<p>re #1428 Well…it may be true that comparing reported crimes isn’t fair because students at one college may be likelier to report than at others, but…</p>
<p>Of course there are no schools that don’t present risks, of a sort.
The more social elites, such as Williams, Dartmouth and Princeton are subject to alcohol excess and respect for the ability to relate to others and, lets be frank, regard for beauty and sexuality.
At the other extreme are the University of Chicago (which I know very well), Pomona and Swarthmore. Young people whose maturity seems to skip from 14 to 40. Life experience? What’s that?
My bias is for the William Blake take on life.</p>
<p>I have to say I am surprised and pleased at the way Williams is maturing my son. More than I expected. Not what danas is talking about – skipping the wild phase. But not the truly excessive experience imagined either.</p>
<p>He has learned to hike in the mountains and regard art museums as the first idea when he wants to be entertained. He wants to take me up because there are certain pieces in the Clark he wants to share.</p>
<p>A good college, whatever end of the spectrum offers so many experiences and unpredictable outcomes. Both good and bad.</p>
<p>RE Vandy trust fund babies in full makeup at 9 AM: That is my main concern as well (will be attending at least the first year), but then again, I 1)enjoy crushing stereotypes and cliches under the heel of my boot, 2)get along with everyone, and 3)will find a small group of nerd friends and read my science fiction in peace, hopefully!</p>
<p>Tufts: By far the worst info session I have ever sat through (and I have sat through more than twenty, so i’ve seen it all). The presenter had a room full of people, probably a few hundred. He kept droning on on about pillars of education. There were about six pillars in all and each one seemed to take forever. He should have noticed that nobody cared (hint: half the room is asleep). Instead, he just kept going and going. It was awful. Had an amazing tour guide though. </p>
<p>Brown: The admissions officer presenting was good, but then they had a student there as well to talk about her experiences. All she said was that she hated math, so she came to Brown so she never had to take a math class. Also, they entertained the same stupid questions over and over. My personal favorite: Do you require the SAT? No offense people, but if you don’t know this, you’re not getting into Brown. </p>
<p>UCSD- Our tour guide was not very good and the whole campus felt like a futuristic summer camp. I also didn’t like the way the colleges were organized based on your learning interests, not on your major.
Johns Hopkins- The info session leader never gave any specifics, and all of the university’s fous seemed to be on their hospitals. I guess it would be great if you were pre-med, but I crossed it off my list.
Penn- A really nice school but I decided it wasn’t for me just because it was so urban. I know people who would love a place like Penn, though, which just goes to show that a school one person hates can be the perfect match for another.</p>
<p>My mom really disliked Southern CT State University and the surrounding area. I liked the new additions to it but disliked the highway you had to cross to get to the cafeteria. I applied anyways and was accepted but decided not to attend.</p>
<p>D1- Wagner- didn’t think the people were very friendly.
Ended up choosing George Mason over Towson St., but transferred to Niagara University after 2 years where she graduated from this year. </p>
<p>D2 - SUNY Binghamton - just liked other schools more, nothing she really disliked but rather nothing she really liked either
Colgate - just didn’t feel that she’d fit in with their student body</p>
<pre><code> Her top three choices are:.Cornell, University of Rochester, & SUNY Geneseo
</code></pre>
<p>Mills College: My daughter found the thought of going to a college that’s less than half the size of her high school to be “creepy.” The small size also limits the academic offerings. You can take classes at nearby colleges (including UC Berkeley), but you’re limited to a total of four. It also didn’t give us much confidence in the academics of the college when the tour guide expressed sympathy for the poor science students who have to take classes on Fridays.</p>
<p>St. Mary’s of CA: My daughter’s first reaction was that they’re too “peppy.” The info session and tour guide spent a fair amount of time talking about their Div I basketball team, and the Gael Force fan group. My daughter is not into things like that at all, and finds it to be a complete turnoff. </p>
<p>St. Mary’s did play up a number of academic aspects. One that they like to trumpet (too much, according to my daughter) is their January term courses. Trouble is that many of the course titles we saw on the tour sounded like proverbial basket weaving classes. Study abroad was another big theme. Unfortunately, the tour guide made it sound as if the students treat it as a “free” vacation: “…and we also study <em>wink wink</em>” (not literally, but that was the tone of voice). They also play up their seminar courses. Those sound like they could be quite good. Unfortunately, I was the kind of student who would have hated them, and my daughter expressed similar sentiments.</p>
<p>Stanford - felt too much like Disney World (just waiting for the characters… i mean students… to show up during the summer), others on tour gave off extremely competitive vibe</p>
<p>Using Daughter’s CC account. Just got back from an east coast trip. </p>
<p>NYU- D1 found it too urban (This is coming from the girl who spends 6 months each year in Manhattan and who LOVED Columbia) </p>
<p>Haverford- No definite reason but she liked Amherst</p>
<p>Colby- Too rural</p>
<p>We saw 13 colleges so I thought only three she disliked was pretty good. Of course, I had to drag her to Princeton because “the people she knew there were pretentious and it was in Jersey” <em>eye roll</em> What is it with Manhattanites and their disdain for Jersey?</p>
<p>Our student likes urban schools
and just returned from staying with a summer program on the Upenn campus for 2 months.
The students were told the campus and streets were not safe at night and to not be out after about 9pm.
Our kiddo followed the advice of the program director.</p>
<p>My daughter was crazy about UPenn because of the beautiful campus and the high caliber of the program she wanted to apply to. Yes, it was urban, but the feel of the place she just loved. She also liked Brown, since it also had a campusy feel. I must say the student presenter at Brown was less than desirable, but the faculty she spoke to were articulate and helpful. </p>
<p>She didn’t like Lehigh. She felt the town was way too small.</p>
<p>We both hated Tufts. The information session was the strangest we’d ever been to. The presenter droned on and on for an hour, mostly about the international focus of the school, quoted lines from an Arnold Schwartzenager movie, and at one point actually spread his arms out and ran in a circle while buzzing like a bumble bee!! The person from the computer science department she spoke to was frighteningly weird as well. We practically ran to the car!</p>
<p>Carnegie Mellon left us all with a cold feeling. While the school is top notch academically, it did not give my daughter a warm fuzzy feeling.</p>
<p>“The students were told the campus and streets were not safe at night and to not be out after about 9pm.”</p>
<p>I don’t doubt this, but when you’re responsible for high school kids, you have to err on the side of caution. There are always much stricter rules and guidelines for HSers versus college age kids. There are riskier and safer ways to be out in a city, and you can’t trust a bunch of HSers who didn’t grow up there to know the difference.</p>
<p>A giant understatement: Undergrads UPenn go out after 9 pm all the time.</p>