Crossed off:
Oberlin- info session was great…tour made her realize it wasn’t the school for her.
Case western reserve… we all wanted to love this school due to proximity of extended family, but didn’t. My daughter felt like it would be great for medical/graduate school but not undergrad. We didn’t get a sense of campus and community.
College of Wooster… great tour and visit, moved up on our list.
Kenyon College…we all loved it! It exceeded our. Expectations. My youngest said “can I apply early decision here”. My oldest will definitely apply. One thing she came to the conclusion about is she wants a LAC. She is passionate about the arts and STEM and wants the close interactions with faculty.
It really confirms the need to visit schools to get a sense of fit. Next up east coast visits.
Wellesley - OMG I wanted to live here. The campus is GORGEOUS. Both my girls felt so too. Info session was done with all the prospective students up front so the admissions lady could speak directly to them. Parents say in the back. The tour was done the same way - girls up front with parents in the back. I liked this - the atmosphere seemed to emphasize that each of the girls were important and with their own voices, and that the focus was on them and specifically not on the parents. As it should be, of course. D21 wants another visit. D23 isn’t sure because she wants a not-too-intense vibe and she thought the vibe was too intense(?). She’ll be back anyway when her sister visits again, so she can reassess then.
Mount Holyoke - another OMG-I-want-to-live-here campus. Gorgeous!! Both girls liked the info session and tour, and both felt the vibe was friendly and inclusive. They both love the emphasis on traditions. The ability to take classes at the other four colleges is a plus. The tour guide was bubbly and informative. Both want a second visit.
Williams - great info and tour. Pretty campus, nice tour guide, etc. Obviously a wonderful school. Perhaps a bit too isolated for my two though.
Amherst - Info session guy came off as a bit arrogant. Also, we were in the chapel filled with giant portraits of white men staring down at us (past presidents) while the info guy spoke of valuing diversity. There was one portrait of an African-American fellow, but that portrait was half the size of the other, huge portraits of white men. I know, past presidents were mostly white men because of history and times have changed, but it was kind of annoying being stared at by tons of dead white guys while being told that the college values diversity. Perhaps they should choose a different space for their info sessions…? The tour was rushed and given by someone who spoke a mile a minute and who seemed like she was anxious to be anywhere but there giving a tour. Neither of my girls had a good vibe about this one. We won’t be back.
Rensselaer Polytech Institute-
We were blown away by the info session. We look at websites before we show up, but somehow we hadn’t realized how impressive this place is in terms of rankings, job placement, starting salary, etc. Pretty campus and friendly tour guide. Only possible issue is that my girls might want more of a liberal arts school instead of a tech school. Both are STEM kids, but they aren’t yet sure if they want to go the tech school route or the more traditional liberal arts route with a stem major. We will definitely be back for another visit though.
Middlebury - beautiful campus, warm and friendly info session, great tour. Love the emphasis on languages. For my two, though, it is too isolated. Probably won’t make the eventual, final list.
University of Vermont - fun info session with four students joining in to give their perspectives. Campus tour was great, and Burlington is right there, easy to walk into, and a fantastic college town. Both my two want to visit again.
Colby - loved the emphasis on studying abroad. Admissions folks were extremely kind, respectful, and informative. Beautiful campus. Neither of my two felt like it was too rural and isolated…I think they both got giant positive vibes from the place. Outdoors activities a huge plus. Both want to come back for another visit.
Bates - extremely friendly, respectful, and informative info session. Inclusivity emphasized. The tour guides were kind and always held the door open for everyone on the tour and always walked in behind the tour group, after they had held the door open for everyone else. This was not done at any other college we visited and spoke volumes to me in terms of how Bates practices what it preaches - it truly values inclusiveness and acceptance. Great outdoors club. Both girls want to visit again.
Bowdoin - pretty campus and nice info session. The problem was that we saw it after both girls had stayed up late studying for exams. We were in the area because of the girls’ extracurriculars and we squeezed this in as a break, but the girls were really tired. Can’t evaluate this visit properly so we’ll probably be back when the girls are rested and not in the middle of finals. They can’t remember much about the visit and were asleep in the car right after we left. They said they wanted to go, but I should have rescheduled this one. My bad.
Vassar - gorgeous campus, laid back vibe, walking distance to Poughkeepsie, close to great outdoor activities, solid academics. Both girls gave the experience a thumbs up and want to revisit.
