@ShrimpBurrito Pronounced lack of a sense of humor on these boards! My D. made the joke. I felt SB was dire. And by the way, I’ve worked for the UN so know about worn-torn cities too.
Odd thing is, the admissions office made a point of saying how close Chicago was! When someone mentioned SB, the admissions officials joked and said, “weren’t we talking about Chicago?” Guess I should have upbraided them too.
For those who have been to both, which is less attractive as a location for a college, Durham, NC or South Bend IN. I’ve only been to one. I figure in each case, the attraction is the university, not the town. But am curious to hear comparisons.
Some more national LACs in or near big cities or good college towns:
Bryn Mawr
Smith
Reed
Lewis & Clark
University of Puget Sound
the Claremonts
Occidental
Samford
Birmingham-Southern
Eckerd
Trinity (San Antonio, mentioned upthread)
Rhodes
Transylvania
Barnard
Goucher
Spelman & Morehouse
Kalamazoo
Lake Forest
Coe
UNC-Asheville
It’s a question of taste, but I’ve had students enjoy the decent-sized towns around Clark, Union, and Illinois Wesleyan, too.
^^ We had a similar experience with South Bend. We have been through Northern Indiana many times between Chicago and the “Michiana” beach area on Lake Michigan and South Bend seemed to be somewhat similar to some of the older post-industrial cities such as Gary or East Chicago IN. Equally, there are only so many schools any kid can apply to, so it became quite easy to just drop ND and the kids just applied to Georgetown and/or BC.
December felt like Siberia? Wait until it is winter. Any school touting how close it is to a major city hours away instead of being able to promote walking distance from campus activities loses cachet. A great campus (defined by the student) has enough going on near it students do not feel the urge to leave.
btw- UW Madison has private bus services that stop on campus and go to O’Hare or the Milwaukee airport. Private enterprise useful for OOS students. Where there is enough demand needs will be met.
ND appeals to such a specific crowd. I feel like it’s either someone’s first choice or drops off the list.
Back from Grinnell. It was awesome!! Why is it that every time we visit a new school, it’s our new favorite?
S19 loved everything about it. The facilities were ridiculous. Everything state of the art. The athletic facilities were named #3 in the country by Princeton Review and they were amazing. The food was crazy tasty with so many options at each meal. The dorm rooms were the nicest I’ve ever seen by far. Add that to the smart, friendly vibe of the students and the professors and it’s a keeper for sure.
We got to campus by 4:00 on Sunday and took the tour. Pretty spread out campus but made sense since, like so many schools, it’s just a long rectangle. The art building and the student center were designed by Caesar Pelli and are filled with light. The campus was clean, it was like Disneyland. They are building a huge, new humanities and social studies building that will be done in 2019. They explained that so many kids are studying across disciplines and that interdisciplinary study is important to Grinnell. With resources all in one building, professors in different departments will have an easier time working together. There will be common spaces for “intellectual collisions” between disciplines and student learning laboratories so that humanities and social science kids can collaborate. Our tour guide was from DC. He was friendly, unpretentious, and funny. He was a political science major and one of the prospective students (also from DC) asked why he would he leave DC to go to Iowa to study poli sci? He said politics is HUGE in Iowa. They held the caucus on campus. All presidential candidates came to campus to speak. 80% of the kids voted in the election. He thinks it’s a great place to be on that front.
After the tour, we went to dinner at the student center. I felt like we were on vacation. We’ve only ever eaten in one cafeteria (Beloit) and we thought it was pretty good. Grinnell’s cafeteria and food were amazing. Three story floor to ceiling windows so tons of light. Places to eat outside as well. And the food was so fresh and yummy. We ate with two Grinnell students and other prospectives. The students were laid back but engaged. Talked about why they chose Grinnell. Both of them mentioned the open curriculum and the vibe. They both said they just knew it was the right place when they were there. When kids asked about being in the middle of Iowa, the students said they don’t even notice. Everything they need is on campus and they are so busy that they just don’t need anything else.
S19 went to two classes yesterday (a logic class and an environmental science class) and loved both. Said he thought he could keep up in the classes and that they weren’t “scary”. The professors were friendly to him and he thought the kids were, again, bright but “normal”. I went to bunch of parent seminars. The one on career placement was very holistic in that they really want kids to find work that aligns with their values. They mentor the students on career planning but also on figuring out what they want from life - what civic commitments are important to them and what are their personal goals. They have career communities (STEM, law, health care, humanities, a few more) of Grinnell alums that help kids plan their futures. Students can shadow an alum at their job for 2-3 days during spring break. Mentoring with a career advisor starts freshman year and that person works alongside the student’s academic advisor.
During one of the info sessions there was a mom sitting behind us with her daughter. The mom is an alum. She was musing that she’d love to come back and do it all over. She was telling her daughter it was some of the best years of her life. The daughter certainly seemed like the kind of kid who has her own mind. I heard her talking earlier and she sounded quite opinionated. I half expected her to roll her eyes at her mom and say Grinnell’s just not her thing. Instead, I over heard her saying how comfortable she was there and hadn’t felt that anywhere else. I thought this mom was going to weep. It was such a sweet moment.
I really could go on and on but this is already long. If anyone is interested in more, PM me. Grinnell is need-blind and the endowment is one of the biggest so 90% of the kids are getting some sort of aid.
