My UF alumni husband just arrived in Gainesville today to visit our freshman son - he remarked that the weather was bad in the area which made things drab. When we dropped off in August the weather was perfect and even my daughter, who hates large universities and all things Florida, begrudgingly admitted that the campus was beautiful. Obviously, everyone has different tastes and I’m sure the tremendous amount of construction doesn’t help.
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Doing a “faraway schools” tour this spring break.
UWashington Seattle up. My son liked the vibe. Seems to be down to earth kids interested in their studies but definitely with time for fun and activities. Very outdoorsy. Very progressive politically and lots of non-establishment kids and queer kids compared to other state schools (huge pluses for my kid). A really lovely campus in a cool interesting neighborhood in a cool interesting city! Appropriately rainy lol.
CU Boulder - up amazingly fun and gorgeous town and setting. Very good looking students (lol). Kids appear outdoorsy, wealthy, maybe a bit too many “bro” types… at least outside engineering. Aerospace engineering building, resources and opportunities beyond anything we imagined - forget my kid, made me want to go immediately! Outside engineering, physics and astro seem very strong with lots of research opportunities. In wandering about the campus we ran into a physics professor who chatted with my kid for awhile - really nice and helpful. If ds finally decides on aerospace engineering this will be a no brainer to be very high on the list…
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going in the same direction, I so fell in love with Agnes Scott during D’s college search that I’m considering applying for a job there as soon as S26 is done with high school 
(D22 will not attend ASC btw). Maybe there should be a thread about parents’ favorite schools after what they learned during their kids’ college search.
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When my eldest toured Macalester, we both loved it, and it moved up the list for her. Ultimately, she chose to apply ED elsewhere and got in, so goodbye Macalester for her. But now my son was just accepted to Macalester! He’s still mulling over his options, but Macalester is definitely in the mix!
My daughter put Macalester College (St Paul, MN) on her list at first primarily because I was so taken with it and felt it fit her–strong academics; liberal bent focused on international relations and multiculturalism; truly diverse student body and faculty; and beautiful campus near two cities, so plenty of access to great internship & job opportunities and social/cultural events. After talking with the admissions officer at one of those big college admissions events, she decided she wanted to visit the school. The AO was so nice and genuinely interested in her and spent a lot of time answering her questions and giving us an overview of what Macalester would offer her. It was a great introduction to the school culture. When we visited that spring (bright skies, freeeeeeeeezing temperatures!), she immediately liked the vibe on campus. We attended the info session and tour, which was led by a student who shared a lot of useful info about the school and community culture. My daughter also interviewed and felt it went very well. The day ended with her feeling strongly Macalester was a great fit for her. My son hasn’t gotten the chance to tour, yet, but he did the virtual tour and dove into the website and has a pretty good sense of the school. We are likely to visit in a couple of weeks and then we’ll know if it’s risen to the very top of his list!
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Please share your thoughts in Macalester after you visit. We are also visiting the first week of April, along with several other schools in the area. I’m interested to compare the students opinions.
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We are also visiting Macalester in early April!
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We are going to Macalester next week and I’ll report back! My daughter was accepted during the EA cycle and was given $22k in merit aid, too.
I think it’s a great fit for her. She is also going to a UMich admitted students day next week so can compare/contrast two very different experiences for y’all.
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It will be so interesting to hear her thoughts on UM vs. Macalester, they seem like almost opposite schools! (Well, not opposite but very different!) Congrats to her on her great options!
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Deleted at kid’s,request, sorry
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Thank you so much, @relaxmon! We have three of these schools out of four on our summer college visit list and seeing your feedback here is very helpful!
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Yes, indeed–WUE scholarships are becoming super elusive for Fall 2022. Our 70K community sends about 4-8 kids a year to MSU… many of them have siblings there (or siblings who are alums). Kids are NOT getting the favorable deals their siblings have had in the past and MSU is significantly less affordable. A nice kid I interacted with briefly was super bummed when he learned 2 weeks ago that he wasn’t getting a WUE scholarship. (MSU had been his top choice, but he got over it when he got into MIT a few days later:)!)
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Thanks for this update. We did an unofficial tour with a student and didn’t get AO type of info. If I had a vote I’d have both my kids ED to Emory. Doubt this will happen. They will submit test scores though, maybe that would help even in RD?
Did you see the Mount Vernon Campus? I think it’s a standard green quad-centric campus. On our tour (in 2019) they said that 2/3 of Freshman live at Mount Vernon and that’s also where the Honors dorm and other LLCs are located. My D was more interest in the urban campus but was open to living at MV as a Freshman to get integrated with her class. (She was accepted to the Honors College with merit but ended up at Smith College.)
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didn’t see it. I like the concept of most freshmen starting there for 1 year, getting to know each other, and then moving to the big city but I know it’s a turn off to a lot of kids who want the bustle and access of DC.
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I liked the idea too. There’s a free shuttle every ~3 minutes between the campuses and only a 10 minute ride. Still pretty close to urban life! (Note: we did not tour Mt. Vernon campus, just heard about it.)
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Just a footnote:
Not sure where you heard 3 mins between shuttles but definitely longer according to current students living on the Vern like my S.
Maybe in theory?! 
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The tour guide said 3 minutes. This was Pre-COVID. She might have been embellishing. Our it might just be short staffed now like everything else.
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Delete.
Gotta stay on topic. Sorry. My bad.