<p>
[quote]
College strategy will probably be revised to use UC's as safeties, focus on reach colleges for private apps.
[/quote]
To beat a favorite drum of mine, make sure the safety is a school she would actually want to attend. </p>
<p>I've found this way of phrasing is effective in getting the picture across: "take your college list and cross off every school but your safety. That's the only place you're going to apply. Can you live with that, or should we keep looking for a better safety?"</p>
<p>As for the UC schools, I'd strongly suggest visiting the one's she's thinking of. The campuses have very different feels and tend to attract different types of people. If she likes the big/urban type I'd suggest visiting Cal, UCLA, and maybe UCSD.</p>
<p>Adams Morgan is quite a way from AU but doable on Metro. When I was new to DC it wasn't upscale, more like downscale, and we used to go for cheap eats at Omega. Like many DC 'hoods A.M. has become a little expensive.</p>
<p>Maybe what my d. meant is that Adams Morgan was the only place she liked in D.C. in terms of night life, but that it was too pricey for it to be a regular hangout. </p>
<p>In any case, all non-urban campuses have been dropped from the list. She just returned from Boston where she visited BU & Northeastern. She ended up not even bothering to visit Tufts, Brandeis, & Wellesley despite previous plans to do so. She loved BU - she said she kept hearing people criticize BU for its lack of campus, not even a quad area.... but it seems she really loved the linear layout and seeing all the buildings arrayed so neatly. According to her, it was the easiest campus to get around of any she saw, which I guess means no unnecessary space between buildings. As long as the buildings looked like school buildings (dorms look like dorms, class buildings look like schools) - she was happy. [She didn't like GWU because the buildings looked like office buildings]. </p>
<p>I think she views a "quad" as a wasted patch of green that will be soggy or frozen during most of the school year and will merely stand in the way to make her walk to a a well-heated building take longer. Now that I think of it, the kid has never been the outdoor type. She's quite athletic & physically active, but with the kind of things that take place inside gyms and dance studios.</p>