<p>Have you visited either ASU Barrett or UA Honors recently? If so, please let us know what you thought of the programs, dorms, students, scholarship offers. Will you go to Arizona form OOS? What colleges might you pass up for the NM scholarship?</p>
<p>D wants to attend ASU in the fall. Dbl major math/music performance. We flew out from WI for her audition 3 weeks ago. Did a Barrett day and a music day, but no time for the overnight unfortunately, as they don’t do them Fri. nights. She prob has SAD and suddenly is aware that sunny climate is pretty awesome. First visit to a DRY sunny climate, which completely changed her attitude toward attending university in the south. Barrett is wonderful. The rooms are much larger than any other dorms we visited, new building, only 4 years old. Kids have their own gym. Food is great and non-Barrett kids are flooding in paying a few dollars extra per meal to eat Barrett food. Not sure if that is a problem.Map of cafeteria: <a href=“http://barretthonors.asu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/BHCFloorplan.pdf[/url]”>http://barretthonors.asu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/BHCFloorplan.pdf</a> Check out the floor plans of their rooms- semi-private baths.[Arizona</a> State University - Residential Life halls](<a href=“http://www.asu.edu/studentaffairs/reslife/halls/floorplans/floorplan_barrett.html]Arizona”>http://www.asu.edu/studentaffairs/reslife/halls/floorplans/floorplan_barrett.html) . Many professors teach classes within Barrett complex and our tour guide claims he sometimes attends class in his pjs. I haven’t seen UA, applied only to ASU as they have a decent music school. I understand that UA is considered a better school academically. Accepted academically at many schools, only waiting on Chicago and Vanderbilt. Check out the acceptance list in parents forum. Some NMF scholarship schools, some large non-NMF scholarships, some no money (at least not yet!) She says at this point only UChicago might change her mind, but there is the weather to consider… When you go, be sure to check out the reptiles in life science building. They have a 30 year old albino rattlesnake, Hector, pink eyes and tongue. PM me if you want more info. Oh, D fell in love with the friendly African gray parrot in the hotel we stayed at, Twin Palms, right by campus. Campus has interesting landscaping if you care about that kind of thing. Much native plantings combined with much that is not (think pansies, roses.) Be careful where you walk. The underground irrigation piping criss-crosses every inch of campus and waters actual grass(!!!) which is often soggy.Kind of ironic given their advertised sustainability school with all the solar panels and wind turbines on roofs around campus.</p>
<p>Thank you for the information. My son is visiting both next week. We will see . . .</p>
<p>Our son recently took advantage of the travel voucher and visited ASU Barrett. He was very impressed with the facilities and the meetings with professors. Also really enjoyed meeting the dean and sitting in on a class. This is definitely an option he’s strongly considering. Hasn’t visited UA yet so I’m interested to hear from someone who can compare. His impression is that based on honors colleges alone, ASU is better. Comparing the universities as a whole UA seems to rank a bit higher. I would also love to hear from anyone who might compare ASU/Barrett to OU and their honors program. I know their overall NMF scholarship is more generous and they seem to get more national merit finalists but Barrett seems to do really well in getting their students into top grad programs.</p>
<p>What is the scoop on getting a travel voucher for a campus visit?</p>
<p>They pay $250 towards student’s plane fare and also arrange an overnight with a current Barrett student M-Th. and dining in Barrett, so if your kid can travel alone, it’s basically a free visit. We didn’t do it that way as we needed to stay part of weekend for music audition so I traveled with D.They arrange a Barrett visit day with tour of Barrett , presentations, class visit, tour of campus, etc. You can have it personalized- if you want to meet faculty in a particular dept, or sit in on a special class, just let them know. If you don’t specify they’ll put student in ‘Human Event’ class, their signature humanities class for Barrett kids. They sent post mail offer, but with the piles of mail arriving daily, it’s easy to miss. Contact Michelle Hollin <a href=“mailto:michelle.hollin@asu.edu”>michelle.hollin@asu.edu</a> or Emily Hsu <a href=“mailto:emily.hsu@asu.edu”>emily.hsu@asu.edu</a> It’s for NMSFs.</p>
