<p>DS loved Haverford. Neither of us knew that much about it, other than it had an honor code.</p>
<p>It has a beautiful campus and the admissions officer was warm and welcoming. The student who took us on the tour was funny and sincere and smart. Very nice. And it’s close to public transportation to Philadelphia.</p>
<p>The visit put it high on his list.</p>
<p>Washington and Lee. Had barely heard of it when we started looking at colleges. Went to visit and was blown away by everything about the school. I could write a VERY long paragraph or two about “why W&L”, but I would just say if anyone out there is looking at an LAC, make sure you include Lexington, VA on your itinerary. Happily, I will be driving my S there this weekend to drop him off for freshman year. :)</p>
<p>My daughter, after really liking RIT and RPI, didn’t like WPI at all. She didn’t like the system of projects. Definitely a pretty campus though.</p>
<p>Of course, you can tell from my screen name that I’m biased towards UT-Austin, but we had a similar experience to Lizardly - we ran into a high school classmate of DS’s at orientation. A kid who lives two miles down the road from us in MAINE! So it really is a small world.</p>
<p>RPI. All I heard before we visited was the weather was terrible, it was in an old, run down town with lots of crime… Things like that. We visited because my son was offered a scholarship, and he connected with people right away, everyone was very nice, and the weather has been very nice each time we’ve visited, the town is turning around, etc. It’s really been a good fit for him, and he will likely venture out and about more this year.</p>
<p>Pitzer and Claremont McKenna were on D’s college counselor list, albeit nowhere near the top (Brown and Tufts, either of which were at the top of the parent list and closer to home in Maine). California was enough of a draw that we decided to visit and after about 30 minutes at Pitzer, D announced she would apply early. It took me a bit longer to “get it,” but by the time we were flying home D had my full support.</p>
<p>Just back from orientation and all signs remain it was an inspired choice for her.</p>
<p>My daughter loved Connecticut College’s beautiful campus and student vibe, which surprised me because she wanted to be close to a large city. She loved U. Rochester as well (visited twice in April and August 2012, both on sunny and beautiful days, which is highly unusual.) UR was eliminated because of their financial package and Conn College became her second choice when she decided it would be fun to go someplace warmer.</p>
<p>My D (and my H and I also) loved Hamilton College. Visited in March 2012 in fairly cold, gray, drizzly spring day. She had the “aha” moment driving onto campus. Despite the gray day, the campus seemed beautiful, people (both staff and students) friendly and interesting and the open curriculum was appealing. She ended up applying and was accepted with some actual Fin Aid (grants, not loans – the only college that ended up giving her need-based aid–she got some merit elsewhere but no need based). D ended up choosing to attend elsewhere partly because <2000 students and the separateness of campus from even the small town of Clinton seemed isolating (and she knew she would not have a car). Also, she was concerned that the theatre department was just too small for her to have a critical mass of majors / classes, etc. Hamilton remains one of my favorite of the colleges we visited and was in her top 3 choices at the end of the day.</p>
<p>momofzag - I second Hamilton College. They are in the process of building a brand new theatre arts building, which may have influenced her decision!
[Studio</a> Arts - Studio Arts Home - Hamilton College](<a href=“http://www.hamilton.edu/arts-facilities/pages/studio-arts/studio-arts-home]Studio”>http://www.hamilton.edu/arts-facilities/pages/studio-arts/studio-arts-home)</p>
<p>Hi All! No current visits? We visited Rowan University in Glassboro, NJ on Sunday for it’s Open House and were very impressed. This is the 10th school we have visited and is high on my DS list. The Open House was very crowded but well organized. Large tour group but our guides were very friendly, informative and enthusiastic. The campus is lovely and the new Rowan Blvd Complex still has vacancies it looks like a welcome addition to the campus with Barnes and Noble, Bagel shop and apartments.
