Hi all,
In terms of getting a feel for what I like and don’t like, do you guys have any suggestions for schools I should visit on my tour?
I’m doing Northeastern, Babson, Brown, and Dartmouth. All of these schools are on my list, but I’m more than willing to check out some other schools if it’ll give me some more insight on where I want to go.
BU, BC, Bentley
Visit a few rural and suburban LACs to see if you like that sort of small environment.
Tufts would not be out of your way. I agree that you should check out a couple of LACs. Either go west and check out William’s and Amherst, or hit a couple of the Maine ones (Bowdoin, Bates, Colby) or Middlebury.
These are some very selective schools. Do you have the stats to get in them? If you are sure you want to be in the northeast you could add a few less selective schools to the mix. Maybe add Clark for example.
Tufts, U Mass or another large public school, one of the very small LACs. You want to mix it up in size, location, school environment. I recommend writing short notes on what you love and don’t love about each school immediately after visiting. It’s easy for impressions to mush together and it might be you like the location of one but the size of another. Having that info will really help you choose your list for schools to consider applying to.
Thanks, everyone!! I’ll be sure to add some smaller and larger schools to the list and get tons of notes. I’ll also ask my family to take some notes so that we can compare them later.
@me29034
I have the stats to be considered, but these are literally the top four schools on my list. I actually have some west coast schools, but I wanted to check out the east coast because I’ve never been there before. I have a general feel for California/Washington state but not for anywhere in the east. I don’t want to say my stats because this will turn into a ‘chance me’ thread and I already have one of those up.
My list is as follows:
Brown
Dartmouth
Stanford (likely drop, depending on the time I have)
Northwestern ( ^^ )
Northeastern
Babson
USC
UDub
DePaul
U of Minnesota
Chapman
And some Canadian safeties (I’m from Canada). ED will be at Babson, Northeastern, Northwestern, Brown, or Dartmouth, depending on how the tours go.
As a Canadian many of the schools you list do not offer need based aid to internationals, although some offer merit aid.
I’m really blessed in that I am a full-pay international. I will be considering cost, but it will not be something that will decide where I go!
Thanks for the information regardless!
Check what the colleges want, before booking the itinerary. Dig deep into what the colleges say and show, not other sites or even posters here. Match matters. That’s not hoping “maybe” they see something in you. It has to be there, in the first place. The activities, a complete picture as the college wants it, as the tsunami of competition brings it.
Wesleyan
Trinity College
Should all the schools I visit be match schools? I was thinking of going into this process just to figure out what I like and don’t like in a school. From there, I can add and eliminate some schools from my list and then focus more on the match.
I wasn’t really thinking of diving really deep into the tours-- rather get a feel for certain locations, campuses, people, etc.
Also, I know I’m really repeating myself here, I don’t really know how to “dig deep into what they say and show” or how to use that information and compare it to myself.
I’m not good at this college admissions stuff. I don’t have any friends or family going to college (let alone a US college), and I don’t have many resources apart from this site and my counselor (who is online, so not as much as a help). If you have any suggestions (maybe a paid-for service that could give me personal guidance or something), I’d love to hear them!
Sounds like you have great schools in Canada.
@Hippobirdy
Great information! Thank you, so much:)
I’m going to get an email with all these questions (and some more that I have noted) and send it out to all the schools on my list.
Sorry for the bump-- I’m just in the process of finalizing my plans. Please let me know what you guys think about this:
Tour:
Amherst College (Amherst)- Rural, Traditional, <2,000 People
Umass Amherst- Suburban, Updated-Glass-Not Too Modern, 24000
Babson (Boston)- Suburban, Traditional, 2,300 People
Bentley (Waltham)- Suburban, Brick-Traditional, 4,300 People
Boston College (Boston)- Suburban, Gothic-Traditional, 9,600 People
Northeastern (Boston)- Urban, Modern-Brick, 14000
Brown (Providence RI) - Urban-Suburban, Traditional-Brick, 7000
Dartmouth (Hanover NH)- Very rural, Really Traditional, 4400
Drive By:
Boston University (Boston)- Urban, Updated-Boring, 18,000-- WALK AROUND
Tufts (Medford Boston)- Suburban, Gothic-Glass-Boring, 5500
Harvard
MIT
This will be over the course of around seven days. Any suggestions? I still have to do school during this trip (online student doing summer school), so I don’t want to be too busy to the point where I don’t get as much value.
If you’re going to Northeastern, you might as well go visit Boston U. They’re what, about a 20 minute walk from each other? Plus you get to pass by Fenway Park along the way. Boston U has a huge international population, around 30%.
FYI these are in the same town so both “rural”. But the town is pretty bumping.
If you can stand that many in a week - 1+ a day for 7 days? Sure, why not.
@ProfessorPlum168
Appreciate that. I’ll check it out but I still don’t know about a tour. My schedule is really busy as is, with four college tours and only two full days in Boston. I was thinking about driving around and checking out some schools like MIT, Harvard, and BU.
@OHMomof2 Thanks. I did a quick search and it said suburban for some reason. Maybe suburban in relation to Amherst in general? Not sure, but I’ll definitely want to be spending more time in Amherst. I think the plan is two full days in Boston, half day in Rhode Island, one day in New Hampshire, and one and a half in Amherst. I have long travel days, so I don’t think I can spend more than one and a half days in Amherst. I’ll be sure to keep busy when I’m there-- any suggestions?
Babson is definitely more 80 90s and new age than traditional. Very suburban.
UMass Amherst is like its own town and Amherst is its quaint little suburb. It’s a mixture. super traditional, 1960 and 1970 mistakes and wonderful brand new buildings all in one. Huge building boom.
Amherst College main campus is tiny but unbelievably stunning in a collegiate sort of way. Like out of a movie.
Tufts didn’t feel super traditional to us. A quirky mixture. And definitely not boring. Students are very interesting. Some cool traditions and definitely a mix. Like a smaller and more contained Brown vibe to us. The only strange thing was the extended time on the deck marveling at the kind of distant skyline of Boston. We kind of said yeah that why it makes sense to actually be much closer.
BU isn’t our cup of tea. But boring. No way. Vibrant and city feel.
But I like your list although it’s aggressive. You’ll come away with impressions.
Usually for us. LACs are the more beautiful in that College way and the bigger schools seem to have more energy.
@privatebanker Sorry, I added no context for that part. My descriptions of traditional and boring were just the first impression of the architecture of the buildings on the list. These descriptions don’t really have a purpose other than for me to try and see what I like and don’t like architecturally.
I feel bad that you wrote all of that out based on me making a dumb copy-paste mistake, but it’s helpful nonetheless. I’m looking forward to comparing your notes to mine in a few weeks! I’ll be sure to come back with an update and maybe adjust my college list in a new thread-- I’ll try to remember to tag you! You’re the guy that brought me onto Babson, so I’m sure I’ll remember the name. Nothing has beat the Babson Tech, Entrepreneurship, and Design program, although USC and Stanford have some enticing business/product design offerings that I just might prefer, that is if I get into any of them 