Parents of the HS Class of 2014

Parents of Class of 20xx
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<p>Eymamom - Let me know how that works out for you at VT. In a tour you’re probably okay, but they do take the entire reservation system and number pretty seriously. Last spring break we went through several days of refreshing, and rechecking availability of tours & info sessions until we could get two spaces that lined up. It was rather funny. S3 liked it initially but now thinks it’s a bit larger then he wants. As an instate its a great safety (he’s not e’school so not as competitive).</p>

<p>When S2 (hs '11) attended an open house for engineering as an accepted Sr to their honors college and COE he had been unable to get signed up online to see the RoMeLa Labs. When we got there we asked if he could be added as he was using this visit to help decide on schools, surely he should see the labs. No dice. We asked one level up, a coordinator, and gave up as we watched Jr’s and Sophs go on the tour. No, he should not have taken anyone’s space, but you’d think they would have accommodated an accepted Sr w honors who was undecided. He choose the ‘other’ Va school btw.</p>

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<p>Cornell guarantees housing for Freshmen and Sophomores only, and even sophomore year it’s an angst-filled thing with a huge lottery and trying to hook up with the right number of friends where someone has a good number…</p>

<p>For Junior and Senior year almost everyone moves off campus because there’s a lottery for on-campus housing in the spring, but according to my DS11, “all” of the “good” housing near campus gets spoken for in September! (That is, in September of Sophomore year, they are signing leases for Junior year. My DS had to put down a 3-month deposit!) So even if they might prefer to live on campus, they’re mostly afraid to wait because they might not get a room via the housing lottery and then they’d be scrambling to find off-campus housing that is mostly all spoken for. That was a drama-filled week or two with kids arranging and re-arranging themselves into groups according to the housing they found. It <em>is</em> nice to have it all settled now and not in progress during a heavy time of year.</p>

<p>With the single rooms for freshmen, I would love this for DS14 because he’ll want/need a single for his sanity, and being one of a ton of kids in singles makes the singles more social than being one of the few singles in a dorm filled with doubles. The singles are either in “suites” which are 3 singles and one or two doubles sharing a bathroom (although not really suite-like in that all the rooms and bathroom still open onto the main hallway) or in halls of mostly singles. So the kids in singles socialize just fine. One cool thing – if you ask for a double and they give you a single anyhow and are on financial aid, they will increase your aid (and I’m pretty sure they increase the GRANT) to cover the difference. (If you ask for a single, you have to pay for it.)</p>

<p>My son really just fell for Cornell without knowing why also. “It’s just so nice here!” We only visited after he was accepted, which was nice, because there was no risk of falling in love and then not being accepted. We also had an excellent tour guide – guess they train 'em well :)</p>

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<p>We stayed in the Rodeway Inn in Philly and all I can say for it is that the location was great and it didn’t have bedbugs. It wasn’t like any other “Choice Hotel” I’ve ever stayed in, didn’t seem like a chain hotel at all, and didn’t even have breakfast (which was misleadingly advertised). With DS11 we did priceline and got a much nicer hotel, but then ended up having to pay $35 or so for valet parking, and $10 for internet, so I thought I’d be smart and just book something affordable with free internet and cheap parking myself. I think if I have to do Philly again I’ll either go back to priceline, or stay somewhere other than right downtown.</p>

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<p>Sounds like tours are going well for everyone! We are home (baseball) but here is a question I need help with:</p>

<p>S did not do very well at all on the 2nd SAT. He’ll take the ACT April 13 (and probably again in June), but I could tell he was disappointed. To boost him up, I told him not everyone does well on standardized tests and we should schedule some interviews at his target schools (even ones we’ve visited before) because once they get to meet him, they’ll think what a great guy he is and they’ll be able to see beyond the scores. I’m hoping this is true; it can’t hurt to show interest and get experience interviewing.</p>

<p>Having said that, I want to help him prepare for some basic interview questions, so I am eager to hear from any of you whose kids have done interviews. D’11 only had one with a Middlebury alum and it was more friendly and informative. I’m thinking he should have some specific questions about the school, be positive about it, and be able to talk about himself.</p>

<p>And I’m thinking he should have a PG-13 response to the question “what do you like to do in your spare time?”</p>

