This thread seems to be once again veering off the question of “Colleges your child crossed off the list after visiting, schools that moved up on the list.” Perhaps start a new thread on the question of residential requirements for LACs.
Things ebb and flow on this thread but it always veers back. It’s about colleges after all and why some are on lists and some aren’t.
“As parents does it scare you when colleges can’t assure you of 4 yrs of on-campus housing? I like the idea of apts and houses for the older students, but I don’t love the idea of half the student body living off campus, because of how it affects community and safety issues such as walking home alone at night.”
Yes, this is an important criteria for DD. She will not apply to schools that do not guarantee 4 years of housing.
Two colleges dropped of my D17s list after visiting.
Carleton. Our tour guide pointed out one of the dorms where students pledge not to drink or do drugs, and laughingly called it the Nunnery. For my young junior at the time who isn’t a partier, this was an immediate turn off.
Mount Holyoke. Very beautiful, very remote. D17 met a student on campus who was very excited to meet a Prospie. Showed D her dorm, talked to her about how much she loved the school. I loved it, D did not.
Two instant “no ways” that have nothing to do with academics, just a gut feeling.
@wisteria100 GW got rid of their dining hall? How is that working out? D17 just visited there (without me) and loved the campus.
ON: GWU - Great vibe, nice facilities.
OFF: Rutgers: Classrooms and dorm rooms were dark and dreary. Campus is so spread out, busing is available but if you have to go from one end to the other in rush hour, students say it can be an hour. There was a lounge in the dorm room where the guide mentioned students spend a lot of time and study - there were only 4 seats - a love seat and two chairs. Hmmm
Housing: D prefers guaranteed housing - less worry for us and a nice way to meet people.
“Carleton. Our tour guide pointed out one of the dorms where students pledge not to drink or do drugs, and laughingly called it the Nunnery. For my young junior at the time who isn’t a partier, this was an immediate turn off.”
I actually think that is pretty funny but I love Carleton. 
“GW got rid of their dining hall? How is that working out?”
Here’s a thread on it with some complaints.
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/george-washington-university/1919036-no-traditional-cafetaria-on-campus-p1.html
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I have a D who is a senior, and we have started touring some midwest schools. As all of the schools on her list will provide a good education, I think D’s decision will come down to the campus and lifestyle of being a student at each of these schools during the next four years. Here is how the schools we have visited measure up right now.
Miami U of Ohio has moved up - For me the drawbacks of this school will always be its location - it feels so isolated. On the other hand, it has one of the most beautiful campuses, with identical looking brick buildings and a lot of trees. We visited on one of the most beautiful days in autumn. So it was no surprise that D really liked the pretty campus. But she was also impressed with the dorm rooms. Like a page out of a PB catalog, the rooms are all double occupancy, and either renovated or in the midst of being updated, with light gray walls, white woodwork, and new brown wood floors. The furniture of brown cherry desks and bunks with drawers fit into the whole PB look. The tour (which also provided a discount for the parking garage) began with a film and was well done. The guide was knowledegable and seemed to really like the school - although I get the sense that there isn’t much to to do at Miami other than recreational activities provided by the school such as going to watch a hockey game or a swim meet, the first two facilities we visited on the walking tour. Tuition appears to be comparable to OSU, (although I’m not sure about the surcharge on business credits and still researching that issue) however there is some concern that stats seem to have slipped in the last few years, making it an easier school to get into.
Purdue has moved up - Another very isolated school. However, unlike Miami, it has a very large campus and seems to be growing with a lot of new construction. While there are some dated buildings such as the underground library and the student union, both which D hated, there are a lot of new modern buildings. The tour however was poorly executed and largely inadequate. This may have been due to the fact that it was early fall, and they don’t provide a full tour on these days. We didn’t get to see the dorm, or inside the cafeteria or a classroom. After the guide took us to the middle of the engineering section of campus, and pointed out a few buildings, we were left there to find our way back to the parking garage ourselves. We ended up walking the campus ourselves, getting lost at times, but discovered a lot of things about it that D liked. There is a nice Greek area of frat and sorority houses. There are some nice modern dorms with coffee lounges on the first floor. There are numerous bike and walking paths, and although we crossed over almost the entire campus, it never seemed like we had to cross over any major roads. D also loved the possibility of walking on to an athletic team, and competing for a D1 without having to be a scholarship recruit. We also ran into an assistant coach there who was very kind and more than willing to spend 15 minutes or so showing us around and telling us a bit about the sports programs which really impressed us.
