A lazy river. Sounds great. But my fraternity would have definitely deemed this to be an “attractive nuisance” under the law. The draw would have been too powerful to resist late night. Lol.
No lazy rivers in my neck of the woods. They’d all be ice rinks most of the school year. 
The main quad at McGill is intentionally converted into an ice rink every winter. 
I will say some students like the state of the art gyms and well-manicured lawns. For example, D20 was impressed with Tulane’s gym, UC Davis’ arboretum and Duke’s beautiful gardens. To each his/her own.
The extras can matter. For example, USC has a traders joes and target in The Village and free Uber/Lyft within 3 miles of campus. I don’t think this is a bad thing.
I agree with @socaldad2002 These were important niceties at all of these schools.
It would be great if someone does a detailed cost analysis of a public university and its amenities and how it impact tuition fees. I read somewhere a while ago (think NYTimes) that talked about univ costs and what contributes most to it - more than pools/fields, universities seems to spend big on some select sports programs. Not sure if sports revenue is enough to pay all that money to famed managers/staff. If we need to save any real money in tuition fees, think it’s those big ticket items that need to be checked.
Anyway we look at it - universities have to really look hard and try to rein-in costs - the higher ed cost inflation is ridiculous and can’t go up like this forever.
We are out of state. The National Buckeye would have had the biggest impact, basically covering the OOS tuition. Requires top 25%. School doesn’t rank, but I’m pretty confident she was in top 25%. SAT score was well above the required 1330. WRT the other scholarships, I know for sure she was not in top 10%, but was likely in top 20% for the $1,000 Trustees scholarship. And she did apply before Nov 1.
D17’s school could sure spend some money on dorms. What a cash cow. But, she didn’t care in the least, and I doubt most kids do. They can turn their nose up at them while on a college search, but that’s in the same category as not liking a tour guide’s shoes, IMO.
The free Uber/Lyft within 3 miles, that’s pretty sweet, but borders on necessity at USC. (I can say that as an alum).
We are having a bit of good luck, in that there are still two schools (local: Rockhurst and UMKC) that are considering her for a full ride. She HATES the idea of staying local, but unless something drastically changes, those two schools will be our recommendation.
I think the only amenity my S20 cares about is a bowling alley.
Hah. That’s great. Love bowling though more enthusiastic than talented.
That’s funny because a lot of schools seem to have bowling alleys and I wonder how much they are used.
The only “amenity” D20 is interested in is study abroad. This kid wants to be on the go. Flowers and lazy rivers? Couldn’t care less.
Hi everyone, I’m way behind in posts and will probably go back to lurking after this now until kid #3 gets closer but wanted to announce that kid #2 got into Reed ED today! Thanks to everyone who has given us advice in the past year (and I’m not going to totally disappear but phew it’s so nice to be done in December rather than in April like with my oldest). Number 3 is HS class of 2022, different stats than his sibs (slightly lower GPA to date and I’m guessing he will also have a slightly lower testing profile - we’ll see) AND he wants to be a CS major so that’s going to be fun… LOL…
@washugrad Congrats! Reed is amazing!
I’m terrible at bowling, and I didn’t even remember that my alma mater had a bowling alley, but it’s his main EC so I was not too surprised that he cared.
Thankfully, his three top choices all have bowling alleys in the student center. Of the three schools he visited and eliminated, only one has a bowling alley.
I promise he has been talking about academics and research opportunities, too. ?
@washugrad
Congratulations!!!
Not seeing many result posts so far from the ED/EA schools. Felt like seeing a lot more this time last year.
Good luck to all of us waiting for results!
Congrats @washugrad! I hear lots of good things about Reed! Nice get! And I assume no lazy river…
I was following Pomona for a friend whose kid is a junior this year, and I see their ED decisions are out. Anyone?
@bigmacbeth LOL no on the lazy river but they have a brand new dorm this year (I haven’t seen it yet) and the school is in Portland, home of (two of several branches of) Voodoo Donuts so there’s that.
We were actually surprised to hear the results today. The last couple of years their ED results came out closer to Dec 15th so I thought it would be next week. Also Reed is one of the only schools that still notifies by snail mail first and there was a hack the past two years - they send a book out to kids who are accepted. For the past couple of years they sent the mail by Fed Ex so people who had Fed Ex tracking were getting notifications a day or two in advance. This year they sent it by USPS so no advance notice - the first I knew that they were starting to come out was from a kid on Reddit who posted that he had gotten in today. So that was kind of good… I only had to sit on pins and needles for about an hour or two rather than really get worked up for a whole day or two ahead.
Quote: “ For the past couple of years they sent the mail by Fed Ex so people who had Fed Ex tracking were getting notifications a day or two in advance. This year they sent it by USPS so no advance notice - the first I knew that they were starting to come out was from a kid on Reddit who posted that he had gotten in today. So that was kind of good… I only had to sit on pins and needles for about an hour or two rather than really get worked up for a whole day or two ahead. ”
Not a 2-days heads up like Fed Ex, but USPS informed delivery email gets sent @ 8am daily and it includes a scan of the actual envelope