The the people can decide if they want to pay $20k more for the top 5 ranking.
My dream schools were Cal and UVA. I went to CU. $$$$.
And for this poster, whose son is looking for astrophysics, CU may be the better choice in a lot of ways, not just money. I don’t think ruling it out because of fraternities and parties makes a lot of sense as a lot of schools have fraternities and parties.
Winsto7,can you tell us more on the not friendly issue at W&L? it is one of S24’s top choice.
Being Asian and with the history with W&L, we are trying to find out as much as we can.
Vitrual sessions didn’t really shown us much on the culture of the school, so S24 is tryign to get into the DIVE program so he can stay there for two nights to get to know the school.
TIA.
The mods are pretty strict about this thread staying on topic. There’s a related off topic thread, and you might post your question there. Though I’d add that the impressions of someone who spent a few hours on campus may or may not be entirely accurate. Perhaps you can reach out to a student (from Hong Kong?) there.
Both posts moved to the off topic thread.
Thank you.
Ha ha, so now that it’s moved, I will say that W&L is actually VERY friendly. It has “the Speaking Tradition” where people greet each other when they pass. I just asked my son, a rising junior, who agrees that he finds it very friendly – as most colleges are.
I would also quibble with the characterization of the campus being disjointed. It’s one of the most harmoniously organized campus (based on quadrangles) I’ve seen! After all, they’ve had almost 300 years to get the layout right.
But – probably the best thing would be to reach out to Admissions (perhaps after your child is admitted?) to see if they can connect with a student or two.
Gah! Thx for the reminder…
*walk back to the corner and face the wall…
Adding to @cinnamon1212’s post, some of my kid’s best friends are Asian students at W&L (male and female). If your student has difficulty connecting with current students, let me know and I’ll ask my kid to make an introduction.
Best of luck with application season!
Interesting to read that you thought Gettysburg was run down. We had the same impression and crossed it off the list!
You hated Nashville?! Any particular reason?
Was that Duke tour guide being serious? Otherwise, as an alum, I would be outraged !
Okay, I liked a lot of Nashville itself, I’m just not used to heavy traffic and probably couldn’t get used to it enough to attend college there. There were also just a lot of people everywhere.
You must have visited USC before students returned. I’m sure the energy will very different after school starts (Monday).
We live locally and have the same impression about LMU and Chapman. Neither has much of a college community. Chapman is growing academically but it isn’t the same as the other campuses you visited.
We never toured Duke in person. My daughter was accepted in 2020, so all of the admitted student presentations were on Zoom. Admitted student presentations everywhere were all very last minute and not nearly as polished as virtual presentations are now. Because of that, the students often weren’t prepped and didn’t have filters or a script like they do at in-person programs. What I remember is, in just about every Duke info session, they spoke about imposter syndrome and the fact that everyone goes through it. That was a big turn off for us.
My daughter asked about changing to a major in a different college. The students said it was virtually impossible. After the session, someone from admissions reached out to my daughter and told her that, based on her application, if she wanted to change into a different college, they could make it happen. I’m not sure if that is still the case. In 2020, enrollment was down, students were taking gap years and choosing local colleges rather than moving across country. It may have just been that they needed students regardless of what college they were in.
Is that an organized thing or something? I mean, do you like pledge it when you sign the honor code or something like that?
I would think speaking to folks on campus is pretty standard for any school in the South. I went to UNC back in the dark ages and we all said, “Hey, how ya doin’?” and we’d nod. We’d tell the basketball players they had a great game last night and stuff. I mean that’s just normal behavior in this part of the country. You’d be kinda anti-social if you didn’t speak to people.
When I have visited with my D22 she’s spoken and been spoken to by lots of students on campus.
Back in the not quite as dark ages after I graduated and had lived out in Los Angeles for a brief period and then moved back home to NC I invited a friend who had never been west of Tennessee to drive back to California with me when I had a chunk of time off work. We visited with some of my friends there and my friend from home went out one morning by herself to take a walk. When she returned back she reported that people looked at her funny for saying “hey” and “good morning” to them. She was just being friendly like Southerners are, but they thought she was the weird one.
I guess maybe if W&L has a lot of OOS students from other parts of the country thought they needed to codify that you speak to folks you pass ?
It’s not a new thing. The Speaking Tradition is something Robert E Lee instituted when he was president of the University. Its definitely not a signed pledge! But I think is an explicit part of the culture. And yes, given that most of the student body is not from the South, perhaps it has to be more explicit. In any case, it has a different flavor than many other LACs, most of which are in the Northeast. It’s a nice thing.