<p>Thanks Celeste. My daughter is just a junior & looks to have a decent shot at National Merit finalist but we won’t know until this fall. Trying to determine where to start scheduling visits & Barrett is definitely on my radar - & hopefully my d’s ;-)</p>
<p>bigdadreed…I encourage you to look at OU, as well. Their National Scholars program is quite impressive. Even though we are from Oklahoma, OU was not even on my son’s radar until we got the NM info packet and decided it was worth a visit. We all fell in love and knew right away it was a perfect fit. Good luck to your daughter. :-)</p>
<p>Thanks Soonermom95. I’ll add OU to the research list.</p>
<p>I am going to recommend USC as well. Their NMF scholarship is half tuition, not nearly the deal that the others are, but they also meet full financial need. DS was a NMF in 2011 and looked at OU and USC. USC won out although the cost was substantially higher. Ironically HS junior DD already considers herself part of UA’s Crimson Tide. She will not be a NMF but is hoping for a full scholarship with her ACT score. DS didn’t consider UA.</p>
<p>Going to second the recommendation for OU, I loved my visit there and the National Merit Office there is incredibly helpful. They’ll set you up with an amazing visit.</p>
<p>DD just came home from an overnight visit to Barrett. We had done the regular ASU and Barrett tours a year ago so she was already familiar with the setup. What impressed her the most on this trip was the small, friendly atmosphere of Barrett. It is apparently accomplishing its mission of a small college feel within the larger university. Her hosts were great. In addition, she sat in on a Human Events class, and the next day a student from that class approached her in the dining hall to ask what she thought about the class! She also said that it seemed like the students all knew each other really giving the feel of a community. She said that the dorms were pretty quiet and there were kids scattered about, studying in lounges and study rooms throughout the dorms. The kids she met seemed very happy to be there.</p>
<p>Not related to Barrett, but she was also very impressed with the CS professor she met. Seemed to be lots of opportunities for undergraduate students who want to do research.
Also, I don’t know if Arizona does this or not, but ASU supposedly has a designated Honors Advisor in each academic department.</p>
<p>When D and I did the Barrett tour I was impressed by the friendliness of everyone there- students and staff. The dining hall staff were so cheery. D ate there a couple of times and says the staff seem to be on a first name basis with all the students. I contacted the math dept to ask about programming. The honors advisor responded immediately. I suppose they must be questioned often by Barrett prospys, since they have ready responses for everything. They post their faculty grants on dept webpage. Pretty much everyone has an NSF or NIH grant. Undergrad students are welcome to begin taking graduate courses as soon as they are ready for them. He outlined awards and research of some students. They currently have one large NSF grant specifically designed to attract more math grad students to ASU. He told me about his senior level level (full) topology class and which classic text they use. The have many faculty working on really interesting interdisciplinary applied stuff with people in school of sustainability, bio, etc. He invited D to meet with him on our next visit and started a correspondence with her.</p>
<p>I had forgotten but my D also mentioned that the dining staff seemed to know a lot the students’ names. She liked that, gave it kind of a feeling of one big family.</p>
<p>And Barrett advising both within the Honors College itself and through the honors advisors in the academic departments seems very strong.</p>
<p>My son recently visited both ASU Barrett and U of A. He liked them both. He like the city of Tucson more than Tempe, saying Tucson felt like more of a college town. U of A had a prettier campus. He felt like Barrett had better services and advising and more opportunities for dedicated honors courses. He said got the impression that U of A is perceived as the better university academically, but it not sure if that is accurate. The Barrett dorms were nicer and had the dining hall right there, but Arbol at U of A was also very nice. He didn’t like how Barrett was literally walled off from the rest of the campus. He seems even more uncertain which he would choose over the other after visiting. And, maybe he will get into Yale! There is a huge desire to just pick one and be done with it, but I suppose we will wait until 4/1.</p>