OSU might be moving down - Although this is my D’s dream school, the downside has always been the crime (although OSU has done a great job cleaning up off campus), traffic, and those tiny freshman dorms!. However, D loved the tour (which D said was like disney world compared to all of the other ones we had been on, with the funny jokes, the souvenir Buckeyes, the coupons and parking discount…they really made us feel welcome and wanting to join this elite Buckeye club). We will see if the dorms are a deal breaker…
Other schools on her list that we still need to visit:
IU, Penn State, possibly Case Western, and Univ of Dayton.
Stephen F. Austin State University pretty much came off the list after a visit last Wednesday. D18 “It’s ‘FINE’. I do not like all the trees, I felt stuffy the whole time I was there. The dorms are nice. The buildings are nice. The new student center is nice. But ehhh, there was nothing about it that made me think THIS IS IT, but its fine”.
D18 has already said no to:
Tech Tech - Lubbock and the “party” atmosphere
U of H - to close to home
Texas State U - just no
Still need to check out:
UT-San Antonio
Tarleton State
D18 is in the top 12% of large (75 of 619)of her Suburban HS graduating class (4.89 GPAw, no test scores yet)…so no UT-Austin and possibly no TAMU and trying desperately to identify something in state that would be good.
^^^ I’ve never heard anyone complain about too many trees on a campus in the state of Texas!
@jaycbee D loved Miami U of Ohio campus as well – beautiful and outstanding tour. We too are worried about the remote location and the odd extra charges (also in the business school). It certainly moved up on her list after visiting.
@GnocchiB - I know right! Stephen F Austin State U mascot is the Lumberjacks. There is actually quite a bit of logging done in the area around Nagadoches, TX. Neat little tradition - they give the freshmen an AXE handle to decorate.
^^^ I had no idea! I grew up in Dallas and never knew what real trees were until I went to college 1300 miles away!
ETA: maybe with the lumberjack mascot and axe swag the surfeit of trees won’t continue to be a problem?
"Stephen F. Austin State University pretty much came off the list after a visit last Wednesday. D18 “It’s ‘FINE’. I do not like all the trees, I felt stuffy the whole time I was there. The dorms are nice. The buildings are nice. The new student center is nice. But ehhh, there was nothing about it that made me think THIS IS IT, but its fine”.
D18 has already said no to:
Tech Tech - Lubbock and the “party” atmosphere
U of H - to close to home
Texas State U - just no
Still need to check out:
UT-San Antonio
Tarleton State
D18 is in the top 12% of large (75 of 619)of her Suburban HS graduating class (4.89 GPAw, no test scores yet)…so no UT-Austin and possibly no TAMU and trying desperately to identify something in state that would be good."
Your kids list and stats mirrors my sons. We visted all the schools on your list and my son ended up at Texas State. He thought SFA was just to small for him. UT San Antonio feels alot like UofH while Tarleton State feels much like SFA. UNT is not on your list but it feels like Texas State. At least he did to us. Enjoy the school search process.
@doschicos Thanks for the link, very helpful
Took my niece on a whirlwind tour this summer, visiting Pomona, Scripps, Pitzer, UCLA, and Berkeley. We then hit the East Coast (where we live) visting Barnard/Columbia, Bennington, Wesleyan, Smith and Mount Holyoke. Her views (not mine):
Claremont: Off the three we visited, she liked Scripps the best but overall found them too small. I was also surprised she didn’t like the area. She much preferred UCLA saying it felt “busier”.
