Colleges your child crossed off the list after visiting, schools that moved up on the list. Why?

Parents Forum
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@citivas or anyone interested in Wiliams residence hall options

First Year Students at Williams have 2 types of dorm options:

https://student-life.williams.edu/student-housing/first-year-residence-halls/

I’m familiar with the dorms in Mission where my son lived. Nearly all of the rooms in Mission are singles. An entry (aka dorm floor) has 2 wings, one for women, the other for men, and a common shared living area between these wings. Each entry in both types of residence halls is assigned a pair of Junior Advisors (JA). These residence advisors are always juniors, hence the name, JA.

I heard the appeal of Mission was being able to have a bit of privacy, which can be understandable when being part of the small Williams community, as well as the much smaller dorm floor. JAs are there to foster camaraderie among their frosh. During reunions, all alumni, regardless of age, are housed in the various dorms. And, the residence options vary a great deal after that first year. When my son returned for his reunion, he was housed with his old entry-mates. A friend, who graduated in the late 1950s, said that as you age, the quality of the dorm your graduating class is assigned at reunion increases in desirability, similar to when undergraduates, rising seniors got first pick of dorm options.

My personal reaction to the other type of residence hall was one of confusion. I’ve never been on a tour, which might explain my reaction. If I remember correctly, the entries in those buildings are organized vertically. My guess is if one sees a room in the context of its entry, it makes sense.

In the context of this thread… My son did go on the tour many years ago. He later attended classes, during an overnight visit, which confirmed his positive impression.

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Citymama, I’ve been on 4 college road trips through the south. In VA & NC, it went like this:

VTech, up…nice place, though FAR from any sort of city.
James Madison, up…nice town, nice campus.
UVA, about what we expected…really nice to town & campus, but seemed like campus had some buildings in random places, facing in random directions.
UNC-CH, very nice town & campus, but for some reason we expected more.
Duke, really spectacular if you’re into Gothic. Lack of business adjacent to main campus made it seem isolated.
Wake Forest, up…pretty, compact, well organized, smallish.
Richmond, way up. Beautiful

2203

Here’s our Southeastern list:

Centre: D loved it at first, went back after acceptance, then thought it was too small. It was one of my favorites.
Sewanee: Loved the campus, hated the town, or lack thereof. We’re Episcopalian, wished she had liked it more. Accepted, didn’t go back for a visit.
Rhodes: D fell in love with the campus, everyone was so nice, accepted, made it into the final three.
Elon: Nice campus, but didn’t connect with D for some reason. It had a country club feel, not in a bad way. Didn’t apply.
Davidson: Wonderful campus and town, D didn’t like it as much as some others. We (not she) thought the formal presentation by the admissions officer was a little snooty. Didn’t apply.
William and Mary: We loved it, stayed two days in Williamsburg, extremely hot, guide showed us the worst dorm on campus (by design?). D didn’t really like, too far away from home I think. We were tired, hot, perhaps that had something to do with her apathy. Didn’t apply.
UVA: We waited too late and couldn’t get a tour, but spent the afternoon walking around the campus. Lovely, she liked it, but never asked to go back for another look. I think it was a little too large for D. Didn’t apply.
Wake Forest: Loved the school from the start, extremely well put together and friendly presentation and tour, went back for an interview and liked it more. Admitted students event clinched the deal, I think. Accepted, dropped her off yesterday.

We visited 11-12 other schools. In the end it was down to Smith College (which she loved even more after an admitted students visit) and Wake Forest. Wake Forest by a hair, and two very different schools, obviously. Go figure.

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2204

The thing I would add about observations about Virginia Tech is that it might be far from any city (Roanoke ) but Blacksburg is a real college town. Lots of shops, restaurants , bars, adjacent to campus. That is part of it’s charm for me. But, of course, is not a fit for everyone.

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Agree re Blacksburg…it probably has most things for most people, but for those who need a jolt of urban on a regular basis, it would be a tough adjustment.

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@citymama9 - I took my D17 to quite a few colleges in VA, NC and one in PA, MD and TN.

Richmond - She liked Richmond the most in VA. It was number one for a while. Her only downside; she wanted to be a little further from home (we live in Richmond). Beautiful campus, close to VA Beach and D.C. The administration people we spoke to were also very nice and always helpful.

