<p>There is so much I like about Brown, BUT. . .</p>
<p>1) they need to spend much more money on maintaining the physical plant, so many of the buildings are dirty, dingy, and dated</p>
<p>2) the dining hall food is surely the worst among the ivies. I thought my daughter was exaggerating about how unappetizing much of the food is, unfortunately she wasn’t.</p>
<p>Garland, I thought Columbia had a full time advising staff called something like freshmen sophomore deans. My D knows one of them through her church group. PM me if you want to contact him. (On the other hand he’s so busy that she had to make an appointment to have a casual conversation last friday.)</p>
<p>Calmom, re: Barnard meal plan. My D the possible Econ major made the same calculation of the cost versus buying each meal separately. This year she bought only the minimum. She and her suitemates are preparing their own meals. This is midterm season, and it is a bit problematic.</p>
<p>WUStL – the advising and career support, at least for engineering, could be better. My son has had to do a lot of research by himself and I’ve heard that not as many places interview here as at other engineering schools. </p>
<p>Brown – the bureaucracy can take forever to get through (by/around/past/choose your preposition). My daughter spent an entire semester getting a transcript error corrected. She has spent the current semester trying to get credit for an archaeological field school last summer. Who knows when that will finally get resolved. All I can think is that this is giving her valuable life experience in dealing with inaccurate advice, buck-passing, multiple layers of review, and other such niceties. </p>
<p>And for both – it WOULD be great if they weren’t so frickin’ expensive!</p>
<p>Mardad–yeah, they’re there. It’s just that he’s not that interested in meeting with them, though he emails now and then. (Actually, he’s a junior now, so he has new people to ignore.) And it seems to be easy to do, there. It’s just his style; I would never dream of interfering (she says, gritting her teeth; tapping her toes anxiously…)</p>
<p>I do agree with shelf life’s critiques of Brown as well, the food in particular. Dd is ready to go off of meal plan when she can. She tells me that the V Dub food is better than the Ratty’s, though, in case your daughter is just going to the latter. That doesn’t help on the weekends, though, when the former is closed. </p>
<p>Oh and another thing, apparently the buildings are kept too cold during the winter. Dd tells me that her dorm in particular was freezing last year. I don’t know if this was just her building or they all are like that.</p>
<p>Great thread!</p>
<p>Like Garland, my son’s at Columbia and suffers from lack of advising. This is partly his fault, in that he doesn’t seek it out. (For a smart kid, he has this dumb idea that he needs to have his whole future figured out before he even goes to see an advisor.)
It is also because he chose a major (econ) that gets 20% of the undergraduate student body and even with huge numbers of hires can barely keep up. What I think the place could really use is more ways for faculty to get informally involved with undergrads as they do in places with residential college systems. It would also be nice if his departmental advisor had some sort of group advising meetings. When he has made an effort to meet with faculty not a single one has turned him down, even on a Saturday.</p>
<p>Hendrix College Football - undefeated since 1961. That’s because they haven’t had a football team since then! Do you know how that tears at my gut that my DD goes to a school that has no football team?! At least I don’t feel guilty as I continue to root for my Vols. </p>
<p>In all seriousness, though, I suppose the alcohol factor is something that concerns me, too. When we were moving DD in this summer, a couple of guys were sitting at a patio table with a bottle of booze between them. There was no attempt to hide it. While visiting during family weekend, we were enjoying a lovely day in the pecan grove when we heard one girl yell to another that she was going to the liquor store and invited the other girl to join her. Several of us parents turned to look at her while a couple of students said, "hey, why don’t you yell it a little louder, I don’t think all the parents heard you.</p>
