<p>If you want to see a small LAC with engineering, visit Union in Schenectady, NY.</p>
<p>Hi all,</p>
<p>Thank you again for your comments and ideas as we planned this trip. We returned last week and, though exhausted, we had a great and productive time. Here are some notes that will hopefully be helpful to other planning such a trip. We will record campus visit notes on another part of CC. For most of these, we did the tour/info session, our D attended a class in a subject area of interest to her, and we ate in a student dining hall (BTW, far better food across the board compared with what we remember).</p>
<p>School choice: I think we were spot on. We visited a wide variety of schools that were representative of different types and locations. This was in contrast to just working her list of likely schools based on our research to that point. Our D’s reactions confirmed our suspicions about the kind of school she would like (large, strong academics, math-intensive engineering program, active social life including greeks, Div 1 sports, Northeast bias). FWIW, here are one kid’s reactions to the schools we visited, given her important criteria above:</p>
<p>-Princeton: gorgeous campus and town, great academic program and facilities, way too serious for her (she thought this would be a stretch school, now she is questioning whether it should be on her list at all).
-Lehigh: cramped campus built into a hill, surrounding town with some issues (gambling casino coming to town, the surest sign of desperation in my experience), low energy in class attended. Pass.
-Cornell: LOVED IT. met all of her criteria, though Ithaca location and weather will be negatives when she decides whether this will be her ED school.
-Williams: left after the tour, before lunch, information session and class. Too small, remote. So much for LAC’s. Pass.
-Harvard: in same camp as Princeton above. Pass.
-MIT: could not see herself there. We left quickly.</p>
<p>Scheduling: spending 2/3 of a day on campus is the way to do it. You really come to get a feel for the campus. Traveling at night can be a grind, but it is the most efficient use of time and you’re glad to be at or near the next school the following morning. My wife scheduled out the whole trip on a spreadsheet, which we fiddled with up until the day we left. This definitely kept us on track.</p>
<p>Driving: we drove alot, 800 miles of minivan fun. We rented a minivan so we were all comfy. The time together was important. We had plenty of time to hash through each visit.</p>
<p>Evaluations: before we left, my wife developed a spreadsheet to evaluate each school. This included a list of important factors, assigning an importance weight to each, and a scale to score each school on each factor. Our D was part of the process in choosing and weighting the factors before we left. We brought the laptop on the trip so she could score each school and record her notes, either in the car or in the hotel that night. This was also a good move. It kept her focused, and kept out most of the emotions.</p>
<p>Interestingly, we also saw BU and Tufts (neither was on our D’s list) with some friends on the last day. They had organized that day for their D, and we decided to join them. They combined both schools in one day. Some comments on this:</p>
<p>-two schools in one day is too much,
-Tufts was technically in session, but the kids were all leaving for spring break the Friday afternoon we visited. A really bad time to schedule a visit.
-BU was on spring break, so that was an even worse time to visit.
-confirmed that neither school scores well on her criteria.</p>
<p>Those are the big things. Happy to answer questions or discuss here or by PM. Happy hunting to all!</p>
<p>M</p>
<p>I went on a tour last summer that consisted of Georgetown, UPenn, NYU, Columbia, Brown, Boston College, Cornell, and UMich. I had the same reaction with Cornell! My dad kept on saying, "I can’t imagine anyone not applying after visiting the campus’</p>
<p>Mickey, If your daughter liked Cornell, she should check out Michigan. It has a similar vide.</p>
<p>Alexandre,</p>
<p>Thanks for the suggestion. We’re planning two more trips: 1) Penn/Columbia, and 2) Northwestern/Michigan. Stay tuned…</p>
<p>M</p>
<p>Although not in the same league as Northwestern or Michigan, you might want to try visiting Wisconsin-Madison. It has similar qualities to the above two schools and might be a good safety.</p>
<p>I’m glad your D loved Cornell so much.</p>
<p>Make sure to visit some safety schools though to make sure she likes where she applies to for those! (Who knows…she could end up at her safety!)</p>
<p>Good luck with everything!</p>
<p>Mikey, thanks for the update. Kids’ reactions really are instantaneous aren’t they? My son’s in the grad school market and Cornell’s one of his top choices. (The good news is that he’s already admitted!) I would second the suggestion for Michigan as another school with Cornell’s ambience. There aren’t too many that are big and egalitarian in the Northeast. I guess she’s already thought about WUSTL and Duke?</p>
<p>Would you mind participating in this thread?
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/673424-how-long-tour-what-did-you-like-about.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/673424-how-long-tour-what-did-you-like-about.html</a></p>
<p>RP…Wisconsin…good idea. Thanks.</p>
<p>Reach – Thanks for your note. She will apply to Michigan, Georgia Tech and Syracuse as safeties. Only UM is left to visit.</p>
<p>Momrath – WUSTL does not have the programs she is interested in. Duke has something close. We visited Duke and UVA last year, but both were on summer break. We may need to re-do this trip in the fall. She does, however, seem to be leaning toward going to school in the NE. Having grown up in NYC myself, it always amuses me how southern kids often want to go north, and northern kids want to escape the snow. Stanford is her dream school as this point, so I appreciate your point about the NE schools in general. The adventure continues…</p>
<p>From your daughters reaction to the schools you visited, I think she will like Penn. My daughter is a freshman there, and she loves the mix of strong academics, fun social life, arts performances and access to the city. Although the campus is in the city, the central area is closed off and really pretty.</p>
<p>^I don’t know about Penn, but I second Northwestern and Michigan. I loved my visit to Cornell and hated my visit to Penn, so much so I didn’t even apply. I didn’t get a good vibe from the students and the campus can’t even come close to the natural beauty at Cornell. I also didn’t like the feeling of high security (like registering to go into dorms as a guest, needing a Penn ID card to get into the library, and security guards on street corners at night). Plus, Cornell generally perceived to be better in engineering than Penn in most areas. If it is en route to one of your visits, make the stop, but it seems to me that Penn probably isn’t worth your time given your daughter’s reactions thus far.</p>
<p>I agree with vivace, there isn’t much in common between Cornell and Penn. They are both excellent and well rounded, but they have significantly different cultures and environments. I would add Rice to the list though.</p>
<p>Alexandre, Rice is on my list but not on hers at this point. She thinks it’s too small and is thinking North vs. South. We’ll see though. Thanks!</p>
<p>M</p>
<p>If your daughter’s dream school is Stanford, she will like Rice. Rice is a mini Stanford.</p>