I saw an Instagram mentioned recently called Georgetown.hotmess. It had photos and comments of some current conditions at the school.
Dorms aren’t great - my d just graduated. But it is an amazing school in a wonderful historic charming college town and next to an amazing city with endless opportunities. My daughter and her friends just graduated and all had an amazing academic experience and landed jobs or med or law schools they wanted. Older sib went to Columbia and had a much less positive experience (and also not great dorms). Most students are off campus for senior year in cute nearby Georgetown housing.
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Please continue any discussion specific to Georgetown on that forum.
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We are back from our “big” college visit trip, which ended up smaller than planned. We were scheduled to see U of Dayton and Pitt on this trip as well, but S23 was sick, so we sadly had to shave the first 2 days off the trip and cancel those visits. We’ll combine Dayton with a visit to U of Louisville soon. Won’t visit Pitt unless he’s actually awarded a Tuition Exchange scholarship there (a long shot).
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Syracuse — UP: A big hit with the whole family. Beautiful old buildings, but doesn’t seem stuffy or too fancy. It’s eclectic. The campus is compact and it doesn’t take long to walk where you need to go, yet it’s integrated into the city without being cramped. It’s got a great energy, and we all came away with the impression that going there would give a good education while being a ton of fun. Engineering-specific session/tour was great. Love the hospitals next door for son with health problems. Our younger child (HS freshman who was SO MAD about being dragged along) is now officially obsessed with Syracuse, much to our shock and amusement. We’ll have to see how the money shakes out.
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Rochester Institute of Technology — SAME: Our son had been totally charmed by an earlier virtual visit and the tour did not disappoint. I’ll be honest, the thing that charmed him most was how weird the students seemed. The modern “brick city” campus didn’t bother any of us but some kids would hate it. We were surprised at how large the campus is, and noted that you’d likely have to drive to do much of anything off campus. Wouldn’t annoy our kid, but he’d likely never leave campus because of it. All our sessions/tours were great and we felt like we got a good sense of what life would be like there. They seem serious about their studies, but not overly so. The resources and facilities are excellent. Love the mandatory co-op model. Had a wonderful visit/tour with biomed eng dept. RIT (oddly) doesn’t offer a degree in civil engineering, which might end up being a dealbreaker since it’s one of 2 majors son is most interested in at this point. RIT is a main contender otherwise.
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Case Western Reserve University — DOWN-ish: Is a nice campus and neighborhood. It’s been hard to get real info from CWRU, especially considering how many emails they send! The virtual engineering sessions are once per month and the one we attended didn’t allow time to answer even one of the long list of questions from attendees. A dry prof talked at length about how great the research is, barely talked about the programs, and didn’t give the student reps time to talk. We were excited to visit campus to learn more. The in-person info session offered almost no info about the university/programs except touting CWRU and how impressive they are. The tour was good, and we were surprised at how old most of the campus is, pretty neat. Case is the only school we’ve toured that we just could not get any engineering-specific tours/meetings scheduled. Wasn’t included in general tour either. We did manage (with much effort) to get a tour of the makerspace (thinkbox), which was amazing. Also killed some time in the free Cleveland museum of art—highly recommend! Son was frustrated that he didn’t learn much of anything about engineering from any of our sessions, but felt like it would be a perfect school for his friend, so he’s excited about that, LOL. We came away from Case with the impression that it’s a bit intense, and that due to the seriousness of the students and the way that campus is set up, it may be challenging for our kid to not be overly invested in his studies at the expense of his mental and social health. Maybe not a problem for a more active kid. There are TONS of premeds which also contributes to an intense vibe. It’s certainly still on his list, but he needs to gather more info. The best info we’ve gotten has actually been from their General Bulletin (catalog) online. I do know some profs in biomed there, but I wanted to avoid pestering them. Oh well.
