I’d pick flying a lot faster than 8 hours. When you are the parent, you have to double that drive, there and back.
Can we.get.back to the thread?
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Agreed. This is a great thread when people stick to the topic.
It always meanders (in ways still related to the college process) and then gets back on track. Relax a little. 
So far we have visited:
Washington and Lee-D17 didn’t want to visit but hubby went there so was a must. She loved it, and was her #1 until recently. Now her #2. Loved the speaking tradition.
Richmond-off of the list. No real reason just didn’t ‘feel it’.
Elon-I pushed for this visit. She liked it. #3 on the list.
Furman-her number 4, but my number 2. I could really see her there. She is not a fan of not being connected directly to a town.
Davidson-off the list. She liked the little town but wants traditional sorority.
Wofford-off the list because she didn’t like the campus being confined and more narrow than it is wide.
High Point-off the list. I told her I would never give the school a dime. I felt they catered to the kids. What college kid needs a prime steakhouse? Not mine…
Wake-just fell off the list. No real reason.
Emory-off the list. Too big and said it felt too stuffy.
University of TN-only applying as it is her in state safety. She doesn’t like it though due to the size.
Samford-#1 when we were on the tour I could tell she loved it. She liked the size, campus, Birmingham and her major.
We have 3 more to visit, so who knows…
@memmom2018 SInce you are in TN have you visited Rhodes and Sewanee? If so, what were your thoughts?
Wow @memmom2018 that is a lot of visits! We are heading to Richmond and Washington &Lee soon, will report back to this list once we are done.
Since I participated in the move off-topic, I’ll pitch in with taking it back down the fairway:
Emory - Loved the campus, Atlanta and the school’s place in it and the medium size and energetic student body. A little turned off by lack of D1 sports and apparent super-intense pre-med vibe among both other students in the information session and our tour guide.
Vanderbilt - Liked just about everything about it, even though S18 was struggling with some food poisoning. Mommy and Daddy loved the idea of visiting Nashville on a regular basis. Best tour guide of any college. A reach but may take a shot ED.
Tufts - Very impressive in terms of academics, student body, etc. and clearly a lot of money has been put into the campus in recent years. Yet something about it just felt a little bit generic. None of us could put our finger on it but it just didn’t make a deep impression.
Amherst - I loved just about everything about Amherst. Never heard or felt a better case for a LAC vs larger schools plus the presence of UMass et al gives the town a bit more heft. However, S18 felt it was way too small. Sideways sleet and 35 degree temps didn’t help either.
Northeastern - Liked it a lot more than we expected. Felt tremendous positive energy while walking around campus and you couldn’t ask for a better location. Didn’t get a chance to formally visit so may return.
Pitt - Very honest and interesting formal presentation. Really communicated the potential of an engaged state school in a dynamic city. Although the architecture on the tour made the school feel a bit large and impersonal, I actually appreciated the fact that they didn’t hide what they are. May not have the snazzy rep of other schools but we all felt warmly about it.
Duke- Our biggest disappointment. Expected this to be S18’s favorite school by a mile but, even though he liked the Princeton-y architecture and stunning new student center, we were put off by arrogance of both the admissions officer and the tour guide who were all trying way too hard. Also, S18 is a massive sports fan and even he thought the basketball and Coach K stuff was overblown.
UNC- Our most pleasant surprise. Went as kind of a throw-in since we were going to be visiting Duke but ended up really digging it. Like just about everything about it - but for the 18% cap on OOS students. Not sure how that impacts campus life but pretty sure it will make getting in a longshot for S18.
UVA- Liked the school and loved Charlottesville, but it seemed bigger and maybe a bit colder than we anticipated. Despite the prominent architecture and my favorite school colors, it just didn’t resonate as much as I expected.
Still on the list to be visited (maybe): Lafayette, Richmond, William & Mary, Maryland, Wisconsin, Michigan, Wake Forest, Penn, Princeton, Tulane.
Clemson - up. Loved the campus and D18 really could see herself attending. Great tour guide obviously helped.
NC State - down/off. Campus! Way to big and spread out. Would need to take bus everywhere. Kids were waiting on every corner for the next bus. Definitely not the experience she is looking for.
Clemson now running a close second to Va Tech.
@pantha33m Great summary. My DD had a similar impression of Duke and it seems that others on this thread have as well. I found the admissions counsellors as over the top on the bball team as the tour guide (which is not what I would have expected) I just can’t understand how such as strong academic school can be so obsessed with one sports team.
Regarding, Claremont (CA), @citivas wrote:
I think it’s related to the fact that the 5Cs themselves tend to focus on their proximity to L.A… The village of Claremont, which is home to a lot of retirees, is rarely brought up as a selling point.
As the person who poo-pooed the Claremont town, I’ve since gone back and looked on Google Street View and found the downtown, which we must have completely missed on our visit. So I withdraw that comment.
@circuitrider I would argue that the Claremont Village should be a selling point. Having done 22 tours so far from Maine to California it is one of the favorite college villages I have visited or lived near.
@citymama9 - I’m copying here the visit report I posted back in spring to the Parents of 2019 thread about Sewanee. We wanted to hit Rhodes too but didn’t have the time.
We were there for two days - an extended behind-the-scene theater visit, then D sat in on an enviro science class and we both met with the lax coach.