W&M - This was her second highest school in VA. Same reasons as above and throw in the well regarded undergraduate school.

VA Tech - Third highest. Access to a Hospital for research was a challenge. Beautiful campus. Little isolated.

JMU - This school was probably tied with VT because she was accepted to the Honors program. Beautiful area but also somewhat isolated. The 12,000 female to 8,000 male was a little too much for her as well. Living in VA, where she knows a lot of students who attend JMU, this was mentioned quite a bit.

UVA - I agree with what someone posted earlier; seems like a bunch of buildings were thrown in the air and they landed randomly. Campus seems scattered and unfocused. Daughter also knows a lot of people who are attending. Elitist, can be segregated based on race (should point out part of that is self-segregation). Professors have a reputation of not being too happy to work with undergraduates, TA’s more involved, hard for undergrads to get research opportunities.

Wake Forest - Beautiful campus. Little isolated.

Davidson - Daughter LOVED Davidson. Shot to the top tied with Richmond. When I asked my daughter how her day visit went (sat in on classes, etc.), she cried she loved it so much. She had me pull her Vanderbilt ED application and change to RD as a result of this visit.

Vanderbilt - She also loved this visit. School was in the top four on her list.

Haverford - She liked the school. A little small. High on her final list.

Johns Hopkins - First school she visited so it was high initially. Slowly moved down as visits progressed. Students seem stressed. Homewood campus seemed a little worn.

She ended up choosing to attend University of Southern California (guess she resolved that “too close” feeling). We didn’t visit until after she was admitted and she was blown away. Just did her move in August 16. Classes start Monday (tomorrow). She’s very excited. I guess the lure of L.A. proved too strong. In the end, USC and Richmond were tied, it came down to the strength of her major at USC and the excitement of being close to a vibrant city like L.A.

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Moved Down
Oberlin: Did not like the vibe. They showed us a horrible run down dorm and we didn’t stay for the info session.
Earlham: Didn’t seem rigorous enough but campus was okay. Town seemed sketchy.
Centre: Lot of Greek life, seemed like every door in the dorm had sorority letters on it.
UNCA: Felt like summer camp. NC mountains are beautiful though.
Clemson: Made her decide that big schools were not for her.
Vassar: Such a good aid package but felt so wrong. Seemed like a much bigger school than it was, didn’t have the sense of community for which she was looking.
Bryn Mawr: I loved it, she thought there was not enough space. It felt cramped with the other colleges in the area.

Stayed the same
College of Wooster: Nice campus, tour, and town. Looking for more rigor.
Davidson: Nice school, nice town, too close to home.

Moved Up
Haverford: Near town but had a Haverford bubble. Liberal arts school with rigor.
Kenyon: Still enjoying the bubble, beautiful campus buildings. Saw a cat walking to the post office like he was checking his mail. Cute town in the middle of campus.
Agnes Scott: Super friendly vibe. Easy access to Atlanta, walking distance to shops and restaurants.
Bates: Delicious meal in commons, nice campus buildings, in town but has the Bates bubble. Batesies are friendly, smart but not super competitive. We found the mothership!! Sophomore year coming soon :slight_smile:

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Wow! My question illicited such wonderful and helpful responses. Thanks so much. We were going to go to Ohio next week to see a bunch of schools, but decided to go to Virginia and NC,and to Ohio another time. We will be visiting U of Richmond, Elon, Wake Forest and Davidson. Maybe stopping by Washington and Lee on the way back. I will be sure to report here. Thanks so much.

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@citymama9 - I learned a lot more about the college application process than I ever wanted to during my daughter’s college search.

One thing that amazed me was how many parents don’t help guide their students through the process. One of my daughter’s friends, on her parents recommendation, turned in an essay that essentially was " I like drama" and they were shocked she wasn’t accepted based on the strength of her grades. I would throw the application in the trash if I received an essay with such little effort. I used to review resumes at a previous job and even one word spelled incorrectly was two points in the nearest trash can.

When I first emphasized to my daughter that “feel” and “fit” were just as important as all the subjective college rankings, she thought I was crazy. By the end, she knew exactly what I meant.

People also don’t seem to understand that some private colleges are good with scholarships, grants, and financial aid.

