@makemesmart
Rice:
Campus is stunning. Meticulously kept, everything perfectly in its place. Gorgeous neighborhood, nearby Rice Village has lots of fun cafes and restaurants.
Honestly, I was really turned off by the info session. The AO was stuffy and arrogant, IMO. He publicly scolded a parent for taking a photo of a slide during the presentation. When discussing study abroad, he kept saying, “Should you choose to leave Rice…” in a way that implied any other university would be an obvious step down.
We only got to meet a handful of students, the tour guides. They all seemed very uncomfortable in their role of leading a tour. Maybe they were all new to the job? All of them were STEM majors. Usually there is some variety, so prospective students can ask questions of someone in their major, or at least a related major.
We were offered warm/hot bottled water for our August campus tour. Overall it just felt like very little effort went into hosting prospective students and their families. Yes, they have lots of prospective students, but so does WashU and we felt MUCH more welcomed there. (Actually, WashU was the other extreme—a little over the top!)
Now, this was just a snapshot on a random summer day. If we’d gone a month later, it may have been a completely different experience. Several of D’s good friends have visited Rice and come back raving about it, including two very outgoing liberal arts girls who will attend Rice this fall. So, attach all of the necessary qualifiers to my negative experience!
@ShrimpBurrito What was your opinion of Pitt? It’s a school in our visit list for D20. I wish we could get domestic tuition rates in Canada! My great-grandparents were Canadian – but that’s not good enough 
Hi @stencils
Yes, we are so grateful for the Canadian options!
Pitt would be a really great place to go to school, for the right student. It didn’t make D’s short list, but she lobbies hard for her friends (and brother!) to go visit. Pitt has a great energy/buzz. It’s urban, but not overwhelmingly so. There are still green spaces and some gorgeous landmark buildings. There is a lot of school spirit, and everything about it just screams fun.
Thank you @stencils for the review of Rochester. DS had already taken it off his list of schools to visit this summer.
@makemesmart we really like JHU. Visited last summer at a session for biomedical/pre-med careers, I was impressed with the presentation and the tour. We got to see labs and we heard about research projects happening around campus. The professors were very easy to talk with and generous with information. DS was impressed with the scienc-y stuff. The school is in an urban setting and looks very nice all around it. Very nice grounds and seemingly engaged and serious students. This is the Homewood campus. We visited Peabody over Spring Break this year. It’s separate from the Homewood campus but they have busses that run about every 15 min to/from. The conservatory covers roughly a city block and is a series of buildings with differing architecture loosely joined with a charming courtyard in the center. Very cozy and surprisingly large and spacious. Very serious music students there and great tour and presentation by a grad student. We ate in the cafeteria to get a feel for “student life” and it was ok; students appeared happy and engaged.
Thank you very much @VickiSoCal @SoccaMomma @stencils @ShrimpBurrito I know this college impression can and do vary person to person, but it is still valuable to hear your experience. Much appreciated.
@ShrimpBurrito does Rice feel too small to you?
@SoccaMomma does the location of JHU/Peabody feel safe to you?
@makemesmart “Too small” is so subjective. Rice is smaller enrollment-wise than most other private research unis, but it is quite a bit larger than a typical LAC, so I think it depends on the lens through which you are looking. During the info session, the AO mentioned that if only one or two students sign up for a course, it will still be held. The potential for very small classes is there! Some students would love that, and some would hate it.
Campus-wise, it feels very grand, and it’s easy/comfortable to walk off campus, so I certainly didn’t feel claustrophobic.
I love Rice on paper. It’s obviously a fantastic school. I just didn’t get the feels on our visit.
Thank you @ShrimpBurrito
Asking because we visited Swarthmore and it felt way too small, campus-wise and student body-size wise. We were looking at small-medium sized schools before that visit, now we are thinking of more medium-sized ones than small.
@makemesmart & @ShrimpBurrito I think the conversation above leads to good guidance for any HS student embarking on a college search, especially if they have never accompanied an older sibling on college visits. Everyone is different, and high school students are still learning about themselves. I think it’s valuable to visit different types of schools if and when it’s convenient, even if there’s really no intent on applying and attending the visited school, just because the school is representative of a category. Big vs. small, urban vs. suburban vs. rural, public vs. private, LAC vs. big research.
