<p>overwhelmedma, what did you and your D think of Muhlenburg? It's also one of those schools without a lot of CC info and we are considering a Lafayette, Lehigh, Muhlenburg trip. Thanks!</p>
<p>warriorboy648 - My D is interested in psychology/possibly neurology or some other area of science. She would do best in a smaller school atmosphere and is leaning toward a LAC in order to be well rounded. D thinks she wants to have access to a larger city with good public transportation. Northeastern had too much of a business feel to her and the internship thing didn't really interest her. She pretty much ruled out Tufts, Lafayette, Goucher, Gettysburg, Stonehill, Wheaton and McDaniel, she just didn't get that "I can see myself here feeling. A couple were basically in the middle of no where, not great access to the city. Clark put on a nice presentation, Wooster isn't the most exciting place but we felt like they offered good programs. One thing we liked about Univ. Mary Washington is that although it is a public school, it has a private school feel and seemed like a good price since we would be OOS. She liked Providence and it was on the larger size of the schools we had seen, people seemed friendly, other students greeted our guides all over campus. Access seemed good into downtown Providence. D really liked Emmanuel (although a bit on the small side, nice dorms too), Loyola, F&M (beautiful campus and liked their "house system" for freshman/sophmore dorms).</p>
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Leaving today from Mpls-St.Paul, flying to Newark r/t to visit Bryn Mawr, Haverford, Swarthmore, Penn, Cornell, Middlebury, Bates, Bowdoin, and Wesleyan in that order.
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<p>That is a well-planned itinerary in terms of driving routes.</p>
<p>chintzy - since we were in the area, we drove around Lehigh. Beautiful buildings and campus(pretty steep, though), but very sketchy surroundings in south Bethlehem. I was very fascinated by the old Bethlehem Steel plant down the hill - HUGE! But I understand there are plans in the works to turn part of it into a casino, which could either improve the surroundings or make them sketchier.</p>
<p>DS & I are going from CT to Los Angeles in a couple of weeks. Scheduled tours at USC, UCLA, CMC, Oxy, UCSD & LMU. Only set up one interview at Oxy. Just so much time in a day/week. He is all about leaving New England. South or West only!</p>
<p>Wow! We just checked out the Univesity of Mary Washington's website. What a beautiful campus. This will definitely be a must see. Does it have a good rep?</p>
<p>DizziMom, you might consider USD too...a bit easier for an OOS to get into than UCSD.</p>
<p>We have visited:
Butler
U of Louisville
Vanderbilt
Rollins
U of TN at Knoxville</p>
<p>We will be going on a mother/daughter road trip to:
FSU
Emory
UGA
U of South Carolina at Columbia (couldn't put USC, everyone would assume CA :) )
Wake Forest
UNC at Chapel Hill
NC State
U of Richmond
UVA
American
George Washington
and....Goucher</p>
<p>All in one week. We are staying at state park camprounds near every college from FL to MD for the low rate of less than $130 total. We already have the camping equpiment, so it made sense to do it that way instead of paying for hotels. The only major expense will be gas. :(</p>
<p>Oops, I meant "equipment."</p>
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<p>Simple enough in our case: time constraints. We can do Bowdoin & Bates in one day, and make it comfortable from either to our next stops; Colby's just a bit further, and a longer return. Can't do 'em all, and two out of three ain't bad. Also, frankly, D is a little resistant to northern weather and the more northerly the spot on the map, the less the interest.</p>
<p>We're now almost halfway through our trip: saw Bryn Mawr, Haverford, Swarthmore, Penn. Bryn Mawr & Haverford scored big, Swat a little less so with D though Dad was impressed. </p>
<p>Penn not so much, perhaps because it doesn't show itself well on an 88 degree Saturday in July (think HUMID!) with 600 or 700 people jammed into the same info session. We felt like sheep, and although our shepherds worked hard to be kind, we don't much like to feel like sheep. IMO the Ivies are great schools but terribly overrated. The difference between a school like Penn and a school like Swat is quite small, and on the whole probably in Swat's favor. But because Penn's an Ivy and Swat's not, Penn gets 22,000 apps and Swat gets 6,000 or 7,000. Go figure.</p>
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Penn gets 22,000 apps and Swat gets 6,000 or 7,000. Go figure.
