Same here for Rice and UT Austin
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To add a little levity, my S19 crossed Whitworth in Spokane off his list because there were too many pine needles on the sidewalks everywhere on campus.
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Moved way up for my D - Villanova. They do an excellent job of marketing themselves. We went to an open house and the presentation was in the basketball arena where you walk past their trophies, which was impressive. They do a lot to prepare students for their post-college careers. My D loved the campus, the size of the school, felt like our tour guide could be a friend, and liked all of the personal attention she got from faculty and students who were there to answer questions.
Acceptance rate is about 30% so it may not work out for her, but it seemed like a very well-run school.
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Thanks. We visited RIT this summer and my D really like it. We are going back next month to see it again, but with kids on campus and a real tour of the GD department. WPI and Clark (which bought the highly-rated Becker College GD program) are on the schedule for this Saturday, and Champlain on Nov. 6. We saw DigiPen Institute of Technology this summer, and hope to visit MSU, U of Utah, and DigiPen (second look but with kids on campus, maybe shadow for a day) during our spring break. It will be interesting to see how they all compare.
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My daughter refused to consider Grinnell because of the politics in the surrounding location, even though I assured her it was an extremely liberal student body. We had a couple opportunities to visit but I couldn’t get her to do it.
In her case, and that of little sister coming up, we live in a very conservative area. They wanted something different. The politics on campus were definitely a consideration, as were the politics in the surrounding area.
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I’m sure he has lots of options.
I was a nanny to a guy who had a strong group of friends starting at day 1 of K. It was a k-9 school, and then this group went on to the same private high school, still sticking together. All 5 were NMF (the school had 16 NMF that year, out of ~125 in the senior class) and all 5 went off to Yale. Together. I think a bunch of them went to summer camp together every year too. They loved being together. Glad none of them thought Yale would be too much like high school.
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We visited Grinnell this summer and the campus had fantastic architecture, updated, public art, green space galore and more, but the town was depressing and middle of nowhere. Iowa City was a much more appealing city than the little town of Grinnell and it was crossed off the list for nothing to do near campus, the coffee shop the suggested was closed weird hours, and the “vibe” wasn’t what he was looking for - though the admissions staff was lovely and buildings amazing.
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My son wouldn’t consider Texas schools either, for just these same reasons. It isn’t just females who are affected by these new “laws”
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I hope we can get back to purpose of this thread. It’s about college visits. While we all have different reasons (political or otherwise) for why some college are added or crossed off college lists, this thread is about in-person visits and real experiences on campus. If the experience revealed strong political leanings on campus, I feel that is relevant information to disclose. Admittedly, we’ve avoided campuses with known one-sided leanings.
Let there be a political thread elsewhere on the site where political considerations can be found and discussed. I’ll avoid that one and leave you all to discuss all you want. My daughter and I have received so much beneficial information about the visits from this particular thread. It’s near impossible to visit all the schools she is considering, so please keep it coming.
Here are our experiences:
Washington DC area schools
Georgetown - Way up. She loved it and dubbed it her top choice. Something about the campus and the surrounding area she just fell in love with and felt just fit. It’s obviously a tremendous reach for most students.
George Washington University - stayed about the same. Daughter loved the neighborhood. It’s upscale and felt safe, but lack a campus feel.
American University - Stayed about the same or moved down. Beautiful campus! My daughter loved the campus. She felt it was a bit isolated from the rest of DC and would be difficult to get to internship locations. Political leanings on campus made her a bit concerned. She’s thinking about a Political Science degree and really wants to find her own “political” stance and is concerned with any school teaching from only on side. She’s keeping the school on her list while she looks into it.
Outside of DC
William and Mary - Moved up. She loved the setting. A bit smaller town than she wants, but she felt it was quaint with most of what she’s looking for. She’s concerned the dorms may not be as well appointed as other’s she’s visited because of age. Loved the curriculum at W&M.
Washington and Lee University - Moved slightly down. D22 is worried Lexington may be too small for her. Getting to a major airport takes time. The campus is smaller as well as the undergraduate class. Just not her thing, but she can see why it would be appealing for other kids.
Other schools are in Texas
SMU - Loves the school. Top 5 for her
TCU - Also Loves
Texas A&M - Likes but large campus and not in a major town.
UT Austin - Loves the school and location. Top 5 for her.
Obviously, there are targets, reaches, and safeties on her list in addition to these.
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this is the single most fantastic reason I’ve ever seen for rejecting a school
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Good to know what happened with Becker. That is interesting.
Champlain was an interesting visit. Please report out. Son decided it was too small for him. I have suggested a few students look there since we visited.
DigiPen won over one of my Ds friends and broke her Dad’s heart as she packed up and moved across the country. She is loving it. Sounds like they navigated Covid well.
Good luck with the travels and tours!
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Same here! The tour guides were so friendly and talkative; they really loved being there and wanted you to be there. Really impressed with the business building. Very nice campus as well.
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Am I the only one that felt USC’s campus was a little Hollywood set-ish? We visited this past weekend, and I have to say, I expected a dance ensemble to jump through the facade and break into song! Our very lovely tour guide (truly very genuine and forthright) with excellent hair didn’t help that feeling. Skateboards, longboards, scooters, crop tops, backward caps—it read pretty Disney to me.
On the whole, my kid liked the campus, especially the metro stop that would take them to Santa Monica. But there is The Wall. Pretty disturbing. Then, out of all the campuses we’ve visited, USC had the most expensive parking—$14. I’m cheap, what can I say? I thought JHU was bad at $9. WashU and Vandy won points by reimbursing for their garages. Midwestern values. I appreciated that they treated us as their guest.
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OK, now I’m curious. What’s The Wall? I tried to do a search, but can’t come up with anything.
As far as I could tell, USC has a wall around it. It is gated. It’s a bit sad that the only way onto campus is to first check in with security. The exception to this, and I may be wrong, is if you come in via metro.
The check-in is because of Covid. In the past you could walk in without checking in.
Also, pretty much only freshmen and sophomores live on campus, so there is definitely a lot of student activity outside the campus boundaries.
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HA!! My daughter made the “College Disneyland” comment about USC, too. But she still loved it–it has some academic programs she’s very excited about, including the Annenberg School of Communications. But you’re right… it’s super slick. The “wall” exists in a couple of other situations, too – Fordham at Rose Hill comes to mind. I think such a thing gets erected when wealthy parents complain about the “urbanness” of a school’s location and they need to keep those parents happy.
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