our own personal opinions, YMMV:
Furman: Too expensive and deemed too preppy, visited a couple times.<br>
NC Asheville: not academic enough
Elon: too expensive, too preppy? I keep wondering about this one though
UGA: too huge
Wofford: too few majors, not strong enough academics
Agnes Scott: (this was painful to cross off…so perfect on paper)…not dynamic enough, too focused on women’s issues
Duke: great for grad school, overwhelming for undergrad
Guilford: best friend loved it, but felt too much like summer camp to D
Rollins: Didn’t feel academic enough, country club like
Davidson: Too country club, felt exclusive, very much a bubble, didn’t feel comfortable
Georgetown: too big feeling…maybe great for grad school</p>
<p>May revisit the idea of U Richmond. Saw it before junior year. the school was great, but we didn’t love the city.
D says she is crossing off Eckerd (not academic enough?)…I may push for another visit.
Probably crossing off USCarolina (too big), but I am not done discussing that one with her ;-)</p>
<p>NO GO’s from the GET GO:
Clemson: too southern, too much football, too conservative
Wake Forest: too expensive? Seems very football, and greek? Conservative?
William and Mary: challenging location to get to, too greek</p>
<p>Researching:
American
GWU
Mary Washington
…starting to expand the search a bit in that direction</p>
<p>and then…jump to Wellesley. D loves what she has read about it, it uncertain about intensity and distance.</p>
<p>Keeping state schools on the list until we’ve visited a couple more to compare. </p>
<p>Shoboe did you like U of S Carolina besides the size? D refuses to apply. </p>
<p>I think WF is conservative especially since we are from NY, but D does not seem to mind being someplace out of her comfort zone. She likes the traditions that go along with their games. </p>
<p>I think American sounds like a good school for you to look at. It is not a “rah rah” school and is the main reason why my daughter’s friend transferred. </p>
<p>@ohiomom2 are you able to give an honest take on Antioch? I know that this year class is half tution. I know that they are definitely looking for the right student for their community that they are building.<br>
Am I getting this right? My S will be a hard one to “shop” for in the college hunt.
But he has read with interest on some of the classes that they offer and he is very interested; this has been a big surprise for us parents 
</p>
<p>University of South Carolina visit:</p>
<p>Very different feel than the overwhelming UGA.
We signed up for the info session and tour and then a separate honors info session:</p>
<p>The Campus is right in the middle of downtown, but the downtown area is what I’d consider to be a mid-sized downtown; some tall buildings, but not lots and lots of them. The population is interesting, and I imagine that the whole landscape changes when school is in and the legislature is in session. 3 sections of downtown are easy walks from campus. Five points (we didn’t see this)…but this is where our tour guide said students go…more affordable places, but also more crime. The Vista, more moderate to upscale…but I really didn’t see that much really upscale…There was Publix (major grocery chain in the south), Chipotles (a plus on my D’s list), deli’s pizza, Longhorn steaks, several others at about that level. Everyone we met was very friendly. Then there is Main street. Our tour guide said his was his favorite area…a more typical downtown street, said to have a farmer’s market every Saturday. (The university has one on campus every Wednesday).
Everyone we met was very friendly. It was noticeable. 
The admission session and tour was very organized and well run. Impressive. Power point type presentation with an admissions person adding detail, but not over explaining. Our tour guide was probably the best we’ve had. He was so personable and easy to talk to. He gave several examples of things he had been concerned about as a freshman, and things he’d experienced at the school. The campus just doesn’t feel as big as I thought it would. It’s a beautiful campus! Lots of shade trees, brick sidewalks, green lawns… We had walked for a while and just when I started to think it was feeling ‘too big’ I realized we had looped around and were back where we started! lol There are a mix of buildings and the campus is a definite campus, not mixed with city, but is surrounded by city, so there are places where you are walking down the street and one side of the street is campus, the other side is city. We got to see in one dorm, a suite style, older but very nice (in function) one that is was 2 bedrooms that shared a little kitchen and bathroom. There are a variety of types of dorms. We walked past but could not go in the honors dorm. We even walked back over later and it was all locked up…being used for summer camps, so no visitors allowed, but it is new and 5 stories high, with a cafe and some classrooms on the ground floor (well, you CAN look in the windows! lol)
The buildings are of various ages, some showing their age more than others, but like most schools there were some renovations going on. The library has several floors and the inside decor made of think of the TV series “Mad Men”. …but that brings up another point. USC has recently gone tobacco free!
