Time’s up! SCIAC = Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.
^^^ I still didn’t know what Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference was till I googled it just now, and I have a DI Pac-12 athlete! So SCIAC is the DIII conference. Wow, ya just know what ya know I guess (but a little embarrassing that I had no idea).
When we were checking out SCIAC schools, I was slightly disappointed that it doesn’t encompass a very large area. I also think of the PAC-12, WCC or conferences on the East Coast where you get to visit a few different areas or states.
On the other hand, the PAC-12 did so poorly that maybe the NCAA tournament will soon forget about it.
If you are the athletic, having a smaller area to cover for away games is very nice. The PAC 12 teams can afford to travel by air, but most of the other teams travel by bus.
Shorter distances also cut down on missed classes. My D’s team takes one weekend trip per year, about 10 hours on a bus and 10 hours home. She misses one Friday from school. All other games are at home or within 3 hours from home on weekends, so no missed classes.
@twoinanddone
That is a very good point as I have been checking the meet frequency of some of the DI swim teams and they look pretty brutal from the class attending perspective.
I didn’t realize the toll the travel would take on the athletes. Sounds like fun to be traveling to Dartmouth or Oregon State, but those places are hard to get to. The first year my D’s coach was new (program was new) and she scheduled them to play OOT three weekends in a row, 10 hour bus trips each weekend, and it was toward the end of the season and end of the semester. They were all exhausted. A few of the good students were trying to study on the bus, staying in hotels with 4 to a room, eating junk food. We got lucky that the coach realized it wasn’t a good thing to travel like that after the first year.
I advise recruits to look at the schedules from the last few years to see what the typical schedule is. D’s roommates who were softball players traveled almost every other weekend for 3 days of games. Nice for D as she got the apt to herself.
All the big D1 conferences fly and many with tutors, unless they are a lower level team in that conference or have budget issues. That is the benefit if DI… You train harder, but you don’t have to grind when it comes to going to games/matches. You have athletes dining hall. DII and DIII, that’s usually a bus and brutal. Props to those that put up with that. Better team/bigger conference = bigger budget and perks for the student. Generally speaking. If traveling is easier, missing classes isn’t nearly as bad as when travel itself is the hardest part of competing. Not sure how athletes are supposed to compete well when sleeping and eating is subpar.
Not all D1 teams fly. I think it was the Grambling players who went on strike because their bus trips were so long. There are a lot of places where there just isn’t good air service (Dartmouth, Penn State). Not all D3 and D2 take buses as I was in Orlando last week and there were dozens of teams coming and going.
But really all that matters is what YOUR team does.
I can’t speak for other leagues but the NESCAC schools arrange their schedules so that the schools that require substantial travel (more than an hour or two) are all pretty much Saturday afternoon games. The weekday games are local or home games with out of league competition. In other words, Bowdoin lacrosse plays Bates and Colby (away or home depending on the year) during the week and hosts U. of NE, Montclair and Clark during the week. They play Hamilton, the furthest NESCAC school from them when both schools are in Florida for spring break, and they play Amherst, Williams, Trinity, Wesleyan, Middlebury, etc. on a Saturday. The NESCACs pride themselves on scheduling games and practices around academics, not the other way around, as can be the case with some DI schools.
I just visited Tulane and I thought that the campus was amazing and I fell in love w the school. French Quarter of New Orleans was nasty tho tbh 
My DD also liked (not loved) Tulane & Loyola, She, however, could not get past the “nastiness” she felt about The Big Easy enough to apply. She claimed it felt dirty. It didn’t help that we visited on St Patrick’s day and the city was full of drunken revellers, including streetcars filled with Tulane & Loyola students acting like all kinds of fools. We got stuck on streetcars down by the universities filled to over capacity with students headed into the french district for a night of partying that were held up by the St Patty’s parade (clearly poor planning on my part). But being jammed on the streetcar for over an hour with drunken (carrying their own booze), vomiting students, in the late afternoon and boys who were a little too “handsy” and rude while in close quarters, sent her over the edge into h*** no territory.
My son did not like Elon. I had always wanted to go there when I was in high school. Growing up in NJ I loved their rolling green lawns and sunshine. So when we visited N.C. schools I added it to the list. When we left the school he said ummm no, way to liberal arts. LOL, yeah makes sense. But it was a gorgeous campus. I knew 15 mins into the tour at Univ of Miami that it wasn’t the school for my son and I was ready to go. He was like oh but I want to see the outdoor pool, etc… College visits have been a lot of fun. Never did them when I was in high school. I applied to Rowan and went to Rowan!
@Kona2012 Just curious what your son didn’t like about Elon? Is he looking for a university with majors like engineering?Thank!
He wants to major in Neuroscience. He just didn’t feel like it was him. He’s a weird kid. LOL. He just said he didn’t get a vibe from it that he fit in, He really likes Wake Forest, Bucknell and loved Duke. We are seeing Virginia Tech this weekend and Univ of Delaware the following weekend. We also need to see Binghamton, Tulane, Muhlenberg, Lafayette… and others.
Finished our first 4 out of 12 visits happening this week and next.
Smith- very friendly and cozy admissions office and info talk. Nice student tour. Their main library is under renovation so a huge construction project in the middle of campus. We liked Northampton- quirky small town within walking distance from campus.
Mount Holyoke- very friendly admissions department. The Assistant Dean specifically made time to meet us. DD had lunch with a student which she really enjoyed. Their new cafeteria opened two months ago and is gorgeous. We all loved the campus. Friendly tour guide. Showed off the science labs with the counters set to average women’s height- nice touch. Only downside- pretty remote with a very tiny town nearby. Moved way up the list!
