@1art1science I’m sad that, while at Alabama, you didn’t get the opportunity to visit with Dean Sharpe of the Honors College or some professors or the Dean of whichever academic college your DD is interested. Since you mention the guaranteed scholarships at Ole Miss, I assume she is eligible at Bama, as well. If things change, and you talk her into another visit, be SURE to visit with the honors college and ask specifically to see Dean Sharpe!
@homerdog , my D was going to attend Kenyon until recently. She also was WLed at Carleton, which was her favorite. She loved Kenyon though. I don’t know why everyone gets so worried about the tiny town when there is a real town five minutes away and Columbus just an hour away. There are very few LACs actually right near a real city, and good luck getting into them. Swarthmore and Haverford come to mind.
I don’t know if your child is a junior, senior, or already in college, but here is what my D certainly realized about most LACs, and college in general: kids spend most of their time on campus, even if they do go to Swarthmore (which we visited.) They might love the easy access of a city, but they probably spend 95% of their time at the college. These colleges offer so much to do, their friends are there, their food is there, their homes are there. I can’t tell you how many students we talked to who all said the same thing, “I hardly/never go into ________, because I am so busy here. My friends hardly/never go either.”
Swarthmore and Haverford both fell off the list after visiting. Both were just too small, and frankly, too difficult to get into. And she really disliked Haverford. She thought the honor code thing was so precious, and that the campus was hugely excessive for just 1200 students.
@londondad Georgetown is beautiful, no homeless, and had the sort of that confident swagger that knew they were the real deal. GW just felt like a campus obnoxious wannabes—lots of New Jersey frat and sorority personalities.
@Lindagaf We have a S19 and a D21. And I agree that kids usually stay on campus. I went to Northwestern and, even with Chicago a quick and easy train ride away, we hardly ever went. I went once freshman year with some dorm-mates to play tourist and then didn’t go back until senior year when I was 21 and we could get into bars!
What @Lindagaf said. (As usual.) For my kid, the lack of appeal of Kenyon was just a mood thing. It felt precious to him, so he didn’t want to spend four years there. But as a practical matter? Doesn’t really matter that the town is that small. And it’s lovely. And it was a breath of fresh air after the school we’d visited just before, so our first impression was actually excellent … it just didn’t stick.
Loving this thread! Especially since S18 has way too many school on his list! Here is the result of our spring/summer college visits…
Wisconsin, Madison-son really liked it, I not so much. VERY big and NO parking-didn’t set the right tone right from the start. I could not find parking anywhere and was almost late for the info session. Walking tour was very hot and very long-no offer of water or anything. Tour guide didn’t take us to the waterfront, which I would consider the jewel of the campus. We did not see a dorm room either. At the end, it stayed on son’s list, but moved way down on mine!
Michigan State-very nice. Surprisingly, I thought this would be just another large university, but it was very walkable and pretty. Stayed very high on all of our lists.
Dayton-Very nice! pretty campus, nice buildings and facilities. Love the “neighborhoods” and the fact that 96% of students live on campus (due to the availability of these “off campus/on campus” houses). Good size, city nearby. Overall excellent.
Butler-moved down. Possibly due to son realizing that he wants a bit bigger school, partly due to a disorganized tour. Campus is under a lot of construction too, which could be part of it.
College of William and Mary-very beautiful. Lovely info session and facilities. Tour was HOT, but it’s Williamsburg in the summer! It has moved off of son’s list, mostly because of distance and majors. VERY nice though!
Xavier U.-very nice! Felt much bigger than it is, with modern buildings and facilities. Very nice, clean and pretty.
Marquette-Nice. Campus was better than we thought, with more quad-like areas than we thought. Will visit again when students are there for a better campus feel.
Still to see-SLU, Villanova, Miami of Ohio and Iowa… Son would also love to go to Syracuse or TCU, but we are feeling it might be too far…any thoughts on those schools?
@porcupine98 Agree with the student’s reaction to a “mood” on campus. My younger one, who spent a lot of time at Kenyon, didn’t apply to removed Kenyon in part, because of what he perceived as preciousness or self-consciousness among students (it also didn’t offer ceramics as part of Studio Art, which was another strike against it). At the end of his search, it wasn’t the right environment for him, but perfect for others. Same kid felt at absolutely at home at Grinnell, but couldn’t get off Oberlin campus quickly enough. In contrast, his older brother who had also visited all three, had entirely different reactions – loved Oberlin, found Grinnell too precious, and Kenyon way too small (and ultimately realized he wanted BIG, not a LAC, sorry mom). Their experiences make me a big fan of getting on campus, especially for smaller schools, to see how it feels for that kid. And figuring out what doesn’t feel right is an important step along the way to identifying what does.
@Irishcali We did not do formal tour of Miami of Ohio, but drove around while we were in the area for a weekend event. Lovely campus – largely brick and column-style buildings, very striking. Iowa is also a neat school, campus sits on both sides of the Mississippi River, with the health sciences and athletic facilities on one side, and the arts and business buildings on the other. You can determine whether your kid will be admitted, and get merit, by entering data on the Regents’ Admission Index on the website, if you have unweighted gpa, test scores, and class rank.