Yale - visited on our way back from NYC. Both love the architecture and they liked New Haven. Not the traditional green country campus that it seems my oldest leans toward, but the beautiful architecture makes up for it in her eyes. Informative info session and fun, warm, kind tour guide. Good vibe. Oldest wants to revisit. Never got my youngest’s opinion - she was quiet after this one for some reason.
Brown - I thought both would love Brown because of its “happiest student” reputation (and yes, the students do seem genuinely happy) and its lack of core/gen ed requirements. Fine info session, fun tour guide, the campus itself felt like a campus even though it’s kind of in a city. Neither of my two were enthused though. I think perhaps it’s because there aren’t enough seriously outdoorsy things close by…? Don’t know. The vibe was off for them, which surprised me.
I think that’s it. I’ll post more first-visit experiences as we have them (I won’t post second-visit experiences as the list narrows down after the next two-three years).
Janie, I have to ask-you’re doing college tours with 9th and 7th graders? Isn’t it a bit early for your middle schooler to know anything about what she wants in a college?
By the time senior year rolled around, I didn’t not know a single student who liked the college they loved in 10th grade. Prepare to revisit everything.
@Sue22 The younger one is along for the ride with the older one. I know full well her preferences may change over time. That being said, since she is along for the ride, I will give her the respect of listening to her opinions and noticing what she likes at this stage (knowing things may very well change as she gets older). She pays attention during the info sessions and often asks questions because she is genuinely interested (she is fairly mature for her age, she is a CTY-SET kid who has always had an intense focus in a particular STEM field and that general area of interest probably won’t change at this point, and we might decide to have her go to college early). Again though, at this point she is along for the ride. We won’t visit the NYC schools she says she wants to visit until she is high school age.
Both view this as fun, we travel a lot for personal reasons and for extra curricular reasons, so many are close to where we are on a regular basis, and both enjoy the process. So why not. Neither feels this is stressful (neither has ever had a problem telling me what they want and don’t want to do, lol). I am glad we can do this because at this point, since neither has to apply in the forthcoming months, it feels like adventure and not a giant process that looms.
We travel often and they enjoy talking to all kinds of people and seeing different things. This is kind of an extension of that - and, I want to make sure that by the time they apply to college, they are 100% certain they would be happy to attend each and every school on their list, be it reach, match, or “likely.” A long and relaxed process beats a short and crammed process, IMO. Less stress this way, at least for mine.
For the people worried about marijuana in Colorado, I’m curious whether you’re equally worried about schools in Alaska, California, DC, Maine, Massachusetts, Nevada, Oregon, Vermont, and Washington? Or is there something special about Colorado?
And to bring this more thoroughly on topic, there have been some mentions of students looking at or crossing off Colorado schools they might otherwise not have due to the legality of recreational marijuana—I’m curious whether anyone’s anecdotal evidence extends to those other states?
@roycroftmom There will be at least one more visit of each of the colleges they like from the first round (more for D23 since she is young and really along for the ride right now) - revisiting
the northeast colleges won’t be a problem. I am all for a short final list with schools on it they truly love.
I understand our way is not the way of many, but that’s okay. It doesn’t have to be. We’re having fun with this and enjoying the experiences.
@dfbdfb I think people are kidding themselves if they think week is limited to schools where it is legal. And frankly this isn’t limited to week…alcohol, sex, etc. The reality is all of these things are happening daily on almost every college campus in America. There are exceptions of course…but generally speaking with you put lots of 18-22 year olds together with minimum supervision things are going to happen.
That said, if a student visits a campus and that is their take, they are entitled to it. Part of this process is letting kids figure out what is and is not important to them. If their impression is there is a lot of weed here and I don’t want to be around that…it comes off their list. It’s all part of this journey.
@dfbdfb my husband said the same thing, that there are other states that have legalized it for recreational purposes. With that said, for some reason when U of Colorado comes up in conversation, at least here on the East Coast, many people’s, but not all, first reaction is that there is an abuse of marijuana at U of Colorado. For some reason, this reputation exists. I have been trying to decipher personally if there is any credence to this reputation. I am hoping NOT because I think the location is perfect for my son for so many reasons.
Worth noting, that despite the likely unjustified reputation, U of Colorado has become much more popular with students from the East Coast and I think it is NOT because of pot. I think the school has a good reputation academically and geographically.