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<p>It keeps the riff raff out.</p>
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<p>Thanks. I actually thought it a pretty well-planned itinerary in terms of schools matched to D's interests, too. ;-)</p>
<p>I know you're a big Swarthmore fan. Let me just say, I was blown away. It made me wish I'd applied there. D was hugely impressed, too, on pure academics. But it just didn't grab her emotionally the way both Haverford and Bryn Mawr did, each for somewhat different reasons. Some of its was the campus. All three are drop-dead gorgeous, but D felt Swat was more a loose, sprawling collection of buildings with no defining coherence, while the Haverford and Bryn Mawr campuses both felt homier and more centered. And part of it, I think, was the tour guides. Never underestimate their importance. Nothing negative about the Swat tour guide, but D just didn't connect with her in the same way she did with the guides at Haverford and Bryn Mawr.</p>
<p>Anyway, I'm pleased to report that Bryn Mawr and Haverford are now vying against each other for the #1 spot on D's wish list. The great thing about that is if she's admitted to either she can get plenty of the other: unlimited courses, meals, majors, even living at the other campus if you're a student at either one, and they're only 1.5 miles apart. Plus, she can take classes at Swat--logistically more difficult, but doable---or at Penn if they're unavailable in the TriCo, which would include less commonly studied languages that may appeal to her down the road. D is keen on languages, Penn is very strong on languages, but D also wants a small LAC environment which in many cases is not conducive to wide-ranging language study, but the Quaker Consortium arrangement lets her have it all. Sounds like a match made in heaven. [Or do Quakers believe in heaven?]</p>
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All three are drop-dead gorgeous, but D felt Swat was more a loose, sprawling collection of buildings with no defining coherence, while the Haverford and Bryn Mawr campuses both felt homier and more centered.
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<p>Some of that is that Swarthmore's campus is the size of Haverford's and Bryn Mawr's combined. The academic buildings at the top of the hill are tightly bunched. The residential buildings down the hill are dispersed into several distinct groupings.</p>
<p>Three things of note about Swarthmore's campus:</p>
<p>a) The lawn going down the hill ("Parrish Beach") is the size of Thomas Jefferson's original lawn before UVa built more buildings and closed it off. Having the town-sized fireworks display there, with the whole town in beach chairs, at graduation was very cool.</p>
<p>b) The defining quality of the campus to me is how buildings are hidden from view by the landscaping until you round a corner and they pop into sight. The more you know the campus, the more amazing it is. You can be standing 50 yards from the library or 50 feet from the performing arts center and not see them.</p>
<p>c) Every building or group of buildings has a courtyard or outdoor gathering space, usually involving a garden of some sort. Those courtyards and gardens are my favorite places on campus.</p>
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It made me wish I'd applied there.