I told her you can apply to any in state schools in VA. If she applied out of state, I recommended she apply to private schools.

University of Southern California will cost about the same as in state UVA. Vanderbilt, Richmond, Davidson, Haverford all are generally very good with financial packages. Some, like NYU, are horrible with money. If you live in VA, Richmond has a program where, if a VA resident, and you make less than a certain income, the first two years are free. Also, in state, VA provides an extra $3,300.00 (I think) for students that enroll at private universities.

I told my daughter to apply where she wanted and we could go over the packages for her top schools and go from there. As I’ve spoken to other parents, they were shocked at the opportunities that they didn’t know were out there.

One thing about Washington and Lee; it’s very, very Greek. Like, 80% Greek. My daughter is on the fence about rushing, so didn’t apply there, but thought you may want to know.

Travel wise, W&M and UVA both one hour away from University of Richmond in opposite directions. Washington and Lee is almost equally between VA Tech and JMU on I-81. The only small thing about Davidson that made it third for her was if you want to go anywhere of note off campus, it’s about 30 minutes drive.

2210

@citymama9

Here is our VA/NC list. We actively considered the US Southeast as a diversification play as so many London kids stay in the Boston - DC corridor when they apply. We did, however, have reservations about the political environment of the Southeast and still do.

Way up - Davidson. great school academically, nice and helpful staff and charming campus in a nice town. Also, the close proximity to Charlotte for flights and internship opportunities is a bonus and mitigates some of the potential for “LAC isolation” that one might feel at the Hamiltons and Middleburies. DD applied and was accepted. We were very impressed how the professors got in touch with her after acceptance. This one stayed on the list until the end.

Up - Wake Forest. Very very impressive academically, nice campus, but the school felt a bit isolated (see below).

Up - Richmond. We did not know what to expect, as 25 years ago when I lived in DC, UR had a reputation as a party school for dim, rich kids. It seems to be a real up and coming school, but unlike others in that category, the academics are already top notch. We thought the the Richmond Research Promise was a nice feather in the cap for the school. DD was accepted but was not one of the finalists.

Mixed - UVA. Visited a few years back and was not that impressed with the campus which seemed too big and disjointed. DD applied EA primarily as it was exempt from her top choice’s SCEA constraints. We visited on accepted students’ day and were very impressed. We were not expecting the A&S school to be strong but it exceeded our expectations. It ended up being one of her top 3 choices.

Down - UNC - Campus was too big and spread out. Academics seemed top notch. We were a bit concerned how a London girl would fit in with a school that is 82% in-state. It became an easy choice to just to apply to UVA instead.

Way down - Duke. The visit was a real turn-off. On paper, this should have been a good fit for DD academically and socially, but we really liked very little about the school. The academics are top notch, but the constant references to the basketball team got silly at times. (C’mon Duke, you are a top ten school and not the only top school with a good sports team. Can’t you focus on something else?) We didn’t like the campus at all, particularly given how far the freshmen dorms are from classes. Also, while this was an admittedly small sample size, the students that we met with didn’t seem to be particularly interesting or bright.

Just as a general point, the campuses of Duke, Wake and UR are isolated from their cities. This is probably not as bad at UR as you are a mile or so from a cute suburban area with interesting restaurants. Wake and particularly Duke are not near the cities and DD felt that they had an elitist country club feel to them. I should mention though that she became increasingly attracted to campuses where she could walk off campus to shops, restaurants, nightlife which is one reason why she chose Georgetown in the end.

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2211

@jcwjnw99 Thank you! D is really wanting Greek life. I hope she can get past the fact that Davidson has eating houses rather than sororities. We didn’t schedule a tour for Wash and Lee like we did with the others, but I think it’s worth looking at.

@londondad Thank you for your post. Funny thing, as Northeasterners, I’m concerned the southern schools we are looking at are filled up with too many people like ourselves. We’re not conservative at all, so it’s something we will be looking at, for sure. However, my NY D seems like she would fit in with moderate southerners more than ultra liberal Northerners. She was the only one among her peers who didn’t go to any of the Trump protests. I suggested she go, and she said she didn’t like the chaos. We shall see. BTW, Georgetown sounds amazing on so many levels.