We always tell our kids (two are in college now) that if you want to party (drink, smoke, vape whatever) there will always be someone available to do it with you, any day of the week. So much of this is about the individual student and their self-discipline. But I would also like to try to limit the temptation, while still finding a school that has the right mix of people and location for him. We are visiting in a few weeks. Can’t wait.
@JanieWalker I respect your enthusiasm for visiting colleges. Yes, it’s a bit early, but time flies and it will be nice to have some experiences to reflect on when junior year rolls in and your child has to really build his/her list. I started kind of early (not as early as you, when my oldest was a sophomore) and I have no regrets. Touring colleges can be a lot of fun, especially some of the ones you are visiting that have a lot of history and tradition.
One thing I would caution…and I’m sure your children are bright, but just be careful not to set any unrealistic expectations with some of those top schools you have visited. As I am sure you are well aware, it takes a lot more than top grades and scores to get admitted to a lot of those schools.
Enjoy your college visits! My family loves them too!
Campuses are pretty, and it can be fun walking around. My siblings were much older, so I began spending time on campus by age 7. It is a pleasant place to spend time, but kids change a lot in high school, and how they assess a campus at 15 is often unrelated to how they assess it at 18. It is helpful to have interaction with actual potential peers, which college students will not provide to early high school students. I am glad you are finding the experience fun, for you may not in another 2 years as it drags on.
@roycroftmom Thanks, and I do understand your point. That being said, some college students do spend some time with early high school students – there are open houses for sophomores, and shadow days in which sophomores can take part. D21 already signed herself up for one college open house for sophomores and juniors next fall and one shadow day for fall next year, both at colleges she saw this past year which she knows she wants to see again. If she’s still interested after those visits, then she’ll go back again as a junior for another visit. So I do think there is value for a 9th grader to visit (I would not have begun the visits with only my 7th grader last year…she was along for the ride…if she was an only child then she too would have begun visiting casually as a 9th grader). I do hear, understand, and have always recognized that preferences may change as time goes on, though. This is why we are not making any out-of-the-way trips for potential colleges (West coast, anything we can’t easily get to during our normal lives) until the summer before 11th grade. The ones we are seeing now are convenient for us to get to. We are lucky to live in and travel about in an area that is chock-full of colleges.
@collegemomjam - I agree about the tippy top college thing! There are a good handful of colleges my two will see this summer that have more humane acceptance rates than some of the ones they have seen so far – (those are on route to and from their summer camps). I will grill into their heads the importance of having a final list that is balanced. Also, I think I am succeeding in getting them to realize that fit is extremely important, and to not go anywhere simply because of “prestige.” Seeing tippy tops they were not enthused about was good for them. It’s no good to go to a college with a great rep if you aren’t actually feeling the vibe at that college.
@JanieWalker thanks for all of the descriptions… we are west-coasters looking at several of those schools for our middle kid (rising junior). We’ll be visiting Tufts, Brown, and possibly Bowdoin in a couple of weeks but won’t have time for more on this trip.
Let me be blunt. In my experience, college students will edit their comments heavily depending upon who is present. A peer, without parents present, will get info no one would dream of otherwise sharing, on campus life-date rape, party life, pressure, etc. Those factors are likely part of the fit equation.
@roycroftmom We aren’t in disagreement, which is why I am hoping both my kids get to do shadow days at all or most of the colleges they are seriously interested in before they apply, as the years go on. This first round is general info session/campus feel only, it is casual. Additional visits (as the years go on) will hopefully bring additional info with college students (lunch with students, shadow days, etc). for all colleges my kids are considering. Some colleges offer more experiences starting with sophomore year, others wait until junior/senior year.
We started early too @janiewalker. Sophomore year. My daughter ended up visiting 15 schools and appliing to 8. We returned to a number of schools, especially the ones she liked the best to “make sure”, and she did a summer program at her #1 when she was a rising senior. We thoroughly enjoyed the process and felt like we were on vacation.
College tours for the young: I’m an academic, and my spouse and I both simply like college campuses, so we’ve done a lot of self-tours over the years with children in tow. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that, and if nothing else it can get kids an early idea of the physical-plant aesthetic they like, which honestly is nearly as important as the academics, since it’ll be their bubble for four+ years.
Me too. Traveled a lot over the years and lived all over US. If there was a college around I often took either a drive thru it or a walk around self-tour. Last I counted it was around 400+