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<p>That's how my wife and I felt, too. I had never heard of Swarthmore until I was in college. My wife had an aunt who went there back in the 30's, but she never visited. To me, all three of the Quaker LACs in Philly solve the one big downside of a small LAC -- they can feel a bit claustrophobic at points during four years. The easy 30 minute access to a city or two hour access to a weekend in NYC or Washington, just for a breath of air in the real world, makes a huge difference and keeps you from going stir crazy in the ivory tower. A baseball game. A night at some indie rock club. A day at the art museum. A night with friends at some funky restaurant. Any one of those things, just for a few hours away from the bubble, is enough to not feel so utterly cut off from the real world.</p>
<p>We will go on a road trip soon with a rising 11th grader. This whirlwind includes Lafayette, Franklin & Marshall, Gettysburg, Davidson, Elon, Wake Forrest, Duke, University of Richmond, Georgetown, Johns Hopkins, Haverford and Swarthmore. We will probably drive through American and UNC Chapel Hill. </p>
<p>So far, son has decided that he does not want a large public nor an urban college without a campus. He doesn't want to be far from a city or town, but would do it for the right college. Last summer he saw Dickinson, University of Chicago, Northwestern, Grinnell, and Bucknell. He liked them all, but after seeing them, he liked Northwestern and Grinnell the most. He said, and still says that Grinnell would be his #1 choice except for its location.</p>
<p>When colleges open and before school starts, he will see Colgate and Hamilton. Depending on how his preferences change after the tour above, I may add Cornell, University of Rochester, Hobart & William Smith, Union and/or St. Lawrence. </p>
<p>I hope that this time next year "the list" will be more or less in place, and he can start focusing on applications.</p>
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We will go on a road trip soon with a rising 11th grader. This whirlwind includes Lafayette, Franklin & Marshall, Gettysburg, Davidson, Elon, Wake Forrest, Duke, University of Richmond, Georgetown, Johns Hopkins, Haverford and Swarthmore. We will probably drive through American and UNC Chapel Hill.
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<p>PLEASE post back on your experiences. This list is has a tremendous overlap with my son's. </p>
<p>Thanks.</p>
<p>EK: we did visit Occidental and it was a hit for me and a miss for my DDs. I did a visit report. Oh...and based on nothing other than reading your posts I think that your D would really like Oxy. It' fairly diverse by Southern CA. standards. Our guide was a theatre major who was very cool and a real individual...I mean not your average communications major pretty boy (not that there is anything wrong with being a good, looking communications major ;) ). Anyway I think Humboldt State and UCSC are worth a look too even if it is just online. Good Luck sorry you had to cancel your plans :(</p>
<p>missypie : Can you post a visit report on Trinity U if you haven't already. That is one we aren't planning to visit until after admissions decisions and it would be great to read your impressions.</p>
<p>pinkpanther: I love Santa Clara and St. Mary's. St. Mary's is the closest to my DDs hearts of the two and you almost have to choose one or the other. BIG rivalry there ;) Go Gaels!!!!!!!!!!!!!</p>
<p>Our visits this summer:</p>
<p>Loyola Marymount
Occidental
Scripps
Claremont McKenna</p>
<p>How many questions do you all (parents) ask when you are on the tours? It seems a lot of parents we've been on tours with keep quiet. Isn't the whole idea to get as much info as possible? I think the kids might be intimidated and just want to "check the campus out" but the parents should be gathering info - or am I wrong? Especially at some of the big schools where you are more of a number.</p>
<p>IMO, parents should be neither seen nor heard on campus tours. If you really want your kid to like a place, send him/her without you.</p>
<p>There is nothing a parent is going to get out of a campus tourguide or admissions rep that can't be found on the website along with much more more. They'll duck any of the hard questions in those settings.</p>
<p>Warriorboy648,</p>
<p>U. of Mary Washington has a great reputation for the social sciences, business and education. Several of my students attend the school. One is interested in acting, and during her freshman year, she appeared in three plays. So there are lots of opportunities available. The downside is that many kids go home on the weekends or visit other schools for more action -- UVA, George Mason, VCU. It is an awesome buy, too. As a parent, I did suggest it to my son, but he is not interested. Maybe he heard me complain about the food, which was not very good when I was a student there years ago. Several of my teacher friends are also graduates. Fredericksburg is a nice town. There's stuff to do, too. The nearby mall is great. Lots of movie places. No football team, but the soccer program is excellent. So is the baseball program.</p>
<p>I keep pretty quiet on the tours....if there are questions to be asked it's up to the child who is the potential student. I have been on tours where parents ask a LOT of questions and I find it a bit annoying frankly. It tends to intimate others from asking questions...you are there to get basic information and an overall feel. Questions that are very specific: i.e. my daughter is allergic to bees, is there an epi pen in the health center? (yes I have actually heard this one asked) can be left until your child is accepted and contemplating enrollment. And I would bet there isn't a college in the country without an epi pen in the health center ...... (rant over)</p>