Has he thought of Elon or is he wanting to stay in the western part of the country?
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My daughter just received her first acceptance today: Western Washington University! Not her first choice but solid option (my older daughter is a Sr).
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Congratulations!! Great school! My daughter also applied.
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I think I remember your older daughter being really taken with Manhattan College during her search (or maybe Fordham?). How has the Western Washington experience been? Any regrets? Did she fall in love with her college? Just wondering because her search was one that really caught my eye.
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University of Vermont has about 11k students and has a Music Business major. Burlington, VT is like the Boulder of the East, but the weather is definitely harsher in the winter. Fabulous music scene in Burlington, but there are all sorts of other things going on as well. My ds is a junior and lifeās it there.
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Great memory! Yes, it was Manhattan College. I think she feels now that she made the right choice to not attend Manhattan due to cost, distance from home and lack of diversity (racial, religious, different world view points).
She has had her up and down moments at Western. I think she may have chose differently if she had to do it all over again. She acknowledges that she didnāt really know what she wanted. She did have a great experience studying abroad in Thailand and Vietnam. Also she has a math class which is eating her alive which is making her experience tougher.
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Re: UVM, Iām interested to know how your DS finds the housing situation and food, whether there is as much weed smoking as some sources report, and whether administration is uncharacteristically bad (I know there is always something, but Iāve read several complaints on Niche and the like lately).
Thanks!
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Wow Thailand and Vietnam!! That sounds incredible. What amazing opportunities through Western Washington. 
I think ups and downs definitely part of the college experience; D20 having a bit of homesickness right now for the first time, as a junior. And Stats was the class that tried to murder her 2nd year of college.
Glad to know she sees her decisions as the right one in terms of cost, distance and diversity. Where do you think she might have chosen to go with the knowledge she has now? And did that help you with D23ās search? Or are the two so different there wasnāt any way for that to cross over?
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Ok so housing is a tough one. Students are required to live on campus freshman and sophomore year, and then there is no housing for upperclassmen. Sophomores begin the apartment hunt in the fall of sophomore year for leases that begin the following August. My ds lives in an apartment complex that is physically on campus but is considered āaffiliate housingā. He loves it, and it has worked out well. He will stay there until he graduates.
The food does not have a great reputation, but I donāt think itās exceptionally worse than any other college that uses Sodexo.
Iām aware of some of the issues students have raised with admin in terms of protests. Itās a very liberal campus so kids are pretty vocal. Itās hard to tell if the noise makes the issues seem larger than they are, tbh. I that tuition has been frozen now for several years and will be next year as well. My ds transferred from another state flagship and administrative communication has been leaps and bounds better from the jump. When DS had an issue last year and needed to complete his finals from home, the deanās office could not have been more responsive or supportive. They also handled Covid nicely. Overall, I donāt have any complaints.
As far as weed, yes, itās very prevalent but no more than alcohol is and thereās no pressure to partake. Dsās best friend lives in substance free housing. Itās a pretty live and let live place.
Academically he is thrilled with his major department and finds the professors to be accessible and supportive. Heās considering a music business minor right now. Definitely Google āHigher Groundāāitās a local venue/performance management group with multiple performance sites that brings in great bands. I believe there are decent internship opportunities to be had.
Overall, he has met kids from all over the country since itās abt 50% out of state, and heās in love with Burlington as a city and the outdoor opportunities for hiking, biking, boating, and winter sports. He wants to remain there this summer and is already talking about wanting to stay after graduation, so heās pretty happy!
*edited to add that they have a fabulous, well-moderated parent Facebook page and if you request it they are lovely about letting prospective parents join. I would definitely check it out if youāre interested.
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This is very helpful! UVM was at the top of Dās list early in our search but she ended up not applying EA due to the housing issues (housing is really important to her) and remote location compared to where we live and also she felt she wouldnāt fit in with the outdoorsy liberal vibe.
