My response wasn’t meant as a response to your post, except that I did want to say something about NARP culture, just because it was a big deal for my kid to avoid that. (These things are always subjective - he dinged Bates based on an impression that the athletes were all eating together in the dining hall, but I’m pretty sure that judgment was unfair.) I think that the Denison parents on CC can sometimes become a little defensive when the old stereotypes arise - preppy, fratty rich kids who all play sports, etc. The school has moved way beyond that, to the extent that it was true in the first place, and it’s a wonderful diverse place now, but it’s still a bit like Whack a Mole around here. Kenyon’s also a great school and I was excited for my son to consider it, but it just didn’t resonate with him. Horses for courses and all of that. Denison does have good career support, none of which my son went anywhere near in his four years. He has gone directly on to graduate school in the UK.
I think for many kids who look at both Denison and Kenyon, they have a strong preference for one or the other. My daughter had a lot she liked about Denison but when she visited Kenyon, she immediately saw herself there. In contrast, we have friends whose children had the complete opposite experience and are very happy at Denison.
Yes, we may have come up with the perfect response to the question posed in a different thread about whether all SLACs are alike! Kenyon and Denison look a lot alike from the outside, but they attract different kids.
Dining is extremely important to my S25 because he’s vegetarian. If we notice the only veg options are cheese pizza and a sad salad bar that’s a big no thanks. He did 2 summers at U Chicago and loved the food. Lots of veg and vegan, kosher, halal etc options.
In substantiation of this, peta2 assigned the University of Chicago an A grade in its Vegan Report Card.
“Lonely” was the feeling we got visiting Tufts as well! And it was a day school was in session. Haven’t seen anyone else describe it this way, but it just felt quiet and empty. A sad silence.
WUSTL has a crazy-nice campus. To use a phrase common when kids in my circles were looking at different private high schools, you can very much see where the money went.
Oh for sure. They definitely benefit big-time from their high endowment.
I do think it was a smart decision on their part to put the money there, though. I think it’s a big reason why they’re able to get a lot of kids to fall in love with the school and apply in one of the two early rounds, considering the public name prestige just isn’t there compared to schools like Northwestern or Duke.
Yes, after our visit, S24 was very high on WUSTL, and may in fact EDII there. And that makes perfect sense to me, it looks like it would be a great experience.
So nothing wrong with using your financial resources like that in my view, or responding to it favorably as a prospective student.
Our Boston U guide was horrible too (STEM major: in the Arts and Sci building she narrated, “this is where you will be taking your core classes.”) She seemed not bored by the tour so much as profoundly boring. I’d love to know if anyone’s had a personable guide at BU.
How grey and dreary is the weather at Kenyon? It is a good fit for D25 in a lot of ways, but the number of clear sunny days looks pretty dismal.
I would not describe it as dreary at all (and I just asked my Kenyon student who also said that is not a word she would use.) Maybe it’s the glorious fall that overrides the rest. My child wanted winter (we live in the SE) and adores having all 4 seasons. Middle Path is always active no matter the weather and maybe that gives the campus a joyful feel even when the skies are grey.
I am basing it off of this: Ohio Sunny days
and in comparison to a place like Colorado (known for being sunny):
or Wisconsin (closer to average)
My son went to Denison, so about 45 minutes closer to Columbus. He didn’t mind the weather, actually came to enjoy it, but, realistically, it can be a little grey and gloomy. If you haven’t tried Weather Spark, I recommend it, as it will give you a fuller picture of the weather at Kenyon and you can also compare to other places: https://weatherspark.com/ I’m pretty sure I first learned of it here on CC, but it’s a great tool.
We had an awesome BU guide. Honors college, woman from NYC. She was whip smart, talked a mile a minute. Total NYer.
Of course, I’m biased.
re: Tufts, LOVED the town. Did not like the school. Went from ED2 candidate to off the list.
Yes! My husband and I visited Tufts several times with our D, who was going through the recruiting process. Great school of course, but it struck all of us, each visit, the lack of warmth from the students. It was the only school we visited where no one greeted us (outside of the team and coach), no one wanted to pet our dog, etc. No one seemed to make eye contact or connect- the students were all looking at their phones or laptops. It really turned us off, which was disappointing, because we all really wanted to love it, but it came of the list.
Wanted to love it. Saw a good number of expressionless, unfriendly students in Exeter & Andover hoodies just walk right past our tour group. We grabbed a final slice at that awesome pizza place in the town square and went on our way.
@u2kelly … As a lifelong Philly area resident, It’s good to hear that visitors to Temple are feeling better about the environment, but you should look very closely at the housing options for all 4 years.
The area north of Vine Street (on Broad) has undergone a dramatic turnaround over the past decade. The neighborhoods near there (Fairmount, Spring Garden, Callowhill, Poplar, Northern Liberties) are all generating a ton of investment. They are trendy. Temple isn’t quite “in the zone” yet, but will be soon. Where you run into issues is to the West/North/East of Temple. Heading in and out on Broad is the “safe passage” corridor.
There is a reason Temple has the largest (at least it was) police force of any college/university in the US.
It is remarkably better than it has been. I had season tickets to Temple basketball in the 90s…and things are MUCH better… but be sure to look around and understand all of the options for all 4 years.