Both Colgate and BC are full of mainstream, bright, social kids. Small classes. Strong alumni bases and career centers. Both have dance and other ECs she’d like. Pretty campuses. Happy kids.
I’ve had more than one NE friend tell me there’s a lot of overlap on the kids who apply to both schools.
I wanted to weigh in on the liberal comments about Richmond. My son is a freshman, and though it’s really hard for me to weigh in on the social comments because of the strangeness of this COVID year… I will say my son is liberal, and has found it to be a great environment in that regard. No issues during the recent elections–his impression was that the school actually felt very liberal to him. That said, we are all troubled by the naming issues happening on campus right now!
I know there are liberal kids at Richmond but some that we know are pretty unhappy with the surrounding areas and the UR board of directors and president.
Hey, I take umbrage with that! 
The current Covid heat map has NY and MA as being the riskiest. CA is in the least risky category.
I feel there are a lot of similarities in the student bodies/types of kids at Colgate and BC. Friendly, smart, social, work hard, serious but not to serious kids who also like to have fun. Both schools have spirit, a strong sense of community and very strong alum networks. More similarities than differences in the student population. Biggest difference is location and lac vs somewhat more pre professional environment. Homerdog’s D has not expressed much of a preference for city vs rural so I think she can see herself at both. I think the family’s strong experience with their son at a lac, gives Colgate the edge. I know a bunch of kids who had the same choice to make. Tough choice.
But there are no kids on SCU or LMU campus (well a few on SCU campus now) and visits are sad. Have to drive around LMu and SCU is just self tour. We need to see more than that to send her out there. And I’m not convinced CA Covid rules aren’t going to stick around in fall.
I know you’re ready to be done but Newsom Targets June 15 for California to Fully Reopen
Not too late for SCU! 
Oh for sure, just pointing how different students will feel differently about the vibe at a school.
I have heard the same complaints about two schools my S21 is considering, yet he loves the vibe at those schools.
My D went back to school this week. And I have my 1st vaccination appt. tomorrow morning, which I thought would never happen. Gyms and restaurants (indoor) are open at reduced capacity. Personally, I think everything will be normal by the start of the new school year.
LMU gave your D a huge scholarship, and Honors IIRC, I’d reconsider and blow-up this thread with a few thousand more posts. 
I would like to change my vote to Colgate, but before I can do so I need to switch from Colgate to BC so that I can recast my vote for Colgate from BC.
Serious Question:
Are we voting between Colgate University and Boston College or between Colgate University and the city of Boston ?
Hey I’m a stranger on the internet just basing my opinion of your daughter’s wants based on your posts. In general the initial vibe was a fun, spirited school in a warm climate with an active social scene, not particularly intellectual and not religious. Football games and greek life a plus. Colgate in frigid upstate NY with a pretty small and remote campus (albeit beautiful) just doesn’t resonate with that initial vibe. BC, perhaps more so except for the religion and still cold environment. As I said the process has been interesting. I think COVID has really changed the search as there was little ability for great first hand experiences so in many ways there becomes a default to schools where you know more people so can at least get feedback. I wish her the best of luck on her decision and a fabulous college experience.
Yes.
Fun social scene (both BC and Colgate have that)
Warm weather (couldn’t find a school that was the right vibe for her in warm weather - either too conservative, too tricky socially with wealthy NE girls in the sororities dominating, or in CA where we can’t visit)
Not particularly religious (Colgate clearly works here and she has friends at BC who are atheists and said it’s not an issue)
Not overly intellectual (i think BC and Colgate also check these boxes - they aren’t U Chicago or Swat).
That covers everything you thought she wanted. It hasn’t changed.
Couple questions for Homerdog-
Did you find visits were much help during Covid or do you think her decisions came more from talking to current students? Seems like Richmond & Wake were beautiful but in talking to students, your D didn’t like the vibe so just curious how helpful or unhelpful you thought the visits ultimately were.
Do you think test optional was a big plus for your daughter? I know at the beginning of this journey she wasn’t getting a score that your felt was competitive for some of these schools. Or was her intention to keep taking the tests and then covid hit.
I’m still sticking with BC! She has done an amazing job in this very difficult admission cycle.
I think the visits were somewhat helpful but it was really the lineup of students I found to talk to her. We didn’t just talk to one or two kids. We talked to multiple kids and I talked to parents. We tried to talk to kids from our town if we could but short of that found kids from neighboring towns or kids of friends of ours. It’s hard to pick up on vibe right now on campuses and reading reviews here or elsewhere from people you don’t know is only so helpful.
And TO was huge for her. Her scores were below the 50th percentile for Wake, UR, BC, Colgate, Davidson, Lehigh. Maybe she could have scored higher in a non-Covid year but who knows.
I think demonstrated interest was big. I think her school is well known by these schools and they know our kids are prepared for college. Her weighted GPA was in the green area for all of the colleges on her list. I’m sure they know she can be successful.
And I know people think essays and recs only say so much but I think they played a small part too. Very specific in their praise.
What a wonderful piece to a recommendation! And a great gift for the AO to share that with her!
I’m shocked about Richmond especially since you two seemed to like Wake which is similar in student body and politics (i.e these are not liberal campuses 
)
I’m 0-2 (thought Vandy waitlist acceptance & Richmond).
Maybe I’ll be right the third time when she picks the wonderful city of Boston and BC.
If we could go back in time pre CV-19, the CA colleges might have been seriously in play…
I’m curious why Tulane or Miami (FL) never made the list? Maybe I missed it. I would’ve thought Miami would’ve checked a lot of boxes. Our friend’s D is graduating this year. Loved it.
Based on this statement, I vote for BC. And I vote for the dismissal of the Colgate rep who shared this statement–unless confidentiality was waived.
Not that it matters anymore, but my daughter’s CA campus has had kids on campus all year, since last fall. Not the whole student body, but freshmen and sophomores and some upperclassmen. Most classes have been remote, but this week they started have more classes in person, though it’s still pretty limited. The football team is playing (their conference postponed their season from fall to spring) and just started allowing spectators recently. We also found out a week ago that my graduating daughter will be having an in person graduation, though limited to 2 guests per grad. Just mentioning this to point out that not all CA campuses are closed.
I never saw her reaction to the Colgate campus. Did I miss it? I know there were some things about the BC campus she didn’t like.