@trixie2849 Are you saying it was a rough neighborhood in 1907? 
Case went down after recent visit. It looked much better on paper. DS’s intended major was CS and was told in the presentation they are understaffed and underfunded and it it hard to get in classes. That was the end of it for us. We went and got ice cream.
@TytoAlba having just visited - we were in a CS presentation and they spoke of adding 3 additional professors. They were in final negotiations and they would be added next year. We had other observations at Case, but just sharing since you mention it.
I don’t want to swerve this whole thread into a discussion of Loyola of Chicago, but I’ve visited there twice this school year (once last weekend)…walked around, including to Insomnia Cookies at night, used the train, eaten at area restaurants, walked to my lakeside parking at night, and never felt unsafe. I am not from Chicago. Just wanted to provide another experience. Interesting observation about Jesuit schools. My D attends LMU, which is not in the nicest area of LA, but not the worst either. Plus LA is probably a bad example since the neighborhoods/suburbs are all mixed.
1 Like
@SJ2727 Just as an FYI, I’ve been to two visits at Fordham’s Bronx campus, and I felt safe. There’s a fence around the whole campus (the campus is beautiful, btw) and guards are present at the entrances. From one entrance it’s literally about 20 feet to the subway. Very cool, but neither of the two offspring who visited with me were interested in attending.
Boston College is Jesuit and is in one of the most beautiful neighborhoods in the country…Chestnut Hill, MA.
So maybe a blanket statement about Jesuit schools and less desirable neighborhoods was a little too broad-brushed. But I will say that several Midwest schools are in economically disadvantaged areas…LUC, Marquette, Creighton (at least 15 years ago it wasn’t great) and St. Louis University. It does make sense with the mission of the Jesuits since community service is tied to their beliefs. But I haven’t visited all 28 universities so I’m sure there are some that are in beautiful areas.
I think a lot of great schools are in questionable areas…Yale, U Chicago, for example. Not sure it’s tied to Jesuit. Maybe just tied to being old?
@collegemomjam But BC started out in the South End of Boston and was there until the 1930’s.
@collegemomjam BC is in such a pretty area, we love to drive and pretend house shop when we’re there! I got a little lost near St Joseph’s Phila with my oldest 9 years ago and it was nerve wracking. Or unfamiliar with Duke on a ride two years ago.
ya that view from the bluff that LMU sits on overlooking the Pacific Ocean and Marina Del Rey, surrounded by 2M condos and million dollar craftsman homes is a pretty sketch area (wink wink). I think the biggest threat there is getting rear ended by a Mercedes with a stronger bumper.
Post edit to keep in line with the thread: Mine crossed it off the list because of the size/strength of engineering at the time even though they had pretty much full scholarship to attend (basically pay just housing). They have since up’d their game with a new science facility, but not sure if programs gained strength.
I think it is time to move off the topic of Jesuit School locations and go back to our regularly scheduled programming.
Marquette U was not likely placed to be near sketchy areas. It is not too far from the downtown that used to be and neighborhoods, freeways grew up around it. I personally never thought the campus was that great when I was on it.
We toured University of San Diego in November and it’s one of my son’s top 5. Beautiful campus and a really warm welcoming environment. He’s probably not interested in Engineering, however, while their Engineering is a pretty new department, it has really climbed the ranks. 2 of the 12 astronauts selected in 2017 were from USD. Also, the are building a new business school. I think locally it is very well respected and grads do well. It might be getting more popular on a national level, not sure. But it should. Check it out if you are in the area. We liked it a little better than LMU, but also liked LMU. It had a less artsy feel than LMU, not that I would consider LMU artsy.
My son crossed American University and Christopher Newport U off his list after visiting. American: The presentation and presenter were not impressive at all…it consisted of someone blandly reading a powerpoint of majors and stats. It gave us nothing to be excited about or make the college stand out at all. Our tour guide was a little quirky, which I realize is just chance, but we didn’t get a feel of student fellowship or spirit or cheer on our tour. Christopher Newport was gorgeous, the most beautiful dorms we’ve seen, the presentation and tour guides were enthusiastic and good info, and we did get a feel of student culture during the trip, but son was turned off by it…it just didn’t light any spark like other colleges did. Maybe because our speakers and tour guides spoke often about the sports, which DS doesn’t care about, at all.
Schools S19 didn’t like - Northwestern was too spread out, no central campus. Really did not like BC either, and I’m not sure why (I wasn’t on the trip) because I’ve heard it’s so beautiful. I was surprised how lukewarm he was to Hamilton (where his Dad and I met) but how much Colgate appealed to him. I thought he would be bored by the monotony of Colgate’s architecture, but he really loved the feel of the campus. I think the biggest surprise was Hobart and William Smith which wasn’t really on the list - it was a school we/he tacked on as a “safety” that offers generous merit aid. We visited in January and when he came out of the interview, said “I think this might be above Colgate” It’s a beautiful campus and has so many things that appeal to him.
So many of our tours were done during while schools was not in session, though. I wonder how different our impressions would be had we visited while students were actually on campus!
@Trixy34 when I was reading what you wrote about Colgate I assumed you were there when it was in session, because my daughter and I visited while they weren’t in session and hated it. We thought it was way too remote, and almost ghost-town like (which for a small school my daughter felt could be very limiting for her). But I guess it depends on what you are looking for. She wanted to be near a city which is where she is now and wouldn’t have it any other way. I guess it depends on what you are looking for. This is why it’s so important to visit schools. You really don’t know until you see for yourself.
@collegemomjam - Yeah, I don’t really get it. It was like 95 degrees the day we were there, and we had to hike up that hill. Ugh. I think a lot of it maybe had to do with our tour guide. - ? - She was enthusiastic about Colgate and really highlighted a lot of great points that appealed to S19. The campus was really beautiful in the summer - as most of upstate NY is, and it didn’t hurt that they let us grab from the cookie spread they were putting out in the dining hall. Meanwhile, at Hamilton, our tour guide was really quite bland and not terribly helpful in answering questions, everything was locked up, lights were off - as an alum, it was disappointing. We did happen to run into the Chair of the Math department and had a lovely chat with him, but it wasn’t enough to overcome the blahs.
@Trixy34 For what it’s worth, a good friend of mine’s daughter just committed to Hamilton. She LOVED it…she didn’t visit until after she applied RD and said had she gone earlier it would have been her ED choice (over Wesleyan). It’s such a personal choice. And yes, that tour guide can make or break the experience.
When we toured UVA, our tour guide (who we ended up liking in the end) explained that she really loved UVA, despite being very unhappy her first year and after considering transferring, but she stuck it out. That’s really not what you should be telling prospective freshmen, although we appreciated the honesty.
@Trixy34 HWS was a huge surprise for us too! My husband took him on a whim last fall and he LOVED it. I thought it would be turned off the by the size of the campus but the fact that it’s relatively close to home (2hrs) and is by a lake and has multiple club sports he’d like to look into really appealed to him. We are about 85% ready to commit (one more accepted students day to attend next weekend) but I think that’s where he’ll end up.
Schools we crossed off: CWRU—ugly dorms, confusing layout and no real campus vibe. Pitt–beautiful architecture and great programs but typical big school logistics and my kid is not a city kid. Bucknell—weird campus vibe on junior visit day. Did not care for the tour guide and the initial presentation seemed focused on the wrong things.