Univ of Vermont seems to welcome OOS students. They make up the majority.
UVM welcome OOS student’s tuition dollars. High tuition dollars.
@Empireapple UVM brought the cost of attendance to equal our instate (UMass Amherst) cost. UMass Amherst didn’t even make us eligible to take a loan. And yes, I look at folks with inexpensive great flagship schools with envy. UMass Amherst has come a long way but it is no Michigan!
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A colleague at work said that a recent grad he knows literally received an award fro UMass of $1! I would think they might want to write code to eliminate embarrassing awards like that. Even the top kids at our school get nothing there. Crossed off! I work for the commonwealth and I get nothing. Well…I get tuition which is the same as the Abigail Adams and something like $1000/year.
Recently visited Skidmore -
The people were down to earth and friendly, the food is really really good (rare high praise from my teens), and the college offers programs in which both my kids are interested.
It won’t be on her final list, though - the campus itself felt depressing to my oldest. The grounds were well kept, etc - it was the buildings themselves. She felt they looked like a bunch of normal boxy buildings stuck together. In addition, she said the college just didn’t “feel right” for her.
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Moved up:
Scripps - My D19 daughter fell in love with Scripps. She like the location with the 5 Claremonts, thought the class she sat in on had interesting discussions, and talked to some freshmen who were positive about their experiences.
Bryn Mawr - Although very different feel from the Claremonts she loved the campus and had an enthusiastic tour guide.
Moved down:
Smith - she did not feel the love. She wanted to escape the tour part way through but I made her stay and then she went into a checked out mode. Not sure if it was the campus or the students that she was negative about.
Mt Holyoke - she liked the campus but thought it was too isolated. It seemed very quiet the day we visited.
Pomona, Wellesley unchanged but both are probably harder to get into then Scripps and Bryn Mawr. She dropped Smith and Mt Holyoke from her list.
D19 scratched Brandeis off her list because it “feels like a high school”. Everyone told her she’d love Emory, but she didn’t feel the love.
She loved the big urban universities despite (maybe even because of?) the lack of traditional campuses.
@SJ2727 Can you say more about why your DD didn’t like Emory? That’s one that seems like a good fit on paper for my DD but I’m not sure if we will be able to visit. She also didn’t love Brandeis when we just visited. Thanks
Oberlin off the list…she loved the academics and coach that she met, but the overwhelming vibe for her was too crunchy. Grinnell went way up based on the overall feel she got from the school and the students and she was beyond impressed with the academics.
@MAandMEmom My son’s guidance counselor said he should apply for the scholarship. Then when you realize the tuition at UMass is next to nothing but there are like $13K a year in fees…well it makes it seem like less of a reward.
@musicmom1215 , she actually said it reminded her a bit of Brandeis! (I personally thought it was much nicer, but I guess D got the same “feel” as she got at Brandeis.) She wasn’t crazy about Atlanta either, though she did like the village around Emory itself. My sister graduated Emory about 6 years ago and absolutely loved it though. I think my D just gets a different energy from urban localities that she prefers, whereas I know for many students the urban location ends up being a compromise rather than a goal in itself.
We live in Colorado and my daughter has always want to “get away,” but we just can’t find a campus more beautiful than Boulder…sooo pretty, close to Denver, and great programs. She might end up there after all, though there are a couple other strong contenders, depending on if she gets accepted. Anyway, your son should follow his heart.
@COSpgsparent Do you have any thoughts about Colorado College? My daughter is interested and I’d love to get a (semi-) local perspective. I have another who just loves the idea of CU Boulder but its miserly approach to OOSers has me pumping his brakes.
@OCDaddy can you clarify “miserly” comment re Boulder - funding or admits?
Funding. I’ve been too lazy to authenticate on my own but that is its reputation. I’d love to be wrong!
Ah ok.
When we took our oldest daughter to start school at St. Olaf, our youngest daughter said there was no way she was going to a school named after a snowman!
@OCDaddy I actually live really close to CC–15-20 minute drive, and my daughter lives about a three-minute walk from the school. I’m partial, but the city of Colorado Springs is beautiful. UCCS is about a ten-minute drive from CC, and it’s growing like crazy, so there are a lot of college students in the area. The US Air Force Academy is also in the city, so there are cadets, too. The CC buildings are all pretty close together in a very pedestrian-friendly neighborhood called the Old North End; pretty Victorian homes. CC is on the block system, which some people like, and others don’t. It’s about one hour to Denver, 2-3 hours to ski slopes. Beautiful views.
Toured Berkeley and Stanford with D19 in the summer of '17, while S22 was at a basketball camp at Stanford. D hated Stanford. Found it too fancy (she likes the finer things in life, but not if they’re ostentatious), too physically large and too sporty. We all liked Berkeley OK – I was surprised that it didn’t feel overwhelmingly huge, although it was summer and we also probably didn’t see everything – but not enough to make D interested in going to the West Coast for school.
My wife took D on an East Coast tour in April. They started out in NYC, where I’m from originally; D was born in the city and grew up in the suburbs until we moved overseas in '13. We’re moving back to the States next summer, to Boston, so fortunately D won’t be making trans-Atlantic trips to school. On the tour, D was unimpressed with NYU and deeply disliked Columbia, for the core curriculum and because the tour guide was kind of a jerk. She did like Barnard better. What she really loved was Parsons, where D and DW were impressed with the energy, the facilities and the program (D wants to be a gallerist, most likely). A friend of mine who’s an administrator and professor there took time to meet with her, too. Parsons is now D’s first and probably only choice. She applied EA and doesn’t plan to apply anywhere else, and with her grades, scores and overall package, it’s a safety for her.
Moving north, they visited Bard, which D liked pretty well but found too remote. D and DW loved Brown, which would be D’s second choice if she were applying elsewhere (granted, much harder to get into and would be nowhere near a sure thing). The most appealing thing about RISD was the ability to take classes at Brown, but other than that, it seemed a high-pressure fun-free zone.
Bumping this thread for those doing spring vacation college visits this year. This thread is quite fun and informative; I didn’t want it to die (I’ll be contributing to it again with some more of our own first visits soon).