Location- I’m ending up in a city of about 50,000 people. I never pictured myself living in a city but the campus feels so no city like. In other news, it’s my 18th birthday
Mine still seems to have no clue what she wants. Sigh.
Typing quickly before work (out here on the West Coast).
@critter – I agree strongly with your post.
And when I have a break later in the day I’ll weigh with my own biases regarding choosing a school based on the location/city, and about Boston in particular. So feel free to ignore that upcoming note.
Happy Birthday @readingclaygirl! Do you have any special plans to celebrate? <:-P <:-P <:-P My D wishes she was turning 18 (she’ll turn 17 next month). She REALLY wants to vote in the election.
Congrats to @lknomad and @happymochi on UCI and Regents!
@drmom123 - promposals were very big here the last few years, we will see what happens this yr. Boys have gotten their friends together to sing the invitation to the girl, written it in snow, tennis balls in the fence, cookies/cakes/cupcakes, at the last performance of the play (in front of EVERYONE). They are very creative, it is fun.
@Justathought1 - D16 is in the same boat. She has to take the AP’s of her teachers will fail her & we pay regardless of her score - $92 per test @ 3 tests this yr.
@Undercovermom1 Thank you! Not much. I had hot chocolate with a friend yesterday. We will have cake later. But its break here so that’s nice
When I left the confines of NY to move to Nashville and Vanderbilt-- the jokes were endless; my neighbor thought Vanderbilt was the name of a Yacht club in the Hamptons. Frankly, the first 5 years I spent here with blinders on and a fear of leaving the Vanderbilt area, just waiting to finish and get back to NY. Thankfully, I ventured out and learned much about this gem of a city. 30 years have passed and my hipster young family members in NY eye Nashville as the place to visit and are considering moving here for the progressive lifestyle, opportunities and a sense of community and growth that is lacking in their northern cities.
But ultimately, you have to walk in a place to know how it will feel to you. College can be a time to try on a locale that is different and will provide you with opportunities you may not have had experience with-- be it Boston, Nashville, or in my kid’s case- Norman, OK.
@oneundecided My little sister and brother went to OU. I am fourteen years older than my little sis, so by the time she was there, we had young kids and used to visit often with them. I love Norman. In fact, I realized that I was harboring a bit of a bias against our state flagship, Mizzou, and when we visited last weekend, it honestly reminded me of Norman and that was a good thing.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY @readingclaygirl <:-P <:-P
Why someone picks a certain school, like why someone picks a certain mate, is so personal IMO is it hard to advise someone, much less a stranger, on the best strategy. My D is very independent and has agreed to some of my school suggestions and flat out denied others for what I consider silly reasons. But, all she is “required” to do is stay within our stated budget, and the rest is her decision. I think that is how grown-ups are made. You make a decision. You live with it (for four years in this case). Then, build on the experience.
One thing I will always encourage for my D, travel. We live in one of the most beautiful places in the world, but it’s a rock in the middle of nowhere. Anyplace D goes will be different, and that’s good.
Aloha and have a great day my partners in raising awesome kids. 
Thank you! @Sophmore1
OMG! Little did I know how controversial the topic would be!
Look guys, ALL those universities you mentioned are WONDERFUL and PRESTIGIOUS institutions of higher education. Any student would be honored to be admitted, including my S.
However, he is not looking for the most wonderful and prestigious, call him crazy if you want, but he is looking for the university that can give him the best experience at the best price. Keep in mind that for him, best experience includes location and vibe.
So far, NEU is offering location and price. Is it as WONDERFUL and PRESTIGIOUS as USC, Vandy, BC? No, but he doesn’t mind. It meets 2 – location and price – of his 3 requirements – program, location, price.
It’s too early to tell.
