The MidWest Tour or Extended Cab Boogie

Parents Forum
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<p>Take your pick. Before I collect my thoughts, which are as untidy as the aforementioned Extended Cab, I want to post a short game-o-skill. Let’s call it “Name that College”. I’ll give one clue, one snippet, one vignette (certainly not a representative sample) from schools visited by D and I during the last week + 9 hours and 8 minutes.You have to match a school to each quote or scene or performance piece or whatever. All of these schools are currently ranked in the top 100 LAC’s by USNWR .All are in the Midwest or Mid-South. It is possible that one school is the answer to more than one question.
[ul]“Draft SUV driver’s first” Seen on an SUV in student parking;[/ul][ul]three NEW Hummers in student parking,two of which had trick aftermarket wheels;[/ul][ul]PETA-People Eating Tasty Animals-bumper sticker[/ul][ul]“Half of these people stay in their rooms all day and only come out to eat or go to class. We don’t encourage any greater involvement in campus life on their part.”;[/ul][ul]“Sororities and fraternities aren’t really a big deal here. Nobody really cares. If you rush, SOMEBODY will want you-well, unless you’re a total loser. We’re just like the 1 in 4 students who don’t join a national. It’s just that we have cooks and maids and our sorority house is a mansion!”[/ul][ul]Highest per capita bumper sticker campus.[/ul]</p>

<p>We had a great time. We only had two arguments involving threatened calls to the police and both were started by me telling her to “lighten up-this ain’t that hard”. She came to absolutely no decisions. D’s mind has been broadened to the point her elastic is as shot as that in my oldest underwear. I believe she has realized that as she expected-larger schools (anything over 3000, really 2500) will have a very difficult row to hoe. I’ll do better reports after a day of sleep and some calm reflection. </p>

<p>P.S. I like what y’all did with the furniture while I was away.</p>

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<p>Don’t forget to read the Doodling thread. You were elected college president while you were gone, complete with a statue of yourself in the quad (in topsiders!).</p>

<p>In the cafe, read CCers Anonymous, esp. post 34!</p>

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<p>Welcome back, Mudge. You must have needed a “winding down” if you were up at the wee hours. Good game. My attempts:
Draft SUV owners–had to be Grinnell
Hummers: Lake Forest
PETA: Vanderbilt? It’s pretty conservative
Room dwellers: Drake College
Sorority mansions: Vanderbilt
Bumper stickers: very puzzling, Tulane??</p>

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<p>Highest per capita bumper stickers; Grinnell. Pattykk, all the rest of your guesses sound good to me!</p>

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<p>anxiousmom: Yes, Grinnell sounds good for that nomination. I wasn’t thinking of bumper stickers of the liberal persuasion following the sorority quote.</p>

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<p>I’ll go with patty KK’s guesses except :</p>

<p>PETA= Davidson
Bumperstickers total= Grinnell</p>

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<p>This could be fun - but can you at least tell us where you went? Maybe start with the states…</p>

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<p>Hey Prez, give us some clues.</p>

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<p>Interesting spectrum of colleges visited.</p>

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<p>Cur, the heck with the guessing game, get going with the reviews. :)</p>

<p>My mailbox is empty so if you get a chance, I’d like to hear your thoughts on Lake Forest in particular. Daughter and I are still trying to decide whether to include it on our tour next week.</p>

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<p>For those of you playing the home version of our game-states in which colleges were visited are Iowa, Illinois,Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee.</p>

<p>And for Carolyn, when are y’all headed out? I promise copious or at least specific information prior to your departure.</p>

<p>BTW, some of y’all are REALLY “freakin’good” at this.</p>

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<p>How 'bout…</p>

<p>Draft SUV driver’s first" - Grinnell</p>

<pre><code>* three NEW Hummers - Northwestern

  • PETA-People Eating Tasty Animals- ??

  • "Half of these people stay in their rooms all day - Univ of Chicago

  • "Sororities and fraternities aren’t really a big deal here - Vanderbilt

  • Highest per capita bumper sticker campus - Earlham
    </code></pre>

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<p>Cur, we’re leaving on March 27. How did you find the driving?</p>

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<p>carolyn, not that bad. Roads were by and large clear. Chicago was easy to negotiate except for those panhandlers every two miles with their little houses right smack-dab in the middle of the road. They were always kinda rudely or at least insistently demanding change but with the pipe brush-catcher mounted up front I could just blow thru those spindly little boards blocking the roads, what were they thinking?</p>