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<p>mathmomvt … I doubt we’d stay downtown Philly again as well. I grew up in Chgo and drove in city traffic for years … but he one way, narrow streets in Philly drove me bonkers. And thanks for the input on housing at Cornell - what you’ve said makes complete sense. And honestly, I’m not going to even give it another thought as it’s a crapshoot that she’d be accepted anyway. ;)</p>

<p>go2mom … In Philly, I kept thinking, “is that the CC mom?” “is that her?”. lol! Perhaps we can meet in Indy for sure! And we met the same tour Women’s Studies/Sexual Pleasure guide! I too was like, “did she really just say that??” Bwahahahahaha! What were the negatives you heard about Williams? I’m really curious what others had to say!</p>

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<p>I, too, am curious about the negatives regarding Williams. When DS’12 and I visited in 2010, Williams seemed to have a great program! One of the negatives I felt at the time was the surrounding area seemed depressed. Also, they did not have enough advanced math courses. Overall, DS’12 seriously considered Williams, but in the end he did not apply.</p>

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<p>Hello, all. We got back late last night from the great Midwest College tour and as someone else noted, it was good to sleep in my own bed! We hit six schools in five days and although the weather was a bit cold at the beginning of the week, we lucked out with our itinerary and missed the snow that blanketed some schools on our list since we were hitting them in the latter half of the week. Brief rundown of each school below (apologies for the superficial nature of the summaries but I am still in a bit of a fog and need to consult my notes for more detail!).</p>

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<li> Northwestern: school was on spring break, so not many kids around. Mostly grad students and internationals from what I could gather. This was not a disadvantage for us, since this is probably the 10th time that DS has been on campus for various reasons. Cold and windy on Monday, which was less than ideal for the poor Tampa folks in our group, who were clad only in sweatshirts! DS loves NU but I can see how visiting at this time would not make a good impression on a first-time visitor, given the weather and lack of life on campus.<br></li>
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<p>We got to choose our tour guide, and DS immediately latched onto the male Mech E/Econ double major, who was in a fraternity, and belonged to the sports fan club. As DS said, “He sounds exactly like me.” Small, very walkable campus, with Lake Michigan on one side. Lots of trees, green, and of course, the lakefront. Did not get to see a dorm or dining hall because of spring break, but again, DS had seen those so it was not a loss for us. </p>

<p>We also hit the engineering info session in the afternoon. DS liked the fact that you need not declare a specific engineering field right away, that many many kids doublel majored across schools (like our tour guide), and that there is a two-quarter course sequence which uses engineering techniques to solve problems across the different engineering disciplines, so that kids could gain exposure before having to choose a major. 90% of incoming engineering students graduate as engineers.</p>

<p>Highlight: After “Mary Tour Guide” introduced herself, the next guy in line said, “Mary, tell them what happened just ten minutes ago.” Mary demurred, so the guy announced “Mary just won a Fulbright!” and the whole room applauded.</p>

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<li> Michigan: Another campus with which DS was very familiar, having spent four weeks there this past summer. HUGE, but interestingly enough, did not seem overwhelming. Dorms and dining halls seemed like standard Big State U issue but DS said the food was very good when he was there and he had no complaints. Not all dorms have AC but they are in the midst of renovating all of the dorms in Central Campus, one at a time. Ann Arbor is a fun, vibrant place to be for a college kid.</li>
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<p>Did the engineering tour on North Campus in the afternoon and I have to say that I was highly impressed. Like NU, Michigan does not force kids to choose right away. 80% of incoming engineers graduate as engineers. The Engineering quad is very nice, and quiet compared to Central Campus. We went through the different labs and saw lots of kids working in teams on their projects.</p>

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<li> Miami OH: Gorgeous campus, with a very enthusiastic tour guide! If you were to conjure up a stereotypical leafy campus setting, this place would be it. Very generous with their merit aid. Even though it has 14,000 students, the campus is walkable. Athletic facilities are new and sparkling. Same for recreation center, which has a climbing wall, a lazy river, indoor pools, indoor track, etc. It is in a rural setting, but the town of Oxford was cute. My son characterized Miami as “the perfect likely school” for him - the major he wants, beautiful campus, attractive student body, D1 sports.<br></li>
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<p>Highlight: heated sidewalks!</p>

