<p>Lassie3 -
My daughter was sort of an anomaly for CC - she only applied to 4 schools. WashU, Notre Dame, and two that were offering her four year free rides due to NMF. We visited all of them in depth TWICE and WashU won out in the end. She wanted to apply to Notre Dame because although her ideas may be liberal, her morality is not. She liked the idea of single sex dorms and even the idea of parietals didn’t bother her. Also, they have a wonderful new science building and a new performing arts building. On our first visit, we had never encountered such a warm student body. Kids just walking across campus would stop and ask if we had questions, and stayed to answer them. The second visit was more in-depth and she just found several particulars more to her liking at WashU. We asked her to consider Northwestern, but she just didn’t seem interested. I think she read somewhere that Greek life ruled and that wasn’t appealing to her. My nephew is at NW, is not involved in Greek life and LOVES it there. She also considered University of Chicago, but I think the “where fun goes to die” reputation scared her off. I am not sure why it would because all she does at WashU is study! She found the academics lacking at the two “free ride” schools. So, that was her journey and reasoning, strange as it may be!</p>
<p>We also visited Duke (and UNC since it was close), but it wasn’t what she was looking for and she didn’t apply.</p>
<p>WashU fits her so well because she wanted to be challenged to the max. She wanted to be able to double major and minor (which she is doing in science and a foreign language with music on the side). They have a wonderful major called P-N-P (philosophy-neuroscience-psychology) which she loves – sort of like one major letting your deeply explore three areas. She is surrounded by kids who in her words, “Think like no one I’ve ever been around before” (she attended a very mediocre public h.s.) and she is. A conversation or e-mail might start with, "I just had the most interesting conversation with this girl from France…Today I helped this guy from Hong Kong tune his instrument…”, experiences this little girl from the Midwest has never had before.</p>
<p>I also want to mention that we have a very wise older friend in town who adores our daughter. She herself had three daughters who attended Duke, NW, and Rice. She was on my D constantly about St. Olaf – she absolutely loves the school! My D gave brief consideration to visiting, but was worried that since music is a big part of the school, her ability on her instrument might not be up to the level of others and she might not have been able to play in their orchestra. I don’t think she would have had anything to worry about, but some had cautioned her to watch out for that. This lady’s daughter plays in a large city’s symphony and recently went to St. Olaf for their Christmas concerts with a friend. She came back and reported to her mother, “That is the most homogenous place I have ever been. I definitely felt like I stuck out like a sore thumb not being a blonde!” She was exaggerating, but a funny story!</p>