Really bummed for my nephew class of 22. Rejected from his 1st choice, our state flagship. Great grades, interesting club ec’s.
My s23 may still apply. We are touring in a few weeks. They have very different profiles and choices of major.
Just a short note as I know it seems very discouraging to apply to highly selective schools but the majority of the students that attend these schools are still just ‘regular’ high achieving students.
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S23 came back from his college tour. 7 schools in 11 days. Some moved up, some stayed the same and some were discarded altogether. It was good chance for him to see different settings and compare/contrast. That daytripper site was very useful. Also, it helped that he could tap into S21’s classmates and other friends at most of those schools. It makes a huge difference to be able to sit down with someone and have some real talk.
He has to do some more research about his intense major, but it looks like a list is coming into focus.
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I’m not sure what my son’s score for recognition was, but his PSAT score was 1200 and he received the email to apply for recognition as a rural scholar. I got the email too, though it went to my spam folder. Students can nominate themselves based on PSAT or AP scores. I think “Rural” is for towns under 25,000. Which is just about every town in my state. My son’s high school has about 60 students.
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Deadline to apply is June 15th.
Have you looked into Whitman in WA?
Also since you have Gustavus Adolphus on the list, add St Olaf, it’s not far from there. It’s a similar school, we visited a couple weeks ago…unbelievably gorgeous campus! And great merit $.
Toured 6 colleges over Spring Break. DH and I thought they were all great places to get an education and would be happy to send our child to any of them if they applied and were accepted. Our kid enjoyed the general tours but really would prefer more specifics from department of interest. DC said Cornell was the best tour. It is beautiful but so remote. I was impressed with Temple. It was a great weather day and the campus was busy with a great vibe, beautiful buildings especially the new library which we got to go in. Had a pre-session with 2 students who are doing amazing things there. Rutgers gave an info session then bus tour of the 5 campus areas. It definitely is a large campus but the bus system seems great. Also saw UPenn, Yale, and Princeton. DC chose to get some shirts to add to their collection. Now it’s time to focus on AP Exams and finishing the last quarter of Junior year. We’re giving college conversations a break for a bit.
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St olaf would be on the list but dont think it would be affordable. Tuition Exchange puts gustavus as a maybe affordable.
Oh ok…they do give great merit. We were also told they guarantee a minimum of 20k a year off if you apply ED.
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So 3 more college visits checked off the list for us - Denison, Kenyon and Oberlin. And we got to experience a little snow while we were there (always excites us northern transplants to FL). Overall, Denison was the winner for “feel” of the campus while Oberlin may fall off the shortlist which is a little disappointing. From the descriptions of the students and what we observed on campus, Oberlin seemed like a decent and attainable fit, but she just didn’t vibe with the location which is important to her. However, her list of wants is an interesting one, so surrounding location may have to be one of those items she has to settle on as a trade off for something else. We have one more visit planned over Memorial Weekend to Vassar and then we should be done unless something else piques her interest.
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It’s crazy to be in one of the states where you have to sweat whether 223 makes the cut off or not…
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College tour update from last weekend for S23: SUNY Stony Brook and CUNY City College
SUNY Stony Brook, which I thought he would like, he was “meh.” Even though we were there on a Monday for several hours on a normal class day, the campus seemed oddly vacant. Not sure if that’s because mid-day Mondays are slow there, or if the campus is just so spread out that the density seemed pretty low. Keep in mind that his vision of Uni is Temple where both his older siblings go/went to school. At Temple, when classes let out on the hour there’s a flood of humanity that pours out of every building. But Stony Brook is a SUNY which is in-state for us, so it’s probably still on the application list, but it’s low on his list at the moment.
We also visited CUNY City College in NYC, which he liked a lot more, even though there were no students on campus because they are on break week. I’m picking up a theme of his favoring more dense urban campuses. His main concern with CCNY is that it’s mostly a commuter school. There’s just one dorm, and it’s all kitchenette apartments, so there isn’t even a dining hall. He doesn’t know if he would get enough of a typical “freshman moving away to college” communal experience there. Probably worth a follow up – does anybody here know more about CCNY?
We drove home Monday late afternoon and hit some snow in the Catskills. I didn’t have late April snow squalls on my college tour bingo card! S23’s practicing driving for his license though, so he was able to get some real-world sort-of-crappy driving experience on the ride home.
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We got back from a 2200 mile road trip visiting 3 colleges (yes only 3 lol). Not sure if any of these are on your kid’s radar as they are very safe schools.
