<p>Yale:
There is,to my eye,more than “one thing wrong,” but lets just say that after the inevitable Freshman year “oh-my-god-i-go-to-Hogwarts/er-Yale-how-wonderful” feelings start to wear off, the social life seems (at least to this sixties-era mom) to be stogy,contrived, complicated, and flat-out weird. The huge course load, the extremely narcissistic/self-absorbed student body, the division of students by residential college, and the institution of disparately (desparately?) odd rites like naked parties on the one hand, cocktail-attire wine-and-cheese tastings on the other give the students far too many reasons to just opt out of a social life,because its just all too complicated, and, according to my Junior, its too hard to tell who is gay.</p>
<p>Williams:
Significant central sections of the campus have been under construction during most of my daughter’s time there. The good news: the Performing Arts center is beautiful, and the new student center will supposedly be opened in time for her to enjoy it for at least a month or so prior to her graduation next June. But, her class has been without a student center since they tore the old one down after freshman year.</p>
<p>
Try “an expected refund check was sent to my daughter at home, but she’s in Chile for 5 months.” groan…</p>
<p>Hi anxiousmom!
What address did they send it to?? Gee, Rice always sends billing stuff to our home address. Lucky us. They are happy to request the $$ from the parents, knowing full well thats where the $$ is coming from, eh? We had an overpayment on our account (due to their being slow at posting our payment, which was sent in plenty of time) and then shutting s. out of early registration because there was an outstanding bill :eek: he ran over and paid it. Then, of course, our payment posted, so we had a double payment, and hence a credit. We never got a refund ck, or even an offer to send it. They just kept it as a “credit” on his school account-- from last spring to this fall. Grrr. It was not a ton of money-- a bout $200 or so, but still, how nice of then to decide to hold onto it, without asking.</p>
<p>“…and, according to my Junior, its too hard to tell who is gay.”</p>
<p>annelise- according to my Senior daughter, it’s really not that hard. If the boy is really hot/good-looking, charming and unusally attentive to you, he’s probably gay.
Yale has been very good to her. She found the variety of the social scene a plus, but her good friends are involved in her political club, her environmental group, the FOOT group, her academic department (a very down-to-earth bunch) and her roomates, who have been her best friends since Freshman year. </p>
<p>Negatives of Yale for our family: the difficulty of getting there. From California we can take a direct flight to New York, and then have to drive for 2 hours, or we can fly into Bradley with only a 40 min drive, but then we need to change planes in Philly, DC or Chicago. It’s a pretty rough day, either way. I think we underestimated the inconvenience of an east coast direction that didn’t have a direct flight, which a school with a Boston base would have had. The construction, with this year’s cross campus library renovation being the latest , has also been an endless aggravation.</p>
<p>From A.S.A.P. “Negatives of Yale for our family: the difficulty of getting there. From California we can take a direct flight to New York, and then have to drive for 2 hours, or we can fly into Bradley with only a 40 min drive, but then we need to change planes in Philly, DC or Chicago.”</p>
<p>I can’t believe I left that out given how much time I just spent trying to find a decent fare on December 22. The late start to fall semester and a final on the last day set a new high for airfare home. I’m definitely taking transportation logistics into account with the next kid.</p>
<p>Yeah, my sister says that one thing that isn’t so convenient about Notre Dame is getting there from HI–you have to fly into Chicago with a drive or South Bend & they have a transportation service.
She says the food during move-in week was fabulous, but since then has not been all that good & the kids aren’t so thrilled with it. The football is good–yeah Quinn–but it’s getting very cold for my HI niece.</p>
<p>C’mon. A rough day is a 13 hour flight followed by customs at LAX followed by another six hour flight on an overcrowded jet where they don’t serve food or common courtesy. Intl flights also go up by 25% druring the holidays. Bummer.</p>
<p>Chicago: While taking a tough schedule, you have to choose between doing all of the work and having a life (i.e. relaxing, socializing, sleeping)</p>
<p>It’s funny what other people mentioned, though. My advisor is really excellent and a fantastic resource, and most of my friends have said the same. I like my hume class a lot, too, and the level of discussion is definitely above that of high school classes.</p>
<p>UCLA the institution is great, except they’re being slow about processing my scholarship… the worst part is the surrounding area westwood, its so boring. though it could be far worse.</p>
<p>ASAP: My D opted NOT to go there. We live near by and know lots of kids that have gone thru each of the schools in the system. “The path of least resistance” is to study. Sounds like you have a freshman… Harvey Mudd is probably the most intense and studious, while Pitzer the least. But, Pomona is definitely quiet/study oriented compared to most college campuse. That is not necessarily a bad thing. As for the air quality. Just wait until we have an “inversion” or heavy marine layer that keeps the air sitting between the coast and mountains. We have had a lot of Santa Ana winds that blow from the dessert, up and over the mountains bringing hot dry conditions and clear air. When the usual conditions occur, with the breezes blowing in off the ocean, the air sits against the mountains and gets stagnant.</p>
