Yeah, but antiquity is not always a guarantee either:
Fisher Fine Arts Library - Wikipedia
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We just finished a dozen tours across several weeks (between family reunions), and so here’s the quick-hit reactions from D23 and D25. (D23 is interested in a not-widely-offered field, so not all of these have her intended major. I got reactions from her anyway.)
In alphabetical order:
- American U: D23 way up/D25 maybe up. D23’s favorite city in the country, bar none, is DC, so her reaction wasn’t a surprise. She was a bit worried it would feel to stuck-up-monied-class for her, but she didn’t get that feel from it. D25 liked the myriad of possibilities they offer, but was worried by the way that almost everything has the overtone of fitting into political applications, and even though she sees herself as quite possibly working for the government one day, she’s interested in the bureaucratic side and not the political side of government work.
- Belmont U: D23 unsure/D25 way down. The kids’ reaction was that Belmont came across as too perfect and that was kind of a warning flag—and that got D23 to cross it off her list entirely (even though they have one of the best programs in her field), but has since reconsidered that her initial reaction may have been too harsh. Both kids were bothered by what seemed to be a lack of diversity, though—and D25, who would happily describe herself as Christian, is very disturbed by the requirement that faculty, staff, and administrators have to be practicing Christians (using a non-expansive definition of Christian that may or may not include D25), even though there’s pretty clearly no such limit on student beliefs.
- Drexel U: D23 up/D25 neutral. Though she didn’t like the urban feel of Temple (see below), D23 very much did like the urban feel of Drexel. (Same city, even!) Drexel has a reputation (IMO not completely deserved) as one of the ugliest campuses in the country, but the interiors of the buildings are generally better. D25 was solidly meh about the whole thing.
- Johns Hopkins U: D23 maybe up/D25 way up. They don’t offer her major (at least not with the emphasis she likes), so D23 didn’t really care that much, but thought it was generally an okay place. For D25’s part, they had her at research—the repeated mentions of student involvement in research got hold of her in a big way. (Extra bonus fun: Afterward, D25 described Hopkins as “the most campusy campus that ever campused”.)
- Loyola U New Orleans: D23 up then maybe down/D25 maybe slightly up. D23 was very taken by the place, but in retrospect felt like it was too small, almost claustrophobic; it’s in New Orleans, though, and D23 fell in love with the city while we were there. D25 expected to dislike it but ended up being kind of neutral, which I guess is a victory for the school?
- Middle Tennessee State U: D23 up/D25 up. Probably the biggest positive surprise of the trip. Pretty campus, and surprisingly well-appointed for a directional public. Doesn’t hurt that USNWR rankings be da*ned, they have a really good program in D23’s field of interest. Both of them, especially D23, could see themselves there, and even thriving.
- Seton Hall U: D23 way up/D25 up. D23 isn’t a fan of smaller campuses, but she found this one felt less small than it actually is. She also felt like she could find a solid friend group there. D25 liked the mentions of student research possibilities, and came out of the tour with a solid appreciation of their educational philosophy.
- Temple U: D23 way down/D25 down. This was probably the biggest disappointment of the trip. D23 likes cityscapes, and expected to like the urban campus feel at Temple—but it was too urban for her, in the sense that it’s basically just laid atop the city street grid, and there’s very little in the way of a “campus” feel to it. We already knew that D25, for her part, would prefer something less urban, so her reaction wasn’t really a surprise. (It also didn’t help that the tour came across as strangely canned compared to others.)
- Trinity U (the San Antonio one): D23 neutral/D25 up. Doesn’t offer D23’s field; she liked it, but was kind of meh aside from the campus cats that the students care for. D25 thought it was an utterly wonderful campus, aside from being too hot. (One thing she learned from this trip: She might most want to go to college where it’s as cold as possible.)
- U of Maryland College Park: D23 down/D25 down: I went to Maryland for my undergrad, and was quite disappointed in the tour myself—it almost went out of its way to avoid the prettiest parts of the (quite pretty) campus, and covered student life but not really academics. D23 probably wasn’t going to apply there anyway, but D25 didn’t get enough of an idea of what the place is like to give her a reason to when it comes her turn.
