@citymama9 My S19 and I toured Syracuse about two months ago…60+ degrees in Syracuse in the middle February…go figure. Felt safe around campus. Definitely in a city so you have to be aware but nothing that made me nervous. (I’m a city mouse by nature…keep that in mind.) Our HS sends a number of kids there each year and I haven’t heard anything that would lead me to believe there is a safety issue. I can definitely see why kids like it.
@jdarms before I got to the end of your post I was thinking she might really like NAU.
@citymama9 - my older daughter is a senior at American and she’s had four great years: the kids move off campus their last year or two like they do at most urban schools but the campus is small so people run into one another all the time on campus and tend to live in a few very safe and very lovely areas right off campus. My first time seeing the campus I was not impressed but it definitely grows on you. Don’t want to derail this great thread so PM me if you have any questions
Moved down:
UC Berkeley was dirty and full of indigents and schizophrenics. Agree with @jdarms on this.
Duke- Pretty campus, talked to very intense students/not too friendly. Freshman dorms separate
GW- no campus feel, no dining halls except at Mt. Vernon campus. Pretentious guide. Uggh.
UMD- too big and spread out, in a marginal area, unimpressive food court, just meh.
Vanderbilt- preppy feel, older buildings than expected, no wow factor for us.
UCSD- beautiful area of La Jolla but unattractive campus and buildings
Moved up:
USC (Southern Cal) Visited twice, first time before the new Village completed. Great campus, great vibe.
Georgetown- pretty iconic campus AND in the heart of D.C. and close walk to Georgetown restaurants, shops…
UGA- Great school spirit, great dining options, impressive new business school complex, supportive Honors program
Wash U- Gorgeous campus, tremendous student support staff, friendly Midwest feel, strong tour and presentation
Tulane-Nicer campus than expected, staff and guide very friendly and positive, fun vibe
It’s a shame that many people walk away from Berkeley with negative impressions. We had the same experiences and feelings after our tour, and that was over 2 years ago. A shame , really.
Lafayette. Dull and boring. Looks run down. The tour guide was not impressive. The admissions presentation was horrible – no visuals, speaking off the cuff and constantly repeating herself. Just bad all around. Waste of time.
@Rivet2000 Don’t feel too bad. There are hundreds of instate UCB kids that don’t have a negative impression, have excellent stats for UCB and were rejected. The more people who dislike Berkeley, the better for CA residents who do.
@suzyQ7 Just to be clear, we’re not CA residents. Our son was accepted at Cal, but decided to enroll elsewhere. My comment was about conditions that might pose negative long term implications for Cal - that would be a shame.
@Rivet2000 - Berkeley gave me that same negative impression nearly 25 years ago. I picked up a pay phone (anyone remember those?!?) and there was a loogie on the receiver.
That said, it’s a fabulous school and I’m glad that it exists (if for no other reason than the Big Game - Fear the Tree!! – jk, I hate football.)
@WineLover interesting you say that. My daughter and I still talk about how that information session was the best one we experienced (and we sat in on a lot!) Loved the campus, loved the school, was in her top three, but alas, she was waitlisted.
Down
Muhlenberg. I had heard so many positive things that I expected to love it. My DD couldn’t pinpoint why, but she didn’t like anything about it. I expected small but it was smaller than envisioned. Also there was nothing around it but small houses. It seemed like you need a car to get anywhere and it would be boring. Also the emphasis on theater was a turnoff to my non theater child. She also hated the dining hall even though they kept saying how great it is. Oh well. She won’t apply.
Up
Penn State. This was a surprise in the opposite direction. I expected huge but the layout helped it not seem as spread out as I expected. Huge info session but they sold the school well. Then they split up over 500 people into very small tour groups in an impressively organized manor. Our tour group was only three families. Tour guide was a freshman but she was excellent. The whole day my daughter was in a good mood and kept saying she liked it. Oh and it was cold and rainy but it didn’t matter. She also preferred the dining hall over muhlenberg. Before leaving we went back to admissions to get a campus map - should have had that earlier - and on the monitor they had info about the school and the names of all the kids who visited that day scrolling by. Very nice touch for such a huge school. She will apply here.
My son is looking for a larger school with D1 sports. UNC and Clemson are both at the top of his list.
He should be named a NMSF in the fall, so over Spring Break we visited several colleges where he could get good merit money.
