A couple things I forgot about Middlebury:
- The buildings have a more “modern” feel than you might expect
- The campus smells like a farm (not just manure. it has that farm smell. iykyk)
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This is a fantastic rundown @tweee and completely in spirit with the thread! I believe that we were discussing Middlebury on another post. Hope you continue to enjoy your process!
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3 posts were merged into an existing topic: Off-Topic Discussion from “Colleges Crossed Off List or Moved Up After Visiting”
Boston College - UP - Beautiful campus. Close to Boston but not in Boston.
U Michigan - DOWN - The campus had some litter. There were letters peeling off of some building names. The mix of building styles was a turn off. You need a shuttle bus to get to the other campus.
UNC - DOWN - Similar to UM with litter and unspectacular campus.
W&M - DOWN - The town is shared with a major tourist attraction so the focus isn’t 100% on the school. We were actually told to park in the Colonial Williamsburg parking lot not the W&M parking lot.
Purdue - UP - Beautiful, clean campus. Kids all hanging out having a good time. Nice college town adjacent to campus.
Wake Forest - DOWN - Nice campus but no adjacent college town.
Dartmouth - DOWN - Just a bad vibe. Nothing special. Went to the bathroom during the tour, lost the tour group, didn’t even care and just left.
UVA/ND/Northwestern/Duke/Brown - No CHANGE - All very nice as expected.
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Toured UTulsa this morning: up!
Important note: I’m a National merit finalist, so everything was seen through the lens of “they will literally pay me a few thousand dollars a year to go here.” My perspective might have been different without that.
I will admit, going into the tour I was thinking of it as my not that great backup school that I would be sad to attend if it was my best option. I was wrong.
Today is the OU-Tulsa game, so campus was hype! My dad and I drove up, they told us where to park, and two very nice girls (who I later found out were tour guides for another group) took us in a golf cart to the admissions center since we had to park far away. They were both premed (like I plan to be) and had lots of great things to say about Tulsa premed. We also saw a guy riding around in a giant (2 cars on top of each other height) motorized grocery cart while blasting music? Interesting. There seemed to be some tailgating type event across the street from the admissions center with live music, which I loved. We didn’t go to it, but it was nice to know that type of stuff was on campus. Also, since I’m sure Tulsa is going to lose that game (no offense), it was nice to see there is still school spirit for the football team. The campus was very pretty. Loved that there are campus cats and little houses for them. The academics seem fine, probably really good for petroleum engineering. Seemed like the engineering program in general was strong, which is a good sign to me even though I’m not in engineering because I plan to major in physics. The gym looked really nice. One great thing was that the freshman dorm they showed us had a Jack and Jill bathroom, and so did all the dorms in that building! So only 4 to the bathroom. That’s awesome for a freshman dorm. I’m really grateful and fortunate that my free “backup” college is so nice! It takes a lot of stress off of applications.
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We just did a few visits:
Wheaton College (MA) -UP- was already a fan favorite but the visit took it into huge crush territory. My kid is an average stats one, so it’s her reach school, and I hope I don’t regret taking her to visit if it doesn’t work out, since that’s just so much farther to fall, heartbreak wise! Beautiful campus, warm and friendly staff, it felt very HER.
Roger Williams University - DOWN/OFF - yes they have an art major, but you’d never know it walking around the campus. Lovely people and campus but felt more finance/sports than a good fit for an art major. Sterile, modern campus, no public art around (which was a noticeable difference from Wheaton) etc. The plan was to apply before visiting and the visit was a last minute addition, and visiting took it right off the application list.
Lesley - same, stays on the list but probably ranked #3 behind Wheaton and Endicott. An informal tour by a family friend’s daughter was great, but definitely an empty campus on a Saturday, sounds like it’s a suitcase school for many, but the urban location is neat. Great art facilities and definitely has that art school vibe.
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deleted. Sorry, I forgot what thread this is and my reply to Snappity 207 was off-topic.
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OK, Wake Forest . . . .
Wake (SAME, so pretty good): Info sessions are really blurring together at this point, but Wake was hitting hard on study abroad, small class sizes, and professors being good teachers (coincidence this sort of thing was devalued by US News? you decide). Lots of references to balancing academics with activities and fun traditions. Campus is very nice, coherent, lots of social spaces including in dorms. Off in its own area, and you can tell it was laid out in the post-WII auto era (Wake moved to this location between 1946 and 1956)–old joke about you don’t need a car, but you do need a friend with a car. But campus itself was reasonably compact. Overall S24 liked it, and will apply, but not as an ED school.
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We just did our first two visits with D25, while visiting D23 at Wake.
Davidson - WAY DOWN - D25 thought this was going to be her dream school but thought it looked like her high school but with no fun. She didn’t want to finish the tour. I thought the town was charming fwiw.
Elon - WAY UP - this wasn’t on the radar but thought the kids looked “normal and nice” and that she could be happy there.