The campus: getting there is a wonderfully scenic drive from Chattanooga. If you like barbecue, Jim Oliver’s Smokehouse restaurant was great to eat at (and there was some fried pie to die for).
The campus is stunning - 13,000 acres atop the Cumberland Plateau, with amazing vistas from drop-offs all over the place. Wooded, hiking trails - everything you could possibly want if you’re an outdoors person (except for, I guess, skiing and the Rockies and the ocean, though I think they have a scuba program …)
Buildings: everything you’ve heard and more. Just Google the Buzzfeed article on Sewanee and Hogwarts. We did a walking tour in 41-degree weather and rain that bordered on sleet a few times; it was completely miserable. But I was still enthralled. When we entered the main chapel, someone was playing the organ and there was light streaming through the stained glass; beautiful atmosphere.
The dining room had a vegan station, pasta, pizza, salad, entree – all the usual stuff. I mixed some rice and beans with fresh-cut peppers as I wasn’t very hungry, so I can’t really assess the fare. Dining setting, see above about Hogwarts. There’s a rambling coffeehouse in a creaky old house elsewhere on campus, and I loved the latte and double espresso ($5 for two big cups) and the atmosphere.
D toured a dorm (not a model dorm room, a la Drew, but a “working” dorm), and said it was big and she liked it - it was a suite-style.
Sewanee has a phenomenal equestrian center out about a half-mile past the athletic complex - the kind of setup you see in Kentucky or Virginia where the millionaires have their horse farms. It’s a varsity sport and there is competition against other colleges and universities.
The theater tour included the black box theater, the classrooms etc., and dress rehearsal of a play plus talk to cast/faculty. D has decided she doesn’t like black box theaters. Not sure how to deal with that. (She’s done nothing but musicals, which is the problem: she can’t visualize how to use a bbtheater. I think that would change, and I also think it’s mandatory and necessary to learn its ins-and-outs in any theater education - not that I know anything about theater ) Her school only has the standard theater; this school has one 1,000-seat auditorium, but that wasn’t on the tour. They do a musical once every two years. But the study-elsewhere program goes to NY and to England, specifically for drama (as well as a ton of other places for other majors).
She enjoyed sitting in on the class, which she described as like her private school in that it was seminar-style, with more of a discussion than a lecture.
Greek life is variously described as 80% and 60% of all students participating. It’s an open system (no closed parties) and kind of necessary in that there is not much else social life, given the campus’ isolation. Chattanooga is about 40 minutes away. (Still closer than her school is right now; she wasn’t fazed at all by this.)
The admissions office was very nice (they have hiking shoes free for use at the office, for visitors who might want to explore the trails, which I thought was great.) Parking was NOT an issue anywhere, which was phenomenal. All students can have cars on campus. There were about 30 students there for tours; about 10 were there for the theater-intensive tour.
The interview with the coach – our first – was really, really nice. She took a solid hour with us. Gave D some good tips on how best to proceed, told her what a D3 team’s sked was like, that there’s a fall season (!) in the South, what she liked and didn’t like in terms of conditioning and tournaments and recruiting and all that good stuff. She was pleased to discover D is a 19, not an 18, as D is a goalie and no team needs more than two, and the timing of an 18 graduation wouldn’t have been much use to her. (Tbh, D is not D1 or probably even D3-level active-recruitment material, but hey, every little hook helps!)
Feel free to ask any questions if I’ve skipped something you were interested in!
Rhodes is a great school with a beautiful campus but it is local and D is not interested in staying here. She visited Sewanee for a week with church and says it is too remote. Sewanee is also a great school.
@Gatormama and @memmom2018 Thanks so much.
One thing that is a mild turnoff for my family, is mentioning Hogwarts and Quidditch during any part of the tour. Going on and on about it has my kids cringing. Literally no one on the tours that I’ve been on has anyone clap their hands in glee when anything having to do with Harry Potter is mentioned. My kids were completely into Potter… 8-10 years ago. They’ve moved on. Colleges should, also.
The only tour I’ve been on that hasn’t mentioned Hogwarts has been Macalester( because nothing looks like Hogwarts on their campus?) and McGill( plenty of Hogwartian buildings, but maybe they’ve reached the same conclusions my kids have?).
U of Chicago, Carleton, Middlebury... all these fine schools were tripping over themselves to identify with Harry Potter.
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Hmm. My daughter still reads Harry Potter books. Over and over again.
She doesn’t want to go to a school b/c it looks like Hogwarts, but the architectural style is something she likes. I guess Hogwarts is a more identifiable style label than Gothic to her…
It’s funny you mention that because I have gotten so used to hearing about Quidditch teams at LAC tours that when I was on the Pomona tour and the guide mentioned a bunch of intramural teams and didn’t saying Quidditch I quipped, “What no Quidditch team?” and she quickly replied, “Yes, we do have one!”
That said, my 16 year-old daughter is still into Harry Potter. Not in a wants to go to a convention or actually play fake Quidditch kind of way, but enough that the references don’t bother her. It’s her Star Wars. And when we have toured actual in-use dorm rooms at some schools I have seen a lot of Harry Potter stuff in them. So I don’t know that it’s universally true that upcoming college kids are over Potter. If they were, the fake Quiddich teams wouldn’t have spread across campuses like wildfire over the last few years. Bottom line is they are probably mentioning Potter because their market research tells them it resonates. Obviously it has the opposite effect on some people…
And we were so close to staying on topic for a whole 5 or 6 posts. :))