• These 3 schools have a lot in common, so were interesting to compare. All are private, in good-sized cities, and the total enrollment isn’t drastically different (though Case has far fewer undergrads because it’s uniquely split about evenly between grad and undergrad). Our kid would be happy and well-educated at any of them, but each of us felt Syracuse was the best overall fit. Our son seems to think that most of the schools we’ve toured are basically slightly less impressive alternatives to Purdue. He sees that they have good resources and programs, and at his Purdue engineering tour the campus seemed deceptively same-sized as some of the others. He is having trouble distinguishing the living reality of the size and personnel differences. So now we’re talking a lot of numbers so that he can understand the sheer scale of Purdue engineering to decide if that’s an environment he’d prefer, or if he’d enjoy a smaller program with more personalized attention. Might need to add some columns for major sizes to the spreadsheet. Only 2 schools left to visit!
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Go Cuse!!!
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A couple colleges that don’t get mentioned on here too terribly often:
San Diego State University both up and down: Both my C23 and C25 toured this one. It’s an absolutely beautiful campus (well, except for the library, which can most charitably be described as “1960s concrete”)—you don’t expect that sort of physical plant from a regional public. SDSU, though, started with California mission architecture and stayed all-in on it, and that’s a visual plus. The student experience seems pretty excellent, too, and everybody on campus (which wasn’t as deserted as people here seem to expect college campuses to be in the summer) was incredibly friendly and cheerful—and of course you can’t beat San Diego for year-round perfect sun and weather. It was also good to see the way mass transit options were foregrounded rather than just given a passing mention as a good option for students without cars. On the whole, both of my kids were very, very impressed by the university—but probably won’t end up applying there because on closer look the curricula of their programs of interest are pretty inflexible, with no real options for pursuing individual interests as they develop.
University of Colorado Denver (yes, Denver, not Boulder) way up: This one was probably a bit unfair because the university was the host for a summer camp my C23 went to, but then again, that meant that she had two weeks of opportunity to see not just the best but also the worst the campus had to offer. It’s kind of a weird campus, because it’s shared by the University of Colorado Denver, the Metropolitan State University of Denver, and the Community College of Denver. It’s also a very commuter-oriented campus, though there are efforts to start having a residential presence. It’s a fabulous location, with easy access to pretty much everything Denver has to offer via easy mass transit connections. They’ve put a lot of resources into my C23’s area of interest, and after seeing a lot of the equipment and spaces she’d have access to she’s pretty certain that they would be able to support her in her educational pursuits. So for students interested in one of the areas this university has opted to carve out a niche in, this could be an easy-to-miss good option. (And for those of us in the Western states, noncompetitive automatic WUE tuition for everyone who’s eligible doesn’t hurt, either!)
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We’ll be touring Syracuse, Cornell & Lehigh in the coming weeks. Excited to see the upstate NY schools!
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My d is a junior at Syracuse so if you have any questions feel free to reach out.
I reviewed SDSU on this thread a few months ago and my write-up was remarkably similar to yours! My D22 was accepted at SDSU but opted for an OOS school instead.
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Do virtual visits count? I dragged S23 to two local campuses and reviewed them earlier on this thread. He has no interest in physically visiting other schools, but I managed to drag him to virtual admissions presentations for a few schools while he was home a few weeks ago.
Up: Williams College The presentation was well done by an admissions rep and a current student. S23 liked the tutorial system. He will be applying here.
Down: Swarthmore College The admissions rep’s presentation had me wanting to count all the hesitation words: um, uh, kinda, like etc. Sometimes there were 4 of them in one sentence. I thought S23 would like it here as it is close to an urban area which is one of his main criteria, but the presentation had us strike it off the list.
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D19 and I had a similar experience on our Penn visit…the high ranking and seasoned admissions person said ‘um’ 66 times in her presentation…and that’s once I started counting. Obviously that was distracting to me, and I’m sure others…and took away from the messages/points she was trying to make. It’s amazing how the quality of an admissions session and/or campus tour can really impact students’ (and parents’) reaction to the school.
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We’re toured the University of Michigan.
