Unless it’s changed be aware. If your engineering child is interested in cooping Vanderbilt will not support it. They were the only school my engineering child visited that actively discouraged coops. For her it was a deal breaker.
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Miami of Ohio - UP…that campus is gorgeous, students seem happy, great tour guide. Not sure how strong the Engineering program is there.
Lehigh - UP - tremendous tour guide and thorough information session regarding the engineering programs and all they have to offer students. Bethlehem is a neat town too with a quirky little downtown scene and some incredible restaurants. Students seem happy there.
Swarthmore -DOWN…just an incredibly weird vibe there.
Cornell - UP and DOWN… we were there in October and it was gorgeous. Stayed three days but couldn’t get a tour or talk to anyone in admissions to save our life. Traveled from Kentucky, so we thought maybe someone would speak to us, but…nothing. However, the campus is vibrant and bustling even if it is spread out. It may be too big for DS.
Rice - UP, UP, UP, UP…he was sold the moment we parked the car. Rice is that amazing. Tour was great, kids are happy, residential colleges, traditions, rice village…
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S2 has Rice and Cornell on his reach list, but have decided not to travel there until he is accepted to scope them out. Rice sounds great, but he is terrified of the hot, humid weather. Being from MN, Cornell’s weather isn’t a concern.
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I’m a Rice alum from MN, and I loved the weather. Wait until he’s out playing tennis in December or soccer in February. Summers are hot and humid, but sipping margaritas on a restaurant rooftop on a hot summer evening has its charms too. Cornell’s weather wouldn’t have “concerned” me, but it wouldn’t have appealed to me either.
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We are from Wisconsin and my daughter goes to Rice. We also didn’t travel there until she was admitted. She LOVES the weather. Yes, it’s very hot and humid in the summer but students aren’t there for most of the summer unless they choose to be. It’s really hot for that first month or so of classes but she’d happily trade that over trudging to class in the snow and cold all winter. Today it’s snowing and cold here in Wisconsin and it’s in the 70’s in Houston. She’ll call us in the early evenings when it’s dark and cold here and it’s still light there and she’s sitting outside. We talked about it the other day and she says she just feels that she’s happier being able to be outside so much of the year and seeing the sun. But, I am sure the weather in Ithaca would be more familiar for your son and he’d definitely be giving up a real winter (except when he’s home on breaks) if that’s important to him.
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Vanderbilt is ON and UP on the list after yesterday’s visit.
We did a quick info session at Blair School of Music in the morning, no official tour there, talk was held at the gorgeous Ingram Hall, only us and one more family. In addition to that, professor and faculty member at Blair from one of summer music festivals our D23 attended in the past, took her on a quick walk through to see the building, recital and practice space inside. He also answered many of our Qs, which was fantastic!
Reason Vandy is moving up on a list for our daughter is encouragement and built in support to double major and the Blair is undergraduate students only, meaning lots of support, attention and resources go directly to 200 or so undergrad and only undergrad students there, 4 : 1 student to faculty ration and 24/7 access to the school building for students. It is the smallest college of all 4 at Vanderbilt. Several paths and options how to double major or major/minor/ concentrate on your subject of choice. So we will peruse the collateral and website even more to figure things out, since Sociology and Psychology, for example, can “live” in two different schools, depending on course selection and focus.
We also did a general information session with Vanderbilt admissions office and a student led campus tour. It was the last tour before they close for exams and winter break, so it was FULL. Info session had a lot of people shoved in a small space, masked, but it was overall uncomfortable. No revelations as far as new or groundbreaking info that is not already on their admissions page. Admission officer took impossibly fast tempo with her presentation. Everyone was visibly relieved when the presentation ended and we were divided into smaller groups and ushered out for a tour. They assign guide to you, so you cannot really choose the one based on their major or college, but seems like all the guides were great and we had a wonderful and very well-spoken Junior leading us through the campus, only three families in our small group.
Campus is gorgeous, though a bit empty before the exam week, reminded us Emory campus a lot, but city setting instead of the suburban one, and students gave similar vibe too: academically focused, but well rounded with some balance of life and study, and relatively happy. Diverse student body, and 10% are international students, love that!
We were glad to hear 96% of students live on campus “in a regular year”. Not quite residential colleges system, but close enough with their big dorms being their smaller community. Loved that one of the professors usually lives in the dorm with their families to be another helpful resource and mentor if needed. Neat events and community team building driven by students and their Programming Board. We loved what we saw and heard on the tour: flexible curriculum and plenty of undergraduate research opportunities, in which over 60% of students participate, generous merit aid options. A lot of robust construction going on on campus and around it.