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@citymama9 Good point. From what i saw (again only 1/2 day visits) Richmond and Duke seemed to have very similar student bodies (large contingent of Northeast and Mid-Atlantic kids) with UR seeming a bit preppier. Wake Forest and Davidson were definitely more Southern although both are trying to become more national/international. I think everyone kid I met at Davidson was from North Carolina, including all of the choices for tour guides which surprised us as none of the Davidson kids that we met in London were from NC. At Duke, our guide was from Staten Island; Wake, North Dakota; and UR, Boston. UR may be too heavy on Northern kids for your DD, I would be interested to hear your views after your visit.

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@londondad Did you visit Davidson in the summer? If so, that may be why all the tour guides were from NC. Many times summer tour guides are local kids, who live nearby. We experienced that at multiple summer tours.

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^ It was last August but we also toured all four NC Unis on the same trip.

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@londondad Thanks again. D has never ever expressed a problem with Northern kids. It’s my issue, LOL.

2216

@citymama9 I like your visit list (UR, Elon, Wake, Davidson). Have visited all of those and I have to say that Davidson is our favorite. High academics, compact campus, with a great little college town directly across the street. Very easy to get to from I-77, take the exit east directly in to campus. As someone else said, you do need a car to get to Charlotte but it is less than 30 minutes (they swear I-77 will be fixed some day:) ) College has property on Lake Norman that I’m pretty sure there are campus shuttles for.
Wake is a great place but is on the north side of W-S. You need a car to get downtown without any of the walking town that Davidson has. Academics are also top notch but when my DD went to athletic camp there a few years ago, the coach told them all that being an athlete comes 1st, being a student is 2nd. Now, that could just be the interpretation of a 14-yo but she scratched Wake after hearing what she heard.
UR is also very nice but also outside of town. The lake in the center of campus with the Union built over it is very impressive. There is a fairly nice strip mall that you could walk to but it could be quite a hike if your dorm is on far end of campus. Direct academic & athletic competitor for Davidson.
Elon is a school that seems to be on the way up. Academics not as strong as other 3. Really our issue is that it is in nowhere. At least 10 miles north of I-40. There is a huge outdoor mall at the exit with every store/restaurant you could ask for but what there is of a town of “Elon” is almost nonexistent. There may be a pizza shop in business but I’m not sure.
If you have time to extend your trip, may I suggest Furman. It has many of the same qualities - probably between Davidson and Elon on the academics. It also is outside of town but there are college shuttles in to Greenville (15 minutes or so). G-ville has a great downtown that you would enjoy visiting. One really nice thing is you can see edge of the Appalachians from campus and it is 20-30 minutes to mountain/waterfall hiking.

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@citymama9 @londondad One thing I forgot to mention about Davidson: their very dynamic, well-respected president made the decision a couple of years ago to move athletics from the Southern Conference to the Atlantic 10 Conference. A major reason she did this was because she wants DC to be more of a Mid-Atlantic school, not a Southern school.

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I hesitate to post as my dd '18 isn’t looking at most of the east coast/west coast schools listed here so idk what kind of value this will have for anyone here. I have looked at this thread to glean info on some schools that she cannot visit, so I decided to share in hopes that maybe I will mention one that can help someone else. And thank you to everyone who has shared on this.

DD is social but nerdy (no greek, but no video games either), sporty enough to do club at college, and an intended physics major.

Moved way up: Rice - DD loved it. The architecture and campus was amazing. Loved the semi-open curriculum, the residential college system, the matching system for roommates, and the lack of competition between the students. It looks like a diverse group of students. We wandered in to the physics building after the tour and the head of the dept saw us wandering, came out of his office to introduce himself, took us to another area to meet students who were very friendly with DD and they went so far as to exchange contact info with her. One if them has emailed DD a couple of times to check on her college search. It also helps that we were there on a day when there were bounce houses set up at some of the residential colleges (dorms) and groups of students playing golf through the campus with tennis balls. CONS - quality of dorm rooms seemed to vary wildly. Only 3 years of on campus housing guaranteed. After looking at some other schools, it maybe feels a little small.