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<li><p>Rose-Hulman: This was just a quick stop on our way from Miami to Illinois. Very small school, on the fringes of Terre Haute. Very specialized, and definitely not the typical college campus. Nice campus with a lake, although it is more like a community college setting than a traditional four-year school. Athletic facilities were very nice for a small school, with an indoor track, indoor pool, football stadium and baseball fields. Pretty sure this isn’t the right place for DS, but it was good to see a school of this type just to make sure.</p></li>
<li><p>University of Illinois: Giant school in very busy Champaign-Urbana (yes, I know the school styles itself as the Univ. of Illinois Urbana Champaign so they can abbreviate to UIUC but it was known as Champaign-Urbana when I was at Northwestern and that is still how I think of it). For some reason, U of I seemed much more city-like than Michigan, even though both are about the same size. I think it’s the way the campus is laid out. We seemed to cross many more big multi-lane streets with more traffic and very long buses everywhere. DS did not care for this and said that it felt more like being in Chicago than a college campus. He also did not like the fact that U of I requires you to declare a specific engineering major right away, that it is very difficult to switch engineering disciplines, and also difficult to double major across schools. We ducked out of the engineering tour early and skipped the engineering info session entirely, he was so turned off by the setting and program.</p></li>
<li><p>Wash U: THIS school was where DS was the happiest. We were there for a recruiting event, so it was a long day that started at 7 am and ended at 4 pm, but he was very excited. Beyond the fact that he might be able to play a sport here, he loved the campus (so did I), which is a closed campus (no roads run through it) with beautiful buildings. He liked that there is no core curriculum, with an intro English course being the only requirement BUT engineers are exempt. They just built brand new engineering buildings and are trying to gain recognition for the engineering program, as they have been with business and of course life sciences. The dorms are outstanding, with easily the largest rooms I’ve seen at any college, and common rooms that look like club lounges, with flat screen TVs. The food was very very good. We saw one student lounge that had leather club chairs, a twenty-foot ceiling, and a six foot fireplace. It looked like a country club. </p></li>
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<p>DS felt very at home there, some of which is specific to being recruited. Even though it was a group recruiting event, the coaches all greeted him by name and knew his position right away. He has a very good friend who is already on the team. Players came up to us and introduced themselves and were quite friendly. When we watched highlight film, every player was noted for their academic accomplishments. When they took us to the dining hall for lunch, DS ran into another alum from his school and this kid just raved about Wash U. So he already feels like he knows people there and they all love the place.</p>

<p>They had an academic info session led by an Industrial Engineering professor, who was very charismatic and funny, and DS said he would love to have a professor like him. I was ready to take a class from him too!</p>

<p>We saw tons of kids playing pickup soccer, tossing a lacrosse ball around, and just lounging out enjoying the day. </p>

<p>Now if only DS can get in!</p>

<p>We are studiously avoiding the Ivy League, Stanford, MIT, etc. Too many stellar kids from DS’s school apply (and get in) that his application would be lost in the crowd. This week has been interesting, given the decisions that came out on Thursday. It’s astounding how the decisions worked out. He has friends who were rejected at UVA, but in at an Ivy. Others who are in at multiple Ivies. And one exceptional kid got into all 5 Ivies to which he applied, plus Stanford and UVA. The captain of the football team was in ED at MIT, and the cheerleading captain is choosing between MIT and Cal Tech. He knows that he is in a very tough position trying to make himself stand out at these schools given the quality (and quantity) of the kids that apply from his school, so he is focusing on the other very fine colleges out there that are good fits for him.</p>

<p>We still have many more schools to visit, but no multi-day trips like this one. Thank goodness!</p>

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<p>I’m sure all you theater parents already know this, but Northwestern doesn’t require auditions.</p>

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<p>I think we should make up our own nametags with “CC” on them so we can recognize one another on these tours! </p>

<p>I heard Williams had a beautiful campus but that students were pretentious. Not very friendly. Who knows? I think this is all so subjective.</p>

<p>NovaMom–Wash U was our absolute favorite on our midwest tour last summer. It’s a stunning campus and even after all of these college tours, I feel like they have their act together the best. They really knew how to communicate their message to parents and students. It was impressive. It also felt very inviting, friendly and the word they stressed in their discussions “kind” to us. </p>

<p>In Philly we stayed at The Inn at Penn–a bit spendy but great location. I didn’t think driving in Philly was difficult at all compared to Boston.</p>

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<p>My first time in Philly my GPS lost satellite reception as soon as we got into downtown, and we didn’t have a map! It was a miracle that we found our hotel at all! By comparison, the second time was a breeze. (I had studied the map in advance, and the new GPS had no problem with satellite reception.) It’s much more laid back driving than Boston for sure. :slight_smile: </p>