D23 will be applying and is excited about this school!
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We will be looking at Wake, Lehigh, and Lafayette in 2022 for my S. May I ask if you got a feeling for social life, especially at Lehigh. I know the administration is trying to reduce the binge drinking culture and exclusionary Greek crap but I don’t know how effective that is. My S doesn’t drink but is looking for a traditional school spirit school/D1 football. He’s fine with parties but if all there is to do is get wasted, not for him.
Also, did you find any of these schools to be extremely conservative? Either the administration or student body.
(He is also looking at Boston College and liked Emory except for the lack of football. And my D, his twin, loved Emory and is also looking at BU. so thanks for your post.)
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Question about Vandy-- did you get a feel how religious and/or conservative the administration or student body is? Possibly good fit for my S, but he’s an atheist Californian so it could be too much culture shock. To put that in context: he liked Emory and Georgia Tech but not UGA. thanks!
My child marked Ole Miss (Journalism) off the list as soon as she visited. Campus was outdated in an unforgivable way and it was also in the middle of absolutely nowhere. Didn’t feel like a campus if you know what I mean; although it had a campus “center,” it didn’t feel intentionally designed.
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IMO Lafayette would be the best fit of the three for what you are describing.
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My D drives a pickup truck, loves fishing and country music. She LOVED Vandy. That said, it’s still a college in 2021, so will still lean left if center for the most part. For example, there is a large student-led push to ban the Greek system there. I hope it doesn’t succeed, but there are definitely plenty of progressives on campus.
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haha thanks! I also drive a pickup truck, love fishing, and country music. My truck has a Pride flag bumper sticker. No much for stereotypes.
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For social life I agree with @Techno13, but if D-1 Football is really important, Wake and the ACC are an entirely different animal than the Patriot League.
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Texas A&M was taken off my son’s list when he went for Scholar’s weekend. They kept making the kids say “howdy” over and over again until it was loud enough, repeatedly throughout the weekend. Ummm, nope, he wanted nothing to do with it! He’s in Austin at UT and that is the perfect place for him.
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Let’s not forget Wake’s Basketball team which is finally starting to look really good again. Love the new coach! And he loves being at Wake Forest. Saw some videos of him speaking to kids across campus, reaching out, building interest, getting them engaged. Should be fun going forward.
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We are also from California, and my S doesn’t drink either (though the referenced tours were for his younger sisters). Despite not drinking, however, he loves Tulane, so go figure. He goes to all the home football and basketball games, and loves his major (Architecture). As for Wake, Lehigh and Lafayette, I have to admit we were there in June so the vast majority of the student body was gone. From what I know of Lehigh, I think it still has a strong Greek & party culture. I felt for my son that he needed to go to a school that IF it had a party reputation, the local environment offered alternative things for him to do. New Orleans has that, but I am not sure about Bethlehem. Lafayette seemed perhaps a bit more chill in that respect? For all my kids, having access to a town or city was important. Bethlehem was about as small as the girls were willing to go. To them, Wake seemed a distance from Winston-Salem, and a tad conservative (student body), tbh. Hopefully you will be able to visit when students are on campus to get a better vibe.
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thank you. We will also be visiting in the summer too, so student vibe is hard to read. Maybe my S should consider Tulane. And also Vandy. Not that he needs another reach school. What he really needs is a safety/likely.
@Techno13, great question, as we are also paying attention to how conservative/liberal the atmosphere is. Important to our possible sociology/music major D23:).
Having visited Rice and Vandy back to back, I would say that both schools are outliers, in terms of political and religious climate, both are much more liberal than parts of TX and TN they are located in.
Nashville has this Vegas-like or maybe Disney-like layer of an artificial “fun”, constant party feel. Not sure if it is relevant, but I wanted to share. Great place for musicians though, in terms of job opportunities and gigs, while in school.
We live in ATL, so to us Vanderbilt campus looked very similar to Emory campus, especially with the University hospital next door, however, it is placed in more urban, middle of the city setting, more similar to GaTech’s location. Lots of trees like on GT campus too, and it is beautiful place, but general impression is that students looked much happier at Vandy, the vibe was overall closer to Emory’s student body vibe. We love GaTech, S15 graduated GaTech in 2018.
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My kid does not care about joining a sorority, so we are not focusing a lot on this topic during visits. But this is from our tour of Vanderbilt last week on Greek life there: only top 5 officers of each sorority or fraternity can live in Greek housing. Overall Greek life at Vanderbilt is much more integrated into campus life.
Oh, and their Greek recruitment happens in the spring, not before the school starts in the fall.
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