Duke’s East Campus is less that a mile from the main campus and adjacent to the 9th street business district so in a lot of ways a more convenient place to live.
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So far we’ve seen 3 schools and S24 liked them all. I wouldn’t say they were “up” or “down” since he didn’t have a strong opinion going in. So far nothing has been crossed off the list.
Dartmouth - An excellent visit. Tour guide was outstanding and gave a really good sense of the school. Hanover is a pretty little town. Despite living in NE for most of my life (and attending a NESCAC school) I’d never been there before. Son felt the students seemed very happy and friendly.
Bates - Campus was empty as they have Feb vacation due to their Maymester. They broke up students and parents for the tours which I liked. Tour guides were new so not as strong. A more progressive vibe at the school with a strong emphasis on community engagement. Campus was attractive - very nice newer science building with cool looking labs.
Colby - Very good tour guide. More of an outdoorsy vibe than Bates. Beautiful athletic facility and many very nice new buildings - including a performing arts center that is slated to open next fall. Fun fact was that 70% of students do some kind of study abroad.
At the end of the day, S24 felt all 3 schools were of a similar “type” - which he likes, but he is looking forward to checking out some schools that are different - more urban, bigger etc - to get a better sense of whether or not he’d prefer those.
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BC grad here- I lived on Newton my freshman year and loved it. It is a quick shuttle bus ride away and it was nice “coming home” at the end of the day after classes. All my closest friends from college lived in my Newton campus dorm. Just figured I would mention that. I never felt it took away from my true freshman experience.
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East Campus is great, and having access to both 9th Street and the Brightleaf area is nice (though it’s really upperclassmen who tend to take advantage of the off campus neighborhoods). I agree with Kensing’s assessment, though, that although I wouldn’t compare it to the Newton Campus at BC, it’s in need of some freshening up compared to West, which has gotten the lion’s share (maybe all) of the focus the last 15 years. It felt relatively worn down when we visited, and even the grass on the quad seemed neglected comparatively.
Ironically, changing East to all-freshmen has had the effect of taking it from being the quieter side of the school that nonetheless had some quirky small living groups and fraternity sections, to now having the vibe of a sleepy, stand-alone small college. It was always the case that there was more happening on West, but nowadays I’m told East is really dead even on a Saturday night. The QuadEx system probably exacerbates that, with all of the freshmen now having a social anchor on West before even moving there. I’ve also heard everyone’s so enamored of the food offerings at Brodhead that a lot of freshmen regularly go all the way back over there to eat dinner instead of on East. So Duke’s sort of cannibalized East by making West too nice. Will be interesting to see how or if they address this going forward.
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I will say that Duke’s campus is much less cohesive than UNC’s since it is literally split into two. At UNC, it’s all one big campus. Some buildings are really old like Old East (much older than anything at Duke) and some are modern and new, but all one big campus.
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We’re getting off topic, and fair point. Depends on semantics, I suppose, and whether one thinks of cohesiveness more as contiguity or architectural consistency. I’m more in the latter camp.
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Please use the Off Topic College your child crossed off… thread for discussions!
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Anyway, let’s get back to the topic.
Recently visited University of Denver with S25, who’s not really thinking about college yet but we were in town visiting family. He liked it a good bit, and it exceeded my expectations, as well. The new student center was quite impressive, and S loved the hockey arena (which was accessible even though there wasn’t a game scheduled or anything). Views of the mountains from most of the buildings we visited. Over Xmas break, so virtually a ghost town and no official tours going on, but we registered for a virtual walking tour and felt fairly well-informed as we made our way around. At some point we may end up back there when students are around, to get a better feel for the vibe when classes are in session.
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Boston College moved off the list for my son. We live an hour from BC so I doubt we would have visited if it weren’t so close. He would prefer a college without religion and when the tour guide started talking about retreats he lost interest. I thought it seemed like a great school with a fun location so close to Boston.
Middlebury moved up. His sister attends so he was able to meet her friends and talk to many kids about their experiences at the school. Beautiful campus, friendly kids, he was very positive about his visit. He likes to ski and was able to spend a beautiful day at Sugarbush.
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I know this is an older post, but I’m going through this long thread from the beginning.
