Given that we will apparently lose the ability to chat for a little bit while CC does maintenance, let me float a topic for discussion: Based on all of your/your child’s college research, what have you found to be the biggest misconception about a school.
I have two.
Bowdoin: Even among many well-informed people in the Northeast, the school has the reputation of being exceptionally cold and remote. It is neither. It’s obviously not an urban school, but it is in a good-size town and only half an hour from Portland, which has some of the best restaurant options of any city I have visited. Boston is two hours away. The weather in coastal Maine does get cold but is not substantially different from Massachusetts, and milder than many parts of the Midwest.
Grinnell: Maybe not a misconception, but we were all blown away by how nice the campus and the town are. I know that it’s in the middle of Iowa but I’m surprised it’s not a more popular school between the great facilities and the huge endowment (and resulting offerings).
Had it not been for the pandemic, my D20 might have landed at Grinnell. It was one of the few schools that we decided to visit if she was admitted. My D loved everything about it on paper and had a terrific interview with an AO who came to our area. She did get in, but it was March 2020 so all in-person admitted student events were canceled. Our family suddenly felt uncomfortable with schools that were more than a few hours drive from home.
Keeping it positive, I loved how focused Wake Forest was on teaching quality and the academic experience generally. Not that people think of it massively differently, but I am not sure everyone realizes how high of an institutional priority this actually is for them. Definitely puts it in the category of medium sized research universities competitive with SLACs for this sort of thing.
I guess my other one would be that Carleton came across as a really FUN college.
Again, not necessarily totally unknown as such, but some people seem to sort of put it into the Swarthmoreish, even Chicagoan, category. And to be sure, they love their academics and the trimester schedule.
But then that is mixed in with a truly impressive list of zany traditions and really constant sense of humor. To me, it felt much more like, say, Yale or William & Mary.
Subtle distinctions, I guess, but potentially important too.
I agree - our Carleton tour was very fun and quirky. I loved the term “Bald Spot” for their main green. In general, we were big fans of the schools we saw in the Midwest. (Saint Olaf was the third we saw on the same trip as Carleton and Grinnell.)
I have deeply mixed feelings given I have a D30. I’m watching the gender disparity pile up, not least at the most popular coastal SLACs. There are the women’s colleges, but sometimes I feel like I should just shut up about the Midwest SLACs and hope no one notices . . . .
When we visited SMU and Vanderbilt, we thought there would be a lot of emphasis on the Greek system since they have that reputation. It was interesting that Vanderbilt spent a ton of time in the information session on their residential college system and its inclusivity.
We were also surprised by the SMU tour which was probably one of the best we attended.
On the down side, we were really disappointed when we visited Amherst. The tour guide told us that you have to be connected to athletes to attend the best parties. Each team hosts a social chair and they organize all the parties. And if you weren’t friends with the athletes, you may be able to show up late and get in. D24 and D26 both crossed it off their lists.
So far mine is in at 3 for engineering. Two we’ve already visited, one we still want to visit. He has a few days off from school at the end of March for visiting colleges, so we’ll visit one for admitted students day then. He has 14 additional colleges to hear from (6 privates, 7 UCs, 2 Cal Polys). We’ll see how it shakes out to determine which ones to visit. Trying to remain nimble. But, I will note, that flights seem to be getting more and more expensive as the airlines keep limiting the schedules. I waited 2 weeks on flights to Cleveland and they are now $400 more be flight. So very annoying.
I think one of the great things about this thread is learning about schools that I have never heard of. That there are so many options out there which can be daunting, but also pretty cool.
I’m going to start up this beloved thread again by posting an update about financial aid, in case anyone is interested. Fordham updated my daughter’s offer with her need-based aid. They came in at an affordable number for us (as opposed to the first, mere merit offer), but it is still equally most expensive with Macalester. I don’t want it to be at the top of my daughter’s list–but for a rather weird reason. We’ve never visited, but the students depicted in the catalog and all the videos I’ve seen have a weirdly similar look to each other. It’s not that there isn’t some diversity–it’s just limited within a certain range. It doesn’t look like a flagship public in terms of diversity, for sure. My daughter doesn’t look like any of the students in the pictures (if I had to name the look, I’d say “regional students from the Northeast.”) I never thought that I’d see a school look unvaried in its population, without having somewhat of a stereotype for that. Luckily, my instincts about it are unlikely to be challenged, since Fordham is not in the top 3 for her. I think it’s a great school–I never thought I’d have such a strange feeling about it.
Not sure what you are stating as diverse - it could be many things. Or are you saying they are actors from a JC Penney Catalog.
But section B2 shows diversity from a racial POV and it is very much so.
Or maybe you mean something about hear color or body type or tatts or piercings - I don’t know. But it’s very diverse (on paper), especially Asian and Hispanic.
Interesting! I’ve been asking Fordham about this but haven’t received an answer. Did your daughter get an email? Or how did you receive the updated offer?
