I think there might be some wiggle room there 
. But, the small schools also have the more specialized equestrian programs and I’m not sure that is such a great thing—I think a broader animal science with an equine focus would be a better investment of tuition money as that would likely give her more options. But, she has to want to be at that campus, and moms can only push/encourage so much, right?
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@ Thorsmom66 Glad you enjoyed your visit to Montreal and McGill. My older son is a McGill alumnus and was a tour guide when he was a student. Touring campuses is not that common for Canadians so it was no surprise that most people on the tour were Americans or other internationals.
Montreal is an amazing place to spend four years. A different culture and language yet only 40 miles from the US border. And Montreal is also home to over 400,000 anglophones and a long present and important English-speaking community.
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We enjoyed seeing the school - as we’re in MA I’ve been to Montreal a few times over the years for weekend getaways; it’s a great city. I am actually semi-fluent in French (used to be fluent but time and disuse . . . ) but S24 is a Spanish guy so it is nice that English is so ubiquitous. Definitely far more English friendly than Quebec City (which is fantastic as well in a very European way).
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If she’s open to a women’s college check out Hollins. They don’t offer a specific equine degree but that might be a good thing. They have a well-respected riding program and offer a pre-vet program and several courses about horses. I know they have had “the anatomy of the horse” as one of their January short term courses. We have a friend who considered taking that, but I think she opted for a snake course instead. She’s a bio major there.
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Duke certainly doesn’t need my help, but I’ll add an alternate view:
We found just the opposite when we did a virtual tour of campus, general engineering info session, and then a special info session with Black engineers. We are from MA and were exhausted touring in person. We also didn’t want to complicate things by flying down. By that time S23 already had his EDI and EDII choices, and we didn’t want to muddy the waters. He absolutely loved Duke and would have considered it for EDII if they had that option. In that case, we would have flown down to see it in person.
S23 found the “imposter syndrome” comment he heard in the info session with students refreshing. He said it was a nice change from the high-achieving kids he saw at a different elite university we toured that all conducted themselves as if they were born to be there and couldn’t imagine anyone ever having an academic struggle in life. He loved that the Black engineers talked about feeling a part of the engineering community and having ready access to research and internship opportunities. That is decidedly NOT the experience we heard when we talked to Black students at other top engineering schools.
S23 was admitted to his EDI choice, so we never visited in person, but Duke was certainly the top RD contender.
I think it’s important that students recognize your guides are people and have off days or isolated bad experiences like the rest of us. My kids tried to speak to a lot of different students and paid attention to patterns.
Case in point: S23’s ED choice was the university @momofboiler1 mentioned in her earlier post about the horrible tour guide at her alma mater. S23 loved his tour guide, the engineering info session, and the engineers (Black and non-Black) he met. We just moved him in last week, and we felt great dropping him off after attending several activities for parent orientation.
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Funny you say that-- I’m not the user who posted about Middlebury, but seeing their post pop up reminded me that I had visited and could give a pretty verbose rundown 
I’ll take this opportunity to mention one more thing about Middlebury to keep this thread on topic: there was construction happening on campus; they’re building new first-year dorms that last year they said would be ready for Fall '24 but tour guide said she wouldn’t count on it…just checked the website and it’s been updated to Fall '25!
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I have read a lot of wild things on CC, but this is one of the wildest!
I’ve lived in and visited a lot of college towns, and Northampton ranks up there with the very best of them. It has a classic main street, good restaurants and bars, independent retail shops, live entertainment venues, and is very walkable. For Smith College students, an added bonus is that downtown is adjacent to campus. Lots of UMass-Amherst , Hampshire, Mt. Holyoke, and Amherst College students take the bus or drive there.
South Hadley has a couple shops, and a bus stop… to get to Northampton.
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I know it’s an unpopular opinion…I take full responsibility and accept something might be wrong with me 
that being said, to anyone interested in Smith/MoHo/other consortium members, please visit…you never know 100% which area you’ll prefer just by reading online!
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Timely comment, we just booked a 3 day trip to Northampton at the end of September, coming from the west coast to tour Mt Holyoke and Smith. It will be my second time there (visited with D21), and D24’s first time to New England. MoHo is a favorite on her list. We are looking forward to it.