Bryn Mawr - My D21 attends now and fell in love with it during the pandemic virtual tours. Also attended an online class before they committed. D21, now a sophmore, would completely disagree with this post. They would say BMC feels like a separate institution and most definitely like a women’s college. They love all the BMC traditions and the beautiful campus and very dark academic vibe. The women (they call them Mawrters) there are very diverse and interesting and smart, but they also know how to enjoy themselves. They only took one class at Haverford so far and felt they loved their campus even more and ultimately decided not to major in linguistics because it was a tri-co major. They aren’t a fan of the “Haver-bros” and find Haverford to be a completely separate college, despite the bi-co. That said, they did attend some parties at Haverford and found no interest in them, so mainly sticks to their campus (watching movies, knitting, playing D&D - - very nerdy stuff). There are some sporty women as well, but they seem to stick to themselves. So, if that’s the vibe you’re kid is looking for, I’d definitely not write it off due to the bi-co with Haverford.
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University of Tampa- just visited and moved up my daughter’s list. She loved the campus and the location of the school. All of the buildings are pretty new, campus is very clean, and it’s in the middle of Tampa but still seems like an island to itself.
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Same with my DD!! Tampa wasn’t even on our radar 6 months ago but she applied wanting to be in FL/warm climate and near the beach and wanted a backup to UMiami, UF, and FSU. She received great merit and invitation to the honors program so we decided to go visit and she fell in love! She couldn’t shake the feeling for the past month and has just decided not to wait for the other schools and committed last night. She is over the moon! It really checks SO many boxes and it is clearly they are really developing and putting a ton into the campus with new buildings, buildings, programs. We love that it is a true campus and on the water no less but also downtown and near all of the restaurants and culture.
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University of New Mexico: UP
Went on campus tour and housing tour this morning.
Let’s talk money:
- we are from AZ so their AZ reciprocal scholarship is very attractive. It gets you in state tuition. Which is $2340/yr cheaper than UofA.
- room and board also cheaper. $10,916 compared to $14,400 at U of A (Arizona, not Alabama or Alaska or Arkansas). So that’s $3484/yr cheaper for R&B.
- AZ Reciprocal scholarship doesn’t require test scores. That’s a plus.
- WUE Plus scholarship also gets you in state tuition rate but requires test scores.
- so in total, it’s $5808/yr cheaper than UofA. That’s about $23,000 lower cost for the 4 yr.
Housing:
Went on housing tour right after the reg campus tour.
- got to see inside of Hokona Hall. Liked how cozy it felt.
- the basement of Hokona has a cool game room with pool tables and foosball. Tour guide said students LOVE hanging out there in the evenings.
- you can see the UNM hospital from Hokona hall.
- 2nd floor of Hokona hall has this very open and bright study lounge. Lots of natural light.
- dorm room we got to see has lots of built in storage. Smaller room than U of A honors dorm. Doesn’t have ceiling fan.
- Laguna Devargas is the suite style dorm. $5750/yr for a double room. Traditional dorms (ie not suite style) are $100 cheaper per year.
- Coronado Hall has a sink in each room.
- Casas del Rio is another on campus housing option but is run by a non-UNM company. Price for double occupancy room is comparable to the suite style or traditional style dorms. Casas del Rio has suite-style bathroom set up.
- all freshmen who do not live within 30 mi radius of UNM must live on campus.
- housing tour guide was from Chicago. She said that she came here for college because of the warmer weather and because it was a lot cheaper than going anywhere in state in Illinois.
- use of washers and dryers is free.
Misc tour stuff:
- D24 was given a free tshirt.
- also was given small backpack thingy with a UNM pen and some brochures and printed material.
- tour started with info session in the student union.
- campus was quiet because we were here during UNM’s spring break.
- duck pond is cool. Apparently is popular hang out spot.
- almost all the people in the info session and tour were from out of state. One I think even from Alaska. Some from TX. One family from Nevada.
- there’s one dining hall on campus. But you can use your dining card $$ at all the other eateries on campus, too. We did not eat in the dining hall, opted to eat lunch in the student union instead.
- D24 liked the fried rice at the Asian eatery in the student union.
- campus is way more attractive than ASU.
- we really like all the adobe SW architecture on campus.
- the VP of the Division of Enrollment Management kicked off the info session. He even knew which city in AZ we were from.
Campus safety:
- tour guide said that campus police heavily patrol the area around the dorms to the dining hall and library a lot.
- lots of campus police around campus at night too.
- anybody on campus can call campus police to request an escort to wherever they’re headed on campus.
