Early April college trip Indiana vs. Iowa vs. Illinois?

Parents Forum
1

We are considering colleges in the midwest since my brother’s whole family plus my family just moved there last year combining a visit with them and college viewing. I am not been so unfamiliar with weather patterns, etc. For those of you in the area, would you say the weather/environment is very similar? We are trying to encourage our daughter to pick something that is either 8 hour drive from our house, 2 hour flight from our house or 5 hour driving distance from my brother’s family and parents. It would make me feel better that if there was an emergency she has someone that could help her and somewhere to go on occasion or have more visitors. We live outside of Sacramento, CA FYI.

GPA 3.8 currently and only taken SAT once and it was 1140 but expect it to go up to 1200 after she does some prepping. She wants to avoid party schools and says she is fine with colder weather but not blizzard type places. Also wants to avoid commuter schools, prefers a college town but I know not all of these are.

Any thoughts? I looked it up and they all have spring break in March so hoping to see a glympse of college life.

We are thinking of seeing:
Iowa State- Ames
Purdue- West Lafayette, In
Butler-Indianapolis
Indiana State Bloomington

2

Indiana University is in Bloomington and has well over 32,000 undergraduate students.

Indiana State is in Terre Haute & has about 9,000 undergrads.

The University of Iowa is in Iowa City & worth visiting.

3

It’s not entirely clear from your post, but if your daughter is going to be paying out-of-state tuition at a public university, she might also consider some private colleges in the midwest. Also, in addition to the bigger state universities, she might look at some of the smaller, regional publics that are suited to her academic interests.

4

What does she want to study?

5

Purdue/IU/Butler implies that you are in the Indianapolis area. ISU would be a 7 hour drive from the others. If you are looking for something else in the area, you may want to consider Miami University (OH). It is less than 2 hours from Indy. If she can get the SAT>1230, she may get some merit. However, it may not satisfy her not party school preference.

6

Regarding Indiana University, you might want to take a look at the book “Paying for the Party” by Armstrong and Hamilton – while the authors don’t name IU as where they did their research, online comments seem to be able to pinpoint IU. Consider what it says about the outcomes for different categories of students, and the party atmosphere, at the school researched. The book also has been discussed in other threads, for instance
http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/parent-cafe/1744080-paying-for-the-party-how-college-maintains-inequality.html
where some posters say that their in own were different (living in a less “party dorm”).

7

“she is fine with colder weather but not blizzard type places”

Then she doesn’t want any of these.

8

Probably should consider the University of Alabama, Univ. of South Carolina, Ole Miss. and other warmer weather schools depending upon the applicant’s intended major.

9

All those areas may likely get over 2 feet of snow per year which I’m guessing to someone from California may very well seem like blizzard weather. But yes, those areas will likely be very similar in weather to each other around spring break.

10

Agree with a PP that you might look at some private schools in the Midwest. My DD with a 27 ACT could get into most Iowa privates at $20-25K COA after auto merit. And they would have very few commuters.

Ames is a decent college town, ISU is a very large school that requires bussing to some locations. Like a lot of publics many move off-campus after freshman year. There are occasional blizzards!

Missouri and Arkansas would be a bit warmer.

11

All of these Midwest schools are in the same general latitude and weather that rolls across the plains. Flights would likely involve Chicago O’Hare then a second flight and/or bus trip from there. You could check on schools transportation- often there would be buses going to smaller cities. Applies to public and private schools.

Be sure you look at campus culture for various schools, not just being a car trip from any relatives.

12

These two preferences are kind of the opposite of each other. More residential colleges tend to have more partying at the college. Exceptions are more likely to be women’s colleges and heavily religious colleges.

If drinking is the concern, the Midwest and Northeast tend to have higher amounts of college drinking than other regions. Also, black and Asian people tend to drink less than white people, so a college with higher black and/or Asian populations may have less drinking.

13

I would not describe IU or anywhere in central Indiana as a blizzard town. Average snowfall is 16 inches (Iowa 27 in), highest in Jan at 5.7…and remember that is spread over the month, and is most likely 6 days of one inch of snow. Having one snowfall of more than 4 inches at once is rare. Not sure what you call a blizzard but I don’t call this blizzard! IU definitely has a college town. Not sure about partying, I went there 30 years ago and yes there was partying and it was easy to partake or to avoid. You may want to do some research into what schools are stronger for your D’s intended major or interest. IU has a great business school and music school; Purdue is known for engineering. Neither are known to be commuter schools.