<p>I guess I also have to say that the campus is more liberal than I orginally thought. I’m not saying that’s a bad thing, as we tend to lean a bit to the left, but DH and I have come to realize it’s more liberal than we originally thought. Oh well, we’re not the ones going to school there and DD is absolutely thrilled with the political feel.</p>
<p>University of Alabama-</p>
<p>“The Machine” fraternities dominate Student Government.</p>
<p>Interested students expected to participate in fraternity recruitment during Spring of their senior year of high school making it difficult for those who
are involved at their high schools to participate.</p>
<p>Extremely conservative culture. Lack of diversity. Segregation of races at social activities.</p>
<p>Agree about Brown. My Son says for what we are paying, it would be nice to have lectures in nice lecture halls rather than dingy,old classrooms. However, he says the caliber of profs makes up for the poor setting. Interestingly though, he says his dorm is very warm. Still is using light blanket and puts on his fan!</p>
<p>I think it is an excellent idea to list pros/cons (in this case, cons) of a school. When visiting colleges, it is important to do as it helps a student figure out the differences and clearly see the preferences. </p>
<p>Anyway, now that my kids are in college (one a soph, one a junior), I definitely don’t think their schools are perfect. Nor do I believe for a second that these schools would be right or even liked by others. However, for my kids, they seem to have found a perfect match and to be quite honest, they love everything about their schools. I haven’t heard one complaint or thing I can think of on my own that hasn’t been positive (yet). There are things that OTHERS might not like, I’m sure, about these schools. I just find that they are happy there and haven’t mentioned anything that is not OK. I haven’t noticed anything either that isn’t OK on my end. I mostly just care that my kids like it and they MORE than like it. They ooze with enthusiasm when they mention their colleges, so I’m happy. I wish I could list the negatives but for them, there aren’t any that they’ve told me. I am sure there would be a laundry list for others who would dislike my kids’ schools because they did not fit what they want. I have no doubt that these schools are not for everyone. One kid goes to Brown, the other NYU/Tisch. They love everything about their schools, sorry!</p>
<p>I’m wracking my brain to come up with somothing and the only thing I can think of is one thing at Brown but this situation would not affect anyone else on here who would consider the school. But I’lll mention it. My D is on the ski team which is a varsity sport. Unlike some varsity sports, there are a LOT of things they make us pay for in order for her to participate and this is quite difficult. We expect to have to equip her and that alone is a huge expense but I don’t expect them to pay for any of that…then again, I do expect them to pay for the team “uniform” and they do not…another huge expense, just the official racing suit alone. Then, for practices and training camps, it involves ski passes to TWO ski areas. Players must pay for these. Can you imagine the football team players paying to use the fields each day? These two passes cost a LOT and we have to make these our D’s birthday and holiday presents just so she can even participate. There is also the cost of her race registration in order to participate. What I have listed so far, NOT counting the very costly equipment, but just the things one would expect the school to pay for adds up to about $700. Then, she has been told that if they make National Championships (and they have the two years she has been there so far…they are an excellent team), they will have to foot the bill to go to Colorado for a week! I don’t get that at all. Two years ago, when they went to Idaho for Nationals, the school paid for the team to go. Actually, a controversy that time was the week they found out they made it (were Eastern Champs), and the Nationals were one week away, the college almost did not let them go and didn’t want them to miss classes! I can’t imagine a football team being told this. No other team who made Nationals in her sport wasn’t allowed to go. What is the sense of competing to be told at the last minute you can’t be in National Championships? At the last minute, they let them go beause every girl spoke to their professors who all granted permission. These girls are top students, many made All Academic American, and many are pre-med even. So, I have no idea what will happen this year if they have to pay their own way to be in the National Championships. This is not an easy proposition for my kid. She worries about it. Even tonight, she called from study abroad worried about additional race fees on top of the ones I just mentioned during winter training camp and how we can afford it. I’m not sure why a varsity athlete has to foot all these fees to participate, train, or race. My D, however, loves the team, and so do we. She is very thrilled to be on it. I just never expected to have to pay beyond equipping my daughter, for her to participate on a collegiate varsity team.</p>
