It was a very wholesome, religious, midwest vibe. It was a little too bland for her east coast taste.
One of my sons graduated in Industrial and Systems Engineering from VT(currently ranked #3 for undergraduate programs, GT is ranked #1). Rankings are certainly not everything but both schools you’ve already looked at have very good programs and outcomes if he continues to be interested in that major. Fit, cost, location are important. Good luck!
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My college sophomore daughter decided BU’s “campus” wasn’t for her although she has happily spent a lot of time there for sports growing up. She’s at Northeastern and feels that it’s the perfect balance of city and campus and I tend to agree given that I went to grad school at BU.
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This is very true … and much nicer dorms at many, and definitely better food at most!
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My son liked both BU and Northeastern, but he did like the campus feel of Northeastern better. BU was in a nicer area of Boston, so it kind of evened out. I think he would be thrilled to get into either of them!
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My S and I both loved Boston University when we visited, but didn’t love the school for his major, Computer Science, when we dug in. BU is really expensive, and he would have had to apply ED to have a decent chance of acceptance. Since he wasn’t willing to commit to BU before knowing what his other options were, there was no point in applying to it at all.
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OMG Did you receive that “How Does Pugent Sound” in the mail in the early 1980s?? I did - probably 1982 - and I have never forgotten that line! DS22 is applying to colleges now, and just last week I told my husband about How Does Pugent Sound bulletin!
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So I am not crazy! Mid 80’s, actually, if it was my brother who got it, and it might have been, that was ‘82. It was a family catch phrase from then on.
They should really bring that one back into circulation. For the parents of applicants’ sake. It is a classic!
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LOL! My entire family - many siblings, my parents - have been saying “How does Pugent Sound” basically since 1982 as a joke periodically. My husband and I were supposed to go on an Alaska cruise 5/2020 (but didn’t bc covid) - and I figured I’d finally get to Pugent Sound! We laughed when had to cancel the cruise, as I’d have to wait to see how it sounded! FWIW I was living in eastern Mass. at the time - seemed to make no sense to start with I was sent it.
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Let’s get back on topic please
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We will be taking a quick trip to Houston to see Rice University week after next, general campus tour and a visit to the Shepherd School of Music. Any recommendations what to check out on and around campus and around town as well? Only have two days there and one evening. Will report our thoughts! This is one of the forum threads I follow closely and appreciate. Thank you, everyone, for your notes and feedback posted here!
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Fun places to eat in nearby Montrose/Museum District. Space Center is quite cool but it’s about a half hour drive south in Clear Lake. Rice Village is great shopping near Rice.
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Visited Princeton and Haverford:
Princeton - off the list - tour left d somewhat cold - lots of talk about how many Nobels the faculty members, strong feeling of privilege - despite the fact that our actual guide was a first gen kid from economic hardship situation! It is obviously an amazing school but d doesn’t need more super reaches, she will take a moonshot on some but nothing about this visit changed her mind that it wouldn’t be Princeton.
Haverford - down/possibly off - d has generally liked the small quirky schools but this just seemed too small and too quirky. It is almost the size of a large high school, and d found our tour guide to have a “weird vibe” (?). She did like the social activist energy and the ability to participate in research. But ultimately think she wants something at least somewhat bigger.
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My daughter recently toured Western Michigan University and Dean College.
WMU: down.
Despite being (by far) the biggest school she toured, she thought Western Michigan was too deserted- there was almost no one walking around campus at all, and we were there for a whole school day (dance audition was from 8:30-4:30). The tour- which wasn’t offered to students, only parents- didn’t take us into any buildings except the library, so she really only got a feel for the dance studios, which were lovely. She doesn’t understand why students weren’t given a tour, able to see the academic buildings/dorms/cafeteria. The town outside was too far from campus to walk to in Michigan’s cold weather, but she thought it was lovely at night, if very very small and sparse.
Dean: up.