- U of Memphis: D23 slightly up/25 neutral. This was originally kind of a throwaway, figuring we might as well tour since we were passing through Memphis anyway and they offer D23’s major. It was a positive surprise, though not in any overwhelming way. They appear to be putting some new resources into D23’s area, as well.
- Ursinus College: D23 way down, D25 neutral. D23 found the focus on Ursinus being a small place with a focus on the individual student horrifying—she wants to be able to fade into the background as a faceless number sometimes. D25 expected to really like the traditional LAC feel, but ended up lukewarm on it.
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What are the numerals following the Ds denoting?
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@circuitrider Answering on @dfbdfb’s behalf b/c I know him from other threads, those are his girl’s high school graduation years. So one is a rising high school junior and the other a rising freshman.
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There was a clip on Eastern Tennessee on one of the news programs (probably CBS Sunday morning or 60 Minutes). It was about all the famous musicians who have attended and the great recording studios it has.
Good luck.
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Just popping in to say this is my absolute favorite CC thread, along with bizarre reasons to cross a college off the list. New posts here always put a smile on my face:)
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I like this one, but the one about reasons the child won’t look at a school is still the best - wide sidewalks? trees too big? the doors big and looked heavy? no Chik-fil-A?
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Great post @dfbdfb ! And so good to see some less mentioned names here too! Thanks to your family for going and sharing!
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Reminds me of when we flew to NC from Denver. I drove from Wake Forest to UNC to Duke, then down to UGA, before flying out of Atlanta for the northern (Michigan, Notre Dame, U Chicago, Northwestern) portion of our college visits with my middle kid.
In Athens, GA we went through the University of Georgia processing center like cattle, boarded the campus tour bus, and drove past a number of newer, vertical buildings. Her brother, her sister and I would be fine with that, but apparently this wasn’t her cup of tea.
My D floored me when she stated on the bus, “Nope, not going here. I imagined the campus to be tree-lined cobblestone walks with all those beautiful, old Charleston and Savannah buildings.” We vacationed there several times when she was a youngster.
I looked at her in astonishment, with a giant thought-bubble above my head, “We drove all the way down here? This isn’t 1975. You could have checked online.
Packing 38,000 students into gorgeous, 150 to 250 year-old Savannah buildings, are you kidding me?” But, I just smiled and wanted to kick myself for not ascertaining those specifics beforehand.
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Just did tour with D24; notes follow in no particular order.
Yale - stayed on and moved up. We spent two days and a few nights while visiting other colleges nearby, and did not even have to repeat restaurants or coffee shops or museums. So much variety and quality of offerings into such a compact, walkable city area. Was absolutely wowed by the wealth of resources the school provides from the residential colleges to the libraries to the dozens of performance spaces to the cathedral gym; not only above ground but conveniently connected underground within each of the colleges. And the predominant focus on undergrad. Also very much appreciated the resources supporting diversity, equity and inclusion, which are simply unmatched anywhere else she visited.
Brown - stayed on, way up, and exceeded expectations. New performing arts center and newish Gym and other facilities have added a lot to the campus. Large enough. Providence and College Hill are beautiful. Liked the proximity to RISD and all of the great facilities at RISD.
Boston College - came off the list. The movie before the student panel and the panel were too sports focused and not academic enough for her. Not her crowd. Separate campuses for first years in ugly far away buildings were very unappealing.
Holy Cross - stayed, moved up. The facilities have had a dramatic improvement. Unbelievable new performing arts center and beautiful wellness center separate from the tremendous varsity-priority facilities. Small class sizes and strong emphasis on humanities and academics played well with her.
Harvard/Tufts - stayed off the list. Harvard is beautiful but disproportionately geared toward graduate and professional students in her view; loved it for grad/law/policy school. Tufts’ campus and facilities seemed way, way too small for the number of students. They seemed smaller than a Wesleyan or even Conn College or Vassar.
Vassar - stayed, moved up. Beautiful campus and facilities. Felt warm, embracing welcome from guides and assistant Dean. Loved size of campus and Vassar Farm and golf course. Did not care for Poughkeepsie but felt that there is so much to do on campus for arts and entertainment that there is no need to leave except for occasional dinner at CIA or train to NYC.