<p>We live near Williams and I think Williamstown is nice enough, but there’s not big city nearby or readily accessible. Transportation is probably a challenge for students wanting to take mass transit home. I haven’t met any “pretentious” kids from Williams, though tbh I haven’t met all that many students (we live about half an hour away, but end up down there for a variety of reasons).</p>

<p>My DS14 surprised me by liking Drexel. He thought in advance that he would not like a city campus, but found that he didn’t mind it and there’s a lot to like about Drexel (co-op, hand-on engineering curriculum). He had his first Chipotle experience in Philly the night before, which may have contributed to his impression that cities are not so bad after all ;-)</p>

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<p>we also hit 6 schools in five days, planes, trains, buses, subways, and still miles of walking :wink: rented a car for the last leg of our trip to get to Tufts, Brandeis and then Brown. Was thrilled to take that darn backpack off at last. Yes I pulled of the five day trip with only a backpack. (looking forward to traveling lighter on my future pleasure trips)</p>

<p>S loved the energy and beautiful campuses at Tufts, Columbia and Penn. He kind of came alive the most at Tufts, funny tour guide, and the interesting courses drew him in. He sat in on a philosophy class at Tufts and a biology class at Penn. </p>

<p>I found Penn students the most lively and friendly. Columbia students appeared to be traveling faster than light. and I’m a New Yorker…For fun we visited Harvard, none of the students had a clue where the admissions office was. kind of ironic. </p>

<p>Best tour guide award was shared by Columbia’s freshman and Tufts sophomore. Their love of their schools was clear, and they talked about their exceptional classes and professors. Penn info session was my favorite. Brown tour guide was a bit full of himself, shared that he got into all but two of his IVY choices, and told the two who waitlisted him that he doesn’t stay on a waitlist for anyone. ugh. no, he didn’t seem to be joking. </p>

<p>As far as hotels, I was lucky, found the Palomar in center city Philly half price at $89, was just lovely, and they had a wine hour at 5, where an old friend met me so I was able to enjoy some catching up with friends. I loved being able to see dear friends, even attend a little party in NYC where we stayed with friends in the village. </p>

<p>Also found Priceline hotels in Providence for $75, Omni-very nice and attached to a mall, and the Hyatt Regency in Cambridge for $95. I have a system, you try to determine the hotels on Hotwire based on amenities and then bid on them on Priceline. Really worked.</p>

<p>KaMamom–we heard that same comment from one of the tour guides too, wasn’t that at Brown? I was also was looking for CC comrades. love the profile name tag idea!</p>

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<p>mathmomvt - We stayed in North Adams and did some driving around the night before the Williams visit. I ended up headed up by some of those houses on the side of the mountain. NEVER AGAIN!! Oh my gosh - hairpin turns, no guardrails … all I wanted to do was get down!! lololol! I have no idea how people could drive that on a daily basis w/o throwing up. (And this comes from someone who’s driven the entire Road to Hana … twice!)</p>

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<p>Been mostly lurking the last few weeks but having read all the reports from all of you who have just returned from college tours I thought I’d join the fun. I must confess that on each tour I also wondered if any other CC families were in our midst.:)</p>

<p>We visited, in order, Lehigh, Drexel, Stony Brook, WPI and Northeastern. At each one the general info session was straightforward and helpful, albeit they started to blur together a little. The one that stood out for me was WPI (more below…). </p>

<p>Quick reminder: DS is interested in MechE, strong SATs, B+ GPA, likely NMSF, doing full IB + 6 APs in competitive public magnet, Eagle Scout, clever introvert, mild ADHD, not the most social of teens.</p>

<p>Lehigh: DS LOVED it. We did the general info session + tour and a separate engineering tour. Info session stressed the value of the alumni network, the closeness of university community, and the importance of showing interest. Campus is lovely, compact, hilly. (In that regard it reminded me of McGill, from which DH graduated.) The main library is straight from Hogwarts, although as DS pointed out, at least the books weren’t flying off the shelves with malicious intent. The student guides were engaging and hit all the right notes, and we got a positive vibe from the campus activity swirling around us.</p>

