The grand trip report! I’ll try to condense my voluminous notes so this isn’t a book.
WVU:
Pretty uninspiring breakfast spread (donut holes, store-bought mini muffins, cinnamon buns, apples, coffee & juice), considering that we were about to commence the Bataan Death March of college tours.
There are two campuses a couple of miles apart. The monorail - called the Personal Rapid Transit was so cool to use. Also tons of shuttle buses.
It’s not exactly gorgeous - kind of a jumble of meh red brick buildings scattered everywhere, up and down hills, with the newer campus, Evansdale, more spread out and suburban in appearance. We imagined it would look pretty bleak in winter. And omg, the snow and ice on those steep hills - I was freaking out just thinking about it.
The morning was academics - we stuck with theater tech as there was no way to cover all of D’s interests in the two hours allotted.
This paragraph is a detailed theater summary; skip if not your thing: The assistant to the dean gave us full tour - over an hour - of the Creative Arts Center, a monstrous building that appears to have been added to several times - very utilitarian in the behind-the-scenes spaces (tiled or painted concrete block walls) with five theaters, practice rooms, dance studios…plus there is also a downtown theater used by WVU. It seemed like five stories of rooms and auditoriums and lab theaters (black box-types)… There were two shops, upper and lower, and pulley systems allowed huge backdrops to be worked on at the top and bottom. They were constructing sets for use in another theater, downtown, and all the parts had to fit in a uHaul, so that was cool. We couldn’t actually visit the main theaters, though, because every one was in use. A cello day with dozens of cellists performing; a Miss WV pageant; auditions for “A Christmas Carol” … Six main WVU shows a year; one dance, one music and the rest dramatic. 800 students in the College of Creative Arts; 150-200 in theater. There is a BA theater track in addition to BFA tracks.
It was a brutally hot day - 86 and full sun. We dragged our way onto the PRT (it was all free transportation, free coaches shuttling everyone, free meals, much free swag) – and went to the downtown campus and fell on the lunch at the Mountainlair (student union) like starving cavemen. Food wasn’t particularly exciting though there are tons of dining options, cafes in many of the dorms, big cafeterias, food courts with chains like Burger King, Starbucks in a Barnes & Noble.
WVU had all of its dorms open. There is a cleaning service every three weeks for all the dorms. Most had “show” dorms but the Honors College dorm was a “working” dorm room which was nice. Depending on the age and facilities, the cost varies - we visited one brand-new 10-story dorm with apartments – we saw one with four single bedrooms and a kitchen/LR fully furnished + TV. Most dorms were basic suite style, updated, but not super swanky. There were some sweeping vistas in study lounges up high, courtyards overlooking the Monongahela River that snakes through the town. Laundries in all dorms, all costing $1.50 a load.
Had nice chats with RAs (D loves the idea of being an RA and getting free room/board) and Honors College students (they said the lack of partying in their dorm was a bonus, that they liked being surrounded by “like-minded” students, though diverse in majors), with student ambassadors everywhere we went. They all did great jobs talking up the school. Lots of enthusiasm and effort. We were struck by the fact that almost every student we met was from WVA. We met one from NJ; that was the only OOS student.
Back at the Mountainlair, there was an info. fair with a bunch of clubs, then reps from all of the college departments, so we got to seek out reps from her other interests, but really, by then, our eyes were glazing over. One rep tried to help D with her myriad interests by pushing a triple minor that results in a BA in interdisciplinary studies, which sounded interesting, but again, information overload by then!
Last was a talk by the Honors College people, who extolled the virtues of the smaller cohort, priority registration, special trips, exclusive dorms… There is an interesting “Not My Major” program, where they mix it up with tours/events for students who are not taking relevant majors. So, as the professor described it, a theater major gets to put her arm inside a cow to get the contents of the stomach to investigate what microbes are growing in the grass being digested. D’s face was priceless at that description.
All in all, an extremely impressive college tour, considering how difficult it is to give a personal touch at a huge university. It seemed like a cast of hundreds of students posted at every conceivable corner, giving directions, finding answers, taking us where we needed to go, handing us off like batons from one rep to the next.
Then on to Ohio U.
We didn’t have as much time here because it was pouring, and so we didn’t do as much wandering as planned.
But Athens is hands-down a better college downtown. Cobblestone streets, lots of college-oriented shops. A Chipotle within a block. A great old arts cinema. Kind of like a South Street in Philly vibe if you know that area.
OU wins the early morning repast contest, hands down. Homemade bakery items were to die for.
Gorgeous campus, red brick historic buildings, laid out in squares with shady groves of massive old-growth trees. Easily walkable, some hills but nothing like WVU. Frequent shuttle buses throughout campus. We toured two theaters - a really grand main 2000-seat auditorium with mezzanine, and a smaller theater where they were staging a play and took time to tour us through the shops. Had an hourlong talk with a crazed genius prop master (think Doc Brown in “Back to the Future”) who specializes in sword-making. Several other talks on acting, costume design, etc.
Huge amount of housing, all in the same red brick, even the brand-new buildings. Toured a “working” dorm room in the fine arts-specific dorm. Dormer room was fairly spacious. All dorms have floor to ceiling wall units in addition to desks, so lots of storage space. This building had community bathrooms; but sinks in rooms. Laundry on bottom floor. Practice room on bottom floor.
Sports complexes all grouped together. Impressive rec center, with several floors of gyms, squash, basketball, volleyball courts, indoor track, climbing wall. Separate building housing Olympic pool. Baker student center is five floors (with escalators) - like a Galleria - including movie theater, food court, store with Apple genius bar, lots of organizations housed here.
Friendly students - one random student stopped in the rain to ask if we needed help when she saw us studying a map.
Resource fair here too. Honors Tutorial College (HTC) rep and individualized studies degree rep were both encouraging with D’s varied interests in saying she could put together her own degree. HTC req: 30 composite score on the ACT or a combined score of 1300 on the SAT - they do superscore.
I would recommend going to either school’s preview days - they are really well-done despite having hundreds and hundreds of visitors at each. I loved OU. I really liked WVU. The surrounding towns influenced my perceptions more than I thought they would. (Morgantown has very Appalachia, down-at-the-heel sections). I would be happy with her going to either but the scary mountains in Morgantown wigged me out (and we live in mountains, so it’s not like I’m a flatlander). If it’s between those two schools, it’ll really come down to merit money, methinks. Both offer decent merit for OOS but they would probably still be more than our in-state safety cost; affordability would be tough.