Smith/Mount Holyoke: Found them too isolated and was disappointed that they weren’t closer together. She also was disappointed when some students told her that a major limitation to taking courses at one of the other colleges was the time required to get back and forth.
Bennington: Too small. Just not for her. Ditto Wesleyan. She didn’t like the campus and that did it.
Berkeley/Barnard/Columbia: These wound up her top choices. She liked the “buzz” on campus and felt their size would enable her to be exposed to many different things. She also liked their urban locations. Berkeley was her first love but she was concerned that it was “too California” as they now cap OOS admissions. I suspect she will be admitted but her interest was that it wouldn’t be as diverse as Columbia/Barnard.
@exlibris97 Thanks for your report! My D also wants that “buzz” on campus. She is applying to Scripps and Pitzer but never visited there so she was wondering how they feel “busy” and energetic.
She applied Barnard ED. I guess your niece and my D want the same kind of feel from the colleges.
@HiToWaMom We visited Claremont colleges over summer. While my DC loved Harvey Mudd, kid felt they had picked up two or three office buildings and placed them inside a leafy tree lined sub division in a suburban town somewhere. It was summer too, so everything was super quiet. The staff the faculty and the facilities were al fabulous
But overall it felt like it wouldn’t look like a “university” after 4 in the afternoon. Extremely quiet upscale neighborhood. The 5? colleges are all spread out. It was a super hot August day. We did Uber from hotel to campus…so we walked atleast two miles in 100F weather to a strip mall to find food. The market place looked great, reminded me of an old town, with tall columns and tiny twin glass door store fronts. Many restaurants were closed for summer? I think… so finding vegetarian food was quite hard.
Some of the trees on campus must be atleast 100 years old. They were ginormous and so made the street look darker even at 2 PM.
Didn’t feel like “LA” to us.
We visited USC and some colleges on the east coast also during summers but none of them felt so isolated and quiet and “upscale neighborhood” like
Crossed off after visiting:
- Clemson - 45 minutes away from the nearest small city, their “town” was literally two blocks. If you want an urban feel don’t bother checking it out unless you are willing to drive to Greenville every time you want to go downtown.
- Florida State - Campus was beautiful but the tour was terrible and everyone there was very pretentious. They literally said to my group that if you don’t apply that’s fine because they get the best students anyways.
- NC State - I expected this to be my number 1 school but once I got there something in my gut said “no, no, no” Really beautiful campus and I would recommend to anyone considering a STEM major.
- Furman - Too small, very beautiful campus though. They like to say that they are on the same level as Harvard and Princeton…lol. A drug deal went down while we were touring housing which kind of sealed Furman’s fate.
- UNC Wilmington - Campus was less than pretty, tour was average, very little diversity.
Bumped up after visiting:
- USF - Was VERY impressed by the tour. Campus is modern and beautiful and they have so many amenities to students that attend there. Everyone was very nice, friendly, and proud to be there. Did not expect to like it as much as I did.
- University of South Carolina - I wanted to hate it, since it is my state school and so close to home. The campus is beautiful and everyone is very friendly. Still not my first choice since I want to be near a bigger city. Anyone considering international business I would highly recommend that you check it out, its like the #1 school for that and everyone seems to leave with a job after school.
- App State - Everyone was so excited to go there and happy! Campus is beautiful but hilly. The school gives a lot back to the community which I really liked. Not urban, which is my only big flaw with the school.
Most of the schools I’m applying to I have yet to visit (Pitt, Minnesota, Syracuse, BU, UNC-CH) so this thread is very helpful! Thanks to all who are posting.
@BoiDel - I found this statement quite ironic. One can walk from one end of the 5C’s to another end in about 20 minutes. My kids have friends at large universities that complain it takes them that long just to walk from their dorm or parking lot to get anywhere close to a classroom.
@meganewarren, not to mention that USF has world-class theme and water parks just barely down the road from the edge of campus. (Walking distance on a good-weather day, in fact.) For those who care about those sorts of campus amenities, who needs an on-campus lazy river or climbing wall, anyway? 