<p>My son is a Freshman at Notre Dame. We enjoyed having him home last week during his Fall break.</p>
<p>He’s just plain happy with Notre Dame, and this from a kid who I once referred to as a junior Richard Lewis (think ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’).</p>
<p>He has yet to render a single complaint, so I’ll posit one on his behalf: his room is like a jail cell. No - jail cells are larger. Fortunately, he gets along well with his roommate, because they are sharing a 14’ x 8’ space with a sink, two wardrobes, two desks, and two beds. I understand that most of the dorms have larger rooms, but he is in one of the oldest on campus (Morrissey Manor), and entering Freshman have more stuff than they did in 1925, when the dorm was built.</p>
<p>Other than that, he’s a happy kid. His mother and I agreed that we passed from missing him to envying him about three weeeks ago. :)</p>
<p>IF the only complaint about ND is size of a dorm… then that makes me feel good</p>
<p>That’s the only complaint from Radionicist–not the only complaint. ND is a tough school if you’re not the right “fit,” and I know a lot of students who seriously considered transferring at one time or another. Some now adore the school and others have mixed feelings.</p>
<p>Have to agree about dorm room size. But hopefully, it won’t be so after this freshman year. I understand sophs, jrs and srs have room picks in the spring and freshman are essentially assigned the leftovers. (Which makes sense!) Son has enjoyed the food–no issues, but then he is not much of a diner. He likes to eat and run. Yes, it has already been cold (snow, a couple of days) but, this is what son wanted. He was home for fall break and flew in and out of the SB airport with absolutely no problem. Even cab rides to airport were smooth! I guess only complaints are that the on-campus 7-11 doesn’t offer much. (Since he is a freshman, he doesn’t have a car, either, like most college campuses) And other complaint was tutorials for chem. and calc seem almost useless. He thought tutorials would be more like review/help. There are help sessions offered, but tutorials seem almost time-consuming to him. Also, he is not Catholic–religion has not been an issue!! Overall, is happy with his choice of Notre Dame and we think he is where he is supposed to be.</p>
<p>I’m trying to come up with a negative about DS’s experience so far at Duke. He’s only a freshman, so there’s plenty of time for things to go amiss, but so far, so good.</p>
<p>He’s studying engineering, so he’s working his you-know-what off, but no surprise there. The dorm room is incredibly small, but he doesn’t seem to mind. We saw him over the weekend for parent’s weekend and were very pleased with all we saw. He’s happy, hasn’t lost weight (has none he can afford to lose), has friends, has EC interests, is doing well.</p>
<p>What else could we ask for? Except for a direct flight! We were stranded over night on our way there…but that’s about us, not about his school.</p>
<p>I’m a freshman at Tulane, and I personally wish there was more to do on weeknights than go to drinking-related events</p>
<p>Princeton: Freshman son absolutely loves it, his largest class has 12 students! His dorm room and hall leave a bit to be desired and the low ceilings and self-closing doors don’t make socializing within the hall too easy. His only real complaint is that we are paying approximately $20 per meal. The freshman can not chose a lower meal plan, and even though the food is top-notch (Saturday and Sunday brunches rival any good restaurant) since he has work-study in his residential college’s dining hall, he gets a free meal every night that he works which is rather counter productive since he has to pay for 20 meals per week regardless. Otherwise, we have been extremely impressed with the administration’s communication, financial aid, organization and programs.</p>
<p>(I will not allow one positive word to pass my lips, respecting the OP’s intention) -</p>
<p>The worst thing about Oxford is that students living in college have to pack up their rooms at the end of EVERY term, as they are let out for business and academic conferences. Major, big time inconvenience and stress.</p>
<p>This is EIGHT times over a three year degree, ELEVEN times for a four year degree. The packing up gets very, very old, especially if you have just had an exam for which you’ve been studying day and night. If you don’t arrange for post-term stay, you are SOL - you must be out at noon on the day after term ends. In addition, you must sign up for storage, and only those living at some distance are allowed to use it. Woe betide you if you forget, then you must plead and beg to unsympathetic staff. You also have to make special arrangements to come back early if you want to arrive before the weekend of the week before term.</p>
<p>The other negative, certainly from a US student’s point of view, is that your grades are dependent upon the exams. You may write more than 30 essays per term - they don’t count. You may take a number of tests - they don’t count. Only the final exams make up your grade for the entire degree. There is no ‘grade inflation’ - only 10-12% of students get a First each year. </p>
<p>This academic assessment method is completely at odds with the focus on in-depth education and learning for its own sake that is the entire focus of your daily life as a student there. It puts tremendous pressure on Finalists, and there is a lot of ‘cramming’ and nail-biting. From the US point of view, it is just plain weird.</p>
<p>Re colleges sending out requests for donations too soon…I told the student who called us from Hobart and William Smith, just two weeks after my son matriculated, that it was far too soon for us to decide whether or not we would donate!</p>