<p>“Bentley vs GWU - from my perch not far from Waltham, I would choose GWU in a heartbeat.”</p>
<p>I would probably agree with you if he were majoing in anything else except business. And of course if he changes his mind, GWU offers many more options. Howerver, Bentley has been ranked in the top 25 in the country (#21) by Buisness Week for its undergraduate business program. It also scores very high for job placements after graduation. GWU’s undergraduate business program is ranked #51, well below Bentley. The tuition at GWU is about $4-5K more. </p>
<p>The two schools couldn’t be more different in all kinds of ways. Bentley is about 15 min from Boston–I can’t think of a better college city. They have a campus shuttle between the campus and downtown. I always thought that D.C. would be better for graduate school–it’s a much more “grown up” social environment than Boston.</p>
<p>I’m interested in the perspectives of folks out there. Please add your two (or three) cents.</p>
<p>I don’t know Bentley. Boston is a great college town, though I actually rarely bothered to go off campus when I was in school because so much was going on on campus. DC has a lot more to offer than many realize. Not only are there all the museums on the Mall (all free!), there are free concerts at the Kennedy Center as well as paid ones, and with half a dozen colleges I know of plenty of student type haunts as well. DC is also a great town for internships and you will probably be able to do them during the school year, not just the summer. In addition, GW has a lot of DC people who just do some teaching on the side. Cokie Roberts (or was it her husband?) teaches at GW for example.</p>
<p>Although Bentley may be 15 minutes from Boston (??? I would say it is at least a 20 minute drive in no traffic, longer by pubic transportation), it is located on a campus outside of Waltham, a rather gritty suburban city.</p>
<p>This is no way compares with GWU’s location in the heart of DC with a subway stop just steps away.</p>
<p>MM, the DC dress code percolates down to everything. D will likely never find a stricter dress code than her Senator’s, which is among the strictest on the Hill. Khakis and a button-down top would have been a welcome breathe of very casual. </p>
<p>The $16 to park is also an object lesson: don’t bring your car.</p>
<p>Me? I’d take GWU in a heartbeat but I have a lot of DC-centered interest and like the city’s vibe. Out of college, I lived just a few blocks from GWU and loved it…wish I could afford to buy a condo for retirement there now.</p>
<p>TheDad – DH spent the summer of 1988 working at a DC law firm and lived in a sublet at 24th and M…we SO regret we couldn’t swing the $59k it would have cost to buy said apartment. It would have been an extremely prudent investment!</p>
<p>CD, I feel your pain. Yes, that would have been great. We need to build up reserves, pay down some more debt (including our loans for D’s college!), and then acquire a down payment for said condo. Don’t think that’s happening soon.</p>
<p>U Chicago was son’s first or second choice until he visited. He found it “cold” compared to his other favorite. Not really the weather (he visited in April) but the people, the campus – it just felt cold, he said. He called me from the campus to tell me he had made his decision against it. </p>
<p>For daughter, she spent part of the summer at Cal Arts, and that turned her against Cal Arts and Southern California schools like Otis and Art Center College of Design. She didn’t like the campus of Cal Arts, the SoCal weather, the sense of isolation on the campus, the bad public transit.</p>
<p>D was very high on Tufts - ever since she knew of colleges (back in 5th or 6th grade). We finally did visit Tufts this past Feb one day after a snowstorm. Campus looked beautiful, trees covered with snow, snow falling lightly as we walked around. She loved the campus. Info session turned her off - she felt like they talked a little too much about globalization and IR - and her focus is in the sciences. I told her that they do have a really good science program - but nope, she’s not that interested anymore!!</p>
<p>She visited UChicago and Northwestern also that same week. Loved, loved Northwestern. Wants to apply there. Didn’t like UChicago - thought it felt “fake”. I didn’t go with her, so don’t know really what these were like.</p>
<p>Mount Holyoke was crossed off after an accepted student overnight trip. It was a beautiful spring day and not one student was outside. The place seemed deserted. We finally found some students in the library. Daughter said if I made her go to school there she was not going to college.</p>
I am familiar with the pop culture reference. We visited with what I hope was an unbiased eye, but I have to admit by the end of the day I decided that a not insignificant number of kids were students in title only.</p>
<p>UMass does have an honors college, but somewhat oddly it received no more focus on the tour than any other building. By the way, our guide was a natural. Everybody loved him. My only quiet comment to my daughter was that he was enthusiastic about everybody and everything, which for me at least undermined his legitimacy. One of his few wisecracks was about vegetarian food. He had everybody laughing by saying something like “in this cafeteria they serve vegan stuff like tofu. If you don’t know what that is, don’t sweat it. I’ll tell you where you can get a GREAT burger in just a moment.”</p>
<p>Trust me, it was very funny at the time. I should perhaps add that daughter and I are both vegetarians.</p>
<p>Smser, we had to pry D out of the car at Mount Holyoke. Then, in the admissions office, TheMom was helpfully asking if there were any more info sessions or tours that day and D is nudging? kicking? her out of sight of the receptionist with a “No! No! No!” Fortunately, there were not.</p>
<p>Trin, Cal Arts <em>is</em> relatively remote. Best university for public transport in SoCal is UCLA. Completely different kind of college.</p>
<p>Just got back from our mega trip of 8 days. It was hectic but a lot of fun. We visited:</p>
<p>Santa Clara - school was not in session; ate breakfast in the dinning hall, lovely immaculate campus, new facilities, friendly students.</p>
<p>Wash U - attended the info plus engineering tour led by students. Happy campus.</p>
<p>G Tech - rainy day, nothing outstandingly attractive about the campus. Office looking buildings in town.</p>
<p>UT - better than expected tour. School was in session, kids looked very busy and rushing to classes. Modern facilities. Did not get to see the dorms, so a big question mark there.</p>
<p>USC - LA weather, nice campus, cheerful students. Lots of tours going on, lots of bikes. Could sense the pride.</p>
<p>Yes Kojima, we were travelling from Asia so we had to finish the whole gig and be back in time for school on Monday. </p>
<p>Almost everyday we would tour the colleges in the morning and take an early evening flight to the next destination. Had a rest day in Atlanta and then again in LA before flying 20 hours back which seemed to go on forever!! That last bit was the hardest.</p>
<p>I thought son would fall in love with one place and declare his choice but that did not happen. Like they say no place is perfect and so we are back on the drawing board now but the pressure is off. Son will have to talk to people and get more in depth info on which place is best suited for him in terms of overall fit.</p>
<p>CMU - was high on the list til DS visited and hated the whole feel of it.</p>
<p>On the flip side, on the same visit he just through in University of Pittsburgh because it was next door, was on the bottom of the list but liked it a lot and that is where he is going.</p>
<p>Hahaha Tufts! I really expected to like it, but when we went there (on a nice, sunny Saturday afternoon, after being in noisy, busy Boston), the entire place was literally dead. I think I saw two students the entire time - with the exception of the library, which was all full. Didn’t like Medford, either. Crossed that off the list.</p>