My daughter went to college 2000 miles from her high school, but was in the same dorm as a boy from her K class and in the same sorority as a girl from K-5th grade/girl scouts/basketball. It was nice to see a friendly face. The following year, another girl from her hs also traveled 2000 miles for the same college.
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I am very impressed with UOregon. My daughter is a freshman. It feels like a private school experience, with all the tuition dollars that out-of-state students bring in, along with very generous donors, such as Phil and Penny Knight. The sports rock, but so does the overall campus, student services, housing and food, the libraries, and academic options and opportunities. When my daughter told me she preferred Oregon to USC or Cal Poly SLO for architecture, I wasn’t pleased initially. But I have since changed my mind. And she is very happy.
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@Wormwad & @OrangeFish y’know what’s funny? Cape Fear Community College in Wilmington is right down on the Cape Fear River in the gorgeous historic district! We went down there after walking around a deserted UNC-W campus in the summer heat and wished they could swap places. Downtown Wilmington is fun!
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My D ruled out all of the NC in-states for the same reason. Said it would feel like 13th grade. Lucky for her she was able to successfully plead her case to the people who pay the tuition 
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Is she in the honors college? Would be interested in hearing about that.
D22 will be sending her UO app in a couple of weeks.
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I’ll play - based on our visits before applying for Fall 2021 admission.
Moved down:
Clemson - not really a contender from the start but I forced a visit because it’s an easy drive and was a straightforward application that would have been relatively easy to bang out. Too remote and didn’t love the campus (probably didn’t help that we’re an ACC family and always mock the Clemson fans 
)
NC State - knows it’s an excellent school but didn’t like how spread out the campus was. Not a true business school, but rather a school of management that didn’t have her desired major.
App State: an in-state safety, she did not care for the location or campus itself.
Stayed the same:
UofSC - she liked the campus and the business school but it was too close to home, which was her feeling even before visiting.
Elon - loved the campus, wasn’t crazy about the majors offered through the business program and definitely didn’t like that the campus wasn’t close to a large city. Plus she was looking for a bigger overall school with a larger sports presence (her feelings before the visit).
UNC-CH - she had been there dozens of times as her older sister went there but we still did the official tour. Great school, great business program but would’ve felt like she was walking in her sister’s footsteps.
Moved up:
University of Tennessee - chose it as a safety with merit opportunity. She was pleasantly surprised by the beautiful campus (one of the cleanest campuses I’ve ever seen), new business school building, friendly students. It was one of the best official tours we had. They do a great job selling Rocky Top. Liked that it is in a mid-sized city (Knoxville). We poked around Knox a bit and there seemed like a lot to do. Side note- her boyfriend is a freshman there and loves it!
UGA - was in her top 3 from the start and loved it even more after the tour. We have close family friends whose daughters attend and we’ve been hearing the hype for several years. She was deferred and ultimately denied, which broke her heart but I don’t think she would have convinced her dad to pay OOS there.
Virginia Tech - piqued her interest as it is a well-respected school that is OOS but still reasonably close to home. Several students from her HS have gone there over the years and raved about it. We have quite a few alumni in our area, so we’re always seeing VT swag around town. She liked that she could start in the business program from day one. No need to wait and see if she was accepted as a sophomore/junior. We didn’t get to visit until the very last minute because our original visit was cancelled due to Covid. VT’s acceptances don’t come out until Feb. and by then she was busy playing her spring sport. She was ready to commit to VT sight unseen (well, she did multiple virtual visits and chats with reps from the business school) but at the last minute, we are able to swing a visit with a current VT student from her high school. She knew the minute she stepped on campus, that she was in the right place 
Places that she was accepted but we didn’t get to visit:
Florida State: I regret that we didn’t get a chance to get down there - she didn’t have a feeling about it either way (it was a last minute addition to the list) but I was curious to see it.
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They are on a fund-raising blitz, with the largest contribution from the Knight’s still to come on the horizon. One of the best things that ever happened to UofO was cutting the strings from the Higher Ed board, which was a matter of law in Oregon. It took a lot of political maneuvering and it cost the current President’s predecessor, who by all accounts was a great prez, his job as the political price he paid for standing up to the legislature and the state higher ed board. Knight was reportedly super pissed off about it and threatened to stop funding his alma mater, which would have been disastrous since Oregon, like most states, actually only funds a small % of the school’s budget.
The upshot is that UofO has its own fundraising board and is able to fundraise w/o the state being involved and claiming control over any of the proceeds. This allows Oregon to go out and raise money like a private school, which is what Michigan had to learn to do oh so many years ago when it was clear that the Big 3 automaker economy which helped build the school up, would no longer keep Big Blue where they were amongst the top of the academic heap among publics. So they figured out how to monetize loyalty and enthusiasm for alma mater and now you have the sizeable endowment they enjoy today.
Oregon really needed to break away. The system they were caught in really hampered them. Now you’re seeing just the beginning of their flex, and it will go well beyond sports, which can be, and for them is, a huge asset in terms of raising funds for the school.
As an aside, Knight and other donors to Oregon have contributed to the academic mission of the school for years. Admissions profiles have gone up dramatically in the last decade and I see bright things for that school in the future. I was also favorably impressed with Eugene as a really nice college town.
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I went to Clarkson, a few miles up the road from SLU. Snow in April is no big deal, but snow, ice and crazy sub-freezing temps in Jan and Feb are something to think about. Not a dealbreaker for some (definitely not for me, having grown up near Buffalo), but think twice if April snow bothered you even a little.