Wow - the behavior of the Duke tour guide is shocking! Sad that he is so sour on his years there, especially given the sticker price. I would definitely reach out to admissions about your experience, particularly since you are an alumnus.
“Elon- UP. Great tour guide who made sure we knew about all the opportunities available. Beautiful campus. Not much of a town but liked the one street or two with restaurants and shops. Like that this school caters to students at so many academic levels. Not very diverse but felt welcoming and inclusive.”
Elon always puts on a good tour. You can tell how much the current students love it.
It’s been over a week and I am still worked up about it. As my husband said, it felt like we were on Candid Camera because the tour guide was so shockingly awful. It also felt like a big waste of time because he knew so little about many aspects of the school. I just can’t believe any school would would have someone like that be their ambassador.
I did send in detailed feedback to admissions. I kind of of expected them to reach out as these weren’t your run of the mill gripes about a tour. I am disappointed as it makes me feel like they don’t really care. If it were any other school, it would be off the list. However, we will give it a second chance given the wonderful experience I had there. My mom is also an alum so lots of history and lots of great memories.
We had a similar experience with a private tour at our alma mater. Shockingly horrible. I also sent admissions feedback and there was never a response. Our D took it off the list immediately.
We had an introductory session where one of the associate directors of admission was aggressive and insulting to a prospective student who seemed to obviously have special needs. It was the most shocking thing I’d seen in years…anywhere.
I wrote a very detailed note to the VP of admissions, who responded with a very short “I’ll address”.
As an aside…the tour guide we had following the session was maybe the best of our 20 or so tours.
I’ve posted this elsewhere…but sometimes adversity is useful in the application decision process. Both of our kids were in tears during their overnight stays at the schools they eventually attended. Both from incredibly inhospitable acts by their “hosts”.
It was how the community engaged with both of them when they were struggling that showed them it was the kind of place they wanted to be… accepting that there are people like the hosts at every school. “Everyone else” was amazing.
They laugh about it now…and both had great 4 great years at places they were in tears their first night ever sleeping on campus.
“Duke- DOWN. We had an awful tour guide. He started off the tour by telling us it was his last tour so he could say anything and we couldn’t get him fired. He told us he regretted his major every day. He said Dukemade it practically impossible for him to successfully complete his major. He had no work life balance. He told us that since he was premed he knew nothing about the humanities or arts departments. Since he hadn’t used career services he knew nothing about what they offered. He told us not to go visit East campus since there’s nothing there. This is where freshmen live so seemed like a place prospective students would want to see. He pointed out what he thought were the 3 ugliest buildings on campus- all on science drive because that’s where he spends his time. He told us not to bother visiting Humanities buildings because they are old and depressing. When tour ended D24 said that given she loved what she saw of campus (we spent several hours there after tour) and given the strengths of the departments she’s interested in, she will still apply but would need to come back to get a better sense of what the environment is like. She said she would not want to spend 4 years there if the tour guide was representative of student body. I was especially disappointed as I am an alum & interviewer who had an amazing experience there. I am still in shock over the tour.“
Th is makes me sad and also angry!
My D is 2025. She is a Humanities major. Her bestie is a science major(premed). Her boyfriend is prelaw. They all met freshman year even though they were in different dorms on East—even with the covud restrictions on big gatherings that first semester, they had tons of fun. They would all disagree with this tour guide’s assessment! The only thing they would agree with is most students have to face the “imposter” feelings at this level of school. I have heard D and her friends there explain that Duke has LESS of that toxic cutthroat environment than certain other Top-10 schools where friends attend. It is a challenging school but they all find classmates and professors extremely collaborative. No school is perfect but absolutely premeds can and do take a wide variety of classes if they chose to. I am an alum and also chose to stay there for med school. Even 25+ yrs ago premeds were encouraged to take a wide variety of classessince med school is all science. This student seems to have been trashing the school on purpose. You noted you reached out to admissions—I would also reach out to the Alumni affairs head and let them know.
For others looking at Duke: please take this tour guide’s assessment with a grain of salt and go tour/ investigate for yourself!
We had just an awful tour guide at Davidson this week also. Only reason why S24 is still considering is that we had an amazing tour by the head of music and lesson by the instrumental teacher. It was all about the tour guide and his interests. I sometimes wonder how the tour guides are vetted