I still like to check out colleges when we are traveling. Got the opportunity to see Tulane in April and sent picks to D …at her college… got an eye roll emoji as my reply. :))
College tour bingo squares - don’t forget the fountain/ creek/ pond you get dunked in on your birthday. Maybe that’s just a thing in the warmer states where the pond isn’t frozen over half the year. My younger kids wanted to go to Pomona after hearing that tradition on the tour we dragged them on when my oldest was first looking. But we’ve now heard that tradition at several other places.
Except at Florida Southern where a dip in the Frank Lloyd Wright fountain will cost you $500. We heard that about 5 times on the tour.
Fountain run at Purdue ; )
So funny re: the college bingo tour. We always waited for the blue lights to come up and then would just look at each other and laugh. Def. saw some diminishing returns on college tours in terms of their value to our D after about the 6th or 7th. They started to blur together. Overnights, if available formally or informally if a kid knows someone there, are a whole different ball of wax and I highly encourage. Hanging out for 24 hours with students is the real deal. Can’t do it everywhere, obviously, but made a big difference for my D in her decision making!
We were just discussing yesterday how our best college trips were to schools that were no longer under consideration at the end of the process.
I agree with @almostthere2018 that having any kind of residential experience is priceless.
Weed is so easily available everywhere. The Colorado kids cannot get it legally until the are 21, so they are in the same boat as kids in other places. Also, with taxes, it is more expensive to buy legally. I know a ton of kids from my son’s HS who are nice kids, great students, who smoke weed at so many schools up and down the east coast. so the perception is just wrong.
@jjjoanne you raise good points. And a topic for a different thread I’m sure, but what’s worse for the college students? Pot or Alcohol? I’ve heard both arguments.
At the end of the day, as many people have already stated, it comes down to the self discipline of the student. Most kids will partake in some kind of substance “abuse” and a certain level of it is probably expected. We all just want our kids and their friends to not take it to any extreme that inhibits their success, health and safety in college. It’s a fine line.
I know of some scary stories with some kids drinking too much…one of them resulting in death (off campus, but still celebrating with her college friends when she got the job offer she wanted). We just have to do our best as parents to help guide our kids to make the best decisions possible to keep themselves safe and happy.
As it relates to this thread, I do think there are people that might take a school on or off their list because of the perception of too much (or maybe even too little) partying. Like anything else, perceptions can be deceiving. And it comes down to fit.
Precisely. My D17, f’rex, took Bucknell off her list, beautiful campus sight unseen, because she heard stories (no idea if they’re true or not) of the alcohol-based party culture there.
Same here, my S completely dropped Harvey Mudd from his college list (it had been #1) after a visit that must have taken place after some big party day…
My kiddo drops schools off of the list if he hears that the party scene is inescapable. He likes the idea of substance-free dorms and considers it a plus when we’re shopping different schools. He doesn’t mind a party culture as long as he’s not forced to deal with it all the time.
Yes, I like the term “inescapable”…that can be an issue even for a student that likes to party but doesn’t want to feel pressure to party when they don’t want to. Both of my daughters wanted schools with great social opportunities (i.e., parties) BUT wanted to be around kids that didn’t make them feel “weird” if they stayed in to study or just didn’t feel like partying (shout out to Boston College and Georgetown for this!).
As for Bucknell, I have heard that there is a lot of partying…but serious students nonetheless (it’s a hard school to get in, and it has a lot to offer). I wonder if some of the problem is the remote location. I think when a school is near a city or in a city, it offers so many other social opportunities that might curb the pressure to party all of the time?
But these are all important things to consider which is why it is important to visit schools and talk to students. Sometimes we draw the wrong conclusions, of course. But they have to go with their gut in the end.
Harvey Mudd a party school? Really?
@amandakayak - We did a self-guided tour at Cp SLO with my oldest 4 years ago. You nailed it with the “community college” description. I completely agree. The deal breaker for us was the travel challenges. We live 3-4 hours by car. We wanted to avoid buying a car for school, but that would have been very tough to do.
@COSpgsparent - We are on a similar path. DS14 just graduated from ASU Barrett. Now we have another going in with full tuition. His twin brother is going to ND. Mom cried when she saw the picture of him at admitted students weekend. She said, “He’s going to Notre Dame”. We live in NorCal, so Momma is not too happy about the distance. I’m with you, ND totally won me over, especially for my DS. It was a great fit in so many ways.
UW-Madison has a “study hard-party hard” reputation. Studying comes first or you won’t survive. The advantages of a large school is that even if a significant number of students (even the majority) do something, there will still be plenty who don’t. There are parents/students who avoided UW for those wrong reasons- their loss and the students who got in instead’s gain.
I agree @wis75 that a large state school like UW-Madison probably has a niche for everyone. I like that about large schools, but I wonder sometimes if when a school is that big if students can feel anonymous and have a harder time finding friends. I have heard this but I don’t have any personal experience with it. I would think the student has to be very proactive in finding that niche.
Large schools often group into friends by major or social prefs. UW has around 700+ student orgs and clubs. Not to mention plenty of on and near campus social spots. Very easy to meet people.