We also did our first official Wake tour with her and this one has been WAY UP since her sister took her out to tailgates. She is also intrigued that her sister reports her professors are incredible and one invited a group to dinner.
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Stories along these lines were a big thing on our Wake visit too.
2 posts were merged into an existing topic: Off-Topic Discussion from “Colleges Crossed Off List or Moved Up After Visiting”
We just finished up a quick trip from the PNW to tour 2 SLACs (historically women’s) in western Massachusetts. Impressions:
Mount Holyoke College - MOVED DOWN/OFF the list. MoHo has been on D24’s interest list for about 2 years, since she started thinking about what she was looking for in a college. She even considered EDing at one point based on what she heard but knew she needed to visit in person before deciding. Online and in print, the college presents as a beautiful campus, very LGBTQ friendly, small classes, collaborative environment and excellent classroom experience. Plus both a club sport and walk-on varsity sport she was interested in. Our tour was good despite heavy rain, with an engaged and upbeat guide. Campus is as pretty as online pics and videos portray. But this is one instance where an in-person visit while classes are in session spoke volumes louder than any brochure or online promo materials. My D knows that an excellent academic experience would happen here, but the vibe was way, way off for her. We even had lunch in the dining hall and she came away thinking it would be very hard to find her groove socially. MHC is really a fit school, and yet not a fit for her and she will not apply.
Smith College- MOVED UP/ONTO LIST - truthfully, we only visited because we came from across the country and it’s here, and I suspected it ticked a few boxes for her. We also know a student who attends currently. I had visited with D21 3.5 years ago (she didn’t apply but would have if not for REA acceptance somewhere else) but we weren’t sure D24 had high enough stats to consider (turns out she does). Smith is similar in some ways to MHC, but with a wider range of students geographically and vibe-wise. This is hard to put into words, but D24 said she would not have the same social concerns here, it was a feeling she got from students she observed. Tour was small, personal, and campus was both eclectic architecturally and yet very pretty. She also enjoyed the proximity to Northampton. We stayed for 3 nights in an Airbnb in town and enjoyed the shops, eating out a bunch, the indie movie theater in nearby Amherst, as well the general vibe of the whole place (so many independent bookstores which we loved). She will apply if she doesn’t ED to her in-state SLAC favorite although knows Smith is a reach with lower admit rates in recent cycles.
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Kid is interested in engineering and with a preference of not being in a a city kid is applying to Clemson, Auburn, and VA Tech. With all 3 being ‘big school in a small town’ schools, we decided to visit Rose-Hulman and UA-Huntsville to see different types of non-urban engineering schools.
Kid liked both schools a lot even though they are incredibly different. Rose-Hulman is very small, only 2000 students, but really emphasized internships and their very high job placement rate. They talked about senior projects that actually get used. Kid really liked the idea of getting to do real work. They also have a program where students can earn a Masters in Project Management in 4 years if you start with some credits, which kid will. I don’t know where it will wind up on the list, but after visiting kid’s first response was ‘If this was in the location of InstateTech it would be a no-brainer’. It’s the farthest-away school and it’s not prohibitive, but kid is practical and if it comes down to deciding between equal options then kid will choose the closer location.
The tour at UAH was good and the engineering information session was helpful. When we asked about options for a student who would already have a bunch of credits, they said that it was possible to graduate early or earn a Masters in 4 years, depending on how many credits you have, but another option is that students can intern during the school year. The campus is contained, but part of a huge industrial park. It’s not urban, but there are major engineering firms within a couple of miles so easily drivable and possibly walkable.
I had assumed that these schools would be less appealing than the bigger schools, but we are about to visit one of those big schools for its engineering tour and it’s going to have to bring it’s A game. RH is very focused on getting students hands-on practical experience, and due to its location UAH can offer internships to students who have enough credits done to take a lighter course load. Since kid is coming in with a bunch of AP and DE such that the freshman engineering courses are done, schools that offer good ways to take advantage of that and that encourage real-world work experience will move up on the list. For this particular kid, I’m glad that we waited to do campus visits until we were sure of what the senior year classes would be. When we talk to the engineering advisors, knowing what courses will be be completed is making some unexpected options available. UAH seems very willing to create a customized degree progress plan. Kid is a NMSF, and while cost is not the primary concern the great scholarship that they offer if kid makes NMF is definitely a plus.
As Clemson alums, Clemson is the sentimental favorite. The kids have been on campus many times for ball games so hearing the engineering presentation and finding out about work opportunities is going to be the main priority.
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OK, Carleton:
UP. One of our best visits all around. Short but informative info session, two great guides for tour (one of whom had what might be S24’s own major and minor based on current interests, although Carleton is very committed to exploration before declaring). Basic branding is we take academics very seriously but we are also super nice and active and have all sorts of fun quirky traditions, which is right on point for S24. S24 also really liked Northfield and the campus–it feels nice and spacious for an LAC, and has a nice mix of architecture. S24 was also impressed it seemed like literally everyone had a bike but no car, and the arboretum was appealing. Minnesota also made a good impression generally. Didn’t replace either of the top two schools, but is now up there among the best of the rest.
