I think the bike thing was an excuse to take all the UCs off her list, and hence, she will not have to write all those dang PIQs! The UCs are probably not the best fit for her anyway (too big, not the major she is really looking for–kinesiology or similar).
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IIRC tour guides at almost every SLAC we toured in 2019 introduced themselves with their pronouns (NE, mid-atlantic, and midwest).
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I was hoping she’d like Davis for all the reasons you just mentioned, but no. Our tour guide was S20’s close friend and he LOVES Davis!
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Interestingly D22 and I went to visit over the summer when the only student guides on campus were STEM folks doing research with profs. We were shocked by how STEMy it seemed non contrast with its artsy/activist reputation. Also still high up on D22 list for RD.
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We had a similar situation last year with my son, He liked Penn State but was not offered any merit or financial aid. and he is planning on Law school
We had the “money talk” before applying and he ended up instate at FSU which was at the top of his list as well. He is having an amazing time studying abroad in Italy.
We did chase merit and Privates were more generous with Merit Aid with a few exceptions, but still ended up in state
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Have you thought about Fordham University? In the city, many good sports teams.
No, Fordham is supposed to be bad for Financial Aid, so we didn’t even consider it.
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I lookedup Penn State because I thought my son would like it but they don’t meet need so it got crossed off early. The only reason he is applying to Michigan is because he specifically mentioned it and UVM because his brother went there. His brother did get decent Merit at uvM though as well as some need based aid. He did get into some SUNY schools which would have been so much cheaper but he begged me to go to UVM. Hopefully my younger son will fare better wherever he gets in.
I was talking to my mom about my son’s college process with my mom recently, and she brought up what dumps several of the colleges we looked at were when she did her college tour with me in the late 80’s. Denison was decent and Purdue was OK, but pretty much everything else we looked at, mostly state schools, were bunkers surrounded by mud. I ended up going to one of those “bunkers in mud” schools and loved it, but the schools are so much more aesthetically pleasing now than they were back then.
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Anecdotally, families from my NJ high school have gotten good aid from Fordham and 0 from Michigan.
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Exactly! That’s why people should run the NPCs and look at each school’s CDS before applying. Average merit aid from the CDS and estimated COA from the NPCs are knowable before applying to many schools.
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Fordham financial aid is actually generous and negotiable. A lot of students are from tri-states.
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OK well when I researched it I read they didn’t meet need, so I crossed it off the list. I think he wants to go further away anyway. That school is literally 30 minutes from our home.
Ok I am sorry to be thread police but can we please go back to the point of thread, it is really a favorite and useful thread that has become an off topic conversation between several posters. Thanks!
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This is funny, and so true! Dorm rooms have really changed too. When we visited the University of Richmond this summer, they showed us a dorm room that was beautifully clean and organized with no clutter. My kid thought it looked really nice and big, which is true because it was clean and had no clutter.
Kid also noticed the beautiful, lush landscaping at Johns Hopkins.
Reading through these posts it amazes me how many prospective students crossed schools off their lists simply because of poor tour guides. We generally had good experiences with knowledgeable, enthusiastic guides who were good ambassadors for their respective universities.
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Let’s get back on topic. Detailed discussions of individual colleges should take place on that school’s forum.
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My son visited a few more schools last week and his interests are in Computer Science.
CWRU- Up, he attended an open house, perhaps Engineering focused, and it was extremely well run. He was very impressed with their “maker space”- Sears think[box]- and enjoyed watching all of the students collaborating. He found the faculty to be very engaged and receptive. This is one of the smaller schools he has applied to and he felt like it had a lot more green space than a few of his other urban schools. He’s not an athlete but two of his guides were student athletes and he was super impressed with the balance they talked about. He didn’t look at the dorms which I hear are quite old. He’s a picky eater and loved the food.
Duke- Way up, this is the only school he applied to where CS isn’t a “stand alone” school or in the Engineering school so I think he was prepared not to love it. His tour guide was a CS major and talked about the various certificates, and the very real potential to double major (not sure this is necessarily a good thing). He was told research opportunities were quite extensive and he really liked that East campus was for freshman students (also loved the food). Tour guide also talked about plentiful internships with RTP so close. I think what most impressed him was the “vibe.” He was prepared to see a lot of similarities with his high school (lots of vineyard vines…not his thing) but thought the student body looked to be quite diverse on a number of indicators. He sat outside for an extended lunch and he and my husband noted how friendly/happy everyone seemed, laptops left charging far from where students were eating, athletes mixing with non-athletes, etc. Of course, Duke had beaten Kentucky the night before.
Caveat- both of these visits took place on unseasonably warm days in November (75 degrees) and that definitely helped.
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I’ll relate the experiences of both kids. D20 wants to do social media marketing, so we were looking at marketing programs but didn’t want heavy math. In hindsight, we should have been looking at communications programs, but it all worked out in the end.
University of Georgia – Way up. Our first tour, and it was amazing. The tour guide was the best one we saw and set the high bar for all the tours that followed. The campus was a lot hillier than I expected, but the tour made the campus feel very manageable. In the end, though, the program wasn’t what D was looking for and she did not apply.
University of South Carolina – Down, for us. Their business school, although new and beautiful, was away from the main campus in an area that didn’t feel all that safe to us.
College of Charleston – Up overall. A very cute area, campus has tons of southern charm. The tour guides were knowledgeable but the dorm portion of the tour was disappointing as they looked very dated. D liked the vibe of this campus.
Pitt - Up. We liked it on paper and Pittsburgh really delivered. The tour guide was knowledgeable, the campus was manageable, lots to do in the city, and D could really see herself there.
Duquesne – Way up. We really got the sense that they cared about each and every student. Pre-covid, we walked into the business school, got to spend about 2 hours talking one on one with one of the reps there, and she was able to walk us onto a booked tour. Another lovely campus, centrally located, and lots of visible connection among the students.
Xavier - About what we expected. Lovely campus, very nice tour guide, pretty good program for what D was looking for. The student/campus vibe wasn’t quite what D wanted, but it stayed on the list.
Ithaca – Our initial visit and tour over the summer was okay, but attending their Blue and Gold Day in the fall completely changed our opinion. This was one campus where seeing the students made a huge difference, and having the presentation and seeing the programs at the Park School sealed the deal. This became D’s top choice, even though it was colder than she wanted.
She deposited at Ithaca, changed her mind and, after a gap year, is now a very happy freshman at the University of Alabama. Go figure.
S22 is going for Industrial Engineering and wants D1 sports, which limits the number of schools we could look at. We did a southern swing twice, in August of 20 and again in 21.
Georgia Tech – Way up. This is a very manageable campus with tons of green space in the middle of the city. We had a presentation on our second visit and were able to walk into several of the buildings we wanted to see. We even got to talk to one of the IE advisors who encouraged us to stay in touch.
Clemson – Down. Both times we visited we struggled to see why this campus is so popular in our area. The guided walking tour had us walking in a bunch of back alleys at points that did not make us feel this campus. It was better the second time, but all the buildings were locked and we had no opportunity to gauge what the facilities might be like.
NC State – Way up. I didn’t think S would care for this more urban setting, but he loved it. He initially didn’t care for the fact that the Centennial Campus is a shuttle ride away from the main campus, but he liked it a lot more on our second visit when a lot of the construction cranes were gone and he could walk into some of the buildings. The library book bot was a big hit!
Virginia Tech – Way up. S really liked that the engineering buildings were not separate from the rest of the academic buildings, and that the residences are all in the same area as well. He loved the school spirit and that there was so much to do. The vibe of this campus resonates the most with him.
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Curious what vibe she got from Xavier as its on my sons list as is Ithaca.