<p>D may be interested in applying to Howard. Friends attending HBCUs, however, report the schools to be parochial, socially conservative and very regilious witht he most common complaints concerning strict parietals (overnight guests of the opposite sex). Her friends have likened the HBCUs to the MA boarding school they attended. Is this accurate for Howard?</p>
<p>Also, one post here on CC noted that a number of the Howard facilities were run-down.</p>
<p>I can speak to Howard through the eyes of my kid. She's not seeing it as conservative, but she came out of a conservative all girls catholic high school, which may affect her perspective. We are not seeing Howard as socially conservative. (Although I am not clear on your definition of <em>socially conservative</em>). Howard is not a religious institution. As far as I can tell, she has gravitated to people who tend to be as liberal as she is. </p>
<p>There is something called visitation for the opposite sex in the dorms, which can start after the 1st month of the semester. She hasn't had any real issues with that. Not sure I'd really care for overnight visits of the opposite sex in the dorm. That being said, she has been to the males dorms and they have visited her suite.</p>
<p>We visited her and we had to be cleared to go to the room, but I think its a function of Howard being in the 'hood. Truly in the 'hood.</p>
<p>Religion is prevalent, but not dominant, on the campus. The gospel choir is big. Chapel on Sundays features prominent clergy from around the country, but attendance certainly is not mandatory.</p>
<p>As far as it being run down..after the initial infatuation with Howard, she is seeing its flaws. Some buildings are newer than others. Howard has a new president, which she believes has already made improvements (low-hanging fruit). When we visited we saw nice things and I also ran across some not so nice things.</p>
<p>From her perspective, the good far outweighs the bad. She is enjoying herself there and is thriving. I can see the growth in her.</p>
<p>As always, a visit to campus would help you to get a handle on your concerns, as I can only speak from 1 perspective...and it's a 2nd hand one at that!</p>
<p>What were some of the nice and not so nice things you observed during your visit?</p>
<p>I said socially consdrvative because on a number of threads "conservative" has been used primarily to describe political party affiliaton. Politically, D is liberal, and has recently become more of an activist - - no doubt, due in part, to her Quaker education. For example, although D does not have a bf, she is very much offended that health services at Catholic LACs/unis do not prescribe plan B and that they dispense birth control pills for acne only. I worry that a HBCU, even Howard, might be not only too conservative for her, but also somewhat alienating since she has absolutely no religious instruction (Quaker school taught tolerance).</p>
<p>A visit would help, but at this point I just trying to determine whether Howard and other "mabye" schools on her list are worth the thrip.</p>
<p>Quaker school in my area goes only through 8th grade. : ) </p>
<p>Politically Howard is liberal. Some students would like it be be more activist as it had in the past, but this is 2009, not 1969. </p>
<p>The school held voter registration drives in the area (DC, Virginia, Maryland). The kid got involved with that. She wandered over to Amnesty International to get involved with that. She volunteered for the inaguaration. She will be involved with the alternative spring break to work on a literacy project in a large city.</p>
<p>I'll ask her about how birth control is handled via health services (and listen to her fuss at me)</p>
<p>The visit. The dorm she is in, is nice. It's a newer dorm. Classrooms we saw were...classrooms. Landscaping was fine. Buildings were clean. We saw groundskeeping people doing their thing. I guess my perspective is , a college campus is a college campus. They are all so generic to me. Mich State is more expansive than U-Mich, which is more green than Northeastern, which is more high-rise than Howard, which is more compact than Michigan State... Well actually Northeastern was ugly, but I digress.</p>
<p>While waiting to go to a reception, I found a restroom in an administration bldg. It was unusable. I'd like to think that because it was a Sunday and school hadn't officially started that there was only a skeleton maintenance crew.</p>
<p>I don't know what the kid was ultimately looking for in a college. The best I figure is she found "it" once she visited all the schools. Northeastern was her primary choice, until she saw Howard and spent time there. After that, even Mich State, nor U-Mich could sway her. And I could not have predicted that the visits would have meant that much.</p>
<p>All I can do is forward your questions and concerns to my kid and get her take on them.</p>
<p>Interesting that you found N'eastern ugly; D agrees - - hated it. In fact, she hated every single Boston school that we visited (we didn't go to Cambridge - - why torture the child). And although the two of you agree on N'eastern, D is a sucker for curb appeal and would never say that a campus is a campus. She would definitely prefer green and leafy, which I have explained (but which she doesn't fully accept) isn't often paired urban -- and stumbling upon a nasty bathroom could be a deal-breaker for her.</p>
<p>Other than the Boston trip, D has toured only a couple of schools - - though on one occasion she refused to even get out of the car. Like you, I don't fully understand what D is looking for, and while she hasn't yet found "it," she can tell a heartbeat when a school has no "it" potential.</p>
<p>Sounds like your D may need a reality check :) Send here to live in a 3rd world country for a while and Northeastern or even Podunk CC will seem like a blessing!</p>
<p>You, like my D, are entitled to your opinion. I am certain tha N'eastern is paradise to many, but not my D. </p>
<p>Do you have any helpful/useful info to offer, or are you solely interested in taking pot-shots at a child you don't know just b/c her tastes are different than your own?</p>