14

Thank you for all the info! My daughter is likely to go undeclared. She is interested in psychology, human development, social work and possibly behavioral sciences. If she needs to pick one I guess she would go psychology at this point. She has been extensively volunteering in that field. Lots of working with kids of various ages on autism spectrum, developmentally delayed under 10’s and typical children at low income, title one schools. She also is doing an internship at her high school’s wellness center and is the president of the group. She has to train people, deal with the database, scheduling, etc. Also, started a club on campus for wellness and living a balanced/healthy life. So I am fairly confident that is where she is headed at this point and know she will likely need a masters for it. That is where her heart is at the moment but she is a junior : )

We live in Northern California so not the warm and sunny So Cal. My daughter HATES hot weather, I know kinda unusual. All of her friends are trying to head to beach locations and warm weather, but she wants to avoid all of the South, Arizona, So Cal, etc. She wants cooler weather, seasons, rain and some snow, but not excessive snow. I’m not sure she knows what that amount is, she said snow, but not a lot of blizzards…

FYI I am not trying to say no partying, I am saying that is her request. We had considered Univ of Colorado Boulder and she read reviews it had a reputation as a party school so she said less likely than, but it is still a compelling choice.

Definitely no religious schools are all women or very small schools, less than 5K, those are all hard no’s for her. Am open to private schools.

I figure we need to go visit the family anyway, so might as well check it out. She only has a few colleges close to our house on the list…

I said Indianapolis since my family all live in Springfield, Ill and it is a decent airport connection for us. My hubby went to Purdue as an exchange student so it has a special place for our family and we would like to show it to her as well as visit it for nostalgic reasons.

15

Sacramento can be quite hot during some months – perhaps hotter than the coastal southern California areas.

UCSC, CSUMB, SFSU, HSU may be cooler weather if lower cost in state is necessary.

16

Your daughter sounds very caring and open which will serve her well!

St. Louis University? While “religious” technically, know that its less faith and Bible stuff and very heavily focused on service to the people which might be right up your daughters alley. (I work at a Jesuit and Im not even baptized so they arent real churchy but I appreciate that their focus is on helping others). Many of the courses there incorporate volunteering in the community.

Weather is better at SLU and she would have the seasons but a bit more mild of winters. Only 1.5 hours from Springfield. My friends daughter is there and adores it (shes spending a semester abroad in Spain as well).

17

It is hot here, it really bothers her. I know there are colleges to look at in Cal but I was planning to visit my family anyway so wanted to show her some other options at her request. She complains that she hasn’t seen the “real” America and wants to check out other regions. She knows what Northern and Southern Cal is like and we visited Oregon last month but that is about it. When we went to a college fair there were several midwest schools where the rep was so engaging she was intrigued. They talked about graduating in 4 years, classes being smaller and not always impacted. She looked up some statistics and some of them were safer than the areas she is used to.

I am trying to follow her lead. She wants to see midwest and I want to visit family so it seems a win-win. I have a budget in mind for college and while it may not be the most cost effective, I want to leave the option open. I only have family in Illinois and Virginia so those were the areas I want to consider.

I want her to be able to fit in and she says a hard no for big cities which rules out SLC and San Fran. She tends to be conservative in her actions, but liberal in her beliefs, but I’m sure that will change : )

We are looking at UC Davis which is an hour from my house, but honestly it is a reach for her to get in. She liked Oregon State, but not University of Oregon. Cal Poly San Luis is another beautiful college town here with cooler weather, but heard that is a reach also.

18

I think you have some nice schools to visit and its a great idea to do some quick checks and tours if in the area. When you say no big cities, what population numbers are you considering? St. Louis while urban city is a third the size of San Fran. Sadly in the Midwest it can be that the smaller the town the more drinking their is because of lack of options of opportunities so trying to get a good feel for campus culture will help.
I would ensure she looks at diversity on campus as well because small Midwest towns can be pretty conservative vanilla. While I’m still thinking SLU could be a great fit, it sounds like your daughter has a good head on her shoulders and will make a wise decision!

19

What about Bradley? Not that far from Springfield, cost is reasonable for a private.

20

The Midwest also tends to have more residential racial segregation than many other areas, according to https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-most-diverse-cities-are-often-the-most-segregated/ , although this is often more about the surrounding areas than a residential college.