We had the exact opposite experience – one of our best tours was at Davidson. It completely changed my son’s trajectory. Your son may want to sign up for a Wildcat Chat (should be available soon!) to get a broader perspective on the school. He can also reach out directly to a student member of the admissions team: Ask a Wildcat | Davidson
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The good news is that the music department was so impressive that it is still high on the list. I had the crazy thought that he would be so impressed by all of it that he would decide to apply ED with the hopes of being one and done, but no such luck! I will have him sign up for the Wildcat Chat and the music department chair will connect him to other music students so that should be very helpful.
Similar story here. We made an impromptu visit to Davidson b/c we were visiting family friends nearby. Even though we didn’t have an appointment, the friendly admissions staff welcomed us anyway. We had a wonderful tour with a student tour guide who encouraged my kid to apply to Davidson’s July Experience program that year. Fast forward and my kiddo is about to start senior year at Davidson. Loves it so much and is not looking forward to having to leave in May.
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Do you have your own thread about your D’s college search? It seems like it will be really interesting one, and I look forward to hearing your impressions of Delaware Valley and the other schools where you plan to visit, too!
These are a couple of colleges I’m wondering if your family has considered:
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Emory & Henry (VA): About 1100 undergrads. Offers a B.A., B.S. and minor in Equine Studies as well as a B.A. in Equine-Assisted Therapy, and I think they’re building a new $2M barn. It’s also part of the CTCL association: Emory & Henry College – Colleges That Change Lives
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Otterbein (OH): About 2200 undergrads and has some equine programs that may be of interest. Majors include Equine Business Management, Equine Pre-Veterinary/Pre-Graduate Studies, and Equine Veterinary Technology while it also has minors in Equine-Assisted Activites & Therapies and Equine Business Management: Department of Equine Science - Otterbein University
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U. of Montana-Western: About 1400 undergrads and like a couple of other colleges (Colorado College, Cornell College) has students take one class at a time. “The Equine Studies Department at UMW offers the only Bachelor’s Degree in Natural Horsemanship in the U.S., with options in equine management, psychology, science, business and instruction.” Department of Equine Studies | University of Montana Western Going by your username, I think you’re a WUE resident, so this other school should also get you a WUE rate.
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@alaskajo replying to your post in the other thread.
I just would STRONGLY caution your daughter against getting an equine science degree. Employment prospects are TERRIBLE. You have to really drill down and figure out which kids have a trust fund supporting them. Salaries are tiny; if you aren’t independently wealthy already, your daughter will not be able to afford a horse and compete as an adult. Furthermore, an equine degree is NOT a requirement for literally any job in the industry, and is not the best pathway in. Want to be a trainer? Become a working student (which I wouldn’t recommend either). Want to work for a feed company? A degree in Animal nutrition from a large state school is the entry ticket. A degree in marketing, or business would be the best for the very few corporate jobs there are. Etc.
The way to continue riding is to get a job that pays really well and have horses as a hobby. Have your daughter speak with five professional horsepeople, I am confident that most will support what I am saying.
I speak as a lifelong horseperson, who detoured away from being a lawyer to owning my own farm where I board retired horses. Perhaps you already have a family farm, but if not, owning her own place will be impossible.
The horse industry itself is extremely sleazy. That’s because there are no barriers to entry – anyone can say they are a trainer etc (degree is not necessary!) and so bad behavior is rewarded. Drugging horses is rampant; many use cruel methods to train; clients get taken advantage of financially all the time. And, where money is involved, the horses lose.*
And, it’s very likely your daughter will end up working for someone like that.
Of course there are some reputable professionals, but they are few and far between.
I could write much, much more but I will stop with this.
Show jumping horse killings - Wikipedia.
(Note that these cases involved people at the top of the industry, the “best” highest level!)
These trainers were revered, truly at the pinnacle of the sport:
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Thank you for your input on Drexel. Right now this is my daughter’s first choice.
They do have a quarter system. The first year you go to school all three quarters and then have the summer off but then you are either in school or working the remaining time until graduation.
This may not be the best choice for some students but my daughter really thinks it would be a good fit for her. Getting 18 months of work experience in the 5 year program would be great!
When we toured, our guide already had a job lined up after graduating, doing exactly what she wanted to do. Because she had had three times to do a co-op she was really able to narrow down what she was interested in and what she wasn’t.
Again, this model might not be for every student but could be very beneficial to a certain type of student. After touring around 15 universities so far it was very interesting to see something different.
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As a former equine industry professional myself, I agree with all you said in your post.
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Agree wholeheartedly on the suggestion of reaching out to the Alumni office, specifically Alumni Admissions and Constituent Engagement. My guess would be that they and the Admissions Office are well aware of College Confidential (and probably hate its existence but recognize its influence nonetheless) while the campus tours folks may not. And they’re all probably unaware that there are a couple of discussion threads here organized around college tours and that our alma mater’s getting trashed in one right now because of a since-retired tour guide. At a place well known for school spirit, it’s disheartening to know that a disgruntled kid who doesn’t know anything was on the in-person tour guide roster. Hopefully this was just one rogue instance, but they should know that alumni expect proper vetting of the kids leading tours, and/or a better script for them.
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If you could pair the equine science degree with the pre-vet curriculum, and ultimately become a vet, then you could make money and own horses. 