Overall: We were a little disappointed by the overall layout and vibe at the school. Our tour guide told a bunch of bad jokes and had this rhythmic sing/song type voice inflection that distracted from the information.
Pros: The law quad was stunning. The law library was amazing. The tour guide said it was the prettiest part of campus which is interesting considering most students will probably never go to the law school.
The Ross school of business was impressive. They have a top business program and it was evident. The overall feel inside was: come here and you’ll have an amazing opportunity to succeed.
Cons: The information session was blah. One prospective student asked what type of classes should she take if she wanted to study dentistry - he had no idea. Someone asked how many AP credits get accepted. The person said unlimited. I think Ross has a 30 hour AP credit limit?? He didnt seem to know a lot other than what were on the slides.
The areas other than the law quad and Ross werent that impressive. The undergraduate and graduate libraries were fine but nothing outstanding and the student union was average.
We also didnt get to see the athletic campus or north campus because they were too far away? It was ok but just didnt have that wow feeling. Maybe our expectations were too high.
Overall: On a scale of 1-10, Law quad 9. Ross School of Business 9. Central campus and overall feel and aesthetics 6.
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My daughter toured Tennessee, Southern Miss and Mississippi State.
UT - Nice campus adjacent to the downtown/restaurant section. The river makes for a great backdrop along with the Smokies. Student center was new. Hilly for sure. Students were nice. Most buildings were well kept and the new dorms we visited were very nice.They have a sorority village of 13 beautiful houses that are gated (PRO, but “across a highway” from the rest of the campus/across train tracks (CON), but the campus bus/transit is accessible. There is a Publix supermarket adjacent/near campus also. Has a large # of majors to choose from. Sports are key/prioritized as expected. UT costs vs other SEC schools, is slightly higher with the scholarships for OOS not as great as some other schools. Weather is great, since it literally has almost all 4 seasons. Great for outdoor-centric students.
Campus - 7.5/ Costs - 5
Sports - 7/ Greek - 7
Dorms -8/ Weather - 9
Southern Mississippi - Beautiful campus, but small. New dorms were close. Hattiesburg is still a small town but had most everything. Majors offered were solid. Sports programs are decent. Felt safe. Greeks have houses with all of the sororities having the same house footprint. Costs are much cheaper than SEC schools with OOS tuition only $2k more per year. Scholarship offers are very good and start with a 21ACT/3.0GPA. Great distance to NOLA or beaches.
Campus - 6/ Costs - 9
Sports - 6/ Greek - 6
Dorms - 7/ Weather - 5.5
Mississippi State - Unique campus - one of the largest in the country with the research land. Dorm choices are adequate. The downtown is a few blocks away with the typical southern charm. Good choice of majors, but may not have the one my DD is interested in. Typical Greek houses/mansions. Very walk-able. Learned that football tickets for freshman are guaranteed. Great scholarship offers. Restaurants/stores adequate for a small town. Good sports teams/traditions.
Campus - 6.5/ Costs - 9
Sports - 6/ Greek - 7
Dorms - 7/ Weather -7
We are Auburn and Alabama graduates, so if you have any questions on those two, please ask.
Ryan
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I think we are finished with college visits, so I’ll post our summary. This thread has been very helpful to me! We saw all of these schools over the course of a year.
Boston College - Down. We had a great tour guide and really enjoyed our visit. Gorgeous campus, friendly people, great academic programs. BC checks a lot of boxes for DS. But ultimately decided against going to a Jesuit school.
Boston University - Down/off. We got to the campus, DS said “nope,” and we didn’t even go on the tour (we were fine with this - if he had that strong a reaction we were all too happy to go do something else). Part of our tour to Boston schools was to decide whether he wanted an urban campus or a more traditional college campus. Seeing the buildings of BU crystallized that preference in 10 seconds.
Tufts - Up. He loved the campus, the proximity to Boston, and we had a great tour guide that made Tufts seem amazing.