Wesleyan - stayed, did not move. Really liked the facilities other than housing. Good campus layout and big enough. Middletown main street was better than expected and seemed like safe walk to campus. There were only STEM student guides, yet no one in the whole session was interested in STEM. The guides were not Lin Manuel Mirandas, as expected. Still trusts the arts and culture vibe is there, just not during the second summer of the pandemic.
Conn - stayed, did not move. Loved the size of the facilities and green spaces compared to the size of the student body. Really liked the friendly and outgoing student guide. Was very impressed by their new brochure, which points out each freshman gets 5 different hands-on advisors. The arts center and the newly refurbished auditorium shocked and awed; they were totally unexpected. Loved Mystic within a 10 minute Uber ride.
Georgetown - loved everything about it, despite the bunched up high rises and legendary alleged rodent resident population. Was positively surprised by the size, location and quality of arts programs and the access to DC museums; and the intersection of arts and policy at SFS.
Duke - loved everything about it, and especially the Gardens and West Campus.
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I completed an odd college tour with my S22 recently. We went to Auburn and Iowa State…because they are close? Anywho, it was a lot of fun.
My son has a lot of experience with Auburn, having attended many of their engineering camps over the years. It has always been a positive experience. This, however was different, would the university make enough of a positive impact for him to want to apply. S22 recently decided that he wants to do computer or software engineering. So, he attended the engineering expo at Auburn (for the second time, first prior to COVID). For the second time, the computer engineering department fell on its face. They had the participants doing suduko puzzles and “hour of code” programs that S22 did when he was 10. His complaint was that the presenter was a known researcher in AI, why didn’t she do something with that? Oh…and Auburn was hot and humid (but what do you expect of Alabama in July?). After the two days, S22 took Auburn off the list. This is a big deal. Auburn has always been one of his top schools. Now, he isn’t even applying. He was worried that it was all a waste of time. As I explained, better to waste two days and know it isn’t right than two years and hate your college experience.
Iowa State is a lot like Disneyland. It doesn’t look like much from the street. You have to get past the “berm”. Once you are on campus…wow. What a beautiful campus. Designed by the same person that designed Central Park. One of three medallion campuses (whatever that means, but the other two are Harvard Yard and UVA). A massive green square of 19+ acres (it was not hot…in July). Buildings that were new and in other cases lovingly restored. A one on one with the head of the honors department. Great food. Nice small town. Friendly people. I think the best comment about Iowa State is that…if it were in Ann Arbor, everyone would want to go. S22 has already applied and been accepted.
On that note, Iowa State had a professional admissions department and tour guides with portable speakers (nice touch). I always wince when the admissions department trots out the recent grad who didn’t find a job to do the admissions pitch. No, this was a professional, and it showed. Well done.
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Me, too, I always feel absurdly happy when this thread suddenly becomes active again.
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Can you tell me more about JMU? Like what big-school benefits were you expecting that you did not see? And what were the downsides?
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@gablesdad - can you tell more about the Brown facilities and RISD facilities? and the area? (my D is going there for grad school and we’ve no idea what it’s like). thanks!
@Peruna1998 - we are midwest and know some software & mechanical and math kids at ISU who absolutely LOVE it. It has a good rap around here. My D23 did a summer dance thing there, and really enjoyed the campus; thought it was vibrant. However, when my D16 toured it several years ago, she had the worst department speaker ever out of all her college tours; and that made such an impact on her. (to that speaker’s benefit, I think she was sick that day). It’s funny how one small thing like that can affect a whole four-yr choice.
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That building is just stunningly ugly.
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@Propinquity4444 I think it is very possible that we had the worst tour guide ever at JMU, so keep that in mind. That said, we did not see any diversity at all (and they were doing freshman orientation). Well I guess that is not true. There was one diverse group and it was ALL diverse. They did not tout research or amazing learning opportunities like some big schools did. In fact, there was not bragging about the learning going on at all. My child is interested in musical theater and the tour guide did an exceptionally bad job on that topic. You know when you tour and they go on and on about opportunities and you sit there thinking “OK, that’s cool but I am not interested in that.” None of that happened. Also, every building is built on its own individual hill it seems like. Finally, there was tons of talk about sports, but its not a school known for their sports. Its almost like they were trying to play to everyone but somehow managed to not play to anyone. All that said, the school may very well go back on the list because we have had some very positive interactions about the theater program (but those hills!)
