Kentucky colleges

<p>Looking for some insight about the Physics and Geology undergrad programs in Kentucky.</p>

<p>My husband and I are going to be non-traditional transfer students looking for a transfer program in Kentucky next year. He'll be going into Physics, but would prefer Astrophysics, and I in Geology, environmental or general geology (not petroleum). We are both very good students currently with a 4.0 and a 3.8 GPA at our current community college.</p>

<p>We have it narrowed down to 4 schools.
Murray State University because they are closest to us, and they have aggressively been trying to recruit us already and have a nice environmental geology program with required GIS classes.
Morehead State because they have a very nice space science program, and they have connections with NASA.
University of Kentucky because they are bigger and more opportunities for research and more well known than the other 3 schools.
Western Kentucky University who also have a space physics program and environmental geology.</p>

<p>We've visited UK so far. We are visiting Western and Murray next week and Morehead on April 5th. Our visit to UK was more about showing us the sports teams and rec facilities, than selling us on their academics and this kind of put us off.</p>

<p>Any insights into these schools or programs or any questions you think we should ask when we visit?</p>

<p>Even though I’ve gotten no replies, I’ll update this thread in the case that anyone else is searching for information on these colleges.</p>

<p>Murray -
Our visit was pretty much a disaster. Only decent thing is that we got to sit down with the transfer coordinator personally and our tour was just us and not a huge group of people. After meeting with the transfer coordinator, we had an hour to do whatever we want, so we went to get some lunch at the student center. While sitting there it really reminded me of a community or commuter college and students were all sitting at tables solo. We even saw students being picked up and dropped off by their parents. Nobody smiled or said hi to us. The girl working at Starbucks was super nice though! </p>

<p>The tour seemed rushed. The student tour guide showed us the library, the new science building, pointed out everything else and didn’t even bring us over the bridge to the other side of campus. He did mention that if we wanted on our own time to go check out the new workout center. (which we didn’t do) He dropped us off at Blackburn to meet with our department heads which we scheduled appointments with. This building was so run down and falling apart. I told the girl at the desk I felt like I was going to get asbestos poisoning being there. My appointment with the geology dept head was at 1:15. He didn’t show up until 1:45. He didn’t show me around, he didn’t try to convince me why I should join his department. My husband met with the Physics/Engineering dept head. He felt like he was a nuisance. He was rushed, because he kept saying he had another appointment(even though he had booked my husband for an hour) and he kept looking out the door for this other person. He kept telling my husband they are more engineering than physics. So, we did not leave very happy and the campus was pretty it just did not impress me.</p>

<p>WKU - We started with an information session with a group of 20 others. We took a bus tour and a walking tour around campus that was about 2 hours. Was very impressed with the layout and that everything you need is located on campus (restaurants, grocery store, ect). Everyone seemed friendly and the students did not seem stuck up or anything. We did not have appointments with the departments heads, but my husband decided he wanted to talk with the Physics dept anyway. The department chair, Dr Andrews, was in his office eating lunch and he was very happy to welcome us in and have a conversation about the Astronomy program there. He even walked us around and showed us different research projects that they were working on AND THEN he took us to see if there was an astronomy staff member available to meet with him. Dr Carini, took 10 minutes between his lectures to sit down and talk to my husband about the program also. All of this was not even scheduled. I did not get a chance to speak with anyone in the Geology program, it was late by then. </p>

<p>Another positive thing about WKU is that if I decide to go into Hydrology or Karst in Geology, 30 mins away is the longest cave system in the world, Mammoth Caves. WKU geology and geography does a lot of research and field studies there.</p>

<p>UK - we did not have a chance to meet with any departments. The tour was huge with 50 students so we didn’t get to see anything up close. The campus was HUGE, which was a turnoff for me. UK really wanted to brag about their athletics, but not promote any academics, which kind of scared me.</p>

<p>We did not visit Morehead State yet.</p>

<p>Also, does anyone have information on Illinois State University? I happened across their website and noticed they charge instate tuition for Kentucky residents and would also consider our associates degrees as their core curriculum and admit us as juniors (this is the only school out of Kentucky that has that agreement).</p>