Ole Miss: Way up. My kids were concerned this wasn’t a “smart school,” but it rates really high in the public honors college book, so I wanted to visit. When we got to Ole Miss, the people handed us a sheet marked “special itinerary” and told us to hang back and wait for a certain person. We soon realized that everyone was leaving for the main tour except us. My son immediately started asking what in the world I had signed us up for. I assured him just a regular tour online. Admissions counselor came out to get us. Apparently they pull kids with certain scores and do one on one info sessions with them. It was a great chance to find out about how Ole Miss might fit him specifically. They then had a tour guide give us a personal tour. Then we did the regular housing tour, followed by a one on one meeting with a dean from the Honors College. My son was really impressed. Loved that it was a big school on a smaller, well laid out beautiful campus. I loved all of the opportunities through the Honors College. I think Ole Miss will end up on his apply list.
Mississippi State: Down. We were frustrated with them even before we got to campus. I did the same thing with all 3 college visits last week. Requested a college tour on their website, and then requested a Honors College tour or meeting. Mississippi State forgot to schedule the Honors College visit (or forgot to tell us if they had) so it required a couple of follow ups to make sure we had the meeting scheduled.
Their tour is weird. They have you park and check in at one location, and then navigate yourself a half mile to the info session location. This led to the info session starting a few minutes late and people interrupting it for the first 15 minutes as they filtered in. The AO was cute as could be, but she gave the distinct impression MS State was not a smart school. I realize it’s not UNC, but I would hope that info sessions would focus on how everyone could find their place. MS State actually says in their info tour that everyone with an ACT of 24 or above should apply for the Honors College. Interestingly, almost no one in the info session was from in state. So MS State at least as a lot of out of state kids coming to visit.
The walking tour was a bit disjointed, but I think that was because a family in our group had a meeting during the walking tour time and they drove the tour guise (but again, poor planning by the admissions). Our tour guide was a smart guy from the Honors College, so we did get a good impression from him. Since the tour ended abruptly, he ended up walking my son and I to the tour building and we got some great information from him.
They planned our Honors College visit for 3 hours after our tour ended, so we had a ton of time to kill. Then we met with the Honors College representative and had an excellent meeting. The tour guide and the Honors college meeting were the two redeeming points in this visit. I was disappointed with how disjointed MS State was.
Alabama: Way Up. Wow, this admissions office has it down to a science. Met a honors college student who gave us our schedule for the day. First meeting was an Arts and Sciences info session with 6 other families who were also visiting the Honors College. Great meeting, best info session we have attended. Gave us a spreadsheet to figure out how AP credit acceptance works. Talked about special opportunities, extracurriculars, etc. The leader did a great job pulling info from the different students in the room and using it for examples. Next was an Honors College info sessions. Then lunch with a current honors college student, followed by a general campus tour. The tour is led by students dressed in either suits or matching red dresses with red lipstick. It’s a little Stepford seeming, but I was pretty impressed by how our tour guide walked backwards in 2" heels for most of the tour. The campus is gorgeous. The tour guide did an excellent job and was very likeable. Nicest dorms we have seen, and he loved the rec center they show on the tour. Walking to all the tours in the morning made us see that the campus is very easily walked. On the bus tour it seemed huge, so I’m glad we did the walking first. He really wants a walkable campus. He ruled out Georgia after their bus tour. Alabama has also been added to his apply list.
After being so impressed with Ole Miss and Alabama, I think we are almost done visiting campuses. We’ve decided not to visit Purdue or Miami of OH. Still planning to visit Virginia Tech and our state flagship.
Right now, his apply list looks like:
UNC, Clemson, Duke, Ole Miss, Alabama
And he has ruled out:
Davidson, South Carolina, and Georgia
I suspect this family will cross off UMD after this visit. https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/Tire-Theft-Ruins-UMd_-Visit-for-Mom-Daughter_Washington-DC-478941893.html?_osource=SocialFlowFB_DCBrand
Up and way Up - Middlebury. really not expecting to like this school so much, but it really checked all the boxes. While some people say it is in the middle of no where (driving there was kind of funny, because you pass nothing, nothing, nothing, and then all of a sudden like a mirage in the desert a school appears!) the small town it is in is really cute, walkable form campus and offers amenities a college kid might need. Plus Burlington, a great little city is not to far. Admissions office was warm and welcoming with lots of reading material about the college. Best college newspaper we’ve read. Into session was done by an articulate and engaging (and employed after graduation) senior and covered the history of the school and its inclusive roots, as well as the academic program. Tour guide was charming and gave a good personalized tour. Campus was very pretty, with a great layout, making it feel more expansive than other lacs. And the school does have more students than most lacs which is a plus. Views of the mountains from some of the buildings was lovely. Food was good, athletics facilities fabulous, the Jan term sounded great with a lot of fun offerings and some specialized professors who come just for that term. Even the PE requirement where you can learn to ski sounded great to my D. Midd is known for language, which my D is not particularly interested in, but learning language the Midd way, actually sounded appealing to her. The vibe was friendly and collaborative, and healthy (a little lumber-jacky with lots of beards - lol). Didn’t find a big sjw vibe. And being in VT, the air smelled so fresh and amazing. I really can’t find one negative about the place, but if I had to be nitpicky, I would say the freshman dorm was not great. Also not a big fan of the Feb entry thing. But all in all an extermely positive visit.
