<p>FauxNom,
Thanks for the ideas, but S1 has ruled out LACs and 3/2 engineering programs, so the colleges you list wouldn't be a good fit for him. I'll keep these in mind for S2 though!</p>
<p>Does Western Washington U have an engineering department? I remember some folks here about a year ago singing the school's praises.</p>
<p>We looked at WWU after seeing it mentioned here on CC. It's part of the WIE so the out of state tuition would have been reduced. However, they only have an engineering technology program, not electrical engineering, so not a good fit for S1.</p>
<p>Visited:
University of Florida
Florida State
Notre Dame</p>
<p>To Visit:
Georgetown
George Washington
American University
Columbia university
New York University
Yale (maybe)</p>
<p>Sazari, I am also from the Tampa area and looking at FL State. What were your thoughts/impressions from your visit there?</p>
<p>I believe Hendrix is my son's first choice as of today. We had a great experience there. I had known two friends from when I went to IU who had graduated from there and raved about it 20 years ago and it has done nothing but improve. New health an wellness center, student center being built and a new "village" under construction. They have a well-done admissions program. Campus is beautiful, very friendly, top notch academics and available opportunities for unique experiences, research and foriegn studies. Have heard there are housing issues. It is just around 8 hours drive for us, not a concern for him, it is for me. Size seemed to concern him, since we begain to know some of the students by name on our 2-day visit. Conway has everything he would need and it is keeping some of the college atmosphere in one area while the shopping centers etc in another. Most of the students seemed to be from Arkansas or Texas. He would be a novelty from Ohio. Lots of tradition, well worth a visit.</p>
<p>Thanks. I know someone headed there in the fall, and I've heard great things about it.</p>
<p>vballmom University of Puget Sound may be worth a look though I know nothing about its engineering programs...like if they even exist ;)</p>
<p>historymom,
I did look at University of Puget Sound - no engineering dept at all. I do like the idea of a small school for S1, so thanks for your suggestions.</p>
<p>vballmom: Just chiming in to say that I have a friend whose son just graduated from engineering at Oregon State and snagged a great job in the Seattle area. Oregon doesn't create tiers in its university program so OSU is not considered a lesser uni than UO, if that matters. My friends were very impressed with the programs and education S got there. Campus looks beautiful. Check out the website: Oregon</a> State: School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science</p>
<p>jazzymom,</p>
<p>Thanks for the info about OSU. It flew under our radar because it's not part of the Western Exchange, but it seems like it would be worth a look. I'll have S1 check out the website & curriculum and see what he thinks.</p>
<p>Just finished a plethora of southern colleges (son is rising senior w/computer science interest).</p>
<p>Son loved Virginia Tech (stunningly beautiful campus [all stone buildings] on a gorgeous sunny day) as well as the special meeting w/comp sci dept.</p>
<p>Son also really liked James Madison U -- for better or worse, it lived up to it's reputation as the home of very attractive female students (trying to minimize importance of this to son...does not seem to be working...thought he was kidding re: the relevance of attractive women; no longer sure!).</p>
<p>Did an indepth visit w/U of MD at College Park. Another gorgeous campus with 3-story Greek columns on most of the buildings, great expanses of open, green grass. Comp sci dept head spent 1 hour chatting w/son. Excellent, indepth, personalized information.</p>
<p>Passed through Duke (just to get a peek--it's actually too competitive for son right now, admission-wise). Got to talking to a professor on the nearly deserted campus (son fixed her cell-phone). She invited us to her apartment as a faculty advisor in one of the dorms--spent 20 mins chatting w/son about college admissions, various area schools, application strategies, etc. Just very gracious.</p>
<p>The people we met on our (whirl-wind 6 schools 4 days) tour were just very helpful, friendly and pleasant. </p>
<p>U of NC at Chapel Hill had a lovely campus with a real Southern feel (confederate soldier statute in the middle of the quad...to us northeasterners, this was interesting and charming). NC State son did not care for ("If I want to go to Rutgers, I'll stay in my home state...")</p>
<p>Must add: borrowed friend's GPS for the trip (first time using one). Absolutely and completely transformed our journey into something very managable. Highly recommend this if you don't have one. Hardly had to think re: directions...GPS told us where/when to turn no matter what little back road we traveled (we have spent 30 (?) hours in the car in the past few days!). Would also recommend AAA if you don't have it (car (newish SUV) died on highway out in country just as it was getting dark). Didn't need AAA, ultimately, but kind of wished I'd had it! :-)</p>
<p>just a request/reminder that you post your visit reports. A lot of us are not visiting every school with our kids before they apply and we would really like your input. The link is to the left at the top of this page. It says NEW! College Visits. anyway if you have a minute or two to fill them out it would be very community minded of you.</p>
<p>;) if you get your kid to do it it can count toward Community Service hours JK</p>
<p>There are limited colleges about which you can post, so if you don't see your college there, please post it here!</p>
<p>I did mine! Although a lot of the questions aren't really ascertainable on a summer visit.</p>
<p>I usually don't ask many questions on college tours, but at Georgetown I asked our tour guide something the website or an admissions rep wouldn't have answered: what DON'T you like about Georgetown? (This was after an hour of her raving about GTown.) Answer: red-tape bureaucracy; after detailing her woes, she ended with the somewhat positive conclusion, if you are persistent, you can get what you want there.</p>
<p>Very true You Don't Say. I was successful though in getting two schools added though by filling in the request a school form.</p>
<p>Yay Chi Square! Did you do one for Willamette back in the spring?</p>
<p>Actually, historymom, I just checked to see if I did - I know I thought about it, but it looks like I never did actually put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard) for the spring trip. I'll try to do that soon. Would love to hear the twins' top 5 list(s) as fall approaches!</p>
<p>TwinE is having a terrible time narrowing her list I think hercurrent top 5 privates are:</p>
<p>Scripps
St. Mary's California
U of Portland
Willamette
Linfield </p>
<p>Claremont McKenna and USD are now in the running too</p>
<p>And Top 5 publics include:</p>
<p>UCD
UCSC
Cal Poly SLO
Colorado State
Cal State Mionterey Bay</p>
<p>She does keep adding schools. Just in the last few weeks USD, UCLA and Claremont McKenna made an appearance. </p>
<p>TwinK's list is shorter but currently looks something like this:</p>
<p>U of Portland
St. Mary's of California
Loyola Marymount
Willamette
Scripps</p>
<p>Maybe the same publics but maybe Sonoma State, Oregon State or Western State of Colorado.</p>
<p>Carroll College of Montana and Trinity U are also in the high ranks for both girls but they haven't visited yet.</p>
<p>ACK aren't they supposed to be narrowing the field at this point? Thank goodness for the common app!</p>
<p>The college visit reports are even MORE important as people are having to limit the amount of visits/how far they travel with gas costs, economy etc. </p>
<p>PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE take the time to fill out reports. Especially for schools beyond the top listed schools!!!!</p>