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Some of the recent responses remind me of another great thread that has somehow gone quiet recently. Stupidest reason child won't look at a college - #1958 by NOVAGirl87
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Oregon is a school that moved way up on our list when we walked around last summer. My D22 liked the campus a lot—and Eugene was a cute, fun area right outside campus. She’s applying OOS for the honor’s college. She is planning to study political science and journalism. She’s not really a sports fan but loves the school spirit.
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Not crossed off, but moved down the list a bit. Vanderbilt. We went on her first official college tour at the end of July (she has been on many as the sibling) and we were not impressed. It did not help that it was 109 degrees with the heat index, but the campus was unkept and in general disarray. The info session was in person, but the tour was self guided. The grass on the Freshman campus was overgrown and covered in weeds. Over on the main campus it was pretty much the same, with multiple benches having grass/weeds growing up through them. Maybe it was because they were getting ready to implode some old dorms a couple of days later, or that it was summer and there were no students really in place, but the overall impression was not good for a school costing north of $75,000.00 annually.
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Kid 1 got an AA degree at community college, transferred and will graduate from UNC-Chapel Hill this semester. Kid 2 just started at UW-Madison.
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We had the same feeling about Vanderbilt! We went when class was in session but we saw very little activity around campus. We finally stopped and asked some nice young men who were throwing a football around and they said that they really weren’t supposed to be out socializing (because of Covid). Nashville is a little too wild for my student anyway, but we were all pretty surprised by the lack of upkeep on campus. Belmont, across town, is not nearly as strong academically but the campus was much nicer and the students were out and about enjoying life (safely outside).
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We did not tour Belmont, but when we did a quick drive by, my kid said, “Why can’t Vanderbilt look like this!”
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I believe you have said that you have had kids at both Swarthmore and Haverford. Are there differences between the two in terms of taking Bi-Co, Tri-Co, and Quaker Consortium classes? Thanks.
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Crossed off our list were BU, Wake, Skidmore and Lehigh after visits.
Up on our list were Richmond, Pitt Lafayette and Bucknell.
BU - He didn’t feel there was a defined campus. More like a collection of buildings. Plus our guide could really rushed us through our tour, he didn’t seem to be a big fan of the campus either.
Wake- He really couldn’t put his finger on why and I was not with him for the visit. It was more of a vibe thing for him, he couldn’t see himself there he said.
Skidmore- for the most part he prefers a more traditional style campus and Skidmore was not that. I don’t want to be to critical but let’s leave it a beauty is in the eye of beholder and neither of us were seeing at Skidmore. Great town though.
Lehigh the information session was great. Very impressive breath of academic offerings. He couldn’t get past the hill that it is built on. Even some of the academic buildings didn’t feel as well maintained, he likes traditional, Lehigh felt a little dated. The town was not a plus.
With Bucknell and Lafayette real traditional Northeast campus feel. Loved the quad at Lafayette and the vibe on campus. Bucknell very impressed by the quality of the academic buildings. Same thing with Richmond just how well maintained everything was. All three are really impressive campuses.
Pitt was his biggest surprise both the city and the school. He went in it not expecting to like it, might have been a little more on Dads list than his. Liked the way it felt like a separate campus but still right in the city. The breadth of the academics, the Cathedral of Learning, it’s a very impressive school.
The main theme for him on all the visits was could he see himself at that school.
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My “inner child” moved North Idaho College in Couer d’Alene to the top of the list due to location on the shores of the lake as well as on the Spokane River.
Plan is to do 2 years at North Idaho College prior to transferring to Flagler College in St.Augustine, Florida or to the College of Charleston.
University of Montana in Missoula fell off the list due to the lackluster campus & city.
Also visited Notre Dame. Stayed overnight on campus. Beautiful campus. Great students.
Unfortunately, did not have enough time to visit the University of Victoria on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada.
P.S. Never order a steak in Butte, Montana’s finest restaurant as “medium rare” means “well done” and “medium well” somehow translates to “shoe leather”.
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That is so odd. In Colorado, I’ve been to plenty of restaurants where you put your fork in a ‘medium rare’ and you hear Moo! and blood spurts out. Medium is often rare to medium rare.
On College of Charleston, my wife is a Stanford MBA and a big fan of a few professors in the College of Charleston’s undergrad business school. They have a select group of talented students who are in a particular club (I forgot the name) these professors have groomed who she hires as interns. She’s literally only had a couple of marginal workers. The rest of her interns say her recommendations secured their full-time jobs in private equity, buy-side investment firms and Wall Street.
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Hi Southoftheriver: No, my daughter is not in the Honors College at UOregon. Architecture has so many required courses that it is difficult (but not impossible) to meet the Honors requirements. However, I have heard very good things about the Honors College, with very small classes, an incredible dorm, and lots of extra person attention. Though, to be honest, UOregon has done an excellent job of creating small-class experiences for all students, have built several new dorms and 2 more are on the horizon, and there are so many resources for everyone, from tutoring to well-being to orientation-type programs. I’m very impressed. My other daughter goes to a small, excellent liberal arts college on the East Coast, and UOregon, despite its size of 20,000, is equally impressive. The acceptance rate is high (around 85%), but it might be a bit misleading because I think they genuinely receive excellent applicants (half of students are from OOS, mostly Californians who probably didn’t get into their UC of choice). The average GPA for this year’s class is 3.73. The campus is lovely, Eugene is funky in a very good way, and the school (and town) spirit is high.
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Thank you for this info! We visited the campus a couple of years ago and had the same impression regarding the campus and Eugene. D22 is working on her application and is discovering how well it’s Planning, Public Policy and Management major fits her interests. Plus, UO doing great in football! She can’t wait to apply!