Wellesley - beautiful campus, felt larger and more spread out. Tour size was MUCH bigger than the other schools so more impersonal but guide was smart and engaging. Lots of talk about cross registration with MIT and Olin. Big plus is the proximity to Boston. The town of Wellesley appears more upscale and manicured. (We preferred the Northampton vibe.)
Brown- due to the storm we quickly gave ourselves a tour! Kids are edgier (lots of piercings and blue hair) - beautiful urban campus slightly set aside from downtown. So much busier with more activity and people rushing around than the previous 3 colleges.
Next up- UPITT, Haverford, Bryn Mawr, UPENN, JHU, GWU.
@Kona2012 - Elon has a very different vibe than Wake Forest, Bucknell and Duke so that makes sense. It’s much more laid back than the others. S attends Wake and loves it (and he would not like Elon - he didn’t like Duke either because he thought they were snobby). Wake and Bucknell are more “work hard , play hard” where Elon is lower key, more artsy, etc. D is interested in their BFA program.
@rickle1 That is the word I was looking for - artsy! What year is your son at Wake? What is his major? We have been for a tour but we are going back in July for an interview. This was my son’s first choice and he was ready to apply ED but then got scared away by our college consultant. S doesn’t want a school that is greek lead/favored and he wants people that are not preppy and wear sweatpants/ sweatshirts to class. Our consultant said the school is very greek, social like is greek and that the students are conservative/preppy. I’d love to know your son’s perspective.
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S is a freshmen and I can address a lot of your (son’s) issues. First of all, my S loves it and has had a great first yr. S will be a business major (hasn’t decided between accounting, finance or enterprise management). They don’t declare until junior yr, but he has been very active in business clubs and a business frat (more later) so he is getting a feel for business while taking some prereqs.
If you asked my son about diversity, he would laugh and say it’s mainly rich, conservative kids but that’s an over generalization. When we speak about his large group of friends, they cover both the political and financial spectrum (several on the left, several with work study or significant financial aid which means their EFC was low). He would actually say that most kids aren’t political one way or the other. Kind of go about their business. A lot of preppy but also plenty of kids wearing sweats and gym shorts.
Greek life - Wake does have a large Greek presence, BUT it is not all consuming like CC and other message boards would suggest. He has had an interesting year. He showed up on campus “undecided” about Greek life but leaning towards not joining (neither my wife or I did at our schools so we don’t connect with it). Fall semester the Greek parties, both on and off campus, are wide open as they have a Spring Rush so Fall is a good chance to get to know the lay of the land. Half way through the Fall he told us he was actually leaning towards joining (we were surprised). His whole group thought they would join. Then several decided not to rush. Beginning of Spring, he decided to rush (was still on the fence as a bunch of his friends were and a bunch weren’t). He got a bid, went to a pledge event, thought about it, and quit. I think he thought he would need to be in a social frat to fully enjoy all that is Wake. He found that definitely NOT to be the case. During the pledge process, the frats are pretty closed off, but once that ends, they’re pretty accessible again for parties, etc.
He did rush and receive a bid for a Business Frat which has been great for him. Has weekly meetings surrounding business topics, workshops, career info sessions, etc. Also has a social aspect to it. He calls it “Frat lite” and has made good friends through the organization. It actually has a pretty decent time commitment. He is also playing Club Baseball and is a member of the Dow Jones Club.
Social - Wake has been a great platform for him to spread his wings. He is a bit naturally introverted. Came out of his shell senior yr of HS. Is social but prefers smaller, intimate settings. Made great friends on his hall (about 12 kids that roam together like a pack of wolves - pick up hoop, dining hall, parties- pretty inseparable-3 came home with him for Spring Break). He has found he doesn’t need a frat for a social life because he has found brotherhood with his friends (they didn’t join either), the Biz Frat and his clubs. He has friends at Frats and is “on the list” so he can easily get in to their parties whenever he wants.
Academics and social life have been great! It was high on his list and has proven to be a great setting for him. Advisors, Professors and staff are amazing. Sports are a big deal and he loves that. You can party or not, nobody cares either way. He did a lot of that early on. Liked it but found sometimes it’s more fun to just hang with your friends so it’s kind of split.
^^^Also has decided to add a minor in PoliSci. I mention that only because it’s a great example of a kid taking a class in a liberal arts core, connecting with the content and professor to the point where he signed up for another class and finds it really interesting (small discussion based class)
Over a 4 day weekend in February, DD and I took a trip up to Boston to visit my brother and see schools. Here were our impressions:
Up:
Northeastern: My daughter was very impressed. We had a lovely tour guide who bonded with D over their mutual love of Harry Potter. The students we spoke to were personable and friendly. We loved that Northeastern was in the middle of a city but still had a campus of its own. The co-op system was another thing that attracted DD.
Stayed the same:
Tufts: In all fairness, we had very high expectations for Tufts going into the tour so the school couldn’t go up much more. D likes the international focus, and cross-disciplinary nature. We got a very supportive and collaborative vibe from the student body which is something D is looking for. Tufts seems like a wonderful community. Campus was nice but nothing special.
Down:
Boston College: D couldn’t stop gushing about how much she loved the campus. However, I don’t think she really liked the school itself much. It’s too Catholic for her. Coming from a largely low-income public school, D thought BC was a preppier than she wanted.
Harvard: I was pretty reluctant to visit this one. I didn’t think it was worth it to visit a school that rejects 95% of applicants, most of whom are as qualified as my daughter, if not more. However, DD didn’t like it much. I think the main turnoff was when the tour guide said she chose the school because “well, it’s Harvard.” There was a “you would be lucky to get in here” feeling to the info session. She did like the campus and said that the location was just about perfect. Cambridge is lovely.
Crossed off:
Boston University: Lovely school but D just didn’t like the lack of a discernible campus and found the visit too impersonal.
Stay tuned for D’s break next week when we tour Philly area colleges.