As a bonus, we did a quick informal/self-guided visit to Macalester (we could not do a formal visit this trip):
SAME (although really an INCOMPLETE). Macalester on paper has similar appeal to Carleton, and the campus was in a great location. It is pretty nice and compact, but did not quite resonate as much with S24. Will stay on application list, but for now Carleton would be higher. If it is a contender after admissions decisions we would probably do a real visit.
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Here’s an outcome I wasn’t expecting, tho I agree with it:
GW - down and out.
S24 tried hard to like it. It was a sunny day and there were students out and about. But the information session and tour were deadly boring. The tour guide spoke “at” us rather than “to” us. The campus itself was disjointed. It felt like a lot of (nice- I think?) buildings and concrete jumbled together. And as much as they tried to sell it, the Vern satellite campus just didn’t sound all that enticing.
After we left, S said he was taking it off the list. I can’t blame him - he already had 14 schools on his list. Glad that now it will be just 13.
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Is your son willing to say why Macalester didn’t resonate as much? I’m interested in it, and not so much in Carleton (too isolated). I keep reading reports that say one is more geeky, and the other less–but they switch the schools around! 
We just did a self-guided walk around Macalester’s campus, so it was purely the physical environment. It is a very subjective thing, but Macalester reminded him of some other more urban campuses he also did not love. Carleton is relatively spread out, it has the artificial lakes, the arboretum, a to him cool mix of buildings, is sort of mixed in with the town in the outer parts of campus . . . . Macalester in contrast seemed compact, sort of inward looking, he didn’t like the architecture quite as much, that sort of thing.
I note I think Macalester’s main campus is about 60 acres, Carleton’s is about 200 in the main campus and then another 800 in the arboretum. They are about the same size in terms of students, and I think the difference in density/space is very obvious. I think for him, he could just see himself biking around Carleton’s campus and the Arb in nice months, playing broomball on the Bald Spot when they flood it in winter, all that stuff. Again, not really fair because we only had a pamphlet for a guide, but there was nothing similar about Macalester’s campus to capture his imagination.
That said, he did like Macalester’s neighborhood. But to him it was fine Carleton was off in a college town since it wasn’t too far away.
I think other people reasonably value Macalester being so central, and are willing to give up all that other stuff about Carleton’s campus for that sort of setting. It is really just a personal thing.
Since we didn’t meet any Macalester kids I cannot comment on them. The Carleton kids who were guides were definitely on brand in that they seemed smart, into academics, but also into the fun traditions, with an Upper-Midwestern sense of self-deprecation about the whole thing.
Interestingly, to me that reads less as geeky and more as just normal smart kids in college. But I was originally from that culture myself, and now having seen colleges in various regions, I kinda get it. Like, there is kinda a preppy vibe at some of the other colleges we have visited that is pretty different. I think there are exceptions–to both of us, Carleton felt an awful lot like William & Mary, say, in terms of student vibe.
But my guess is the big picture truth is these Minnesota LACs probably all do fall more into that sort of vibe than the preppy vibe. And it might well be splitting hairs to try to figure out which is the most Minnesotan LAC of all among them.
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Thank you for the extremely helpful explanation! We’re checking it all out from way down in the Southeast–but my husband’s relatives are from Illinois/Chicago, so at least we have some sort of benchmark.
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2 posts were merged into an existing topic: Off-Topic Discussion from “Colleges Crossed Off List or Moved Up After Visiting”
W&L - Up. S24 was accepted into their DIVE program and was staying at the campus for two days. He was in the second, or third(?), group of students, as the shuttle was waiting for them to arrive and then transport them together.
He was with 11 other students, all from different parts of the country and arrived from different flights/time. Because of this, his group got there late. It was already dinner time as they arrived at the campus.
He said the food was great… Many variety to chose from. Well, all execept the sushi rice which was very mushy.
Since these 12 kids were together waiting at the airport, shuttled and ate together, they kind of bonded and did most of the activities together.
He was roomed with another Asian kid at the Graham-Lees Hall. It was a single room so was pretty tight, as he had to sleep on the floor in a sleeping bed.
The students were very friendly, and the professors very approachable. The classes he had attended were very engaging.
He liked the campus layout and how quiet it was. The area itself was nice (must be because its Fall) At least it has better weather than Austin!
Curently they are constructing two new buildings. So maybe by 2025 there will be more modern looking buildings there.
He said he could see himself attend W&L. Only down side is getting direct. Because there is no direct flight, one has to fly to either Charlotte NC or Dulles DC, then transfer to Charlottesville VA. After that would be an hour drive to Lexington.
Oh, most of the students in the DIVE visit were from Questbridge. There was really only a handful of minority students.
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