<p>Although many people reflect on their tours under the individual college listings, it might be helpful if everyone would also post under this thread for easy reference.</p>
<p>Twinmom:</p>
<p>You asked about Emory, which was very high on my daughter's list. Probably the key thing to know about Emory is that they have an unbelievably large endowment, thanks to massive donations of Coca-Cola stock by the Woodruff family. They have invested this endowment in a very modern campus. For example, the new student center was designed by Atlanta architect John Portman (Peachtree Plaza Hotel, Renn Center in Detroit, etc.)</p>
<p>The campus is located in an close-in neighborhood with a wooded suburban feel. It is technically an urban campus by location I suppose, but it is not really urban. The area is surrounded by pretty pricey old homes. Unfortunately, the public transportation to Atlanta isn't that great. You have to take a city bus to get to the subway stations. Realistically, it's a car campus to access most of Atlanta -- as opposed to Swarthmore where a car would be the last thing you would want.</p>
<p>The university is tightely connected to the city and to institutions like the Centers for Disease Control (located on campus), the Jimmy Carter Center, the Martin Luther King center, and Atlanta businesses like Coca-Cola -- so there is a lot of intern opportunities.</p>
<p>It's not a big sports school. Division III and no football team. More of a "new south" school with a fairly high percentage of kids from the Northeast. A little on the preppy side, but not a hard-core party school. Lot of future doctors and lawyers. Pretty good diversity.</p>
<p>They do play the merit aid game with pretty decent tuition discounts for high SAT candidates. They have the most sophisticated computer driven contact tracking and response system I've seen. I suspect that they use a very sophisticated form of merit aid discounting, offering scholarships to the highest SAT candidates who they don't think they can otherwise attract based on prior contacts with the school.</p>
<p>Overall, a very wealthy school that has used its warchest to build a very good undergrad program in a wonderful sunbelt city. My daughter was attracted to it because it was a good opportunity to experience a different part of the country in an attractive city and a culturally-neutral campus. We also thought it was a near-perfect admissions match as she was pretty much at their 75th percentile statwise.</p>
<p>OK, although D and myself visited many campuses over the last year, I'll post a short 'trip report' on a private Midwest school hardly ever mentioned on the CC boards--Saint Louis University.</p>
<p>SLU (or 'sloo', as it's pronounced by students) is definitely an urban campus, smack dab in the middle of Midtown St. Louis. And in the last ten years, they have eliminated the streets dividing the campus save one, making it very much pedestrian-friendly. Home to just over 7000 undergrads, SLU has almost a small-town feel to it, but with all the city amenities a short walk away. When D & myself visited a few months ago, we were given a personalized one-on-one interview & tour of campus, which was very cool. That hadn't happened during any other visit.</p>
<p>Academically, among other fields they're very strong in the health sciences, in which D is interested. And athletically SLU is joining the Atlantic 10 conference for the 2005 season, which includes schools such as UMass, GWU, St. Joe's & Dayton. No football, but Division I hoops, soccer, and everything else.</p>
<p>After a few tours, a parent's antennae should be up during a tour to see if the students milling about look 'happy', whatever that means. And at SLU, while walking around observing, I saw no furrowed brows like other campuses--these kids actually smiled at you (while on their cellphones of course!).</p>
<p>It's definitely worth checkout their website at <a href="http://www.slu.edu%5B/url%5D">www.slu.edu</a> or visiting campus. D has been accepted for next fall & is waiting for other schools to render their verdict before deciding for sure.</p>
<p>Emory is a school that my D keeps coming back to as she surfs through college web sites. According to the web site, they do give merit scholarships, but they seem difficult to come by. D really wants her PSAT scores back to see if she could/should consider this school and others. (Adding airfare to two full-fare schools is that much more overwhelming to us, but D still wants to keep options open for Emory and Wash U.)</p>
<p>Has anyone toured Wash U in Saint Louis?</p>
<p>My daughter, a junior, also wants to visit Emory. She has been getting mail from them for over a year...very impressive literature, and it was specific to her interests also. We too are waiting until we get the PSAT results back. Hope that happens soon! If her scores seem solid enough to indicate an SAT that would support an application to Emory, we'll fly down there for a long weekend.</p>
<p>I agree, Thumper1, the literature from Emory is impressive. It appears to be very strong in the sciences.</p>
<p>I posted these in the "Two at a time" thread, but I'll do it here, too, for consolidation reasons.</p>
<p>Tufts: You can feel that the students at Tufts are making the most of their college years. There is a sense of productivity and eagerness that the campus exudes. The dining hall was satisfactory with decent food, nothing too impressive. Some things that I did not really enjoy: the surrounding area, how the campus is built on a hill, and some attitudes of various students. The surrounding area is very residential and simply mundane. There is not much to do, and Boston is much farther away than the brochures make you think. The hill was just plain inconvenient, period. Lastly, you've heard of "Tuft's syndrome"? Well, in short, Tuft's Syndrome is the feeling that many students get when they go there, because they are, frankly, "Ivy League rejects." Many students seemed to be disappointed that they were not across the bay at Harvard. </p>