Northeastern - Down/Off. We were actually all extremely impressed with Northeastern. We liked the campus right in the middle of Boston, friendly students, great tour. But we came away with a much better understanding of the co-op program, and that’s not what DS is looking for. Great school for students who are the right fit for that program.
UNC - Up. We went on a gross, rainy day, but there was still lots of energy on campus, tons going on, lots of students out and about despite the weather. We wish UNC’s early action gave an earlier notice.
Davidson - Same. This one was already high on his list, and stayed high after we saw it. After the energy of UNC I do think he wished Davidson were either bigger or near a bigger city, but he still liked it.
American University - Up. Another one where the energy and friendliness of the students really came through. Beautiful campus with all the offerings of DC right there. Great academic programs, and the CLEG major was particularly interesting to him.
Georgia Tech - Down/off. We had a terrible tour (although our guide was very nice). Campus was trashed (literally - trash everywhere), students wouldn’t make eye contact, no one in the common areas was socializing with other students. I was disappointed about this one since we’re GA residents and that HOPE scholarship would have been nice.
Emory - Up. Felt like Tufts of the South in terms of the academic programs and size. Loved the location of the campus, friendly students, gorgeous facilities.
UCLA - Up. We were actually in LA for different reasons, and I insisted on doing a tour ‘just to see.’ We all loved it. Gorgeous campus, the friendliest, happiest students we saw, great academics and vibe. I think it would be his first choice if it had an early action.
Now that I type it all out, it seems like a funny list - not a lot of commonalities on paper between the schools. But all of them had something he was interested in checking out. We really enjoyed visiting all of them. Will be interesting to see what he decides for ED1 and ED2 (he feels strongly about applying ED, which I think in this environment is a good decision).
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given our milieu, the wesleyan was a school with which we were familiar for years and for whom we never missed a chance to make a crack or generally crap on it, but when the kid actually did the things at the schools, wes was the school they wanted to go to more than any of the ‘other’ ‘better’ and/or ‘different’ schools that were not the wesleyan.
whoops.
weird that you didn’t hear a ton about science and math stuff at the wesleyan since it’s so much of a science and math titan, what with funding and programs not found at liberal arts colleges.
wes does have a ton of folks who never cross the road to the science side, but for the ones who do, hoo boy it’s a cornucopia of stemmy goodness.
research, prizes, classes, the wesleyan has them all.
plus a world famous film school for when you decide molecular biophysics and mathematics are not really what you wanted to study anyway…
and the wes folks love the middletown now, so there’s that.
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My husband who went to Davidson (a million years ago) always tells the story about how when he went to visit after being accepted, it was a gloomy, rainy day but the campus was SO friendly and bright in terms of the vibe, he knew it was the right place to be. I think it says a lot about a place to have it come off well even when the conditions are less than ideal.
We now have a child at UCLA and can confirm that your first impression holds up well – happy, joyful place (and beautiful campus!)
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Deleted- posted in wrong thread .
S23 is seeking a collaborative, innovative, and interdisciplinary college of engineering that is more practical than theoretical. Since virtual visits count:
Tufts – Same/up. He participated in a virtual tour/information session and met an admissions rep at a college fair. He felt both reps were friendly and down-to-earth. He likes Tufts’ suburban location, engineering resources, green campus, and intellectual yet creative vibe.
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Down: JHU/Johns Hopkins, kid is attending a Summer camp there now. Loves the school, it has amazing programs, esp in the likely major and is rigorous and outstanding in many regards. The building are in excellent condition and the labs are well funded. After spending a week in Baltimore, kid could never imagine going to JHU for 4 years. It’s so dangerous in the nearby areas that normal life isn’t possible. Kid thinks that living in a city should come with being able to take advantage of whatever the city has to offer. Not looking to discuss. Just wanted to put out there that spouse also stayed nearby and was amazed at the drug use on a local run. Kid won’t be applying.
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Nor is it the purpose of the thread. This thread is about perceptions - ideally the kids. There are plenty of other threads here that discuss the area around JHU Please use them for the OT discussion
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