<p>Sac–hey good to see you here! Have missed you!</p>
<p>Daughter spent 3 weeks at Brown this summer. I was pretty appalled at the condition of the dorms–scary-looking electric plugs, really filthy stained carpet, horrible laundry area, peeling paint that I bet had lead in it…so I could certainly relate to the comments about the condition of the campus. (And she was supposedly in one of the nicer ones off the center of campus).</p>
<p>Stanford: the quirky housing lottery with its byzantine rules and tricks (S has totally lucked out all 3 years but his guardian angel must have worked overtime and bribed someone too); and the advising is woefully deficient (the administration knows it and is trying to work on it, and the squeaky wheel concept works). S has managed but just because he has managed to connect with upperclassmen who have guided him. Despite those two things, it is still a match made in heaven and I have the greatest respect for the school and the truly extraordinary experience he is having.</p>
<p>Well, my daughter is in a different dorm this year and it hasn’t been too cold (yet). Her room seemed toasty last weekend. We shall see.</p>
<p>I don’t mean to imply her life is miserable. She keeps telling me how Brown is the best school for her and how much she loves it.</p>
<p>She hasn’t really complained about the dirtiness of the school. But maybe that is a reflection on my housekeeping … So, you see, I just didn’t want the kid to get spoiled … yeah, that’s the ticket.</p>
<p>U Chicago–</p>
<p>1) The core tutors are terrible. Just terrible. I don’t know what else to say. One would think that, by placing them in Harper (library) to help out the first-years, they might be able to explain something. Expect nothing. Don’t even expect them to be able to speak English.</p>
<p>2) It might just be me, but, because of the studious atmosphere here, I always feel like there is competition. It’s strange when the library becomes the University’s social center… And I see me fellow classmates studying there all the time; I was at the library last Friday night, and it was far from empty. I just feel that, if I stop, I’ll fall behind, so I must keep on plugging. Sometimes all I want to do is catch up on sleep for a few hours, but I can’t. (Of course, there is a lot of students studying together, helping each other out – but they still are studying.)</p>
<p>Other than that, I love it here.</p>
<p>actuallly patient, I am happy with my son’s dorm at Brown. The laundry area is clean and bright and always clean (atleast the few times I saw it). He has a HUGE room with a bay window and it is very light and bright. The bathrooms were clean and he said he gets hot showers with good pressure.The campus itself is well maintained. His only complaint is some of the classrooms he has his classes in. Granted some of these are very old buildings-outside they are charming-brick and ivy. I guess the inside reflects this too (lol). But as I said, he finds all his profs engaging,interesting and very approachable, so I guess that is the most important thing.</p>
<p>Michigan…</p>
<p>There is a lot of partying going on…</p>
<p>The advising leaves a lot to be desired. The student has to be very, very proactive to get any.</p>
<p>The weather sucks.</p>
<p>Re: board costs
D school had - points or something depending what you get- isn’t all you can eat- which worked well- D got smallest board plan after we figured out that she was only going to eat one or so meals in commons
But we also discovered - that part of room & board ( I think the board cost more so than the room) was money earmarked to maintain the physical plant- which needs to be kept up of course- but the way it seemed to me was it was added to the cost for students who lived on campus and not to the students who lived off campus
Most buildings of course are * on * campus 
but it might explain why those costs are so high</p>
<p>and for being in the Northwest and only 200 or so miles south?