Campus had the usual emergency buttons around campus, but we noticed that some of them also had cameras, which we thought was a good idea. Tour guide said this was rated one of the safest campuses?? Not sure compared to what other schools, but it’s something they seemed to take seriously. So D started the tour anti-USC and I was getting frustrated with her for not staying open to it…then she started to seem like it was growing on her, found out the football stadium is 2 miles from campus, another plus in D’s book, Greek is only about 20% of the school…then we went to the honors session… 
The first session and tour were so well done…not so the honors session. I really thought that would be the thing that convinced her, but it did the opposite.
No video, no power point of pictures of honors students doing cool stuff…just a retired dean talking about it. He was nice enough, but just sort of casually told us some stuff and answered a few questions…and this was upstairs in one of the old creaky buildings, where, on the first floor they didn’t seem to know if/where this meeting was happening…just not a good impression.
I had somehow gotten the impression that the honors college was sort of a mini campus within the larger campus(which was reinforced in the regular admission info session, when she said honors is a completely separate college). It is not. There is the honors dorm, but that’s it. And that is only for freshman. Housing on campus is only guaranteed for freshman, then you have to move off campus, which would be a concern. He said the honors classes are all over the campus, and that typically a student will take 2-3 honors classes out of the 4-5 classes they take each semester. I said I thought that there were special programs, lectures, events for honors students and he said that the honors students (I guess like student government?) set those up for themselves and determine who to bring in, etc…no examples or more detail than that.
So, it seemed like they emphasize it being a true honors college, but I am not sure what actually makes is different than an honors program.<br>
The tour guide talked a little about the capstone and honors, saying capstone focuses more on what you do outside of the classroom (volunteer work etc) and honors is a more academic focus. Honors students do get priority registration.
So, I thought they almost had her interested, but that honors presentation just didn’t close the deal. They gave us a comment card after the 1st session and tour, but not after the honors session.
So…It still has some benefits over some of the state schools that feel bigger and the honors has perks, so we just need to adjust our thinking about it, and get past the ‘it’s not what we expected’ feeling to really evaluate what it actually is. </p>
<p>Not on what’s going on there right now, no. I think you’d have to visit. It’s small. Yellow Springs is awesome. It’s a co-op school.</p>
<p>Warren Wilson might appeal to someone who likes Antioch. </p>
<p>And @Shoboemom, would your D visit Guilford again? It just sounds like it meets her criteria.</p>
<p>Shoboemom</p>
<p>Have you looked at College of Charleston.</p>
<p>Sorry you didn’t get a good impression of UGA. I wonder what route you approached campus? I am surprised you didn’t like North campus and downtown Athens. North Campus is beautiful and Athens downtown is a vibrant college town. We are in the opposite situation as softball girl drops colleges off her list that don’t match up to UGA.</p>
<p>My eldest spends most of her time on North campus and Moore College( honors ) is located there near the chapel. East campus has some upper classman housing, the rec center, music dept, medical center and is a distance from North campus. My d doesn’t spend much time there. I can see if you landed in that part of campus why you would feel the campus was huge and be over whelmed. Many new buildings. The heart of the school is really North Campus. </p>
<p>@shoboemom That is too bad that your honors session wasn’t better. My d is in the honors college. She lived in the honors dorm which is very nice and the best location. There were 30 upperclassmen in her dorm (not including RA’s) but most of the honors upperclassmen that want to stay on campus live in the historical horseshoe area. Many of her friends are living there next year. She did join a sorority but she said only 20 girls in her dorm went through rush. Her roommate did not and they are still very good friends. My daughter only had one class freshman year that was not honors. She only has a few next year that are because her program is very clear cut on what she needs to take before applying to pharmacy school (which will occur this year). The football stadium is far but don’t let that fool you. Football is HUGE in the fall at USC. She said that many kids that didn’t have an interest at first started going. The games are a blast. </p>