Personally, I wouldn’t base my/our decision on any one thing like a phone call, tour guide, attending a class, architecture (either good or bad), etc.
W&L doesn’t have to sell itself? It’s a business, we’re consumers. Just reading the comments about the school, which BTW I’ve never heard of here out on the West Coast, sounds to me like snobbery.
Not sure what caused you to find the institution snobbish by the comments. If you inferred snobbery from my comment, then please know that is simply my opinion. I believe W&L is truly a special place. As I said earlier, it is not for everyone though.
@oldchief78 lots of schools have honor codes and, even at those who don’t have an explicit one, some schools still have implicit ones. Bowdoin does not have one as far as I know. Kids leave computers on tables and leave them. They don’t lock their bikes and just leave their skateboards outside of buildings when they go to class. Same as W&L I assume. Is it still special that kids can exist on a campus like that? Yes. It’s just not exclusive to W&L.
I wouldn’t graft onto “lots of schools” W&L’s honor code based upon the single anecdotal experience of your son across 1 1/2 semesters at an LAC in Maine. That’s truly a false equivalency. There is no doubt in my mind having been with students at Bowdoin that the school has many fine, honorable young men and women.
When you said a school “doesn’t have to sell itself.” That gave me the impression of snobbery. And then there’s the “leaving the $10 bill” proposal. Why not make it $100 or $500?
I assume W&L has a media/public affairs department that advertises their achievements just like other universities. My D21 is looking for universities and receives all sorts of junk mail from top schools (Duke, Chicago, NU, etc.). They’re selling themselves.
I appreciate your affinity for W&L, but that can be said about a lot of schools. While a college decision should be based on many factors, not just phone calls, tour guides, getting into a class, “fit” is always one of them.
FWIW, I can safely say that my D18 and I think her school (Michigan) is a special place, but it’s definitely not for everyone as well. There’s lots of special places out there.
I’ve said my piece and I don’t want to “blow up” this wonderful thread. I’m enjoying @homerdog 's ride.
I completely understand wanting to sit in on a class, especially with ED a possibility at one school. I would not let my D20 apply ED to BC until she participated in their Eagle for a Day program-sitting in on a class, having lunch and visiting a dorm with a current student. It really provides insight that just not feasible during a tour or info session.
My kids didn’t sit in on classes, but things we found especially helpful in looking at schools were; taking notice of flyers and posters in the student center and common areas, looking at the school newspapers, asking the tour guide what is the hot issue on campus right now. Those type of observations can be very telling into evaluating vibe/personality of the school
My daughter only applied to Lacs as well. She found sitting in on the classes very helpful. She was looking for a certain type of instruction. She loves discussion based classes that go deep. Way past the superficial layer. This definitely helped her narrow schools down. She graduates from Beloit College in May and what capped it for her is they pair you up with another student and you actually go to classes for part of the day. She did have a choice of classes that she picked. It was really a great way to “test” the school out. Ate with the student’s etc. They rolled the red carpet out for her. She talked with advisors in the afternoon and some professors. They couldn’t of been nicer. It was extremely well done. As a junior transfer she got the presidential merit which was like half tuition… ?.
D has had her choice of classes as well at the other three schools on the spring break trip. At two schools, you give them a list of majors you’re considering and they send you a list of options (dozens) to choose from. At the other, you contact the chair of the departments you like and they give you a list of classes going on that day. Guess we should have gone to one at BC but it’s not really in the running for possible ED and we knew that. If she had ended up loving it, we would have had her tag along with a friend to go to class. And who knows? Maybe after this trip, she will be more interested in BC and we will need to go back. Weirder things have happened!
If your d decides on applying to Boston College in the end, please sign up for eagle for a day. Current students sign up to host a potential student to sit in on one of their classes and give a personalized behind the scenes of dorms, new facilities, dining halls and libraries.
Also definitely go to a football game on campus with alums, students and bands. It’s really unlike an anything available at any school in New England.
I loved BC & Bowdoin as my dd went through this in 2018. She liked but didn’t love bowdoin. And I have no idea why. It was awesome to me. I loved they had local families adopt the student. And the restaurants in the little town.
Personally, i loved BC too. the big quad , stone buildings and green slate Rooftops. hogwartz type libraries lol.