Thanks for all the opinions, very informative 
It was an interesting and evolving process to go on a lot of college visits and see how D16 began to know what she wanted and what she did not. LAC’s, much to my early dismay having graduated from an LAC, were the first to go. Then she solidified her desire for a school that was either in or near a sizable city, so right now she has two schools in cities and two in close suburbs or proximity to larger cities. She didn’t want a small school, but felt uncomfortable at the bigger schools we visited in the northeast, essentially the Big 10 schools like PSU, Rutgers, Ohio State. Student number wise, one of the schools on her list is very large in UCF, but the way the school is structured, it simply didn’t feel like the big schools up here that turned her off…also quite possibly since it is near a very large city in Orlando.
Distance was another evolving issue and she ended up with two schools in reasonable driving distance (2-3.5 hours) and two that would be primarily ‘airplane’ schools over a thousand miles away. The in-betweens, the 6-7 hour drives that didn’t seem worth a plane ticket price or had no train service seemed to fall off the list. I think for every kid and family, the process of school type, size, prestige, history v growing, location, etc, is very personal and almost impossible to predict with any accuracy before the process started. She originally wanted a Boston school too, but dropped that idea about a quarter of the way into the process. It was hugely valuable for us to visit so many schools, even some that were closed during our visit, for her to define what it was that she wanted and what she did not.
And S21 is going to be an entirely different creature altogether, lol.
Happy Birthday @readingclaygirl ! <:-P
My H and I went to BU in the 1990’s and loved it. Although it has changed a lot since then, I still enjoy visiting. I would love for one of my kids to go to school in Boston so I have an excuse to visit. But it’s not the Boston I knew.
Since the college search with S16 is over, I’m starting on potential areas/schools for D18. Every time I suggest a school in the south, she balks and raises concerns about racism. We live in Northern NJ where it’s very diverse. Can anybody comment on this?
@kittymom1102, fwiw I never got a “prestige above all” vibe from you, so I’ve been scratching my head at the turn the conversation has taken, lol. Good points being made though all around
Happy Birthday @readingclaygirl ! <:-P I do cake decorating, so I am baking you a virtual cake and sending it your way!
My D is one who considered location as a major part of her college search even before applying to any. That wasn’t the only thing, of course, but moving to the south was always part of her agenda. There are certainly other colleges she could have looked at and applied to, in fact she even had an advisor strongly challenge her about not doing so, but she always wanted a southern city with an HBCU. She expected to love Atlanta-did not, at all. But Nashville really suited her, and it helped that her favorite college is there, so thus her decision to go to Fisk.
By the way, looking at the itinerary for D’s upcoming admitted students weekend, it seems she’ll need to bring a sleeping bag, pillow, etc. There’s a discussion on the Parent Cafe about this-if your kiddo will need to do so, I’ve found some sleeping bags that compress into tiny balls for easy transport in case they need to fly out. It had not occurred to me that D would need something like this. Amazon has some for under $25 though.
Happy 18th Birthday @readingclaygirl <:-P
@RyanG1207 we live in the Midwest and my son had a similar reaction. Funny thing to me is that a lot of people would think the area we live in less diverse and perhaps racism could be an issue, yet here he was making some sweeping generalizations about other regions. I’ve lived in TX and other Midwestern cities and I really don’t think the south should be ruled out for that reason. I would encourage him to at least check out those schools if he’s interested and see for himself.
@GoodGrief16 Ok, it wasn’t just me … I thought I got lost “in translation,” as I usually say. English is not my first language and sometimes it can happen that you means important information.
I confessed to being a little lost but tried to keep on going and make my point a little bit clearer
I think Vandy or any other the universities mentioned are great schools, but the question is for whom? Each kid has certain goals and expectations about her/his college experience. The best university is the one that gets the closest to those goals and expectations.
@crowlady My D16 is planning to wear D15’s cap and gown with the 2015 tassel. There was no option to purchase just a tassel, the school insisted I need to buy an entirely new cap and gown set, and both girls said they had no interest whatsoever in keeping any part of it. I’ll be stunned if anyone even notices. Unfortunately S19 will probably end up about a foot taller than his sisters so I don’t think I’ll get away with a third year.