Up (up a lot for me but it was already high for DD) U of Chicago - excellent presentation- just excellent. We had a wonderful tour guide, although it would have been nice to pick a guide rather than to be assigned to one - we would have liked more science info. The buildings were stunning, from the Hogwarts-esque historic buildings to the modern robots-fetch-your-books library, it was all beautiful. Our tour guide talked about admit week giving a lot of “how to Chicago” info which was comforting. Modified residential college system was not as cool as Rice, but still nice. Very diverse student body. Loved that it was brought up that kids should expect to hear views that don’t match their own and would be expected to deal with that. That made my dd very happy. Cons: the area is just dodgy feeling. The campus is more “of the city” than I would have liked. The middle of the campus is cloistered, but the rest bleeds into the city. There were private security guards stationed very regularly at the edges of campus and I asked a couple of them about crime. They said bikes go missing but swore that was it. We did see a number of police officers as well. We did not see inside many buildings and no dorm rooms, which was kind of a bummer.

Up for DD (but I am guarded as it is not need blind) Wash U St Louis - we both really liked it and I could totally see DD there. The presentation was top notch. Our tour guide was wonderful. Everyone was friendly and great, but the best ambassadors hands down were the folks working in the servery. They were so good that I went back by the admissions office to tell them how amazing those folks were. Campus was pretty, dorms were nice, modified residential college system (not as cool as the Rice version), food was good, it sounded like research opportunities would be available. Other than the student population might be more moneyed overall and less diverse, there wasn’t anything that we saw that we didn’t like.

Off the list - Notre Dame. Honestly I am crushed by this. Just. Crushed. We are not Roman Catholic, but my DD went to kindergarten in a semi cloistered convent followed by Catholic elem school, so we felt that this was going to be an easy match. Plus, I love God’s football playing angels and had visions of college visits in the fall. The grounds and the outsides of buildings were beautiful. The inside of the dome building was stunning. The presentation was terrible (sorry, but it was awful). Idk if the AO was new maybe? He spent most of the time explaining how they are Roman Catholic (ummm, got it). And then going on about how everyone is welcome but back peddling back into we expect everyone to do Roman Catholic things but they don’t have to be Roman Catholic because we are catholic (ie, inclusive). I felt like he was trying to appease everyone and came off sounding like he didn’t know what the school really wants. The tour guides started by saying what volunteer work they do, but it sounded like they were just trying to 1 up each other instead of saying why they feel called to or how they were rewarded by the volunteer work they are doing. The tour was the outside of buildings with 2 “walk into the lobby” kind of stops. We didn’t see inside any dorm buildings. We did get an ear full about dorm rules, though. After it was made clear that we wouldn’t see dorms, people started leaving the tour. We were the 3rd family to bail. When we got to the visitor lot there were a number of families sneaking into cars. I guess it is either a fit or it isn’t. The thing that bothered my daughter the most is that everyone on the campus was white. We were there during the summer and expected to see a higher number of international students on campus, but we saw 1 Asian guy and 1 African American woman. We expected ND to be a match but it was just a crushing miss. We were so stunned by it being a miss that I tried to talk her father into flying up to take a look at it, hoping he would come away with a different opinion. So far I have not convinced him.

Bonus info- we stopped at Oklahoma State on the way to Wash U because my younger DD may go into animal sciences - we did not do an official tour, but self toured and hit the housing dept to peek in a couple of dorms. I officially must quit calling it “the other Oklahoma”. I was surprised at how pretty the campus is, how nice the dorms are, and how the housing dept went out of their way on a very busy day to give us a mini housing tour. They are in the middle of no where, but it was safe and clean and awfully nice for a state school. So… go Pokes!!!

Also DD did Preface at Rensselaer and while I have never been she did change her opinion based on her time there. We were concerned about it being “too techy”, but she doesn’t think it would be. Dorms are small, male/female ratio is improving but still heavily male. We will make her visit during school term to be sure, but she enjoyed her time there and does think she could be happy there.

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OhHey…you are right that RPI is heavily male. I just wanted to share with you that it appears they are giving some wonderful scholarships to qualified women. In my son’s class as female student who was strong, but not the tippy top in a large graduating high school class got an amazing package from RPI. Much more than the salutatorian who is also attending. Something to consider.

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@OhHey I am glad you didn’t hesitate to post. This thread needs more input from people who have visited colleges in the West and Midwest! I would love to see some reports on visits to colleges in Washington State and Colorado, particularly Gonzaga and U Denver. Anyone?