She liked Georgetown and disliked Wesleyan. She also loved brown but it’s the school across the street for us so not so interesting to me. It’s so funny how different opinions can be even among families.
I would check out Bates when you go back to Maine. It’s great too. Colby is special too.
@privatebanker good advice to visit BC in the fall if she’s still considering it. Eagle for a Day would be important too. I get that a fall trip on a beautiful day with a football game would be amazing.
We’ve been to Colby. It’s a no. She passed on going to Bates so I think I’m just going to let that lie for now
Totally makes sense.
Good luck and I’ll be following you journey!!
@homerdog, what did your D not like about Colby? Just curious…I think there’s almost no chance my D would apply to Maine schools (and if she did, would probably be Bates) but I’ve heard very few personal observations about Colby’s vibe on CC lately.
I would not place much value on visiting a class, or even a few classes. There are hundreds of classes on any given day at any college or university. What is the likelihood that you chance upon a representative one? Too much room to draw a false conclusion based on such a small sample.
I would place much more value on observing and talking with students where they hang out - dining halls, student centers, libraries, outside, wherever.
In the end, most of one’s college experience is going to be defined by the students at the place. Even the tenor, rigor and quality of the classes, to a great extent, will be dependent on the students themselves.
Just my opinion.
@inthegarden We visited Colby in the summer before S19’s senior year. Whole family went. D thought it was just way too far from civilization. Even the town is not close enough to walk to and the airport is so far away. Kids were comparing it to Bowdoin since we saw them one day after the next. Bowdoin had a better town and is 30 min to the airport. Also, small thing but the info session was not good. The student who presented was so scripted and sounded like a machine. And then someone from the financial aid office went on and on about the “average price” that families pay. I thought my H was going to just walk out. He thought that was a totally dumb thing to say to a room full of parents considering half of students at Colby pay full price. The campus was pretty but they kept talking about how kids could live in the town in a new dorm and that made no sense to us since they couldn’t even walk to class.
Anyway, at that time, going all the way to Maine for school was still seeming like a long shot and Colby didn’t really offer anything that a place like Davidson did (which was saw a few months before that) and it didn’t compare favorably to Bowdoin in our eyes either. No offense! I know a lot of kids love it!
Didn’t really fess out the vibe since we were there in the summer. Also, out here in Chicago, a few people know Bowdoin but no one knows Colby. I think that also affected our view of the school. It just seemed like a random choice for this Chicago suburban family when there were so many other options either closer or at least easier to get to. Bowdoin seemed a little random too but S felt a connection there so it stayed on the list…obviously!
@homerdog if you want a place to eat right near Wake’s campus go to Reynolda Village https://www.reynoldavillage.com/. The Village Tavern is good for lunch or dinner and the Penny Path Cafe for coffee and crepes.
@OneMoreToGo2021 I’m not sure if you’re looking at LACs but, like I said, we found that class visits to these small schools does help. S19 could see differences between schools when it came to the students in the class (always took a math class so kind of apples to apples). Just like any other place on campus, he could see if kids were engaged and friendly. It’s just one more thing to consider in addition to talking to kids outside of classes of course.
For D, she’s trying to find a school where she can dance without being a major or a minor so seeing dance class and talking more to professors in the department about her options is important to her. She will see an academic class as well where she can.
OK thanks a lot! As I said, it probably would not come up anyway, as my D is not thrilled to go so far away or to deal with extreme cold. She did like Bowdoin’s campus on our one trip to Maine two summers ago but I doubt she’d get in anyway. I know she’d have a hard time not being near a town (on top of everything else) so I won’t suggest Colby even as a super reach.
For general reading on college honor codes, this New York Times article can be interesting:
https://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/13/education/edlife/the-fading-honor-code.html
Your kids are all very brave! Our S19 was very reticent when he visited colleges - he absolutely didn’t want to eat in the dining hall, attend any classes (after I had done all the legwork), or stay overnight, the only thing apart from the info session and tour that he did consistently was meet with the track coaches. It worked out fine - coaches tend to be pretty knowledgeable about their schools and my son’s reaction to them turned out to be a pretty fair barometer. @homerdog , I know you’ve got this, but just in case there are others reading this thread whose kids may be holding back, I though it might be helpful to mention our experience. Obviously, not every kid would be interested in meeting an athletic coach, but it was helpful for him to be able to talk with someone where he felt a bit more in his element.