<p>On the Eng’g tour, we visited a couple of labs, saw a fabrication shop where MechE students build various gizmos, and the climax was when the associate chair of EE stepped out of a lab and gave what appeared to be an impromptu presentation/sales pitch. His enthusiasm was utterly infectious and DS was sold. He definitely wants to apply. We will have to see how the $$ works out – I’ve already warned him that it could be an issue.</p>

<p>Drexel: In DS’s mind Drexel compared unfavorably with Lehigh. In our travels so far DS has responded more enthusiastically to traditional rural/suburban campuses (e.g., Virginia Tech, which we visited last summer), so his reaction was not unexpected. We stayed with friends in a N. Philly suburb so we took the train to campus – the walk from station to campus was short but not scenic. Quite the contrast with the info session, which took place in an Edwardian-era picture gallery stuffed with portraits of Drexels and related Philly aristocracy. </p>

<p>The tour was so-so, partly because the student guide was a commuter and couldn’t get us into some of the buildings. Also it was the beginning of Spring Break so many of the academic buildings were deserted and we got little feel for the engineering program, for example. On the dorm tour she evidently departed from the script: “obviously this is a show room because nobody has this much Drexel gear.” There’s a lot of construction going on as well. All that said, the campus was not a complete dud – once the construction is done I think it will be quite nice – but DS wasn’t feeling it.</p>

<p>Stony Brook: The surprise of the trip. It’s a fairly generic suburban campus and we toured on a raw, gray, sleety day – and DS liked it. Go figure. The dorms are grouped in quads and I thought the one we saw (Mendelsohn?) was very nice (drywall instead of painted cinderblocks, computing center and fitness center on premises). The presenter of the info session in particular took great pains to rebut Stony’s rep of being a suitcase school. Hard to tell on that score as we toured on a Monday and there seemed to be plenty of activity. Given that it’s affordable and a match/low match for DS, all in all I’d say it’s a real possibility, especially as we have family who live 25 minutes away (we’re in FL). </p>

<p>WPI: Up there with Lehigh as far as DS is concerned and my favorite from the trip. Campus is physically similar to Lehigh (hilltop, compact, nice mix of old and new buildings). The info session focused on the 7-week quarter system and project-based curriculum and how all that tied into opportunities for study abroad. Also WPI ranks very high for starting salaries and graduate placement. I also liked how the grading system (A, B, C or NR) provides an academic safety net at the same time it encourages students to challenge themselves and take risks with classes that they might otherwise shy away from. </p>

<p>In the info session I asked about renewability of merit aid (if DS makes NMF) and the adcom said they expect students to pass a certain % of classes but they don’t demand a certain GPA. She basically said that they “don’t look for reasons to take away merit aid.” They also stressed the academic and social support provided to students…the guide did a really good job of stressing the community aspect of dorm life. Speaking of which, the room we saw was easily the most cleverly configured, and therefore spacious, triple I could imagine. (DS was more impressed by the giant jar of Nutella on top of the minifridge). All in all I think WPI would be a GREAT fit for DS – provided the $ works out. </p>

<p>Northeastern: I liked it; DS was cautiously positive. Having attended college in the Boston area in the late 70s/early 80s I have (possibly cloudy☺) memories of NEU being that commuter school next to the MFA with no campus to speak of. I was really impressed on our visit. It’s clear the university has invested significantly in infrastructure and it felt like a real, coherent campus (albeit one bisected by Huntingdon Avenue and the T Green Line). We did the engineering session first followed by the general session/tour. Both presentations emphasized the features and benefits of the experiential learning requirement (primarily coops).</p>

<p>For the engineering session they took the students on a tour of the classrooms/labs while the parents stayed in the auditorium (actually a converted church) for a Q&A. The latter recycled a lot of the info from the intro presentation so I slipped out before the end to get to the beginning of the general info session, which was in a different auditorium several minutes’ walk away. I didn’t mind; the weather was mildish (50 or so) and the walk gave a little more of a flavor of the campus. </p>

<p>DS and I reconnected for the general campus tour. His initial reaction was neutral to mildly negative – again, not generally a fan of urban campuses – but by the end I think he came around somewhat. We’ll see…with an acceptance rate in the current cycle of <30% it’s by no means a slam dunk, but IF he gets in and IF he makes NMF it becomes a financial safety. </p>

<p>I think that’s it for us for touring – maybe check out a couple instate options over the summer (UCF, FSU – we’ve already visited UF) – and do some local interviews in the fall (looking at you, Lehigh). As our friends/family members with 2013 kids make their final choices, it’s exciting and sobering to realize that we’re on deck!</p>

