Thanks for those reports, they sound lovely. Sigh. My son refuses to consider anything south of the Mason-Dixon line. I need to figure out a way to adopt some more children when I’ve finished launching this one, there are so many good schools I can point kids towards.
@cakeisgreat
Thanks so much for taking the time to review all of the schools you visited! Seems like you’re well on the way for both kids and you had lots of fun on the trip.
Does anyone know anything about the “National Society of High School Scholars?” D has been getting lots of email from them but has ignored it until today. She says that payment is required but the amount isn’t revealed until you fill out a form…we’re hesitant to do that, and we’re not about paying to be in a “high school scholar society.” If we learn something legitimate about it, we’ll explore further.
@cakeisgreat Thanks for the reviews! We also visited Clemson, Elon and did a quick walk through Emory on the way to the airport. I did a walk around COC when DH and I were there and I really want D to consider it. She doesn’t seem to have much interest but I think I can convince her to at least apply. It has everything she wants - nice size, cool city, near the beach is a huge plus - I think she thinks that it is not a well known “name” college. So frustrating! We are trying to plan a trip to see U Richmond in the early fall as well. We were going to go this summer but I decided to postpone it because I really want her to see it with the students there since we have seen tiny schools and big schools but none that size.
@bettzke Don’t do it. Those honor societies that you have to pay for are kind of a scam. Everyone S19 knows got tht invitation and schools won’t find it impressive.
@bettzke Maybe I should let someone less skeptical respond, but while they are “legitimate”, I don’t pay attention those things. They get a sticker and I think a graduation cord and something else. Not sure where the student list comes from. I don’t pay for bragging stuff. Shoot, I wish I had thought about coming up with the National High School Poetry Society, and have thousands of people annually enter a contest and pay to be in the published commemorative book.
@momtogkc We are definitely on the same road! If you’re up to it, let me/us know your thoughts when you see URichmond and if your D ends up applying to CoC. My kiddos were also originally not as interested in city schools, but Charleston with all it’s history, etc. is just so charming, they loved it. I understand about the “name” college. S19 is looking at the pre-med part and there is a hospital right there, so he hopes to get some shadow time or something in there. If he ends up not going pre-med, he will definitely do research - his brain really seems wired for those things. Has the periodic table poster in his room hanging up LOLOLOL.
@ninakatarina I hear you on going south. I have 2 girls D14 and D16 and they both went north. I was so excited when S19 wanted to go south just so I could tour all these colleges I kept hearing about on CC over these years. 
We recently visited Quinnipiac and found it very hard to get any kind of impression. The school is beautiful, but our tour guide was quite poor and we just couldn’t get a handle on the personality of the school. I think part of the problem is visiting in the summer when not much is going on. They also didn’t have any kind of intro session – just a tour. I think the school would have come off the list, except we ran into a biology professor who my daughter really loved. We decided to just leave it on the list and go back for the open house in September.
@homerdog and @peachActuary73 thanks for your responses. That was exactly our gut feeling.
@cakeisgreat - Great reviews - thanks for posting
You mentioned the housing shortage at Elon, as a negative, so I will bring up CofC. Freshman can get on campus housing easily, but I think the majority of upper classmen live off campus as there are not enough dorm rooms.
You are all visiting some interesting places, thanks for the reviews. We have mostly stuck to visiting schools nearby and I doubt we’ll see any more unless we visit CA to see 1 or 2.
@cakeisgreat I don’t know if they mentioned this on the tour, but CofC has their own Emergency Squad with students who have earned their EMT training . They use this to earn hrs for med school. It’s a really neat program, and they’ve won quite a few awards. CofC is doing quite a bit of research with “big name schools” like Duke , Hopkins. You may want to " like" the Honors College and College of Charleston on FB. They post regularly and have some great stories. CofC is on DS19’s list, at the top , but Honors is a reach due to test scores. If anyone has any questions, please feel free to PM me. Y’all may also want to show your kids the stats of last year’s Honors admissions, especially the William Aiken Fellows program so they can increase competitiveness for admission. William Aiken Fellows offer the most merit opportunities.
@wisteria100 DS16 has been on campus since Freshman year, will be on campus next year and most likely will stay on as a Sr. Priority after Freshman year is determined by credit hours with Seniors having the highest priority. They offer traditional style dorms, suite style, apartment style and historic housing apartments , as well as Greek housing . Just wanted to pass it along since housing was a concern at Elon.
Thanks for the great reviews @cakeisgreat ! Also thanks for all the responses about Pitt. @me29034 Thanks, I’ll send you a message with questions.
That’s funny @firstwavemom, my S is a Ravens fan too! Where else is your S looking?
@elena13 Happy to find another Ravens fan out there. S looking at UVA, Villanova, UMD, Wake Forest, UMiami, Pitt, and maybe Northeastern. Not sure if others will pop up as possibilities. We meet with his GC next week, so we’ll see what he suggests. My son wants a school with big D1 sports so that takes a lot of schools off the table.
Heh, my DS ruled out Pittsburgh because of the Ravens. “It’s not that I’m that huge a fan, Mom, it’s that all my friends are fans and I would feel bad for betraying them.” Uh, OK.
I would suggest that you shouldn’t be overly concerned about schools that don’t guarantee four years of housing. My S17 goes to a school where everyone lives on campus one year and then moves off campus. It is part of the culture and not a big deal to the kids. Just make sure there are reasonably priced apartments available; in some cities (SF, NYC) this is a big deal.
Perhaps misery loves company, because hearing some of these reasons and non-reasons why schools are crossed off is making me smile.
@collegeandi We hadn’t visited Mudd yet. I’m sure I would have loved it, but I can no longer predict D19.
One benefit to living on campus is when there are roommate issues or maintenance issues there is a process in place to deal with it. Your student is on their own when living off campus. Also , most leases are 12 months long, so if your student does not stay in town during the summer, they have to continue to pay rent or try and find someone to sublet their apartment.
The thing I would be worried about if campus housing wasn’t available sophomore year is that kids need to find roommates by Nov or so of freshman year in order to make plans. It seems stressful to add finding roommates to the list of things that have to be done in the first few months of school. I would probably be less concerned if kids could live on campus for two years. That being said, I’m most comfortable with our kids being at a school where kids live all four years on campus. There’s a big sense of community at schools that have that, although I totally understand that many don’t want such small schools. S19 will have all kinds of time to live with friends in apartments after undergrad.