<p>Brown: I really liked Brown. Providence was very suprising because it was so much nicer and more metropolitan than I thought it would be. It also is very close to New York and Boston, just in case you feel like you need a bigger city every once in a while. Brown's campus, however, was strange, but not in a bad way. There were two(ish) main quads that were very traditional and collegiate, i.e. old pretty buildings enclosing a nice grassy square. However, the little houses around Brown are all owned by Brown, and are often used for classes. I felt that this decentralized academic life a little bit, however. also I liked the Pembroke campus, though it felt a little deserted. The administrators, however, did come off as a little (rather, a fair amount) pretentious, and too engrossed in the fact that they work at an "Ivy League." The students seemed friendly, but tried too hard to be "different"- you could tell that much of the "unique-ness" was forced. Thayer street is also very cool.</p>
<p>Georgetown: Well, yes, I am biased. Georgetown was my favorite! (I did apply EA.) There are those old, traditional stone buildings on campus (i.e. Healy Hall), but there is also a large amount of new construction (much of it ongoing). The construction, however, is due to end next April. All of the students seemed very friendly, and no one was really that stressed (i.e. at many other campuses, you can tell that people are too focused and stressed out about academics. At Georgetown, there were a lot of chatting, smiling students just hanging around). The administrators were friendly and helpful, too. My favorite part of the school, however, was the surrounding area (Georgetown, and also its proximity to DC). Georgetown is a very cute yet sophisticated cityish suburbish town. M street was very fun (great restaurants!), and the area is absolutely gorgeous (building-wise and nature-wise). DC is also an amazing place to be near, since it is such a center of everything (politics, business, history, etc.). I will not lie, though, because there were some less than desirable things about it. First is that GTown is under the flight path of many planes coming from Reagan Int'l (this isn't as bad as you think, because you get used to them fast. By the end of my visit, I wasn't even notocing them). Second is that there are some ugly (and some positively atrocious) buildings. The library, for one, looks like a nightmare of cement dreamed up in the 70s, and then put through a blender. It is enshrouded in trees, though, so its not that bad. Harbin Hall, the only really tall building on campus, is also a little on the ugly side. Healy Hall, however, is amazing. It is without a doubt one of the most beautiful and impressive buildings I have ever seen on a college campus. Hoya Saxa!</p>
<p>Penn: I actually like Penn a lot. I was warned about students being pretentious and snobby, with their whole "popped collar" attitude, but they were all very warm and affable. In terms of city campuses, I thought Penn was amazing. I loved Locust Walk, and the surrounding area was not as bad as people say. It was a tad on the large side, however, which was a turn-off. There also seemed to be a very strong emphasis on preprofessionalism, which doesn't really appeal to me (in little doses, it's fine, but Penn lived and breathed preprofessionalism). Wharton does seem to be a little over-exalted, and in a way deprives the other schools of the recognition that they deserve. I loved Philly (however was disappointed with the Cheese Steaks!). It is a very culturally rich city (I had a predisposition of it being an industrial city, so I was very pleasantly suprised). After my visit, Penn actually became my second choice.</p>
<p>Haverford: I really liked Haverford, but my twin downright adored it. You can feel that there is a very close-knit community there. For me, it was way too small, but some people like that. It had one of the most gorgeous campuses I have ever seen, though. (The campus is actually an arboretum! I thought that that was cool.) While the students we met were all very nice, many of them seemed to be studying a lot. Some things that really stood out to me were the relationship with Bryn Mawr (which is so advantageous for both student bodies), the reverence for the honor code (I thought that this was extremely mature, and it really showcased well the mindsets of the students there: trusting and logical), and everyone's love for the school. Everybody we met was simply ecstatic to be going there. I really loved that about the school.</p>
<p>Hey parents, not to intrude or anything but I've been on a few college visits to places that don't seem to get much press but might be useful for a lot of people out there. I focused mainly on the honors colleges/programs avaliable as well as scholarships that they had to offer in my area (the South). </p>
<p>University of Tennessee-Knoxville: The campus isn't much; it blends into the downtown streets of Knoxville along the Tennessee River and has a disjointed feel to it with many different styles of buildings. I really liked the main library though and some of the older buildings looked nice. Since I was mainly interested in the honors program, I talked to the honors program people both times I visited. It seemed rather tacked-on as an alternative for the talented in-state students and not very inspiring. They talked about expanding it in the future somewhat and were bringing in some new people, but overall did not have much in the way of special programs. Neyland Stadium looked awesome though (100,000+ capacity) and the in-state scholarships were incredible. Problem is, they just cut off financial aid for out-of-staters due to budget shortfalls. Ouch.</p>
<p>University of Florida: The key word here is BIG. Everything about this campus is huge...the stadium, the buildings, the student center, even the bookstore was several stories. It's a really nice place though with lots of trees, some gator ponds, and a large lake in the middle. Very well organized and efficient staff it seemed, but I got the feeling I was just a small cog in a huge machine. The academic programs looked excellent, and the honors people had a new dorm (for first-year only though), but I just didn't get much of a personal connection with the place. Someone who's very social and can easily stand out from the crowd would probably thrive at UF since it seemed to have an insane amount of resources. The guarenteed NMF scholarship is nice, but that's about it as far as scholarships go and it doesn't cover all expenses; just tuition, room, and part of board w/o books or personal expenses. The area of Florida it was in was very flat and boring, but only about an hour from the beach. </p>
