<p>Did anyone attend this weekend's EA open house? We were unable to attend due to a prior commitment, but would love to hear some feeback/impressions.</p>
<p>Thanks.</p>
<p>:)</p>
<p>same here! I'd like to know what I missed...</p>
<p>I was there today and I'd love to let you know how it went. :D</p>
<p>Is there anything in particular you'd like to hear about? Or just a general runthrough?</p>
<p>I was just wondering if I missed out on any new information, etc. that I didn't get through a campus tour, information session, and the application process...</p>
<p>Well, I was there for the school of Arts and Sciences, and the difference between this and tours/info sessions and the like was that there was a chance to talk directly to the department heads. We had an hour to go from building to building depending on what department we were interested in, where we had the chance to speak with the heads, and usually even the students. I only went to the Honors office and the Humanities departmental office.</p>
<p>Other than that we had a two large sessions in which the dean, a religious father, a teacher, and students told us why they chose Villanova, etc. It provided a lot more personal, emotional reasons than facts, which was nice since I didn't hear much of that on the tours.</p>
<p>As for any other information, there was an hour during which we could attend two of 5 30 minute presentations. I only attended the financial aid/scholarship one and then took a walk around campus with my remaining time, giving myself time to find the St Thomas Church and attend mass. At the financial aid presentation, it was basically an overview of what can be found on the site, as well as in depth explanations of what that means to certain families, followed by a Q&A session. I guess in that sense they did give more information, but as most of it didn't concern me I can't think of it at the top of my head, I'm sorry.</p>
<p>I hope this helped! Sorry about my vagueness, I had a nasty cold so I was a little fuzzy on everything.</p>
<p>Thanks for the update. What was your overall impression of the school? Did attending the open house make a difference on your college decision? Thanks again for any info. (Hope your cold is better!)</p>
<p>nova is my second choice school behind BC, and the visit made me feel like nova was a really awesome place. had i not gotten into BC, i would be ecstatic to go to villanova, part of me considered going to villanova over BC. i've never been to BC while the students are there, and there were students at villanova this weekend. when you walked to your registration area, they all cheered for you and screamed "CONGRATS AND COME TO VILLANOVA" (mind you these were the tour guides we would have later, but it was still a cool effect.) the day itself was your typical walk around listen to people talk etc etc. lunch was cool because two of the guides had lunch with my family and we had a nice conversation.</p>
<p>Yeah, it's between BC and Villanova for me too. I love both schools and I think spending a day at Villanova made me want to go there more, but mostly because I wasn't able to make the BC early applicant day.</p>
<p>Personally my impression was that Villanova is a really community oriented school. It seems like everybody's friends there, and everybody seems pretty tight, considering how "tight" you can get on a large college campus. I'm just so nervous about my financial aid package and everything that it seems to be making it harder for me to enjoy the school at this point.</p>
<p>Also, I don't know if you found this information online or not, but apparently they don't take into consideration any siblings in graduate school, and they calculate all your business earnings. They set some "net loss" (I think?) amount to 0 as well, but I didn't really understand what they meant.</p>
<p>I didn't get that "I LOVE THIS CAMPUS" feel when I spent the day, but it was definitely made for us to be comfortable, and seems like an extremely pleasant place to attend college, if you get involved in campus activities. Everybody seems like they're they're extremely approachable, brilliant people. The Roman Catholic spirit is really strong on campus though, and they said many people of different religions come to Roman Cath masses as well. I personally loved that.</p>
<p>In the end it still doesn't have that magical feeling BC had but it's close to home, and seems like a very nice school with TONS of opportunities. The professors there are great, too. xD It seems like all of them have the best sense of humor, it's great. Made me want to take their classes immediately!</p>
<p>(It's getting better, thanks for asking!)</p>
<p>No way! I'm between Villanova and BC as well... I think I'm leaning towards BC though.</p>
<p>i am too, i got a similar vibe from both schools. neither is going to give me money, so i might as well go with the "more selective one". plus ive had my heart set on BC from the start, and im super excited. had i not gotten into BC, i would be thrilled to go to villanova, its such a cool place.</p>
<p>I went to the Saturday session with my son and we were both impressed by the feeling of community presented by the students and staff. My son was accepted to BC too, but is leaning in favor of Villanova right now. Still waiting to hear from some of the other schools on April 1st.</p>
<p>It seems like a lot of people are between BC and Villanova (me too!).
I'm not sure if anyone could get a feel from the admitted day, but would the catholic presence on campus seem overbearing for someone who isn't very religious? I went to the BC eagle day (which was great) and there was a really funny student presenter who stressed that even though it's a Jesuit institution, they didn't force any beliefs or guilt upon him if he didn't attend mass. Just wondering if there was that same "openness" at Villanova. Thanks!</p>
<p>Heh, at the business part of the open house, one presentation (can't remember the name) had 7-8 students in the cinema. Somebody asked, "How often do you go to mass?" and the kid went in circles, dodging the question. He said he didn't feel pressured to and wasn't jesuit, but the masses were as much community gatherings as religious ceremonies and they were very popular on campus. The associate dean of the business school butted in saying that religion isn't forced upon students but it adds to "the community". In the end we never found out how much he went to mass, the dean saved him :)</p>
<p>I think you will find that at Villanova, like at BC and Notre Dame, you have kids for whom the religious affiliation is very important, but many many kids for whom it is just college. I would be very surprised if anyone felt a strong religious push from the school itself.</p>
<p>I'm a current VU freshman... to answer your question, i feel religion is what you make it here. i have been to mass maybe three times since coming here, plus ash wed. I want to make a conscious effort to go more however. They do make it pretty convienent though- mass at 6,8, and 10 (pm obviously) on sun... a lot of people go, a lot of people don't. Its a personal choice. Even in my theology course (which was taught by a preist), what religion you were and if you went to church wasn't a big deal. don't let the religion deter you from this awesome school, if anything it adds to the campus...</p>
<p>Thanks everyone, I really appreciate the comments. oh, college decisions, so much fun.... :)</p>