A llama? 
Thatās kind of random, but cute! Why?
@InfoQuestMom Not sure why, but if you pet him before an exam itās good luck. He has his own Instagram page with 40,000 followers apparently.
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I think every college campus has some good luck tradition during finals. At SDSU it was rubbing the left boot of the statue of the first SDSU President Samuel T Black. I would rather pet a Llama.
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Yes, the llama was the first thing I heard about! Then they sent a photo. I havenāt yet heard what my D22 thinks, but D26 says the campus is pretty and has good trees. My husband was very impressed with the panel as well, and took good notes. I was told that D22 sent her dad and sis away while she went for coffee with three new friends. My husband sent a pic of the four of them (no Sally though!). Overall I think the school made a very good impression on all of them and I canāt wait to hear whether Willamette remains on Dās list. As I typed that last sentence she texted me YES, she is definitely considering it.
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Congrats on a great visit you two! My D18 had Willamette on her final list. My husband and I loved it, and loved it for her but she ultimately decided she wanted to be closer to home. No llama back then though that I recall, I wonder when that charmer appeared on campus! I think that would have made a definite impression on either of my kids!!
Good luck with decisions!!
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Some of my impression are years old, but with my kids
Knox: 2nd choice for DD in 2012. Major neuroscience. Didnāt attend because received full tuition at a different university.
A friends son graduated from Knox in 2020. He really liked it.
IWU: DD (2016) attended , major environmental studies. Played in pep band, but not jazz band. She did have friends that played in Jazz band. Has a music fraternity.
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Whose kids still havenāt made a decision? I think my D has narrowed her choices down to Willamette and DePaul, but could they be any more different?! She also wonāt talk about it so I think that means she is struggling with the decision.
She has ruled out:
Gonzagaādid not vibe at GEL day
Saint Louis Universityāeven less vibe than Gonzaga
Chicoāwas never that interested
Sonomaāsame
Simmonsātoo small, all women
SDSUātoo big (but there are a lot of pros to this choice and I wonder if she should reconsider)
UVMātoo far and did not get a chance to visit (also one I think she should reconsider)
She is waitlisted at a handful of schools but probably wouldnāt consider them at this point for various reasons.
Between Willamette and DePaul I am secretly rooting for Willamette but I wonāt tell her that. She is a kinesiology/exercise science/health science major.
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Thatās a pretty eclectic list!
SDSU seems to be one of these schools in CA (along with Cal Poly) that has just zoomed ahead as far as interest and competitiveness. Theyāre as difficult now to get into as most of the UCs, and probably even more difficult to transfer into unless youāre applying from a local CC.
I wish your daughter luck! Youāre right, completely different schools, locations, size etc and I suppose itās just a matter of what she truly wants from her college experience.
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Yes, I was shocked when I heard the admittance rate for SDSU. I believe they said they had almost 100,000 applicants this year. My daughter is proud of her admittance.
And, I agree, it is an eclectic list, put together semi-last-minute, since she wouldnāt talk about college until last October.
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Best of luck to your D and you as she makes her decision! After our last college visit, I decided to let my D think things over on her own knowing if she wanted my input she would tell me. It was hard to not ask her about what she was thinking. About a week later we were having lunch and out of the blue she said āI know where Iām going.ā It was such a great moment! I hope you and your D experience something similar.
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UVM Medical Ctr. being right on campus makes anything health sciences related at UVM an awesome option. My ds20 is a sophomore there, so pm me if thereās an inkling of a chance and you have questions.
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I do think UVM would be a great fit for her, but she says it is too far (we are in Nor Cal). Sheās not wrong, but it seems like the Burlington airport is practically right next to the campus! One of her good friends toured last week and is now choosing between Ithaca (also far away) and UVM, with Ithaca slightly in the lead. If I have questions I will definitely send them your way!
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We are from CT so we drive, but yes, the airport is super close. The parent Facebook page for UVM is super supportive, with locals offering to give kids rides from airport to campus in a pinch, or others finding ways to connect kids to facilitate airport transport, etc. UVM is around 50% oos, so lots of kids in the same boat. Feel free to reach out, and lots of luck with her decision.
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Final update.
After watching our Dās classmates get crushed this year because - accepted students from 2021 deferred attendance and took an available seat from the 2022 pool, students from 2021 that took a gap year and applied in 2022 so applications were way up everywhere, and then the normal 2022 pool, we are thrilled that our D will be attending College of Wooster studying biology with a very large merit scholarship.
We have learned that CoW punches well above its weight and would probably be a top-30 LAC on the east coast - USNWR #2 Capstone after #1 Princeton; #8 in Undergraduate Research tied with Amherst, behind #7 Princeton, and ahead of #9 Davidson, #10 Carleton, #11 Duke; #27 in Undergraduate Teaching, behind #26 Wellsley and ahead of schools such as Colby, Vassar and Colgate.
Combine that with a stunning campus, amazing science programs, a very diverse student population, and we feel that our D found a gem.
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We did a virtual info session at CoW and each of the students on the panel had multiple interests including sports and music. We left it on my s23 list.
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Update long time coming:
DS weighed a few great options, to the extent it could be called āweighing,ā all about the same affordability (Grants plus full federal loans and work study up to FAFSA EFC of 16k )
Bard
Beloit (1000 more than the rest)
Knox (via negotiation)
Lawrence (via negotiation)
Sewannee
and surprise early responder Earlham came out of the blue at the last minute with a new grant offer months after having he had already pulled the application.
Everywhere else, about 15 other places, Dickenson, Oberlin, were unaffordable, including UC Santa Barbara and UC Santa Cruz (which we already knew but applied anyway because CA residents canāt seem to help themselves). His one and only rejection of the year was from UC Davis! He didnāt apply to Berkeley.
When I mentioned to him that Bard had a first year program Begin in Berlin, he in the span of about 1-2 seconds said āI wanna go thereā and that was that. Heās dead set and hasnāt wavered. All the others disappeared.
Like his sister Marmozets, he will be deferring for the first year, getting himself ready. He has some chances to live with relatives in Europe and also doing some pre-college coursework there, so heāll be doing that most of the time.
No plan, no ideas, but more direction than heās ever had, if that makes any sense.
Bard is not the first place Iād recommend as suitable for him, but maybe heāll benefit from the stretch it will surely entail for him. Socially, itās a good fit. I know the place very well, and it certainly is a great college, so thereās that too.
Heās leaving for Europe on July 2. Iām so excited for his adventure over the next two years.
Totally flying blind into liberal arts (no science, no nothing besides books in Berlin). Not what we envisioned as justifying the debt he and I will be going into. In fact it was precisely not what he especially wanted at first. Heās really not one for drinking the college koolaid and the type to want to start his Roth IRA now rather than take on debt, and least of all without a plan for how the debt would be an investment in something that could pay it off. For me either way I was going to be deep in debt at the end of this all.
But anyways here goes. All I know is that heās going to have an amazing transformation in the next couple of years!
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Both your kids did so well! Do visit us from time to time and provide updates. I just realized that some folks on this forum never leave, like decades after their kids go off to college! Quite amazing really.
Congrats!
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So happy for you all, wonderful options! Congrats!
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Congratulations UCDProf!
That is fantastic news. It sounds like your son is about to have an amazing two years before landing at Bard.
Iām happy to see all your thoughtfulness and effort throughout this process have finally paid off with two awesome results.
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I was wondering where S was going to end up! We love Bard and I think my S would have strongly considered it, but he was waitlisted. I hope youāll come back and share more about the whole experience. Congratulations!
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