We just finished up tours for my son in Massachusetts and Connecticut. Did a last minute visit to Northeastern in Boston and we were very impressed. Not what we expected. Beautiful, compact campus and one of the better info sessions we have attended. Their co-op program is a huge plus.
@HarvestMoon1, you wonât go wrong with Northeastern. Decades ago, it was a commuter school that wasnât particularly well-regarded, but has greatly improved in both selectivity and quality of education. Theyâve also invested heavily in building a real campus. A friendâs brilliant son is headed there this coming September, and he had many other excellent schools to choose from.
Scripps. My daughter loved it immediately (it even smelled really great!), but ended up closer to home after an agonizing decision.
@Massmomm , Can you tell me why your D loved Scripps a little more in detail? My D wants to apply but she wonât be visiting until she actually gets in. Was is a lively campus? My D loves the school where there are lots of actions.
Oh, and she is applying to Northeastern, too. (same as Scripps. Wonât be visiting unless she gets in first.)
@HiToWaMom my D will be a freshman at Scripps. She did not even want to visit at first. She was only interested in CMC but I booked a tour at Scripps too since it made no sense to me to only look at one of the schools. She liked it more after the tour but was still on the fence about wanting a womenâs college. She went for a diversity weekend program in the fall and came home with a completely different perspective. She ended up applying EDII. She loved the community and collaboration that she experienced. I donât know how lively the campus is but the other schools are so close, there will be plenty of action if one desires.
She hated northeastern. It was the only school we visited that she eliminated during the info session. My D18 however, really liked it and is putting it on her potential list.
I take exception to that. Back in the day when it was possible to earn enough on coop to pay the next quarterâs tuition (if you lived at home as most of us did) Northeastern was very well regarded in the Boston area. It never appealed to the liberal artsy types due the its career prep focus. Some looked down on it for that reason.
Northeastern also has an Honors Program. The top 10% of the incoming class is automatically assigned to the program. We toured the honors dorms and I can tell you they were not your typical college doms - very nice.
I think itâs the top 10% of each college at NEU, no?
Rollins College. It is the cutest school, and I really liked it.
@OHMomof2 I believe the top 10% of the incoming class is automatically enrolled in the Honors Program. However, for students who were not eligible when they enrolled, they can apply to the program if they have a 3.8 GPA or above after their first semester.
@Marcie123 , Thank you for telling me about Scripps. My D actually wants womenâs college. I will definitely check the diversity program. I hope my D is qualified for it. She is bi-racial.
On paper, Scripps and NEU look very different. I donât know why my D is interested in both.
Thanks for your input!
Chico State. I was shocked that a CSU campus could be so pretty. It was an oasis in the middle of a bunch of rice fields.
@TomSrOfBoston , I didnât mean to disparage Northeastern at all. I only meant that it did not previously enjoy the excellent reputation that it does today. There are plenty of schools where the quality of education far outstrips the schoolsâ ranking or reputation.
@HiToWaMom , we visited Scripps when it was actually on spring break, so I canât tell you much about the activities on a normal day. But there was still plenty of life there, as many students were on campus either because they played a sport or were working on a thesis or project. What my daughter liked was the beauty of the campus, and the great discussion she had with the director of admissions. It was her first formal college interview and the experience made a very positive impression on her. She had the sense that the intellectual vigor she was looking for could definitely be found at Scripps. Oh, and the fact that some of the dorm rooms had working fireplaces was also a plusâŠ
@Massmomm , Thank you for the report of your Dâs experience. I think Iâd be the one who goes ooh and aah with beautiful campus and the fireplaces in the dorm rooms. Great interview (and a nice smell) is a big plus!
For us it was Texas State University. It started out as a safety school and my son had just about decided on Texas Tech. We visited just about every campus in Texas and TXST was the only one that grab his attention the moment we hit campus. Campus has a spring fed river that runs right thru campus and it is located half way between Austin and San Antonio. Wife loved the fact that San Marcos has the largest outlet mall in the world. I didnât want to like it but it grew on me rather quickly.
We were surprised first that there was a college named Whitman, and then that there was such an excellent school in a place called Walla Walla, WA. The visit knocked our socks off: gorgeous campus; amazing accessible profs; rigorous academics; happy, friendly student body; in the middle of a cozy charming town! It was the first school we visited sonâs junior year, and we took many more college tours during the summer and fall of his senior year. There were others that he liked along the way and applied to, but during accepted students visits, Whitman made the best impression.
I think SLO does a good job with the way they present themselves to prospective students. We did a department tour which was great, a general campus tour, a Q&A with Admissions and a dorm tour. The dorm tour was the only one that wasnât well organized but it was at the end of the day so could have just been that we were burning out.
It was great that it was so easy to have all the tours in the same day and receive perspectives from so many different students.
Oklahoma. Perfect size, beautiful campus, good college town, great school spirit, good academics, flexible (i.e you can change your major easily without any kind of application.)
@maroon79 University of Oklahomaâs Price College of Business requires an application. Easy to get into for students with >3.0, but it still requires that students apply. A few other smaller majors also require applications.
Iâm living across the street from the University of Denver this summer. Nice looking school, fantastic location, and the students Iâve met in my apartment (private student housing) have all been extremely welcoming. The schoolâs location provides a number of opportunities for government, business, and extracurricular activities, especially those pertaining to the outdoors.