Portland is hella hot and hella cold
I swear it was in the 90s at graduation
it just doesn’t get that hot in Seattle in May</p>
<p>Brown may be a bit like Stanford where the quality of the housing is pretty variable. The campus in summer was quite lovely (Brown’s), and my daughter loved her time there, although it is summer and students were high schoolers, so kind of can’t judge. Based upon anticipated grades and scores, it would probably be too much of a reach for her for college–but fun to have the experience.</p>
<p>USC
I’ll have to agree that it’s pretty expensive, but grateful that for merit aid they generously allow students to keep based on 3.0 & 17 credits/semester.</p>
<p>S grumbles that the food isn’t that good (no personal experience but he’s pretty picky).</p>
<p>I’m guessing there’s some drinking, but S hasn’t mentioned or grumbled about it. His friend grumbled that the calculus teacher was junk (no elaboration), but S didn’t say anything one way or another.</p>
<p>Am glad they give 2 years of U-sponsored housing & would love it if they could guarantee it for all 4 years.</p>
<p>I also agree that this is a very nice thread. Would be better able to assess USC if S would communicate more, but he’s very happy there & to us that counts for a lot.</p>
<p>University of Maryland at College Park –</p>
<p>The problem is College Park. Despite its name, it is not a college town. It is a borderline slum, situated in an armpit-of-the-universe area known as Prince George’s County. There are nice places in Maryland, but this is not one of them. The campus is great, and the couple of blocks of stores and restaurants just off-campus are OK. Washington, DC, which is only about 8 miles away and accessible by public transportation, is great, too. But what’s in between the campus and DC is just wretched – and high-crime, too. This year, my son had two bicycles stolen in College Park within a month of each other.</p>
<p>I’m actually impressed with the university, though. There are a lot of special-interest programs for freshmen that help to make the huge campus seem smaller. On the rare occasions when my son has had problems (he got sick during final exams once and had to miss and reschedule two exams), everyone at the university has been very cooperative and helpful. The advisors seem reasonably well informed. Internship opportunities abound. Broken things in the dorms get fixed. The food is edible. Students can easily get tickets to major sports events. UMCP is really a very nice place, considering that it’s a mammoth state degree factory.</p>
<p>If only they would have put it somewhere else.</p>
<p>OK I’ll give it a shot. UF- it’s really big. This is not a bad thing for S, but if you’re looking for small, well this is not the place to be. S loves every aspect of it, including those things that I would hate. For example, his midterms for science were scheduled for 8 PM on Friday nights. I can’t imagine. He doesn’t mind. Go figure. Football and basketball are huge. He loves this, but again, if you’re not into sports… Gainesville is a zoo on football Saturdays. Transport is not a problem for us, but if you’re flying in from somewhere, I’m not sure where you go into- Orlando? Which is about an hour and a half away. It’s hot in the summer, but ain’t it hot everywhere? Anyway, us Fl crackers are used to it. </p>
<p>OH, the worst thing for me was the freshman orientation- a two day affair. You have to attend this in the summer (both parent and child). They separate you from the start, and you sit through two days of bonechilling lectures. It’s freezing and mind numbing, although the information is useful… it just becomes overload and I started to zone out after half a day. Plus they put the kids into their own groups and have them do their fall schedule off in some other building, on their own. S was prepared for this, but some students were caught off guard. They were presented with a course directory and a computer terminal, and told to go for it. Of course, many sections of a course would be closed, which meant going back to the drawing board and rescheduling other courses, etc, and apparently many kids weren’t prepared for this- they thought it would be like HS where you just sign up and someone prepares the schedule for you. Apparently there were some meltdowns. Students who came home from the orientation without all their preferred classes had the summer to complete it online. I haven’t heard of anyone NOT getting classes they wanted in the long run, but it was a surprise for some to have to do it on their own, without any help. And it was disappointing for someone who, say, wanted to take all their classes in the mornings, to have to take some late in the afternoons.</p>
<p>Let’s see, most students live off campus after freshman year, mostly out of choice I think. He likes his dorm, which is an honors dorm, so it’s really nice. I don’t know anything about the other dorms, other than they’re older. G’ville is pretty small, though, and there’s a lot of off campus housing that is within walking and biking distance. </p>
<p>There are lots of lakes and ponds on campus. You can’t swim in them. There are gators in them. You can see them swimming around and sunning themselves on the banks. It is rumored that some frats/clubs have their initiates swim the lake. Whether this is true or not I can’t say, I would doubt it and it better not be true since S is in a frat.</p>
<p>I’ll be honest, I didn’t go to UF even though I’m a native Floridian. I didn’t particularly like UF because it always seemed like the people there were mouth frothing crazy Gator fans. Well, now that S is there, I can see why people become mouth frothing crazy Gator fans. It just happens.</p>