<p>I visited Haverford at the end of this past summer with my son and the dorms/apartments were a major turn-off to him as well. We got to go into one of the frosh dorms and it was quite “yucky”. We also visited Swarthmore and he liked the campus and dorms better there. We still have to visit U of Penn this spring. In the fall we went up to Williams and Amherst. Both are beautiful, but Williams is very isolated and my son did not feel he would fit in there and liked Amherst better…But I have a feeling he is going to end up closer to home. </p>
<p>We are in NJ too! My son applied to the Governor’s School for the Sciences and we are hoping 226 will be good enough on the PSAT for NMSF…Good luck!</p>
<p>disneydebk, Congrats on 226,that score is a lock.I’m told it’s not been above 223 in a long time. Which program was your son nominated too? Drew or Rutgers?</p>
<p>My son pulled a 2300 in a combined SAT score senior year and was one of the top students of his class and was turned down by quite a few top schools (all on the same day - outch!). He was also a NM Commended student. Just sayin’…</p>
<p>He didn’t like Amherst - the campus was beautiful, but the people seemed to have an attitude. We never looked at Williams because I heard it was isolated and more for preppy/athletic types, which he’s definitely not. I wanted him to look at Penn, but he had something against Philadelphia - I think he was just in a bad mood that day because we drove around Penn once he got into Haverford, and he liked it.</p>
<p>Megan, I hear you loud nd clear. We won’t take anything for granted. We will apply to at least 10 schools . I know applying to the top schools can lead to many rejections. My friends daughter was accepted to Princeton and MIT but waitlisted @ JHU.</p>
<p>Two Boston city employees are using technology to revolutionize the way local governments interact with residents. And theyre doing it fromof all placesinside Mayor Meninos City Hall.</p>
<p>…the 36-year-old grew up on Beacon Hill and in Brookline and enlisted in City Year in 1994. He then attended Haverford College, in part because of a program called the Growth and Structure of Cities. After graduating in 1999, he spent five years in New York Citys parks and recreation department, eventually serving as chief of staff, before returning to Massachusetts to attend Harvard Business School, from which he graduated in 2006. By the time he wound up at City Hall in his final year at Harvardas a fellow in the mayors office tasked with reimagining engagementOsgood had come to believe that working with private and community partners from outside of government could yield great benefits for the city.</p>
<p>One thing I’ll chime in on, (although I may be disillusioned a bit) is the vibe I received from both Swarthmore and Haverford.</p>
<p>At Haverford things seemed a bit more colloquial, the students were friendly and asked me about myself. They bragged about the Honor Code and the community in general, but mentioned very little rankings, instead choosing to focus on the opportunities available after graduation.</p>
<p>At Swarthmore, things were a bit pretentious. The students talked about their own opportunities and focused more on themselves then worrying about who was joining the community. They talked a lot about rankings. </p>
<p>I just think two different kinds of people attend the two schools. Community-oriented people seem to fit in better at Haverford, while “lone wolves” tend to head to Swarthmore. (Not that there is anything wrong with that, it’s just how it is.)</p>
<p>Also, look at the two CC pages for these schools. At Haverford there is one (maybe two) posts about deciding between top schools. In the Swarthmore boards, there are multiple. I’ve noticed that the Haverford posts ask about community and complain about equal vibes in the feel of a campus while many of the Swarthmore posts focus on rankings. (Once again, just two different types of people are present.)</p>