@stressedmum1 I’m sorry but a comment that there’s “no homeless” on a campus . . . . I mean . . . what does that say . . . . ? What does that even mean? I find that comment shocking to say the least. No homeless. I guess to each his or her own. But that sounds like: Panic zone! Shelter my precious snowflake from seeing poverty! Poverty doesn’t exist! Look away! Look away! I mean never should a student see that social problem first hand. What if snowflake maybe goes and works with homeless?
Should a campus clear out people with no homes? So that they can maintain that “special swagger” to know it’s the “real deal”? Should people shoo them away from any place that’s “nice” enough for special snowflakes?
re Wisconsin. Parking- not a negative since students usually do not have cars. Yes, big- and beautiful. The Lakeshore path is to be enjoyed on your own, it would have added more time and not much to the tour. Hope you took the time to be on the lakeshore and the Memorial Union. The dorms are so varied seeing one would not have meant much- current Res Halls website has great room views of all dorms, complete with student messes. It’s summer so open dorms will be populated by summer program students/adults.
UW is so much nicer than Marquette- great campus for students to spend time on. Plus- so much more academically.
Some schools are large enough the tour needs to be long just to cover various areas. Nice to be at a place you don’t run out of places to discover and explore. Students tend to spend their time in the areas with their classes and may never see all of the campus. Much more interesting to me than a place where you easily get to know the entire campus quickly.
I agree that UW-Madison is a great school, offering strong academics, a wonderful campus and city, and a depth of opportunities. We have a son (class 2019) who is academically thriving there and is engaged in outside activities. He wanted a large campus vs. a LAC and he made the right choice.
@Midwestmomofboys: The Univ. of Iowa straddles the IOWA River, not the Mississippi. It is a lovely campus, but river flooding did “a job” on Hancher Auditorium, the art building and the student union several years ago.
I’m surprised about your visit to Alabama, 1art1science. The tour was the very last thing I did at like 3:30. Here was my schedule.
8:00 meet with admission lady. She gave me my itinerary for the day and a map with my spots highlighted. Along with a bag and information pamphlets.
9:00 Met with college of engineering. Aerospace professor and a senior undergrad.
10:30 Meeting with Honors College. Was introduced to the whole staff including Dean of Honors
12:00 Had lunch with Engineering followed by a full tour of their labs including wind tunnel.
2:00 Went to their MBD office and reviewed the program with professor.
3:30 Did the tour.
Even though I wasn’t it felt like VIP treatment.
Oops, @MinnesotaDadof3. my bad on the river at Iowa., We visited around 2011, with older kid, knew there had been flooding before then.
And @Irishcali – another happy UW parent here. Campus is HUGE, no way to do it justice in an hour or so tour. The beauty of campus is its diversity – kids who want busy, more urban experience have Southeast neighborhood and those wanting more bucolic and green have Lakeshore. We have been very impressed by the administration and the academics – things “work” at UW, people respond to emails, address administrative issues etc, and the academics are phenomenal, my kid has had inspiring faculty, close mentoring. Still a bargain for OOS family as compared to large privates, for a full pay family like mine.
@nitro11 - yes, something was just a miss on this one. Nothing set-up right. It might have been our sign-up, but nothing else set up. Alabama is beautiful.
Interestingly D’s older cousin had the same reaction a year earlier. One step on campus and deterimed it wasn’t for him. He’s at SC Honors now.
Could be their extended family are all Clemson fans. LOL. You never know when the feeling will hit.
What does "precious"mean?I’m trying to get context cues, but I can’t figure it out.
The more posters that describe Kenyon, the more I think my daughter will love it. I guess I didn’t know how small a a town I live in, sounds just like Kenyon. My daughter also loves getting free t-shirts and cookies.
@1art1science Don’t feel bad about the U Alabama reaction. My middle son felt the same way - way too much emphasis on sports for him. He particularly didn’t appreciate being told, “If you aren’t a sports fan when you come here you will be when you leave,” and “‘Everyone’ tailgates before football games,” etc. He still applied there as a safety, but was glad when a couple of other options came in affordable that he liked better (and he still hasn’t attended a football game where he’s at, but many don’t, so he’s not unusual).
I’m sure many kids appreciate sports, but my guys just aren’t among them. It’s probably genetic.
I would suggest that anyone interested in Kenyon, make sure to do an overnight visit before deciding. My niece was admitted and had really liked her initial visit, but she couldn’t leave campus soon enough after she went there for a weekend visit for admitted students. Her host and the other students on the hall spent one night drinking and smoking pot, basically leaving my niece and another pre-frost sitting stunned in the room. The students showed each other their new nipple piercings and told my niece that the school was great because the RA let them party and the classes were not hard.
Small schools with not a lot going on can end up becoming very alcohol and drug focused so you have to be careful. My niece’s experience may have been a one off, but I recently heard of another student having a similar experience at Kenyon.
By the way, my niece filled out a requested feedback form after her visit and told the school what had happened and she received no response.
@desie1 For my kids, “precious” meant students who were self-consciously aware of how special they were, how special the environment was – a sense of exceptionalism. Mine didn’t thrive in that kind of environment, and so looked elsewhere – all very subjective and specific to each kid. Not sure if that helps!
@Midwestmomofboys Thanks for the explanation! I had no idea what it meant, except that it had a negative connotation. My own children had never heard the term either so I was curious.
1 Like