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<p>Lindz - We have always had exceptionally good luck in price, quality, and service with Hotel Palomar (Kimpton). When S2 was touring we got a room for 1/2 price at the Atlanta location just for mentioning we were visiting GaTech (a tip fm admissions). Sadly they have closed that location. We also stayed at the Palomar in Baltimore when S2 was having outpatient surgery at JHU (part of a series and we live too far if something should go wrong w/i the first 24hrs). They gave us an amazing rate on a larger room in a very quiet area, left a nice fruit basket, and plenty of bottled water and juice for when we got back (not charged to the minibar). He even had a companion goldfish in the room although I don’t think he noticed, lol!</p>

<p>So enjoying reading everyone’s reports! :)</p>

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<p>2015NovaMom, methinks we must be near one another here…
S14 is at an FCPS public.
One quick thing I wanted to say-D13 had relatively lowish SAT scores compared to her GPA/ course load etc. so we had her re-take the SAT one time senior year. Told her no pressure, the score wasn’t abhorrent but it was below the mean for her #1- UVA-and slightly off for honors at her favorite safety. She went up nearly 200 points. She didn’t study-too busy with her sports, 5AP classes and apps- but I had seen several places that there’s a natural increase jr-> senior year… So glad we figured one last $50, one lat Saturday morning wasn’t much in the grand scheme of things. BlueIguana can attest to this- it worked well her, so don’t assume the score you have now is etched in the proverbial stone.</p>

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<p>Drat. I meant to ask, does anyone know much about Indiana Univ of PA? S14 loves JMU but is going to be borderline, perhaps… Just found that IUP gives a tuition break to VA kids with a certain GPA/SAT mix, which he does meet. I know nothing about it and spring break ends in, oh, abut 14 hours here so no last minute spring break tours for us!</p>

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<p>Dowagercountess – your list (and description of your DS) is shockingly similar to ours! I’ve been posting tidbits here and there but I guess I’ll do a whole summary of our visits too.</p>

<p>RPI – near home, we visited on a PA day at DS’s school when RPI was in session. He liked it quite a lot, but couldn’t articulate any reasons why. We did a campus tour with a very good guide, a young lady majoring in Mechanical and Aerospace engineering. (All the tour guides were cute girls – wonder if that is coincidence or some subtle marketing given that something like 75% of the students at RPI are male.) Other than the tour guides, the students didn’t seem particularly friendly, and a couple of times when we were puzzling over our map, no one volunteered to help us. The campus is a city campus, but with a reasonable amount of green space, and nice buildings. It did feel like a campus and not just buildings that happen to be near one another in the city. Most freshmen live together on “Freshman Hill” in dorms that are pretty crappy – very tiny double rooms that barely fit the 2 beds, 2 desks, 2 dressers; hall bathroom. Each dorm in addition to RAs has a LA (learning assistant) which is also an undergrad student trained to help freshmen develop good study and time management skills, and I think they also do scheduled group tutoring sessions for some of the 1st year core courses. The information session was typical. We had arranged to sit in on an introductory physics class, which turned out to be just a recitation section. I was underwhelmed by the instruction, but the kids were all engaged. They were all looking at a problem set on their laptops – no facebooking or other screwing around that we could see (from the back of the room, where we could see everyone’s screens). </p>

<p>University of Waterloo – we squeezed in a visit when we were in the Toronto area visiting relatives. Waterloo is a co-op school known for its math and engineering programs, about an hour outside of Toronto. Waterloo has its act together when it comes to co-op, IMO, and they seem to manage to get meaningful jobs for their engineering students with as little as 4 months of school behind them. (Whereas when we visited RPI, for example, they said there was pretty much no chance of getting an engineering internship the summer after freshman year, because the students won’t have learned enough to be useful.) Waterloo Engineering has a pretty different model from any other school I know of – the students in each type of engineering take ALL of their classes together (except for their "complementary studies electives) until the higher years when they do specialize a bit. No AP credit or testing out of anything. And if you fail a class you better hope you can make it up on your work term, or you may not be able to progress with your cohort. It does of course create a pretty tight knit group of the 100 or so students in each type of engineering. The classes are all specialized to the engineering specialty – instead of “calculus for engineers” they take “calculus for mechatronics engineers” (or whatever). Of course all the calculus classes are pretty similar, but they’re segregated. From my POV the engineering students seemed kind of universally miserable. Not sure if that is the macho “oh woe is me, we engineers have so much work thing” or what, but we didn’t hear the few engineering students we met tell us about all the fun things they did in their spare time. Someone pointed out later that we were there right before finals, so that could account for that. They have a huge number of engineering project teams, and a huge new really nice space for them to work in. </p>

