<p>It would indeed be tough having to pack up at the end of every term & move out & find another place to live in the interim. I’m grateful that tho USC does require students to be out of DORMS for winter break, they can leave their stuff – just have no access to it. When they live in apartments, they don’t even have to move out & continue to have access to everything. Housing contracts end in May, when the school year ends, so everyone has to move out at that point–dorms & apartments connected with USC.</p>
<p>William & Mary - Grade Deflation (reportedly one 4.0 graduate last year), son can’t get into requested classes repeatedy; and very dominant Greek scene</p>
<p>Now that May 1 deposit time is so near and I read the sad thread from kdos today I wanted others to read this thread which I discovered just now. It is an interesting thread.</p>
<p>My D really loves UCD–but when asked for her #1 negative she will say that yes…biking in the rain to class is not fun. At Davis they bike everywhere–but the maybe 20 days during the winter when it is raining and you have to get to class—the whole bike thing loses its coolness!</p>
<p>Agree that this is a very interesting thread. Pixeljig–maybe start a new one with a similar title? Could even borrow some of the OP’s verbiage from the first post, and maybe link to this one. 18 pages of posts is a lot to dig through, and things might have changed some in the last four years.</p>
<p>(I’d love to hear from some of the oldsters about how their kids are doing!)</p>
<p>The one negative thing about my kids’ school is that they won’t install a port for my helicopter landings. </p>
<p>And, they won’t let me start a sorority chapter…the Mena Pausa Mommas. But, they are considering the new frat chapter of the Vi Agara Poppas.</p>
<p>Yale: Raised false expectations about the grading scale by giving George W. Bush C’s.</p>
<p>^^mom2…
too funny :)</p>
<p>This reminds me of the interview question where they ask you what your weaknesses are.</p>
<p>You reply that your only weakness is that you never stop working until the job is done.;)</p>
<p>Smith: an excess of political correctness, though it is far from alone in that respect. (And I speak as a Republican- and tea-bagger-loathing moderate-liberal.) Otoh, the whole alcohol & binge drinking thing is not a problem at all.</p>
<p>
Oldster here. I see my post from 2006 when our son was a freshman at the top of the page. </p>
<p>Now that student is getting set to graduate from Duke next month. An engineering student, he managed a semester in London (Thermodynamics in another language was just too daunting). He has a core group of good and mutually supportive friends that looks like an ad for the UN. He has had 3 good internships (but that means he has not been home much at all). He went to Indianapolis to cheer his team as they won the NCAA championship, then went back to school and hardly slept the rest of the week to keep up with his work.</p>
<p>He is still working his behind off, as stated 4 years ago. He continues to appreciate the intelligence of his fellow students. </p>
<p>The only negative that occurs to me is that Duke is very different from the Real World. Transitions to less demanding environments (the “prestigious” firms where he interned) were sobering. He is accustomed to being surrounded by smart, funny, generous people. I hope he finds that again somewhere.</p>
<p>I know there are irritants; I’ll have to ask him about that…a certain professor, his waffle was cold at breakfast…but nothing really big that I know of.</p>
<p>Two things I dislike about Carnegie Mellon.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Food. It’s lousy, it’s required for freshmen and the small tables and cafes mean that it’s too easy to eat alone.</p></li>
<li><p>Freshman housing is given in priority order for when you send your application in, which you can’t do until you’ve decided to attend. It means if you have a difficult decision, or need to visit colleges or weigh financial offers, you will not get your first choice dorm. (If it’s a popular one.)</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Really helpful thread!</p>
<p>I wrote post #23 in 2006; four years later, I’m pleased that Otterbein is committed to expanding their geographic base. It’s not something that will happen overnight, but someone finally recognized that diversity can be geographic too.</p>
<p>GWU food program stinks.</p>
<p>Negative about George Mason U- bizarre billing system that they keep changing. The best fun we had was in Spring Semester this year. Didn’t receive any bill until 29 Dec. Offices were closed and billing system had changed so I couldn’t pay online. Called they day they opened. Has to pay first installment immediately and next installment the following week followed by two more installments a month apart. Not a fun surprise right after Christmas.</p>
<p>Positive abut GMU- very good mental health counseling department that actually cares. Much more helpful than a previous school S attended. I was really surprised by this since GMU is a large state school and previous school was a small LAC.</p>
<p>Harvey Mudd:</p>
<p>The food is pretty good, but the options are more limited than they appear: For the most part, you can go vegetarian or eat beef – very little in between. There are some good off-campus dining options, but without a car it takes too long to get to them. The workload doesn’t leave that much time. I think my kiddo has lost the “freshman 15.”</p>
<p>The campus is much more politicized than I would have thought a STEM college would be. I guess that shouldn’t surprise me in the current climate, but it did and still does.</p>
<p>Air quality is an issue when there are wildfires; otherwise, not too bad from what I’ve seen.</p>
<p>There’s much more student drinking than advertised, especially among the (underage) class of 2013. I’m not sure their approach to this has been effective, but they’ve recognized the problem and they’re working on it. The good side is that it’s still relatively easy for a student to avoid the drinking but still have a good social life.</p>
<p>The negatives can be irritants and the stress level is high, but geek_son loves the place regardless.</p>
<p>Richmond: crummy cell phone service, especially in dorms with a slate roof. It’s very difficult to get in touch or maintain a connection. I’m not sure there’s a carrier that’s better than the others. As soon as you get to the bottom of the hill and enter campus you go from 3 bars to 1.</p>
<p>Duke University - a behemoth dysfunctional and disorganized administration. Residential housing, dining and parking and transportation are barely functional and never put the needs of the students (or parents) first - instead the priority appears to be the needs of their employees - heaven forbid that a real live person ever answer a phone - all calls roll over to voice mail and calls are never returned within one business day, much less one week. If Duke University was a corporation they would be out of business within a year. I have never encountered an organization so non productive and non responsive when it comes to meeting the needs of their target audience.</p>
<p>On a recent trip with three other adults (none of them a student) I asked a parking and transportation employee a question. They immediately walked in the opposite direction and would not even make eye contact. One of my party was amazed at the rudeness and attitude of the employee. I told them it was business as usual at Duke.</p>
<p>singersmom, I have never experienced any of these issues in my dealings with Duke. Some phone calls start out with a recorded queue, but it doesn’t seem out of the ordinary. If you call any academic dept you get a real person. The bursars office has a real person except at times of high call volume when they use automation to funnel the calls in the proper direction. Doesn’t seem strange to me.</p>
<p>The one time we did have a problem (had to do with an important class cancellation at the study abroad university), the academic department was remarkably available, responsive and proactive.</p>
<p>I am surprised we had such different experiences.</p>