592 acres seems small for the largest undergrad enrollment in the country. UCF, second in UG enrollment, is over 1400 acres.
Interesting: My daughter’s birthday was this month, and she got birthday wishes from four schools: Kansas (email and postcard, on her list), Alabama (email and postcard, tentatively on her list), Arizona (email only, not on her list for quite a while), and Oregon (email and postcard, relatively recently removed from her list).
I find it kind of surprising that the only schools to do this are big public flagships—yeah, they have more resources for recruitment and all, but LACs often market themselves on having more of a “personal touch”, so you’d think it would be the sort of thing they’d do, especially when it’s as simple as an automated email blast.
@CaucAsianDad I agree. Not sure if you mean the number is ‘wrong’, but it certainly doesn’t seem ‘mammoth’.
Sewanee: 13,000 acres 
@mtrosemom, thanks for all the AZ info! Where can I sign up for Barrett’s, lol. The main issue I see with my D applying to Barrett’s is that it’s a separate application from ASU. Getting my D to do more work for that might be hard. Especially when she is saying she is fine to go to SDSU (in fact that rates higher than some UCs on her list). It’s more me who has wanted her to keep something out of state as a possibility. (I don’t yet have a cleverly named binder or white board. Right now, things that I have printed out for her are in a folder labeled College Stuff. ) So we shall see. But I’m going to note down the number of your post summarizing things so I can find it again!
@Tgirlfriend, congrats to your S! I am also one who will have to google to learn about calculator applications.
Thanks @itsgettingreal17 for the additional info and the wishes for the dance comp. It is so great to be able to share info with everyone here! We can all fumble through this next year together. My D is not on CC, and kind of laughs at me that I am, but I am really learning so much.
@canypava right-click your mouse on the post number, and copy/paste the link location to your super-duper spreadsheet, and give it a description of what it is. That’s what all the cool cats do!
Goodness, I hope you can get your D to put at least a little effort forth, especially if it means $ in your pocket! I’m counting on it from my D, but who knows!
There is green space on the ASU campus in the form of play fields and such, but not a lot of the open space you may find on some less urban campuses. There is no arboretum, rolling hills, etc. Check it out on Google earth. It does have a couple of streets cutting through, but I didn’t really notice them on my tour. And it is definitively urban. But we were surprised by how much we liked it. AZ is one of those places that is not for everyone.
@mtrosemom and @2muchquan Thank you so much for that information. The acres comparison is not what I expected based on their descriptions. I don’t think I understand all the different campuses, though. Do students enroll in one campus or are classes offered across the different ones?
Maybe we need to dig deeper.
Thanks again for posting that info.
@Mom2aphysicsgeek I would dig deeper. I can’t say enough about what I’ve seen/heard about Barretts. Not idea about Russian, though
And, remember, with regard to green space at ASU. What @mtrosemom says is true, but it IS in a desert, basically. It IS going to be hot. It IS a dry heat (whatever). You don’t HAVE to wear pants (are you listenting D?). Lots of companies for co-op/internships. New Mayo going in, I believe. But, it IS well known for its partying too. And, I’ve heard someone mention on CC that kids in Barretts have gotten ‘mocked’ on the campus tour by students for being the ‘smart kids’. YMMV.
Is there anyway to compare honors colleges without actually visiting. I consult US News ranking while making the initial list of colleges to consider. However how do I compare the Honors colleges?
@Hades321 Honors colleges and honors programs are soooo different, I don’t see a good way to compare. They have been reviewed and given a rating by Public Honors (http://publicuniversityhonors.com/). Start there. But, how they operate is so different with regards to classes, housing, class registration, etc. it is hard to compare, in my opinion.
@2muchquan
I am sure the number for ASU is correct, I was just a little surprised that someone would call 592 acres a mammoth campus. I used UCF as a comparison since it the closest in enrollment numbers, but I have not heard called UCF mammoth either.
Last year, we started by looking at each school’s web site, and then tried to parse out what honors means at each school. Each school’s honor program or honors college will vary, sometimes by a lot.
During high school, we were accustomed to our D being in honors classes, and we found we were taking the same mentality into the college search. That is, but OF COURSE, she HAS to be in honors. (Not true!)
A wise person on CC said, on some thread long ago, something along the lines of “Don’t get hung up on honors, just for the sake of honors.” IOW, look at the requirements, opportunities, ROI, and see if honors is worth it. Don’t let it be an ego thing, or jump to the conclusion that a good education and opportunity is not available to students outside of honors.
Colleges are businesses, and sometimes the honors programs/colleges are primarily marketing tools with little advantage above priority registration and quiet (maybe) newer (maybe) housing.
Other programs have special classes and seminars or study abroad for honors students only, or senior thesis requirements, which may or may not be your kid’s thing. Some programs have very high GPA requirements.
On some college forums here, you might be lucky enough to get a current student to chime in on what the honors experience is really like at a particular school. You might be surprised to hear some say “It’s just more work. Not better.” Others rave about the special opportunities tossed their way.
@2muchquan Thanks for the encouragement on pushing ASU back on the list.
Right now, dd is getting hooked on SC w/o our even traveling there. She and the Russian dept have exchanged about 14 emails, and she thinks they are the nicest, most encouraging dept she has encountered. (I have read the emails, so I concur with her opinion, but I am more of a “see the whole package and don’t get attached” back seat driver on this one.) Glad we are visit in a little over a week so there will be something beyond the virtual to base her opinions on.
@midwest67 I agree. Other than priority registration, dorms,and some cool classes, Bama honors doesn’t offer that much substantial difference academically. (qualified by the perspective that ds didn’t take any intro level courses, so I don’t know if their smaller sizes are hugely beneficial.). CBH, otoh, is huge. It has made all the difference in his experience there.
Congrats to your S, @Tgirlfriend! Most academic competition are getting tougher every year esp in STEM.
Both legal and accounting professions are getting impacted by technology.
@Midwest67 Thanks for chiming in. You are absolutely, 100% correct. Although, even if you ONLY get priority registration out of the deal, it could still be worth it!
ASU is one of those where I do NOT think it would be anywhere near my list, let alone ON it, if it were not for what Barrett has to offer.
@2muchquan, awesome, I did not know you could do that with the post numbers! I am afraid I won’t make the cut for Cool Cat this year. Working on that! I think my D will put forth an effort to have strong applications, it is just how many colleges end up on the final list, I suppose.
Though I have to say that priority registration is huge. In fact, it may be more than huge. Even if you don’t intend to complete the honors curriculum, having priority registration the first couple years will avoid a lot of stress.
@2muchquan, I agree with you on both counts. Priority registration could be the difference between getting classes you need and graduating in 4 years, or not graduation in 4 years. And ASU would probably not be on the list if it weren’t for Barrett. The honors college is like a school w/in a school. It is 5000 kids on the Tempe campus. Each campus has it’s own arm of Barrett.