<p>We did a regular tour and info session, and also an engineering tour – the latter with just one other other junior and his mom. The kid leading the tour was a 2nd or 3rd year computer engineering student. When we got to the EngSoc office, he told us that they arrange social activities for the engineering students. Like, um, pub crawls. Yes, that was the only thing he could think of to mention to two 16yos with their moms :wink: He sat in on a class with an upper-year mechatronics student but it was too far over his head for him to really judge anything (I did not sit in on that with him).</p>

<p>Our five-day February tour was Lehigh - Stony Brook - Drexel - Princeton - UMD College Park. (We also stopped in at Rutgers and got some info from the info center but did not do any tours or anything.)</p>

<p>Lehigh – DS loved it. Dowager, I’m pretty sure that EE prof was a planned part of the tour because he passed us going somewhere (bathroom, I think) during a different part of the tour and the guides asked him if he was going right back to his lab because they were bringing us over there soon. :slight_smile: I think he definitely helped seal the deal for my DS as well. Such a friendly guy!</p>

<p>We started with an IBE info session (Integrated Business and Engineering). Although I don’t think if you asked my DS he would say he has any interest in Business, the integrated program seems to emphasize innovation and invention, and is quite project based which sounded very appealing. The presentation was given by a business prof who was very engaging and friendly. </p>

<p>After that we got marched off to a HUGE theater for an info session since it was such a busy day for visits, followed by the campus tour. A lot of emphasis on the small classes, and profs who really got to know the students. Undergrads get to do a lot of work in the labs since there are relatively few grad students. I was impressed that Career services reaches out to students during freshman year; is possible to get an internship after freshman year (our MechE tour guide did) – lots of support for resume creation, mock interviews. Lots of emphasis on global programs (including paid international internships) and even engineers can study abroad though it’s hard.</p>

<p>We grabbed lunch in a student dining hall which was excellent. Then we had an engineering tour. We remarked that the engineering tours were well-engineered for a busy day, with each group taking a separate route so as not to interfere with one another. There’s a course all engineers take where they do projects in all the disciplines and learn what kinds of courses they would take and what kinds of jobs they might expect upon graduation. Declare major spring of Freshman year, but quite flexible at least through fall of Sophomore year. I think that’s important because even though DS thinks he knows what he wants, what does he really know about engineering at this stage in his life?</p>

<p>The tour guide emphasized the student supports available. You can get free one-on-one tutoring for up to 2 subjects per semester. They also offer academic “coaching” to help students with time management. (Sounds like that could be very useful for an ADHD kid adapting to college life!) Will definitely be a top pick if the money works out (which is iffy, unfortunately.)</p>

<p>Stony Brook – hated it. He thought it was TOOOOO big. The info session turned him off by placing too much emphasis on their medical programs so he didn’t think they “cared about” their engineering school. Also 95% of the families in the room were in-state. The campus was ugly, and the level of security for the dorms led DS to wonder why it was needed. Just didn’t feel comfortable there at all. That one is off the list.</p>

<p>Drexel – this was the surprise for us – despite thinking he would not like a city school, he really liked Drexel. We ate breakfast on campus because our hotel didn’t serve breakfast (as we were expecting) and we didn’t find anything enticing on our way over. (The food was good.) We were there during engineers’ week and there was an egg drop in one of the engineering buildings, so we went and watched a good chunk of that. We did the typical tour and info session which were pretty standard. We had planned a tour of the mechanical engineering department which was just 1/2 hour after the tour ended, so we grabbed lunch from the trucks that the tour guide had just pointed out, and that food was also quite good. The mechanical engineering tour ended up being a private tour, and the guide was an employee of the department (not a prof or a student). He went over the curriculum, which includes projects in both Freshman and Senior years, and we went into the lab where a bunch of seniors were working on their projects. There’s a great-looking autonomous robots lab where they are doing all sorts of cool projects, but most of the work is done by grad students. It sounded like undergrads couldn’t really get all that involved. They have the kids apply directly to a specific engineering program but it’s very easy to change within first 2 years to any other engineering other than CS. They have a Freshman project course that helps introduce freshmen to various engineering disciplines. The dorms seemed decent. Again, he doesn’t really know what he liked about it but it had a good feel to him.</p>