She found the campus being right in the center of town to be great, as you could walk right off and to stores/cafes. She liked the buildings and dorms, and liked that dance seemed to be a pretty strong focus of the school as a whole- it wasn’t an afterthought in any way. The studios were very nice and dancers are treated as athletes. She was pleasantly surprised with their gluten free foods in the dining center. Overall she found the campus and the area to be absolutely lovely.
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My son and I toured Georgetown over the weekend. We live in Northern VA so I know my son wants to go away to college and have his independence so I knew it was a crapshoot but a really good school is still a really good school. We left ambivalent about it after the tour. It seemed to be a really fun place outside of DC with a lot of connection to the government which is great if that is your niche. It is not for my son. The campus is very nice and pretty isolated while walking around was interesting and some of the views of DC were cool. It didn’t seem to have a lot of school spirit with the basketball team playing miles away at the same place the Wizards play and neither of us realizing they had a football team. The tour guide was amazing and down to earth but laughed when asked what she did for fun. My son was a no go when they mentioned two theology classes as a requirement but was understandable being a Jesuit college. If you want to get into government, come here. At the end of the tour, I asked what he thought and he said he stopped listening a while ago. Visiting UPenn in December so hopefully that fares better.
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S22 and I toured Boston University and New York University. We are from the Mountain West so this wass quite far from home, which is exactly what S22 wants.
BU: Our friend’s daughter is a junior there and on the crew team. She met us for lunch and then walked us around campus. She loves it there and has had a great experience, but so much of it seemed to be tied to being on the crew team. (special athlete spaces for studying, special athlete tutors, endless activities with the crew teams of Harvard and MIT so she has good friends from those colleges as well and spends a lot of time on those campuses). But importantly, she said she’s liked all of her classes and has had all but one great professor. Did not ask why she didn’t like the one professor. Could have been an awful instructor or just a hard grader. S22 didn’t mind that the campus was strung out along one long road. He liked the area where the freshman dorms were. They seemed to be centered around an open soccer field. But he didn’t feel like it was integrated into central Boston enough. This may have been because it was raining the day we were there and never made it into the main part of Boston, which may have been close by. But it was our first and only day ever in Boston. He wants a university in a big city with easy access to the city itself. So BU, slightly down on the list but will still apply because they have a good department for his major.
NYU: A daughter of another friend gave us a tour of NYU. She’s a sophomore so spent last year on campus in a semi-lock down but still loved it there. She’s a Gallatin major, which I guess lets you create your own major from a combination of different departments. She’s doing something in health and social work that sounded inspiring. S22 liked that the campus was set right in what felt like a bustling part of the city. We wandered around Washington Square, which seemed lively and full of vendors. She said she always feels safe around campus because there are so many NYPD officers around. But she said she’s also not out during late hours because she has so much studying to do. She did mention a few different times that she had not explored the city as much as she wanted because of her course load so I’m guessing her classes are hard. She said all her pre-med classes had 500-800 students but her Gallatin classes were only about 25-30 students. S22 will be fully humanities so hopefully they will be small. So NYU moved up on his list.
Both BU and NYU are reaches. I personally really liked both!
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Not sure how adventurous your son is but he may want to take a look at McGill University in Montreal. It is literally in the center of the city but, unlike BU and NYU, is not a concrete campus.
Visit | Undergraduate Admissions - McGill University
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@TomSrOfBoston Thank you for the suggestion! We will take a look. S22 is also applying to universities in Tokyo so seems open to large foreign cities. (Though seems a bit far for me…)
Are you from Boston? Is BU campus close to the “happening” part of Boston with easy access from campus?
I’m a MA native and lived in Boston for 15 years after college. It’s a great city for students with a lot going on. BU is about 15 minutes from the center of the city by “T” (subway). The city is pretty easy to get around and is compact compared to other Northeastern cities.
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Kenmore Square, Fenway and Back Bay are all a short walk from the BU. The walking time varies depending on which end of Comm Ave. you start from, but the shopping and restaurant destinations of Newbury and Boylston Streets in Back Bay are easy to get to from BU, by foot or the Green Line.
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