Example: RIT and Drexel look somewhat similar on paper. Both are private, heavily into co-op, and tech-heavy schools. But Drexel is smack in the middle of downtown Philly, while RIT is somewhat isolated in suburban Rochester. RIT has a distinct campus, while Drexel does not as much. I think HS students figure out quickly whether they want “city life” or “campus life” and these two schools are good foils for one another in that regard.
D17 only visited schools that are within driving distance. S20 was dragged along for most of the visits since we did them during school breaks.
Visited and applied
UMD , Lehigh, Columbia and Yale
Visited but did not apply
GW, Georgetown, Tufts, MIT and 4 other ivies
The rest of the schools she applied she didn’t visit. She did acceptance student day for uMich and Case Western only.
No college visits yet. I have heard that a good time to visit is at the end of August, when colleges begin session but high school hasn’t begun.
@Octagon We felt the spring break worked very well for us since our HS spring breaks rarely coincide with college breaks. I also think some colleges purposely do not offer tours during the beginning couple of weeks of the school starts, and that is mostly in late August.
@whataboutcollege Great tip. Thanks! I guess this is another thing to add to the junior year schedule!
@makemesmart We felt very safe at both Homewood and Peabody @ JHU. We were there during the day so unsure what it would be like traveling late on or between the campuses. The surrounding areas by each school seemed pleasant as well. It is definitely an urban school with all that entails such as pedestrians other than school-related, public transportation, and limited close street parking.
@cakeisgreat my D18 (who just graduated last night!) will be starting Elon in the fall. So far we have had a very good experience they have been very communicative throughout the admission, acceptance and now enrollment process. My daughter is studying communications so I am not knowledgeable about the Pre-med studies but I would definitely recommend looking into it and touring ( it is beautiful!). Big focus at Elon is experiential learning and the students have to complete at least two out of the following five experiences: community service, research, study abroad ( or USA), leadership and/or internship. Traditionally Elon has had a niche taking the students who needed to blossom a bit more academically (like my D20) but it has become more competitive and I think it is definitely a school that will continue to rise in the rankings. They do put weight into siblings with admission decision but D20 will never go now that it is her sister’s school. It is very clear the school knows they are taking in very young adults as freshman and the mission is to send them out as globally engaged, well polished professionals in four years (and they mean four years!) We are very happy with her decision and look forward to the next four years.
As far as schools we have seen:
Visited but not applied: Boston College, Emerson, Marist, Marquette, Purdue, Notre Dame, American, Georgetown, Michigan, Drexel, Temple.
Visited, applied (early action where available) and admitted all with merit: DePaul, Elon, Fairfield, Hofstra, Ithaca, Loyola Chicago, University of Rhode Island.
Visite, applied, and waitlisted: Clemson (was recently accepted with a January entry); George Washington (yield was met so waitlist was closed without offer of admission) and Syracuse-Newhouse (spots off waitlist if any will be offered starting now in June).
Visited, applied and not accepted: Boston University and Northwestern.
Is anyone kid taking the ACT in July. I am trying to talk my daughter into taking it in Jwith no success. I figured with PSAT in October and the mandatory SAT in April it might be a good time.
@MinnieFan Your Elon info is super helpful. O is looking at Elon as a possibility but wondered about the surrounding area…what is there to do, restaurants, etc. Could you speak more to that, if you get a chance? Thanks!
@SoccaMomma
Thank you for the info on JHU/Peabody. I know i am living in a bubble and worried about Baltimore the location too much. Being to the harbor and loved it. But then also remember just a couple of blocks away the surroundings quickly deteriorated. I need to get over it! Lol.
Lurking at the class of 2019 thread and saw a parent “bragging sheet”, is this something parents/kids prepare themselves to give it to the GC for LOR? Does the GC ask for it or the student just gives it to him/her when time is up? Is it a common practice? We have met with the GC twice for the past two years, he is in charge of about 60 kids and is supportive and knowledgeable.