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My kiddo went to BS at Deerfield, near Northampton and I had the exact same reaction reading that comment…. Such a great small town!
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For those interested in the historic architectural sights in and around Northampton, here are some good starting points:
Northampton’s streets follow, essentially, the same paths that were laid out in the 17th century. There are a number of surviving 18th century structures in and around Northampton. The downtown district retains its 19th century character. The modest fortunes of local merchants and industrialists financed numerous Victorian mansions and picturesque cottages as well as the commercial blocks in the Downtown Historic District. Northampton possesses two fine 19th century residential neighborhoods, Pomeroy Terrace (1850-1885) and Elm Street (1860-1920), where Gothic Revival, Italianate, Second Empire, Queen Anne and Colonial Revival Styles contribute to the City’s diverse architectural heritage.
And:
For 365 years, Main Street has been a crossroads, marketplace, town center, and public square. In 1655, English settlers built their meeting house on a small hill at the center of their new village, near where the courthouse stands today. The wide rutted road in front of the meeting house became Main Street.
On the eve of the American Revolution, in 1769, the first store opened on what is now the corner of Main and Old South Streets, across from the meeting house and a tavern. More stores followed. By 1800, “Shop Row” was the place to shop for local goods and luxuries from London. The wooden stores were replaced by brick commercial blocks, and by 1900, Main Street looked like it does today.
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Funny about the farm smell- DD felt that way about the whole state of Vermont- “It smells like cows and weed and why do they all wear those stupid overalls”. Definitely crossed those schools off her list. I adored everything about Vermont however. She did concede the cheese was good.
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Riiiight.
I grew up in that neighborhood. That’s Hillcrest. North of campus is middle-class, it’s just NYC so people don’t have giant lawns and three car garages.
(Sample house: https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/69-60-185th-St-Fresh-Meadows-NY-11365/2066209691_zpid/).
South of Campus is Jamaica Estates, where Donald Trump grew up as the son of a rich real estate developer. It’s solidly upper middle class.
(Sample house: https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/17315-Croydon-Rd-Jamaica-NY-11432/32134095_zpid/)
I suppose if you’re from Grosse Pointe or Bel Air it’s “delighfully proletarian” or something.
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They just broke ground on the new dorm in June, with an expected completion date of spring 2025.
Will tell you that my daughter felt the exact same way as you about Northampton - both on a college visit and then when she spent her Spring break there visiting her bff from HS that attends Smith. Just didn’t really like the town - that is why it is great to see all the different options and realize that we all like different things. I thought Northampton was lovely - but I wouldn’t be the one living there 
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This. I can’t imagine anyone preferring South Hadley to Northampton unless you are someone who just doens’t like people or services. Mt. Holyoke is lovely and there is much to recommend it, but location? Compared to Northampton? Not even close IMHO.
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I agree with you. Didn’t like Northampton at all, did like South Hadley a little (had pizza there) but probably wouldn’t have wanted to be a college student there expecting an active city life.
I loved Amherst.
I went to school in Boulder and probably went to the Pearl Street mall at the time Mork and Mindy was set there (not filmed there kids) about 10 time total. I couldn’t afford anything there, including the bars and clothing stores. I got the same feeling when my daugther was looking at Smith - she’d never go the 5 blocks or so because she couldn’t afford anything.
And she could in Amherst? I don’t get it. In Northampton you have a lot of cheap restaurants, a CVS, a skateboard store! Several bookstores. Several thrift stores! You don’t have to go in trinket stores you don’t like.
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I just said I liked Amherst. She was recruited to Smith, I visited South Hadley and Amherst while waiting for her. She didn’t like Smith for a lot of reasons, Northampton was only one. I didn’t like Northampton or Smith, and knew it wasn’t the school for her. Both my father and brother, who had gone to UMass, really wanted her to go but she just didn’t like it.
I agree with @tweee that different settings hit people in different ways. While some may pick Boulder because they like the granola crunchy Pearl Street Mall, I wasn’t one of them. I even worked on the Mall for a year and still didn’t see the attraction.
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Thanks.
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