Colleges your child crossed off the list after visiting, schools that moved up on the list. Why?

Parents Forum
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Still have several visits left, but here’s where our DS24 has toured and where he decided to apply so far:

  1. Washington College. First visit, liked the people and the offerings, liked the area, plan to apply, up.
  2. St. Mary’s College: Great extracurriculars, liked the people and plans of study, liked the area, plan to apply, up.
  3. Susquehanna University: He didn’t want to be in this area. We aren’t from PA and it just seemed too remote to him, so down.
  4. Dickinson College: He liked the campus and the campus is larger than the others but he liked that. Location was not his favorite so down.
  5. Loyola Maryland: Up. Liked the academic offerings, people, and the vibe on campus. Dorms are a big plus. Plan to apply.

We didn’t target highly selective schools in our initial tours (sophomore year) because we didn’t know how DS would do on the SAT. Now that he’s taken it, we are touring target and reach schools.

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6773

Yeah, this was excellent @eschuke See you on Tulane - we felt the same way.

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6774

U Minnesota: stayed near the top of the list after S23 attended admitted student day. Liked the location, basically urban but with a campus somewhat set apart from the city. Seemed like there is enough stuff to do in the city so that he wouldn’t feel cooped up on college campus. Did not get excited during morning presentations, felt a bit meh. Engineering school quiz bowl event left him slightly disappointed by the level of incoming students’ knowledge of math, physics, and chemistry. Started to wonder if school was good enough, and why didn’t they invite him to honors program? Did not get to go inside the buildings during generic campus tour, campus seemed fine but just normal and not super interesting. Perception of the school changed when he got to go inside buildings to meet with students working on Formula SAE (he had pre arranged this with the team before his trip). “Mom, the interior of all the buildings is so much nicer than you expect! Car workshop is amazing, the best thing ever!” Students and professors that he talked to all seemed very friendly and reasonable. Students had good things to say about quality of instruction and advising, research opportunities, internships and coops, job placement. Final impression: UMN might seem like just a basic big school on the surface, but has a lot more to offer than that. Also, it snowed during his visit and he liked that :upside_down_face:

Disclaimer: We live next to UCB and he has taken classes there, so this is the baseline against which he is comparing every other university…

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Baylor- loved the university, the football stadium was unbelievably awesome and sail-gating?!!! so cool. Great reputation, great academics. Didn’t mind the “unapologetically Christian” vibe at all, super friendly, best tour we had, even served cold lemonade. But Waco was too geographically isolated. The distance from anything else felt too much. We had a fantastic couple days visiting, though!

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He’ll have a less stressful path for acceptances and money if he continues targeting matches or those where he’s in the top 25%.

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6777

Clarification: sailgating or tailgating?

6778

Yes, Sailgating.

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6779

Boat tailgating! They have tie downs and boat slips at Baylor Basin on the Brazos River. You can sail gate on game days! They have their own marina- students can borrow kayaks and other small boats. It looked fun to me!

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Up: Elon. Gorgeous, pristine campus. Happy kids. Presentation was professional and guides were matched to kids with similar interest. Felt very polished. Love the emphasis on study abroad and January term options. Feels like they put a lot of effort into on campus programming to keep kids engaged. Great price point too.

Up: Lehigh. Didn’t know much before attending. Loved the hilly, old world buildings. Kids seemed happy. Tour well organized. Only showed one dorm which was a little worrisome. Loved the connection to UN. Surrounding area from our entry point was a little rough, wish we had time to get to better part of downtown.

Up: American. Felt like a safe bubble in the middle of a busy city. Buildings are beautiful and campus safe and clean. Obviously great internship opps and fun for social/culture offerings. Lacked school spirit but maybe having all that to do in city compensates for that. Great PA and IR program which fits for her. Like that they have their own study abroad programs, seamless.

Same: Santa Clara. It’s like a movie set. Great size, walkable, gorgeous weather most days. Kids seemed to have a good work-life balance. Like the internship opps everywhere. Didn’t seem like a lot of school spirit though and worried maybe a lot of CA kids go home on weekends. Don’t love the quarter system as that moves fast and makes study abroad semester programs complicated. Like how they allow the core religion courses to be fun, more exploratory topics like Harry Potter.

Same: UW. Huge, but beautiful campus and great spirit. Some areas around campus are a bit sketchy but that’s to be expected in a larger city

Down: Villanova. Beautiful, but it just felt cold to us. Tour guide talked about how competitive it is and the curve. Kids seemed stressed. Not for us.

Down: Bucknell. I loved it but daughter thought too small and remote. Tour guide spent the whole tour talking about how expensive it is and complaining about mold and sexual assaults. Sh must have said $80,0000 ten times. Not good. Cute town though.

Down; UVM. Wanted to love it as it’s the right size and she is a skier. Burlington is a great town and area is beautiful. Campus seemed in need of some maintenance. Tour was pretty bad. Opening slide show was scripted and guide didn t seem to want to be there. Lots of emphasis on health sciences but felt like lib arts were afterthought. Ultimately a no for us, sadly.

Still waiting to see DU, Syracuse and maybe try a moonshot ED at Hamilton or BC.