- campus police very quick to respond. Tour guide gave an example of one time there was a campus alert about a guy who stole a bike. Tour guide saw the suspect and called campus police to report the guy, a min or 2 later, cops showed up.
- we did NOT see a lot of homeless on campus. Saw a couple on Central Ave on our way to Frontier Restaurant when we ate there last night for dinner.
Other details:
- DH is ready to send D24 here now.
- like other schools, honors college requires separate app than regular app.
- regular admissions app fee is $25.
- lots of college-y eateries along Central Ave right across from the southern end of campus.
- the green chile stew at Frontier Restaurant on Central Ave is SO GOOD. And OMG their tortillas there are AMAZING. About $4.25 I think for a dozen. There was a sign in the window for no student study groups Sat and Sun 9am-1pm. So that tells me it’s a popular student hang out.
- if you’re a film student this is probably a decent school to consider. UNM’s film Dept is located across street from the Netflix main location in ABQ.
- students get free admission to all sports games.
- UNM provides free shuttles from main campus to the sporting events (football, basketball for example) that are I think in the south campus.
- electric scooters are allowed on campus.
It’s definitely going to stay on D24’s list.
The library has this really cool “no talking” study space. Am including some photos below. Library was built in the 1930s. You can rent laptops in the library. There’s a printing station there too…have to pay to print.
UNM has a big performing arts building that brings in all the same Broadway style shows that U of A Presents does. In that same building is this huge long art mural done by UNM students with a design theme of the heart of New Mexico. These 2 photos are of about a third of the mural…it’s huge.
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One more bit of UNM info:
I emailed the VP of Enrollment Managgement this afternoon with a question that DH had about whether you can set up payment plans.
Short answer is yes.
You can set up a payment plan ahead of time with options for 2, 3, 4, or 5 payment installments over the semester. The earlier you sign up for a payment plan, the higher number of payments are available.
There’s more info at: Payment Plans :: Bursar's Office | The University of New Mexico
Correction to one thing I said above:
Freshmen are required to live on campus their first year if their primary residence during high school is not within 30 miles of campus.
So if you’re not a local, you have to live on campus for freshman year. If you’re a NM resident but you’re from, for example, Santa Fe or Las Cruces or Tucumcari or wherever, you’ll be living on campus for year #1.
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One more thing (I promise, this is the last thing):
There’s a lightsaber club at UNM. And in the “center of campus” spot (which is this weird building that’s open in the middle…I don’t have a pic but it’s hard to describe and apparently has really good acoustics), the lightsaber club meets up at night to have lightsaber battles.
My 2 Star Wars-loving DDs thought this was cool.
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How was the weather at UNM? Whenever I thought of NM, only desert came to mind 
.
S24 was intrigued after reading your visit. But I am a bit worry about his asthma since NM looks… dry!
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UP: University of Louisiana- Layfayette. We attended a Preview Day.
It is technically a “commuter” campus but 4-5k students still live on campus. Most commuters live very close (theres about 2-3 times amount of students who live “off campus”).
I thought diversity was decent. Campus was lovely, midsize walkable, and clean.
There’s a swamp in the middle of campus which gave nice ambiance and sounds of nature. Wifi reaches throughout campus so a nice spot to relax.
Staff was approachable! I would have no concerns sending my child there. Financial aid person gave me her card and told me to call her personally. We found Lafayette to have lovely downtown area and great food options if your child is interested. Their meal plan offers several local food options which is nice.
One thing we learned was that there is “supplemental instruction” support if needed. This was explained as someone takes the course with you, shares notes, and meets to discuss and tutor.
As many colleges, library is open 24/7 week before and during finals and they have massages and emotional support pets available.
We toured Baker hall. Residence halls are mostly less than 10 years old. Many 2 bedroom (2/room) suites with their own bathrooms. My son thought they were way better than communal bathrooms.
Added for music: Music area is dated but we were very impressed with the support and community that the department seems to have. They have D1 sports and the band is solid. Ensemble groups for band and choir get paid. It isn’t huge but they get back about $250 or so per ensemble per semester. Required for music majors but nice that they get back some money into their account at the end of the year.
A final note, we listened to Dr. Bowie’s speech. He openly said “If this doesn’t feel like home, keep looking.” I very much appreciated that they were honest that they wanted students to feel comfortable and supported.
Auto merit listed on website. End net costs would be less than 10k/yr for my son.
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