<p>I haven’t added it up but I’m guessing 3200 miles in a little over 7 days. Not bad for a slowoldguy. Of course my feet are the color of a bruise and the size of jubilee watermelons but hey-no pain-no gain. I live to serve.</p>

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<p>Interesting thread, I can only guess:
Highest per capita of bumper stickers - Grinnell
Sororities - DePauw
No life - U of Chicago
PETA - Centre College
Hummers in lot - Vandy
Draft SUV owners(on SUV) - Northwestern</p>

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<p>Y’all did really well. These are all excellent schools for the right kid and bring a lot to the table. My game was not meant to disparage any campus. In fact two of the schools mentioned were my favorites of the trip, if I was choosing (which has been clarified for me again, I am not) -I’d chose Grinnell and Lake for very different reasons.</p>

<p>Grinnell-“Draft SUV driver’s first” Seen on an SUV in student parking;</p>

<p>Lake Forest-three NEW Hummers in student parking,two of which had trick aftermarket wheels;</p>

<p>Vandy-PETA-People Eating Tasty Animals-bumper sticker</p>

<p>Rose-Hulman-“Half of these people stay in their rooms all day and only come out to eat or go to class. We don’t encourage any greater involvement in campus life on their part.”;</p>

<p>DePauw-“Sororities and fraternities aren’t really a big deal here. Nobody really cares. If you rush, SOMEBODY will want you-well, unless you’re a total loser. We’re just like the 1 in 4 students who don’t join a national. It’s just that we have cooks and maids and our sorority house is a mansion!”</p>

<p>Grinnell,again-Highest per capita bumper sticker campus.</p>

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<p>Cur. Stop toying with my emotions. Give us the full trip report NOW. :)</p>

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<p>Yep, Grinnell and Lake Forest are very different. Which schools appealed to your daughter?</p>

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<p>Trip report-Grinnell College</p>

<p>A billion $ endowment. Astounding number. Per capita dwarfing many better-known schools. Evidence of that number was everywhere. New construction of an athletic and fitness center. Science and art facilities that I marveled at. A slew of new dorms on North Campus. A beautiful if mismatched college setting. Watching the sun rise thru one of the many porticos with the yard covered in snow was just wonderful. The library was well laid out and well equipped. The classrooms had the latest and greatest electronic “blackboards” and projection capabilities. </p>

<p>An infinitely safe, walking campus set in a residential area of a tiny and we thought attractive Iowa town. Absolutely exceeded, smashed really, every criteria D had ever set for a college to meet. The kids we met were earnest, hard -working but maybe a bit stressed or stretched by workload issues that could have been transient. All expressed how hard everyone worked and that was borne out by the numbers of kids working diligently Sunday afternoon at the library.</p>

<p>One of the things D and I have learned to do is to read the flyers and posters at campus (along with the student pubs, a great way to get to the unvarnished “truths”). We both arrived at a feeling that Grinnell , with all its wonderful attributes, could potentially be a place where D might feel unpleasantly in the minority. More time needs to be spent on campus before she is willing to rule it in or out. </p>

<p>Coincidentally enough, when D arrived home the Grinnell “sheet” had arrived and the lead article was written by a church going Catholic , non-sexually active, non-drinking, non-dope-smoking, heterosexual, pro-life self-identified liberal female student who spoke to some of the same concerns D had while on campus, most specifically feeling that her “liberal” but less radical opinions were not valued by her fellow students or by her profs. Her lifestyle choices as a non-imbiber were also drawn into Q -“What’s your name?” X . "Oh.You’re that girl who doesn’t drink."The article ends with that student’s realization (after what she described as a miserable existence of crying alone, self-enforced ostracism and thoughts of transfer) that the students and profs challenging her opinions were eagerly waiting for her defense of her positions as a learning experience. </p>

<p>Other articles spoke to other issues of like sentiment. It appears ,to me at least, that Grinnell is openly courting those whose opinions differ from the majority of their current students so that dialogue and discourse could blossom. I really see little reason in the marketing rag being published if that is not their push. </p>

<p>D is a junior and while her confidence level appears to be high and although she is quite outspoken at her little rural high school-in my opinion she needs to grow emotionally before being placed in the position of the girl in the story. Maybe she will. We can only hope.</p>

<p>Now for me? I would flourish there.</p>

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<p>A lot can change in one year, curmudgeon… </p>

<p>My D (who is non drinker/no drugs) said it well, when the college counselor was ruling out schools based on their “party” incompatability: “Mom, think about it; I’m already the minority right now in my <em>High School</em>, and I’m happy here.”</p>

<p>What did you think of the students… Happy? Friendly? Engaged?</p>