<p>So Beliavsky, what do you do when you have schools that are generally equal to one another, but have very different feels?</p>
<p>My D attends a top 10 LAC and my son a top 20 university. The academic credentials of the students are comparable to one another. But the schools have EXTREMELY different looks and feels. D’s is in a bucolic leafy suburban setting and has a quintessential New England college feel to it. S’s is larger, has a Greek life and bigger sports, and has more of a bustling city feel. Both are in the suburbs of major cities, but S has easier access to the city. </p>
<p>Now, D’s is also a women’s college, so it’s not as though S could go there :-). But if D had decided to apply to / get into S’s school (and indeed there are some students choosing between the two), why WOULDN’T she have used the subjective criteria of larger-vs-smaller, city-ish-suburb vs more suburban suburb, sports-vs-no-sports, and so on and so forth? </p>
<p>How could one claim that one of these schools is “better” than the other? They are just different flavors. They are mint chocolate chip and pistachio. There is no right or wrong choice at this level, just personal preference. </p>
<p>I get the sense that for you, Beliavsky, there IS a right choice to make between mint chocolate chip and pistachio - and that it’s based in part on how many others liked each flavor. I think that people who are secure in themselves don’t need to survey other people to find out their own opinions about things.
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<p>Myboby: As a California resident, surely you know that all UC’s and CalStates are not created equal. I highly recommend he tour the UC’s he’s interested in attending.</p>
<p>thanks Agentininetynine.
Berkeley>UCLA>UC San Diego
with his profile, should be able to get into Berkley.
we will see if a tour is needed after March 28.</p>
<p>I think visits are very important. For example, I was considering applying to Binghamton University for a while, so my dad scheduled a visit. Long story short, I didn’t feel like I could stand to go there. It was cold, gloomy, and the students I saw walking by looked unfriendly, and cliquish. Many sat alone, and no one seemed to smile. Also, the tour last 3 hours, and by the end I just started tuning out the guide. It didn’t seem like it could be home to me. So, I didn’t apply. Free tour = 50$ saved.</p>
<p>myboby: All great campuses with different feels and locale. UCLA will always have a soft spot in my heart, but Berkeley and San Diego each have their pluses. Hopefully he can stay off of the beach if he goes to UCSD :)</p>
<p>Something else to consider with UC’s is their size and popularity of your son’s major. You could end up paying for 5 years and spend more money than you would’ve at a private.</p>
<p>Tours may not be necessary but they can sure be helpful. Two of the 6 colleges we’ve toured to date my daughter just hated on sight. Looked great on paper. If she hadn’t visited she would haveappliedmwasting both time and resources. In addition one college which was a sleeper moved up considerably on the list once my D saw the very cool science facilities,met some facultyetc.</p>
<p>The visit to one LAC that looked like a great match on paper was so disappointing that it fell to the bottom of his list after occupying a perch near the top. That visit became an important point in the evolution of S’s thoughts about what he was looking for and afterwards he started to consider some schools that he had no interest in before.</p>
<p>Re: cost, our visits cost a lot more than extra application fees. We live in VT and visited colleges all over the country. Our son knew some things he didn’t want, mostly greek and heavy sports and some things he did want, mostly discussion-based small classes with students who were in there to learn. The visits helped him to focus in more and especially on the “safety schools”. The 2 he chose to apply to had an international focus and were near interesting urban areas. I thought that was so self-aware and something he may not have figured out without the visits. Had he applied to all 20 schools he would have had an overwhelming situation if he had been accepted to all of them, sight unseen.</p>
<p>UC four year graduation rates are in line with their admissions selectivity – four year graduation rates typically have a lot more to do with the students’ ability, motivation, and preparation than the school. So the risk of taking extra semesters is best assessed in terms of the student’s ability and motivation, regardless of college.</p>
<p>It depends on which college. Some colleges take into account each applicant’s demonstrated interest and many of these have visitor cards which track which applicants have visited. Top tier colleges usually do not take that into consideration, however, if you do visit the college, it’ll help you write your essays and motivate you to work harder.</p>
<p>I think it is important. We visited one school that is popular with kids here. But once there, it gave us a vibe that our children would not fit in there. Another school seemed great for one child and not the other, when we had expected it to be the other way around before we visited.</p>
<p>I agree with most who’ve posted, that college visits are important. You get to experience the campus vibe, see what kind of people go there (or at least get a snapshot) and experience what it would be like to live on that campus for a day. Plus you see rooms, and classrooms, and other neat buildings the campus has to offer.</p>
<p>I want to time some visits for the bitterest part of winter so that we can experience the northern and midwest schools at their “worst” and see how it feels.</p>
<p>Good thinking! We visited a southern school in early June and about died with the heat and humidity on the tour. Since D is an athlete, she did consider how hot training camp would be there, and outright eliminated sight unseen a school even farther south where they have to hold practice at 6AM due to heat.</p>