<p>^LOL Now that you mention it VMI does look a bit like a prison! Less so though when you drive around to the front and see the parade grounds.</p>
<p>University of Delaware for me. I didn’t really know what to expect and toured it because it was close to another college I toured that day. I was pleased after the tour and decided to apply there.</p>
<p>What the heck is VMI? Thanks! :)</p>
<p>Virginia Military Institute</p>
<p>OOHH! Thanks, Boomer! I feel better now 
Boy, SO MANY abbreviations on cc! :eek:</p>
<p>I went to school with two different guys (UC Davis grads) who were initially encouraging their respective daughters to go to a UC. Like many, they were concerned with Chico’s party reputation “back in the day”. Well, as it turns out, all 4 girls are graduates of Chico and are doing quite well for themselves. One is teaching Algebra at the American School in Paris and is making a nice salary. She lives near the Eiffel Tower. The other one is a Registered Dietitian working in the city of San Francisco. I’m not sure exactly what the other guy’s two daughters do, but I know they have nice careers as a result of their education at Chico. One of the dads was telling me that he was surprised at how personable his daughters’ professors were and they benefitted from the *teaching *atmosphere vs. the more research-oriented UCs.</p>
<p>Anyway, these old classmates of mine were impressed and proud to have their daughters attend Chico State University.</p>
<p>**jshain said:</p>
<p>I will also give a shout-out to CSU Chico, especially for in-state Californians who are weighing their options between CSU’s and mid/lower-tier UC’s. If you haven’t visited, by all means do so. Make sure you cruise through the lower and upper regions of Bidwell Park (one of the largest municipal parks in the U.S.) and have a bite to eat at Sierra Nevada Brewery. If you think the school is only for “slackers”, think again, because it has done quite well in the early to mid-career USNWR income rankings.**</p>
<p>Hood College in Frederick, Maryland. Super friendly people everywhere! Nice campus!
Great Academics, good financial aid, applied, accepted, child ended up at another school. It was one of those “sleeper” schools. Trip was actually to see Goucher, which our child did not like at all. You never know! :)</p>
<p>Great thread. It’s nice to see some of the generally overlooked-on-CC state school gems being mentioned, like Chico State, Monclair State, Colorado State, Delaware, Pitt, etc.</p>
<p>I will add Framingham State University (Mass.). Small classes, great price, some programs with excellent reputations, campus on a wooded hill in the Boston suburbs (doesn’t look like the other MA, CT, or NY state colleges), been there since the 1850s, commuter rail to Boston a mile away, dry campus (haven’t heard of that at a state U before), campus facilities were in surprisingly excellent condition - most everything recently renovated, new, or about to be renovated.</p>
<p>Because of its location in Schenectady New York, and because it is engineer-heavy, I never expected Union to be beautiful. There is a huge (7 acres?) garden that took my breath away. Of course, DS could care less about the garden, but he liked everything else!</p>
<p>The D of some dear family friends is at Chico. Was salutatorian of her class. Turned down Berkeley and Davis. Absolutely no regrets.</p>
<p>Hobart and William Smith in the finger lakes region of NY. Visited it as a safety and it ended up at #2 on a list of reasonably good LACs.</p>
<p>Hampshire College in MA. Put aside our crunchy granola expectations and the school really spoke to both D and me. If a student is passionate about learning, whether s/he knows what area they want to pursue, and is also willing to do the work to investigate where their passion lies then this can be a really good fit. Not an Ivy/brick traditional place, but all of the students were enthused and interesting- not a cookie cutter or smug one in the bunch. D was not sure as a moderate, meat eating and leather wearing prospective student if she would fit in and found this was really a place for individuals. Very nice from a parent perspective too.</p>
<p>Someone else said this, but Ithaca College was our most surprising find. Best tour I took. Very well equipped campus. Students and Admissions staff down to earth and friendly. Communications, music, theater, Physical Therapy and business facilities seem excellent. It was a safety for my son and he didn’t choose it, but we’re going back to take a look for for son #2.</p>
<p>William and Mary. I just loved the feel of the place. My daughter, who was the potential college applicant, disagreed, though.</p>
<p>I forced my S to look at Stonehill College (Easton MA). It was a safety for him, and he wanted nothing to do with it because it was too close to home. But after a visit and tour he said, “I really didn’t want to like this place, but the more they talked, the more I liked it.” It seemed very student-centered, they had a lot of policies in place that made sense from a student point of view (you could move up in the housing lottery by earning points by joining organizations, good GPA, community service, but you lost points for disciplinary infractions. Also they designed their relatively new dining hall based on what students asked for - plenty of seats and lots of windows. There was more along those same lines). S applied and was accepted with a very generous merit offer. When we went back for the program for students accepted into the Honors program, they talked on and on about all their internship opportunities. In the end, S went elsewhere, but we were both impressed and I have a lot of love for Stonehill!</p>
<p>For my D, it was James Madison University. She had only driven through on I81 and couldn’t imagine going there. I really “encouraged” her to audition there and she loved the faculty she met and the kids and the campus. Then she went back in April for a lesson and it was a perfect spring day and kids were all over the quad playing frisbee and hanging out and she thought it looked exactly like a college should look. </p>
<p>We also loved CMU and Pittsburgh and another big surprise was the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. The campus is really nice and I loved Greensboro. I’ll also say that there was nothing any more lovely than Otterbein in the snow.</p>
Champlain College. It’s beautiful and adorable and the people are very nice.