S19 was nervous when he asked me if he could get in. According to our Naviance, he’s in a good spot but I know many of the kids there from our high school are athletes so I don’t know if the Naviance chart really helps. Right now, he said if we would let him ED, this is the place. My husband is against that idea…at least right now. And he’s taking him to Mac and Carleton in four weeks so we will see how that goes. S19 said there’s no way to top Grinnell. Hm. This is getting more interesting every day!
“For those who have been to both, which is less attractive as a location for a college, Durham, NC or South Bend IN. I’ve only been to one. I figure in each case, the attraction is the university, not the town. But am curious to hear comparisons.”
I’ve been to both. Full disclosure: I have a kid at ND. I think both have cute areas (shops, nice restaurants) and not so cute areas. It’s a matter of just getting to know the towns.
“btw- UW Madison has private bus services that stop on campus and go to O’Hare or the Milwaukee airport. Private enterprise useful for OOS students. Where there is enough demand needs will be met.”
Agreed. ND has the same with regard to busses to O’Hare.
D and her friends usually head to Chicago once or twice a year, typically in the spring when football season is over. 
And to bring this back on topic, D did not like her first visit to ND. She was car-sick and threw up in the parking lot before the tour. 
I’d add Wesleyan to @Hanna’s list of LACs in good college towns (Middletown, CT) too.
@homerdog – thrilled that your kid loved Grinnell, as it is a wonderful place - if only one of my kids would have gone! Unpretentious, engaged, interesting are all adjectives to describe the kids we met. My kid was a recruited athlete and observed there was not a “gap” between athletes and non-athletes on campus – he enjoyed that lunch with the team in the dining hall was actually lunch with the team and ALL their other friends. Everything about campus felt inclusive and open. Glad you had a great trip!
I feel like now we have to go visit Grinnell:) @homerdog
Couldn’t convince S1 to visit Grinnell, and barely convinced to him to visit Carleton, but when he got there we were both pretty impressed. Macalester isn’t as flashy, but still very good, and the location, “benign residential urban”, is very appealing.
3 very good, oft overlooked schools, with plenty to offer.
I had a friend at law school who went to Grinnell (I went to Cornell, so they rhymed), and he was a great, easy going guy who graduated with way better gpa than me. I remember him getting p*ssed when we did projects together because I wasn’t that well prepared. I never cared much about gpa at law school because I knew I wanted to set up my own office and retire as soon as possible, which I did. lol He became a judge so he needed the grades. The only thing I remember about classes at law school was when our tax law professor said quite seriously “Tax law is like sex: Timing is very important.” A smart ass raised his hand and asked: “Professor, does that mean I will flunk out of tax law?”
^^^Talking about law school seems premature.
Has a school ever gone up or down your list after your child met with an admissions person who came to their high school? I’m talking about a school that you hadn’t seen in person yet? Unfortunately, I asked my D to stop in and see the rep from DePauw, thinking it would be an excellent safety for her based on what she’s looking for. She came home and said, “I’m not a fan”. The reasons: it’s too rural, they are Div III, the rep focused too much on the arts and there’s not much of a town. First of all, she has liked rural schools, since when does she care whether a school is Div I or III? She isn’t a varsity athlete, and of course the rep was focusing on the arts. She goes to a performing arts school. Finally, she has liked schools that didn’t have much of a town. So now I learned my lesson. No more sending her to meet reps who come to her school. The frustrating thing is that she might have liked the school if we just went to visit it. Anyone else experience this?
Durham has improved a lot over the last 10 years and is considered an up and comer like Asheville was 15 years ago. Dont think SB is on that same trajectory.
@citymama9 Yep. S19 came home raving about Richmond after he met with the rep at his high school . We plan to visit over spring break. He met with the Vermont rep and said “eh, doesn’t seem like anything special”. I’m only sending him to presentations for schools I’ve identified as a fit for him. I didn’t expect him to have any rep visit be a negative one. I guess, just like tour guides, you might get a rep that just doesn’t click with your child. All of these presentations at our school will take up to 50 kids. For the Richmond and Vermont presentations, there were fewer than five kids. The reps got pretty personal with these students since the groups were small. I guess it’s a little risky since you don’t know if your rep will hit it off with your student.
@Citymama9…a good rep can make or break a school, IMO. I had been trying to convince DD2018 that University of Colorado-Boulder was an excellent fit for well on a year and she was not biting. She attended a National College Fair this past Spring and I told her she had to come home with info on 3 schools NOT on her “list”. She stopped by Colorado’s table. She was immediately sucked in by the rather dapper, bow-tied, relatively recent grad, rep. He really sold the school. She said he was enthusiastic, pointed out lots of positives and was just generally well prepared and nice. Low and behold, guess what school she has applied too and is #5 on her list? DD is attending a school visit session with Colorado in about two weeks with the assigned rep, who is a women I think, I will be interested to see if DD is still as keen on the school after this meeting. We will visit the school if she is accepted.
At these presentations, especially the ones where the attendance is small, remind your student that their job is not only to gather info but to make a good impression on the rep. One of my kids got some sizable merit offers and I know in a few cases it was because kiddo developed a good rapport with the admissions counselor in such settings who went to bat for them on the merit $$. These were awards driven more by holistic criteria than stats.
True dat. ^^^