<p>Princeton – another one he did not like (just as well perhaps, since it would be a huge reach). We attended an intro CS class first, which was well-taught and the prof was pretty engaging for a large lecture class. The kids were all paying attention. Listening to the chatter before class started was also interesting – the kids seemed happy in general. Then we went on an engineering tour and what turned my DS off was the fact that they kept emphasizing that Princeton’s strength was its great liberal arts classes, and all the opportunities that engineers had to take advantage of that, how they graduated well-rounded engineers, etc. Well, DS has no interest in being well-rounded and that actually turned him off. We decided not to stay for the regular info session and tour. </p>

<p>UMD College Park – DS liked this school but wished it was smaller. He liked that the school had lots of traditions and superstitions that they told them about on the tour. They were having a Rube Goldberg machine contest/exposition for engineers week which looked pretty cool. We did the regular info session and tour which were fairly decent, grabbed lunch from a food court in the student center, and then went to an engineering info session and tour. There’s a first year project course for all engineers where they have to build a hovercraft. They have several project teams and a lot of special programs, and multiple honors options. I’m not sure if he’ll end up applying or not. They say “you can make a big school smaller” but I’m not convinced he wouldn’t be overwhelmed there.</p>

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<p>The last several pages have been filled with fantastic reviews. Thank you to all of the parents who have taken the time to type these up. Now I only wish my son were looking at engineering as so many of these posts have been so helpful. Is anyone out there looking for business at small-ish universities? So many of the smaller LACs offer Econ but not true business. </p>

<p>Will have to post when I return from our nine school tour in the middle of April, assuming we survive to tell the tale.</p>

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<p>Schools we have yet to visit but are still considering:</p>

<p>WPI – DS visited with his older brother and loved it, and was also impressed by a rep who came to his HS, but has not visited “for himself” yet. </p>

<p>Northeastern will also be on our list due to their NMF scholarship. </p>

<p>U Rochester and RIT are the other two we’ve been thinking about. </p>

<p>MIT and Cornell are possible super-reaches, if he decides he wants to play the super-reach lottery and take a SAT subject test.</p>

<p>Not sure where (if anywhere) we’ll visit over his April break, which is complicated by grandparents coming to visit.</p>

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<p>@mathmomvt – Yes it sounds like we have the same child!:slight_smile: Interesting the reaction to Drexel – I think in hindsight if we had organized things so that we could visit the MechE department as you did my DS might have been more positive. We toured on the Saturday morning and were somewhat crunched for time afterward as the plan called for lunch with our friend/host at Reading Terminal Market, then train back to their house, pack up and depart so as to get to Long Island at a reasonable hour. Luckily the next day was Palm Sunday so we just chilled. </p>

<p>We had visited Waterloo back in the summer, and I also got miserable vibe from the students we saw (fewer in number though they were in July). DS liked it well enough, however. While in Canada we also took in McGill (too urban for DS; too sink-or-swim for Mom), Concordia (didn’t like), Queen’s (LOVE; friend who is EE prof there gave us a “backstage” tour), UofT (didn’t like), and McMaster (liked but that may be because they showed the swankiest suite-style dorm). DS is a dual citizen so all these places would be financial safeties for us. </p>

<p>So far as far as DS is concerned it’s a 4-way tie: Lehigh, WPI, VT and Queen’s. Still mulling throwing a super-reach in (probably Cornell) but won’t visit. He’s signed up for the Math 2 and Chem SAT IIs in June just in case.</p>

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<p>@dowagercountess – my DS is ALSO a dual citizen, which definitely makes the Canadian schools financially attractive. So we may add Queens or McMaster to the mix too. McGill, UofT, York are all too huge/urban. Concordia wasn’t really on our radar. Would love to hear more about what your DS loved about Queens.</p>

<p>I think at Drexel the MechE department tour really helped for my DS, plus the happenstance of being there during a fun engineering activity (egg drop). </p>

<p>WPI is pricey – I think their maximum merit ends up being less than half of COA. My DS11 got their national merit scholarship and it was still pretty pricey. :(</p>