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I don’t think the school is being trashed. OP made it clear that it was a rogue tour guide.
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Hi - just to say my 18- and 20-year-old read the thread and absolutely loved the tour guide’s approach - thought it was refreshing from usual tours, fun, and would not have been turned off by it at all and in fact, said they thought it was hilarious. My niece is an incoming freshman and incidentally my brother said it was the best tour they had and she had many great options.
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A family friend did this at Colorado State. Not sure of her exact undergrad degree, but as an undergrad worked at the vet hospital and is now in vet school. She is going to specialize in horse medicine. She had her horse with her at school for all her years and made enough money working to pay for its keep. She is a really tiny woman so it is funny to watch her with the great big beasts.
Oh these stories are heart breaking. 
We don’t owe a barn, farm, or even a horse. We drew that hard line years ago when she entered this sport. We tried telling her that horses should be a hobby and she should find a good paying job that would allow her to own a horse, do shows, buy the fancy gear, etc. It’s fallen on deaf ears. We live in Alaska so we’re very isolated from the “real” world of horse shows 
. I’m afraid it could be a very rude awakening for her when she realizes what money can buy.
She’s resourceful and a hardworker. So she’s not going into this expecting this to be rainbows and unicorns. But she’s such a smart kid I do wish she would be thinking of her ROI on her college degree! (I tried to have that talk with her and didn’t get too far).
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I am not a horse person, but there’s a really thoughtful artist named Austin Kleon who writes a lot about the creative process, and — as you might expect — reflects on age-old questions about working and/or doing what you love. He has a number of good pieces on the topic (summarized as “keep your day job”), but this is a particularly good one, with this quote, which applies to anyone trying to reconcile that tension:
This is what I recommend: get up early. Get up early and work for two hours on the thing you really care about. Then, when you’re done, go to your job. When you get there, your boss can’t take the thing you really care about away from you, because you already did it. And you know you’ll get to do it tomorrow morning, as long as you make it through today.
The “meaning” in your job is: it pays the bills. Get as good at it as you can, because it’ll make the job more interesting to you, and it will provide you exits to another one. Then find the rest of your meaning elsewhere.
I recognize that it might continue to fall on deaf ears, but if approaching it from an angle helps get past some of the resistance, the above post might be helpful. Good luck with it.
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(Help me out! Where would I start the new thread?)
She has a friend from her equestrian team that is going to Emory & Henry. D24’s rule is the college has to be bigger than her high school which is about 2000 students. We’ll have to look into Otterbein. Montana Western is below that 2000 number. I think D23 looked at them (or maybe I did ) and I think they are heavy into Western as opposed to English riding.
@sushiritto….that is kind of our hope and why we’d like to see her pick an equine science program over equestrian studies. She’d like to get into equine chiropractor but then she found out you have to be either a vet or a chiropractor first and she says she doesn’t want to do that much schooling. (Mind you my D19 said the same thing and is now in the midst of med school applications! So we know this can all change and that’s why we want her to keep her options open!)
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You can create a thread in this forum, and even though it says “Me” it’s also for parents of students on the college search.
To start a new thread you would select the “+ New Thread” in the upper right hand corner of the page, as shown on the snip above. If you look at the first pinned post (“How to post a Chance Me or Match Me”) it will provide a template which, when completed, can be super helpful for others when they’re offering suggestions.
It can start off as a “Match Me” type of thread, but over time they can evolve if you have questions particular to your D’s search process, etc.
Hope this helps!
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Fair enough - should have phrased as some people might be getting the wrong impression of the school while on these tours or reading about them. Of course, maybe it’s the right impression and things have changed, and/or as Sloan1 says, this approach to giving tours might strike some prospective students as humorously irreverent. At the end of the day, Duke’s going to be fine and if they get 20 less applications from people turned off by tours it’s not going to make the slightest difference in the quality of next year’s freshman class. Just slightly concerned about the quality control, I guess!
Does your D24 understand that a college of 2000 students will typically feel much larger than a 2000 student high school? My D24 had a similar size requirement but after visiting a couple of schools she developed a better understanding and it disappeared.
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I would definitely steer toward CSU or Kansas. Their programs are much more comprehensive than the niche programs at the smaller schools and would give her exposure and opportunities in more areas of equine science. They would also allow her to pick up a minor or double major (not sure how that would work with her schedule) that is outside of her major and may relate or not to equine science, but make her more marketable. Or, she might decide she wants to go in a completely new direction. At some of the smaller schools she’s looking at, she’d get pigeonholed pretty quickly.
2000 students is pretty big for a highschool. My son is coming from one that is 240/70 kids in his graduating class and his suitemates graduated with 11 kids in his class. CSU and Kansas seem really big, but are very manageable. The equine programs are tight knit and will made a big school feel much smaller while still having all of the advantages.
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We (DH and I) are hoping CSU clicks for her. We’ve been quietly encouraging it for years for her! It’s a popular school for kids from Alaska but not so popular that she’ll still feel like she is getting away. CSU’s vet school also has a program with our state flagship school where you can do your first 2 years here, paying in-state tuition. So if she decides to go to vet school, that would be a great option to have. Of course she would have to get into the program which is no easy feat and would have to live in Fairbanks for those 2 years, also no easy feat!!
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