However now that we are just back from visiting NE for the first time I am wondering if she should have applied and she should have visited. Everything in NE is so much closer in proximity than on the West Coast.
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We are just back from our New England college trip! All I can say is wow - what a gorgeous part of the country. It was a treat for us all. I had never been to Boston and I can see the appeal for sure! We were there on Halloween and stayed right downtown and it was so fun to see the tens of thousands of college students out in their costumes bar hopping. It looked like a blast!
I already wrote up our school and visit reviews but reading through them I worry that they are not anonymous enough. I think I might need to wait at least until the application process is over before posting those.
These were D23ās first real post Covid college visits for a variety of reasons so the goal was not only to look at specific colleges but to look at a variety to help her narrow down her overall preferences: big, small, Urban, rural, LAC or University etc. We were successful in that effort in that D23 now knows she wants what she always thought she did: A midsized or large research university with a residental self contained campus (not too urban). So while she found things to love about all the schools we visited the smaller schools dropped off her list due to size. I am still making her apply to one small school in our home state to have a close to home option just in case.
Her favorites in order:
University of Rhode Island - will apply EA
UMASS Amherst - Applied EA
University of New Hampshire - will apply EA
UCONN - might not apply (this was the front runner going in)
Dropped off List:
Endicott - to small and career prep focused - Absolutely breathtaking campus and location
Clark - too small and too urban, too many students living off campus
We also saw Suffolk University while touring Boston and it helped D23 realize that she didnāt want an urban school integrated into a city.
You all were on my mind much of the time. So appreciative of all the support and info here!
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Lotās of differences in kids. I would have liked to see her go to Ohio Wesleyan but she probably would not have picked to go there. She would have applied to different schools probably.
Thank you very much!!
I tried to get D20 to seriously consider Ohio Wesleyan (in large part to hearing about it from your search with your D19). Great school, lots of really good stuff happening on campus, fantastic outcomes for grads, very attentiveā¦unfortunately couldnāt get D20 over the āItās in OHIO, mom!ā reaction.
These college searches can be tough.
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I got āit is in the middle of nowhereā! But we did visit and she had one day where she thought it was her first or second choice. The drive where we saw barren wasteland, a Popeyeās chicken and a dilapidated strip mall was a death knell 
.
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Thanks for the write-ups! Iām curious about Clark - do you mean too many students living off campus or too n my shy locals who live at home?
And by urban - from photos, I thought the campus was pretty defined? Are you referring to the surrounding area?
We plan to visit next semester.
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Yes, it was a defined campus. But it was very open to the surrounding neighborhood so it felt like the there was a flow on and off campus. It felt integrated into the adjacent streets. For many students I imagine that would be an awesome thing. It did not feel ācozyā to my D23 which she discovered is something she really prefers.
I think the number was 56% of students live on campus but you are right that we didnāt note whether the others live at home or just off campus. D23 just didnāt get that cozy strongly residential vibe she was looking for.
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First year students are required to live on campus (except for what I understood to be rare circumstances where the student is from Worcester & applies and is granted an exemption), and most of the upperclassmen who live off campus live in the houses in those neighborhoods surrounding campus (which is probably why it felt like a lot of āflowā between the neighborhoods & campus).
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Thanks @bethy1 - Iām curious about Endicott! D23 is either going up there with her dad later this week or we will wait to see if she gets accepted & visit then. Her app is already out there.
We went to see College of Charleston last week and D23 loved it, I loved it. Gorgeous school - 80 acres right in the middle of historic Charleston. Manageable but ārealā feeling city. Great business program, internships, forward thinking, tons of school spirit and a great vibe as we toured. A little far from home but I think it shot to the top of her list. Itās not the most diverse school we toured but wasnāt the least. She left feeling like it was a school with something for everyone.
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Those not living on campus tend to live just off campus. We live 25 minutes from there and even kids from our town live just off campus rather than commute.
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