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6781

Ok, this belongs in the off topics shoot off thread but I don’t know how to quote/reply but have it on that thread… anyway, my DD was accepted to Hamilton and wait-listed at Syracuse, so you never know :rofl:(she showed zero demonstrated interest and didn’t visit either one. She didn’t do the optional Hamilton essay or video)

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Aack! So hard to predict

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University of Nevada - Reno. Up. We’re on vacation in Lake Tahoe and D25 wanted a non-snow day, so we drove over to see the school. The school is beautiful. Lots of huge new brick buildings, including a 3 story student center with all the requisite treat places (Starbucks, smoothie shop). There are lots of lawns and quads throughout the school. With a high acceptance rate and a minimum 3.0 GPA for admission, I’m guessing it is the top choice for a lot of Nor Cal and Nevada kids. Apparently, has a great reputation for Business, Civil Engineering, and Biology/pre-med (has a medical school). I was pleasantly surprised that they offer Computational Linguistics, which is one of D25’s possible majors. A bit limited in East Asian languages, though. About 21k students. The kids walking around were really diverse–track suits, an Asian sorority soliciting, and a number of kids in cowboy boots. The wind was rough and it is definitely a high-desert climate. Also, WUE eligible. (D25 will not be a NMF, but I saw on the cost of tuition page that they give $16k per year to NMFs.) The school is across the freeway from the downtown/casino area, which is a nice separation. Not the ideal climate for D25, but it will go on the list because “it’s so pretty!”

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Wow, that is an unusual result. At least I would expect it to be unusual. Hamilton is a tough admit.

So, congratulations!

6785

She showed zero demonstrated interest in Syracuse, so looking back I guess not that weird, they probably knew she wouldn’t pick it.

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Great reviews! We just went to NC for tours. Also did not care for UNC - Chapel Hill at all - the 82% instate and 5% into doesn’t leave much for out of state, plus we didn’t love the campus. We toured Duke and fell in love but who wouldn’t? It is amazing. Also ended up really liking Wake Forest.

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PA tours complete, here’s the skinny:

Drexel - Up
I put this one on the list (S24 hadn’t heard of it), because it seemed very similar to Northeastern, which S24 liked a lot. Not the most beautiful campus, but really engaged students. New dorms being built, trying to keep up with the increased interest. I felt very safe on campus, very close to Penn. Lots of great engineering options. Will stay on the list.

U. Penn - Up:
Of course, it’s an ivy, with a very, very, low acceptance rate, but seemed less snooty than the other ivies. Liked the fairly compact and IMO beautiful, historic campus. Lots of kids around, great energy. So close to downtown Philly, which is a plus. Tour guides seemed a bit too polished, sort of intimidating, but definitely impressive. What’s not to like? Now to get in.

Haverford - off:
Too small, no engineering opportunities. “Where are all the students?” was a common refrain on the tour. There just seems to be so much land for so few students, sort of obscene.

Swarthmore - same:
Similar to Haverford, very large campus, but so few students, but, it has engineering. That’s the big sell for my kid. Also, closer to Philly. We’ll see if it stays on the list. Nearly impossible get, so might focus on others.

Johns Hopkins - Up:
We got there early, and once again, so few students for such a large space, but once the tour started, seems like some kids got out of class and the campus filled up a bit. Very dry, sort of ugly in March. I heard so much about how dangerous the surrounding area was that I was sort of on edge, but that seemed not necessary. Had a very yummy sub sandwich just off campus. D24 loved all the talk/history of research at the university. If he decides that’s the way he wants to go, will definitely apply. Our tour guide (a senior) was fantastic. So engaged, so interesting, such a great story, lots of insight into the school/classes/students. His parents should be proud. My D24 stayed late to talk with him and he was very patient with him. Students seemed very friendly with sort of a “we’re all in this together” attitude. It was refreshing.

Next up - NYC

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@eschuke where did your son decide to attend?

We felt the same way about UNC. Sorry about South Carolina. Went to grad school there many years. Enjoyed my experience.

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Wheaton College (MA): UP

This was my son’s first college visit & he thought it was great. Pretty campus (green quad, pond with a bridge over it, flowering trees), well-organized admissions office, & friendly & funny student panel/tour guides. Open curriculum, which my son likes. They give a lot of merit aid to a lot of students; they also have additional funds available to support summer research & internships (our guide spent 6 weeks in Kenya shadowing physicians; Wheaton paid for her travel/room & board/program fees). Not much to walk to from campus, but Wheaton has its own (free) transport system that will take students anywhere within 20 miles (you can schedule it like an Uber through an app). All the students we met talked, unprompted, about the events & festivals on campus almost every weekend. Students were casually dressed & very down to earth.

So many New England LACs have such low acceptance rates & such high COAs; Wheaton seems like a good option for those who want that small school experience but need merit aid to make it work.

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Visited Wheaton last year, I thought it was a great campus and I was impressed with the tour. D23 was a little bothered by how small Norton was as a town (she’s looking for a more urban setting), which eventually put her off the school. But if a kid is good with Norton, Wheaton seems to me like a great place to attend.

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Someone suggested I should post here, and I’m happy to be helpful. This is the original thread. I was asking about what it might be like for a trans woman at Bryn Mawr, but we also viewed Haverford and Swarthmore, and I talked about our impressions of the three schools. I don’t think you’d need to be trans to find something of interest in the subjective reviews.

In short–Bryn Mawr definitely won out due to the beauty of the campus, genuine friendliness of everyone we met, sense of community, interesting traditions, and quirkiness.

But it also feels like you get two to three schools in one since you are so close to Haverford and semi close to Swarthmore.

Other schools we have visited and liked are Brandeis (kind of similar vibe to Bryn Mawr but co-ed with Jewish history) and VCU arts (because suddenly my kid decided she might like art school). She also liked Tufts, but I really think that had to do a lot with a great tour guide and the story about Jumbo the elephant.

Schools we’re visited and she didn’t like–Northeastern and BU (both TOO in a big city), UVA (she spent part of a summer there…but we haven’t toured…just think it’s too big, sporty and Greek, and not CLOSE enough to a big city), and William and Mary. We really wanted to like it but didn’t.

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