Ha here is the final list. Rules were: great astronomy program, not too small or remote, blue states only:
Northwestern (ED), Tufts, Wesleyan, Amherst (though much Astro would be at UMass Amherst), Harvard, UPenn, BU, CU Boulder, UToronto, UMD College Park, UWashington Seattle, Vassar, Brown.
My super kind, relaxed, somewhat nerdy/introverted OOS kid is at UCSC and selected it bc of his area of study (not astronomy, but in STEM). He said that the people are nice and the food is good. He came from boarding school so I trust these observations. I was astounded by the stunning natural beauty of the campus. UCSC is not the rah-rah Greek life - socially intense/big sports/faux-gothic quadrangle kind of college experience(not that there is anything wrong with that) so if a kid is ok with that, it might be a good fit. There are housing issues, prob similar to UMiami (another school he applied to), but so far itâs been great.
Thank you and best of luck to your student!
Thread update - the kid is heading to Northwestern! Thanks to all!
@relaxmon, Not sure if youâre still on these boards, but my senior is following the same track as your kiddo (hoping to double major in Astronomy and Theater!) Trying to decide between ED at Northwestern or Brown. I know itâs early days for your student, but howâs it going so far at Northwestern? (I hope theyâre having a great experience so far!) What led them to ED at NW over Brown or other schools?
Hi! No I am not on the boards any more but got an email about your post so came back to respond! Northwestern just started so too early to say much though my son loves it so far. He was also deciding whether to ED Northwestern or Brown (among a few others). I think Northwestern won out over Brown for several reasons - N has a culture of it being extremely easy and common to double major including between different schools and due to the quarter system you can take many more classes (understood there are also downsides to the quarter system). Also Evanston is a wonderful college town but it is very close to a great vibrant city - he couldnât get past the remoteness of providence from a real city.
In any case both are great schools you canât go wrong with! Good luck!
Thank you for coming back and replying. I really appreciate it! Itâs helpful to hear different perspectives on this big decision. Wishing your son a wonderful four years!