In response to an earlier post, I think it’s reasonable to like deer on campus or dislike deer on campus. I am surprised, however, that a school’s failure to talk about the presence/absence of deer would be a factor.
1 Like
Yes – this is a fav thread; glad you gave it a bump!
Visited The News School (Eugene Lang), NYU and Sarah Lawrence with daughter who is prospective transfer student
Lang - up. Had a good tour guide. Daughter loved the vibe and the class descriptions. Very diverse out there student body but if that is something you like (mine does) … TNS does it well. Great part of NYC.
NYU - long intro session filled with info easily available elsewhere. Broke up into groups of about 15 for the tour. NYU kind of speaks for itself - amazing resources in every possible area of study. A reach but will apply. Same great part of NYC as Lang
Sarah Lawrence - we both hated it. Ugly campus in the middle of nowhere. Felt like summer camp. Buildings in various states of disrepair. Students seemed immature. They were doing a sit in in the admissions office when we were there. With so many causes around the world that need their attention - I found it a little funny that they were doing a sit-on against their own administration but to be fair - I didnt pay much attention to their grievances. Daughter was supposed to have an interview after but we told the admissions person that she has decided she wants to be in the city and we bolted.
Visited Connecticut College recently.
It’s not that far off a route we take on a monthly basis for one of my kids’ extracurriculars (traveling competitive sport) and it satisfies D21’s preference of small instead of large and chill instead of pretentious, so we thought we’d check it out. D21 has visited enough colleges now to have settled into a predictable preference for the kind of atmosphere and size of the college.
(We started visiting colleges last year when D21 was in ninth grade so I could have my girls realize how many different types of colleges there are and to not get fixated on the Ivies during their high school years. Their father and I both went to an Ivy, he’s a professor at an Ivy, many of their friends’ parents went to or work at Ivies, and they are in Harvard Square on a regular basis…so it was important to me to get them out there early and love all different kinds of colleges early so as not to have them stress and fret about “having” to get into an Ivy. The trips are fun and my girls enjoy “auditioning” these colleges for a spot on their potential final application list down the line).
CT College has friendly students and a fairly expansive campus for a liberal arts school. There’s a nice huge open area between the buildings that stretches on and on - we all liked that. The info session was run by an admissions lady who was down to earth and fun, and she gave a lot of details about everything you can think of. The tour guide was kind and casual, and she confirmed that the atmosphere is collaborative and not competitive.
The only drawback for D21 is that she wants serious nature nearby. She lives with me in the middle of serious nature (and visits her father in Boston), and being very close to the wilderness (or at least with very easy and fast access) is important to her. I thought maybe the ocean would work in terms of CT College and proximity to wilderness, but no, not really. She’s a forest/mountains/wild rivers gal. We have visited the usual suspects for that - Colby, Bates, etc etc - but I thought she may as well take a look at CT College just to see. She saw. Not sure she’ll apply. The students and programs and campus are great, it’s just that the location is likely not going to satisfy my kid’s need to run amok in the wild from time to time. 
@JanieWalker: Have you visited Middlebury College ?
@Publisher yes - somewhere on this thread I wrote our impressions of it. That one is too rural. There’s a sweet spot - close to nature but not with a completely isolated feel, which is how she felt about Middlebury (and Williams). That being said, sometimes the feel/vibe of the college overrides the usual preference (for example, D21 really likes U of Rochester - she liked the vibe there so much that as of right now, she doesn’t mind that it is not that close to nature).
I’m kind of glad she didn’t like Middlebury - she likes enough colleges that happen to be reaches. It’s fine if she has a healthy amount of those on the list, but then of course she needs an even healthier amount of matches/safeties. Luckily, there are quite a few colleges she really likes so far with sane acceptance rates (40% and over). We’ll see how the list shapes up over the next year.
@JanieWalker - any chance you visited Colgate?
@JanieWalker For serious nature and low key, friendly, collaborative culture – St Lawrence (up up upstate NY) maybe worth a look.