<p>University of Arkansas- Fayetteville: I was starting to doubt that a state school could work for me, but my visit to Arkansas changed all that. Fayetteville was vibrant and just the right size for a college town but the Northwestern area as a whole is booming with lots of new jobs and companies in the area, very different from the rest of the state. From the amazingly helpful tour guide to the professor who literally invited me into his office on the spot, everything about Arkansas went off without a hitch. The beautiful Old Main building with the heart of the liberal arts programs is really a sight to see and the Ozark mountains are visible from the windows. Honors College just got a ton of money (something like 190 million) from the Walton family so they're aggressively recruiting potential students with lots of big money full-rides. It seemed to have a lot of higher-level honors courses in addition to the standard honors versions of normal classes and they had an excellent program for post-graduate fellowships. The people in the admissions office really have their act together as do the people in the honrs program. I was more than happy to add Arkansas to my college list after this. </p>
<p>Univeristy of Oklahoma- They have an excellent marketing tool in their NMF package advertising campaign. However, I found the drive out to Norman to not be worth the visit I had. Norman is suburban, sprawled out, without much character and in the middle of wide, boring plains. The day of our tour was really hot and though they did provide water it was still hard to imagine living in the heat, especially on such a huge campus. The tour guide was horrible and the honors college person couldn't give us a reason why to choose OU. The NMF people get a floor on one of the huge housing dormotories but that's about it. I couldn't see much that distinguished OU from anywhere else and the academics didn't seem as good as Florida. Maybe it was just a combination of bad timing and bad luck, but after Arkansas OU looked really poor.</p>
<p>University of Alabama- This school is really a hidden jewel in higher education in the South. They have a whopping FOUR honors programs specifically tailored for students with different interests. Doesn't this make more sense? Plus you can be in as many or as few as you want, so it can be really challenging for daring students or easier for students who want to enjoy Crimson Tide football games. The tour guide was excellent and the admissions people went out of their way to create a personalized schedule for me as well as help me find my way around campus. Parking was plentiful, something none of the other schools had, and they actually wanted me to try their cafeteria food (it was good!). Only bummer was the history/polysci building was run down while the science buildings were all brand new. New dorms were being built along the riverside and the honors people were getting new buildings all over the place. Pretty good scholarships for NMFs (near full ride) too as well as a lot of others for anyone with decent credentials. In short, by the time my tour was over, I wanted to apply right then and there.</p>
<p>Washington U in St Louis...</p>
<p>My son loved the school on first sight. If I were going back to school, I would like to go there myself. The surrounding area did not give me warm fuzzies though. I did get very lost in the worst part of St. Louis so that tarnished my feelings about the city. There was road construction going on at the time of our visit as well, so navigating the area near the school was difficult. The school itself is lovely.The newer dorms are really nice. The room are suites and someone comes in to clean the bathrooms twice a week. I loved that!</p>
<p>The campus is easy to get around. It was very well laid out. There is a nice little downtown area that is within walking distance that has some shops and restaurants. I am sure there is bus service into St. Louis, it is not something we asked about on our tour.</p>
<p>All in all I was very impressed with the school. It felt like a place where serious learning was valued.</p>
<p>Goucher College, Maryland - Goucher's 200 acre campus feels secluded but step off campus and right across the street is a large mall. Free shuttle buses take students to other colleges in Baltimore, including Johns Hopkins and Loyola. Students at Goucher have the option of taking 1 class a semester at the 7 plus schools in Baltimore. </p>
<p>Goucher's campus is beautiful - lots of trees, a pond, sandstone buildings. The pictures on Goucher's web site don't do it justice. The buildings are compact in the middle of the campus - no more than 10 minute walk from end to end on the quad. The outer rings of the campus are wooded so you feel like you are not in the city, even though you are quite close. There is actually an equestrian facility on campus with riding trails through the woods.</p>
<p>Dorms were among the nicest we've seen on our visits. Large rooms, large walk-in closets, singles available to upper classmen and a few freshman. Goucher is on a building spree that will add a new student center-dining hall, apartment style dorm, and a new library over the next few years. </p>
<p>Goucher offers a nice mix of science and humanities/social sciences. Biology and chemistry are strong with good pre-med programs. The arts center on campus was very nice. Dance is also strong, as is theater. A plus with Goucher is the availability of internships in Baltimore. Actually all students have to complete either an internship or a study abroad program as part of the graduation requirements. Goucher offers nice study abroad options, including some classes that culminate in a three-to-four week study abroad session.</p>
<p>Overall, the feel at Goucher was that it was a comfortable place for people looking for a somewhat liberal/artsy small school with proximity to urban benefits.</p>