Anyone else been there?</p>
<p>I’ll bump this thread because this might be helpful for students and parents deciding on where to go.</p>
<p>Our surprise was Christopher Newport University in Newport News, Virginia. It was never on son’s radar because they didnt offer one of his potential majors and also because it is close to home. We visited on the spur of the moment last fall and were really impressed. The grounds are gorgeous, the facilities are top notch, and the students are accomplished and polite. We visited again yesterday for a program interview and were blown away. I was looking for negatives, but so far, nada…</p>
<p>CMU! Loved it. Everyone was friendly and helpful and I loved the classes and the professors were very approachable. The campus was a good fit for me too. Can’t wait to start my freshman year there next year as an ED admit! </p>
<p>Also liked RPI a lot, and Olin</p>
<p>Chico State and Sonoma State in NCal were both pleasant surprises.</p>
<p>I took a tour of New Hampshire colleges in October, and there were several schools on the agenda that I expected would not be of interest to my students. I was pleasantly surprised by St. Anselm College, Plymouth State, and Keene State. Really nice facilities and campus communities. All would be great for the right student.</p>
<p>Way back on page one Proudpatriot mentions Case Western…we had exactly the same experience. My D was looking at smaller schools in other areas of the country and I tried a couple times to remove Case from her list (preconceived notions). Her counselor convinced us to leave it on and visit if possible- well we did, twice- and she, my H and I all loved it! She is now a student there and still loves it. Just goes to show ya…</p>
<p>I’ll add Missouri S&T (Rolla). Very surprised by how much my daughter loved the school and people, and she still does in her second year. Her friends are great, the faculty is exceptional, and there is a solid group of friends from the Houston area that travel back and forth for holidays. </p>
<p>And the local alumni group is very supportive. My D looks forward to getting involved with them when and if she comes back to Houston. </p>
<p>We were amazed at the manicured beauty of Mississippi State University. I figured a southern U of that size would generally be nice, but we didn’t realize HOW nice. People were super friendly as well. Doubt my son will attend due to other factors, but we’ll always remember that visit fondly. We also really liked Bowling Green State U in Ohio. Its campus was nicer than we expected (not the best we’ve seen), but the art facilities were tremendous, as were the LEED certified dining halls.</p>
<p>Time to bring this thread back to life!</p>
<p>I’ll start with [Franklin</a> W. Olin College of Engineering](<a href=“http://www.olin.edu/]Franklin”>http://www.olin.edu/) in Needham, MA. I absolutely loved this school! If I could be 18 again (instead of the parent of an 18-year old!), I’d apply there in a heartbeat . . . and I avoided science like the plague in both high school and college!</p>
<p>But Olin made engineering seem like the best course of study on the planet, even for a non-STEM kid like myself. The alumna guest speaker at the Open House my son and I attended described her realization, after about a year of study, that she wasn’t cut out to be an engineer. No problem, her advisor said, we’ll find you a related field where you’ll flourish! And so they did . . . she’s now living in Switzerland, working for the World Health Organization (if I recall correctly, but I could be mistaken about this), and providing “translation” services to help lay people to communicate their needs to engineers and engineers to communicate their products and services to lay people. Her aptitude for writing and speaking, combined with her Olin education, made her ideally suited for such a position.</p>
<p>Although Olin no longer offers the full tuition scholarship that was available in its early years, it still offers a generous scholarship for qualified candidates, although the admission process is rigorous. Definitely worth a look for any student interested in engineering who also craves the personal attention available at this tiny 340-student campus!</p>
<p>P.S. And the dorms are beautiful!!!</p>
<p>St. Joe’s in Philadelphia. </p>
<p>It was one of the first tours we took and I didn’t properly appreciate at the time how their talk was the perfect blend of college life and career placements. We only toured SJU because it was close and we thought it would be a decent safety school merit money wise if she ends up rejected from our super competitive state flagship’s honors college. We had no expectation of liking it as much as we did. Whenever I suggest any of the other not so competitive Jesuit or Catholic schools (like Loyola Maryland or St. Joe’s) where she might get some big merit bucks, D responds that she expects that she won’t like any of them as much as St. Joe’s and in any case certainly she won’t like them MORE than St. Joe’s. And that’s a big relief to me because I have heard mixed things about merit money with both Loyola and Providence, while St. Joe’s seems to be universally pretty good merit wise with high stats kids.</p>