<p>Thanks again to all that provided advice for our trip to St. Louis. A crummy cold I picked up while there has given me time to digest the experience--though I feel no closer to a conclusion about this school!</p>
<p>St. Louis, which I've never before visited, is a mere one hour flight from home. This, to my mind, is a great advantage and compares very favorably with many other schools at which we are looking. The weather during our stay ranged from the high 30's to mid 50's--again a positive in my book! We stayed in Clayton, which is about ten minutes from the campus, and about 20 minutes (no traffic) from the airport. So all in all, travel to this school was very easy.</p>
<p>The campus is beautiful, situated in the middle of a really nice neighborhood of older, stately brick homes. Across the street from the main campus entrance is Forest Park--500 acres larger than Central Park, so they say, with golf courses, running/cycling paths, fountains, museums, tennis courts etc. etc. A wonderful resource for students here. We spent some time enjoying the art museum and walking paths. About 4 blocks away is a small commercial area known as The Loop, which contains some restaurants, shops and a couple of clubs. It was absolutely jammed with people on Saturday. We enjoyed eating at Fitz's, couldn't get in to Blueberry Hill, and noted some chain-type burrito/panera type spots. There is also middle eastern & japanese to choose from. I saw a small grocery in this area too.</p>
<p>Most of the campus buildings are in the Academic Gothic style, including some newer ones. Others are designed to coordinate nicely: there are only a couple of unattractive 60's piles of concrete. The grounds are well kept, the library and common areas are quite expensively decorated. It kind of reminds me of a Disney World campus. Very clean and posh. We saw one of the new dorm rooms--again, way posher than any dorms I've ever seen. Even the frat houses(which are owned by the University) look nice!</p>
<p>A large group was on hand for the info session and tour. Info session was pretty typical. There were about 20 tour guides, who introduced themselves--and to my surprise, almost ALL of them were business majors. NO science students at all, in this supposed pre-med powerhouse! Many students were from FL, NY, left coast. Seemed a more national draw than I expected. The tour was also fairly typical. In fact, the most interesting tidbits were heard "between the lines": The school puts on parties with free food and drink and gives red t-shirts to kids to entice them to come to the sporting events and sit in the student section! So if you are into sports or school spirit...he did say that many participate in intramurals. I did see a baseball team practicing, but generally not a lot of activity was going on despite the nice weather. Also, when asked what relationship the students have with the city of St. Louis, one guide said that his RA took a group of them to a baseball game once. Now, I was only there 3 days, but it looked like a pretty interesting city to me...I guess the University is meeting all the needs of the students. :)</p>
<p>After the tour, D met up with a friend from home who is a soph and is very busy and happy. They spent some time talking and he gave us tickets to attend an a cappella concert that evening, which we did. It was very enjoyable--3 groups from WUstl and one from U of Chicago performed, and they were all very good. There were perhaps 80 people in attendance-students, a few parents.</p>
<p>The following night we attended a student-run theatre festival--several student written, acted and directed works, each just 10 minutes long. As you might guess they ran the gamut, but it was fun. Small group, who all knew each other made up audience. </p>
<p>D sat in on intro Bio class, seemed pretty standard to her. She liked the school, LOVED the size of it, liked the theatre performances--that looked fun to her.</p>
<p>I know there is more, but I can't think of it now.</p>
<p>ez</p>