Oops, editing to say, just read you follow up about not too rural either. I find the town charming around St L, but it may be too remote if Midd is not her thing either. I’ve heard some Dickinson grads talk about hiking in the area, may be worth checking that out, as a balance between not rural/isolated but still nature-y options?
@ChrisG77 @sahmkc I did undergrad at Rollins and absolutely loved it. It is a fantastic college town, beautiful campus, and great weather. Feel free to reach out with any questions.
@elena13 No - from what I’ve read, Greek life is a large part of the Colgate experience. D21 said she wouldn’t mind a little bit of that, but she doesn’t think she’d be happy in a school where Greek life dominated the social culture.
@Midwestmomofboys Thanks! We have a visit to St. Lawrence already on the books for late next month. I’ve a feeling she might find it too isolated, but who knows - if she loves the vibe enough then she probably won’t mind. The ADKs being right there is a huge plus.
Her grandpa and aunts and uncles live very close to Dickinson, and she stayed on the campus for a summer camp last July, so she has already visited. Definitely a contender. Great school, good vibes, the AT is close and a nice college town is right down the street. We have a second visit scheduled for mid-April.
@JanieWalker – is University of Vermont too big? It has a very friendly vibe and definitely close to nature. My daughter also likes hiking, skiing, and the great outdoors and Rochester is one of her choices. Not close to big mountains, but it’s relatively close to some beautiful parks.
@JanieWalker Perhaps Lafayette College – my D and her friends were able to walk down to the Delaware River when they wanted to get away for a bit.
DD#1 removed Baylor from her list due to the lack of diversity at the Starbucks we visited after a drive-through tour of area. Said she can’t do Waco.
Did you see the Conn College Arboretum across the street? It is beautiful, not mountains but still…a very peaceful place to escape to.
@pittsburghscribe and @happy1 - D21 spent a few weeks at Lafayette for a summer camp two years ago and wasn’t thrilled with the area. As for UVM, she really likes the vibe and yes, it’s got kind of a big feel to it but the lake and mountains being right there makes up for that. Burlington is a fantastic college “town.”
Thanks for your suggestions everyone - I appreciate them, and I appreciate your kindness. That being said, I didn’t mean to divert this thread in any way. Looking forward to hearing about other people’s visits to various places.
I missed this thread.
Ooh, almost forgot. We toured Johns Hopkins recently. We’re local and had never seen it, and we’d heard so much criticism about the surrounding area we never bothered. But man were we pleasantly surprised. Campus is very pretty, with lots of green quads, mature trees, and outdoor spaces. Gilman Hall (I think), library, Homewood Museum, a number of other buildings were gorgeous. (And the library at the Peabody campus, holy crap it’s jaw-dropping.) We went to the BMA right around the corner and then a cool market place that houses a dozen or so restaurants in an old warehouse space. So cool and lively. My daughter and niece were really impressed with all of it. Good luck getting in, girls!
I love UVM as a place for outdoorsy kids. They have access to everything in Burlington, fun college town, shopping and services, hospital, airport, ski mountains and hiking/cycling trails, paved bike path along the waters edge. New Stem building, new dorms.
I recently spent a fair bit of time on two college campuses that are tourist destinations: College of Charleston and Harvard. D was with me for some of the time and we agreed that having hordes of tourists on your campus all the time has got to be annoying (logistically just moving around the crowds, being gawked at, having tours constantly going through campus), but that at Harvard it is probably more annoying because the students themselves are part of the tourist attraction.
IMO that’s a drawback worth considering.
@JanieWalker my daughter is very outdoorsy as well and attends Rochester. She is part of the Outdoor Club, which spends a lot of weekends out in nature. They travel all over NY (did VT one weekend as well) throughout the year and hike mountains and state parks and camp. There is skiing nearby, though my daughter hasn’t been able to hit the slopes as of yet. She feels like it’s meeting her outdoorsy needs.