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I had not been to Providence since my own college tour 32 years ago. Brown and RISD share College Hill. RISD bottom half and Brown top half, more or less. Since my last visit, not added numerous large and seemingly comfortable buildings, including Brown’s engineering building, medical school and gym, and a brand new huge performing arts center yet to be completed. RISD also seemed to have what looked like new residential halls and showed many buildings that looked impeccable from the outside, but we did not visit RISD. On Brown, I did get the sense though that the older buildings could use more TLC than say those at Harvard or Yale, and the Brown library seemed too small for the size of the school. I have heard there are issues with public study space at Brown, with kids using classrooms at night as study areas for that reason.
Providence itself since tremendously improved with refreshed downtown and beautiful riverfront redevelopment areas, as did the area between College Hill and the State Capitol, which is really the relevant area of Providence for those schools.
I must disclose it was a beautiful summer
day though.
Hope that helps.
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Actually Brown has 5 different libraries. Unfortunately the Rockefeller library is the only one that most people see given it prominence and proximity to the main gate.
In addition the Nelson Center for Entrepreneurship opened last year on Thayer Street (shake shack at street level). This facility provides students with group study areas as well.
I would agree the dorms need some incremental love but the common buildings have recently seen a great deal of investment.
Lastly there are projects funded and underway building a dedicated sports complex for soccer/lacrosse and a new student health center that just opened. Plus numerous others as detailed here…
https://www.brown.edu/facilities/projects/capital-projects
Hard to grasp parts of the school as RISD/Brown/Providence all mix and overlap throughout “the hill”.
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Three schools visited for my unfussy, sarcastic, homebody, CS/ENG kid. Does not want to go down south, out west, or to Canada, even though are a few great choices up there for a CAN/AM kid.
Grinnell (unguided)- walked the whole campus. He liked the logical way it was laid out, and the green spaces all over. No problem with it being in the middle of a cornfields in the midwest. Stayed UP, though he is torn between getting the good teaching, and having to take a lot of what he considers “extraneous” humanities courses.
U of MN- mildly up. Even though it is in the middle of a city, there are quite a few greenspaces, trees, river, and very practical things like LRT right next to the CS/ENG buildings. Some of the architecture is nice, some uninspired. Seemed very practical. Guides were pleasant. Couple of funny things on the tour (hot summer afternoon).
1- we went into the large on campus gym. Guide was in the middle of extolling the virtues of it, with the indoor waterfall, machines, etc, when the power went off. The entire building went dark, waterfall stopped, turnstiles collapsed, etc.
2- We are outside in a group of about 25 on a medium size street and a rat (not mouse) crossed the street right in front of us. I mean, he was hustling, but it seemed to take forever . Was kind of funny, especially after the power turning off.
Overall, S2 liked that the buildings that he would be taking the bulk of his classes in were close together, and that there wasn’t a lot of traffic going through the middle of campus, compared to;
U of WI- went down. Tour took place in the middle of a hot summer day in the 90’s. Guide’s were big into school pride, talking about Bucky Badger, making “W” signs with their hands. As my son said, " I hoped to get away from these people once I graduate HS." He is a sarcastic brat…don’t ask me where it comes from.
Busy streets went right through the middle of campus. Concrete everywhere, with not a lot of trees in sight. A lot of big, uninspiring buildings. The lake is beautiful, but is a hike to get to. State street looks like fun.
We were a bit surprised with the CS building. I know the program has really grown in the past few years, but it seemed claustrophobic and kind of frayed around the edges. EE/CE building had a nice foyer/lobby/study space with high ceilings, granite, etc, but once we got up into the second floor where the actual classes would take place everything reverted to painted cement block. As my son said, “This is like my middle school”. This, and the CS especially, didn’t compare to the U of MN CS building, or the very cool Waterloo CS building.
Student union building was large, and full of useful things like banks, food, stores, info and admissions help.
Overall, all three of us were pretty underwhelmed with WI. Seemed big, utilitarian, and scaled wrong for people. I know a lot of people love it, but…not us. I’d hang out at the lake there, anyday, though.
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