Down - Dartmouth - it’s Dartmouth so expectations were high. The campus was not nearly as bucolic/pretty as I was expecting. Seemed a little run down in parts. The med school and business school seemed more prominent on campus then the undergrad. Tour guide was fun, but she was a lousy guide - lots of anecdotes about her and her friends, but not much real info on the school. Town of Hanover was nice though, upscale, good shops and eateries. Think because we didn’t have an info session and the tour guide didn’t make up for it, we never got the ‘Dartmouth’ spiel, so left not really learning a lot about the school. But if you like skiing and ice climbing, I can see the appeal.
@wisteria100 I liked Middlebury too. My eldest son did too until a turn off experience at the overnight during accepted students day… interesting that you mention the J-term sounding great. I thought it seemed interesting during our tours too and my son was agnostic on it. But having now gone through a couple years at a peer school with no J-term and a 5 week winter break, he loves the break and says he would not have been happy to spend most of it back at school in the middle of winter. My daughter is up next – a Junior now in the middle of evaluating schools – and she’s already ruled out schools because that don’t have a decent winter break because of what she’s observed from her brother (and because she’s even more negative on the cold weather than he is). To me personally, I still like the idea but I can see the kids perspectives too.
I have a senior graduating from Cal Haas next month. In terms of the campus being dirty, I will say Cal has a “relaxed” atmosphere. Being a public university, you can’t keep the public out (nor would we want to). The advantage of a more relaxed community is that you can just be yourself. The surrounds are beautiful, being so close to Berkeley marina, and the neighborhood is a typical college town, and has a boho Cambridgey feel. The neighborhood didn’t deter us, and DD has had a wonderful four years as a Regents Scholar with lots of opportunities.
@citivas As I recall, for the J term, you are only required to do it 2 years out of 4.
I recall where your S goes to college from some of your other posts. That school is actually in the #1 spot right now for my D. She loved it there too.
@wisteria100 your reviews of Midd and Dartmouth are helpful. We’ve told S19 that he can choose two (maybe three) reach schools that will be full price for us. I think he will be deciding between Bowdoin, Midd, Brown, Dartmouth, Amherst, and Williams. We already have two safeties and six/seven matches on the list. We haven’t visited any of the possible reach schools on his list.
He’s very keen on Midd. I feel like the school closest to Midd in this group may be Bowdoin. Dartmouth too Greek. Brown too urban. Amherst and Williams seem so similar to each other that I’m finding it hard to compare those two.
He’s got a shot at these schools. 1540 SAT 3.85 UW/5.7 W GPA at a very competitive school with no grade inflation. Not many kids from our Midwestern town apply to LACs out east. Most that do are recruited athletes. Of the few non-athletes we know, their scores/grades are similar to S19’s. He’s a XC/track kid but his times are just shy of recruitable at these schools and he’s not sure he wants to continue running anyway. He’s an accomplished artist and he’s hoping his portfolio will help. The number of kids applying RD to these schools versus the number that are accepted is discouraging though. All of these schools say they don’t track interest but he’s doing what he can to show interest without us traveling. I just don’t know if it’s worth visiting big reaches unless he’s admitted. And, after your review of Midd, I’m afraid he would fall in love! Did you get any sense if they care if kids visit?
@homerdog, I am curious how one gets to a 5.7 weighted GPA. To be clear, since tone is hard with written exchanges, I am not skeptical , doubtful, challenging, judgmental, etc. Just legitimately curious how it works – is there more than a 5 point scale, is there extra points for A+, are classes like gym or music or drama or other non-core classes also worth more than 4, etc.?
Our unweighted scale is 5.0. Every honors and AP class is given a whole extra point so you get a 6 for an A in those classes. S19 has taken almost all honors and APs but gotten a few Bs
Ah and I just realized I should have said 4.85 UW. Not 3.85.
PE grades are not included in GPA.
He’s in the top 8 percent or so of the class. There are some kids with all honors and all APs hovering around 5.9. It’s impossible to get a 6.0 weighted since the kids have to take health which is not honors. They also have other arts requirements that don’t always have honors options.
Hope that makes more sense.