Missouri Science & Technology - Rolla, Missouri (very small D2 school): very small campus, wasn’t very appealing - the open house we attended didn’t really appeal to us either. They did a presentation on the school’s programs and financial aid. Afterwards, they had current students give a speech on their experiences and held a Q&A session. When the presentation piece concluded, we walked out and saw “interest” tables set up for greek life, student associations, etc. Last thing was a visit to classroom to listen to a professor’s presentation on their specific major. We were not impressed with this school, and it was too much being OOS - we had hoped there would be more information on getting scholarships to reduce this OOS to In state tuition but they don’t have anything like that. One thing that my son did like (for Computer Science major), they hold a once a year “hack-a-thon”. That’s pretty much it. Won’t say it was a waste of a trip - Arkansas and Missouri are both beautiful states to travel through.
Wichita State University - Wichita, Kansas (small D1 school - American Conference, I think): We got to Wichita the day before the tour so we drove to the campus and looked around. Upon first arriving to the campus, we saw a bunch of small buildings with various company names like: NetApp, The Smart Factory, Cessna, Hexagon, Airbus, Spirit Aerosystems, Dassault Systemes, etc. Not fully understanding what we saw, we looked it up and found this: Innovation Campus
Then we drove through the campus, while it is a small, compact campus, I found it to be quite beautiful and clean. The layout was very smart, I thought. That evening, we met with my HS friend’s daughter who is currently a junior studying biomedical engineering. She gave us lots of information about the school and explained the innovation campus further. She got a job offer literally within weeks of starting her freshman year - working in a patent office (she wants to go to law school). Basically, a few years ago, a new president started at the university - they had a golf course, and he turned it around into an “Innovation campus” because the golf course didn’t contribute anything to students. The campus was designed for employers to build on the campus and are required to hire/train students from WSU. Tour: we were given a video and in-person presentation prior to walking tour. We went to the Innovation campus first -in addition to company buildings, they also have one building designated for student projects - they have these ginormous warehouse “rooms” with each having it’s own special function. One room was filled with HUGE 3D printers for students to have their ideas “come to life”; another room was filled with Formula 1 racing cars (Formula SAE and Baja racing); another room was designed for building aviation equipment including aircraft, drones, etc. This building also houses offices for strategic and innovation development - students bring their ideas and get help to make them come to life. On the engineering side, they have TONS of applied research projects in progress - applicable for all aspects of engineering (building prosthetics, aircrafts, etc). Obviously, they really have a LOT to offer students in the way of co-op/research/internships. On campus, they are very well organized. The dorms are nice and clean - the furniture is moveable (including ability to raise beds to loft height) - ceilings are also very high which lends to bigger feeling. They have several floor plans available with freshman required to live on campus first year. Rec center is nice, and in the student center, they have a bowling alley in the basement (my son was most impressed with this). I’ve already written a novel - if anyone has questions about this school, I would be happy to answer (or get answers).
Texas Tech - Lubbock, Texas (Mid-large D1 school): First impression - large, spread out campus - all the buildings pretty much looked the same (stayed consistent with design even with the newer buildings). They do have some impressive history and tradition. The tour itself was a 2.5 mile walking tour so we saw a lot of buildings (not walk through - just passing) - the buildings we did walk through were the library, student activity center, rec center, Knapp/Horne dorms and a lecture hall (where they gave a presentation). Very old buildings (smell old too). Which reminds me - there was a distinct sulphur-ish smell of the whole campus, buildings, etc - I wanted to ask about it but I had to leave the tour (left my S23 to finish the tour solo) to check out of our hotel (my oldest son came with us and was still at the hotel)…just thought that was worth mentioning. Tech does seem to be really invested in the student but I just can’t imagine it being that invested with such a large student body? Maybe someone here has a more personal viewpoint. Classes are supposed to be 49 or less students (this was on the engineering handout) so that is a positive. Honors college seems to be pretty exclusive (they have their own dorm, dining, study areas, etc). And as I mentioned before, the campus is pretty sprawled out - will be a huge sprint from an English class to a class where building is on outer edge of campus. Not sure what else to add - I am still numb from all the driving. If anyone has interest in this school, please ask and I will try to answer (if I have answer).
After running the numbers, Wichita surprisingly is the most affordable (and happens to be same driving distance as Tech). He will still apply to both schools as well as UH, UTA and maybe UTSA.
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Thanks for the tour reviews. There are so many schools out there that are not typically discussed here on cc.
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Thank you, great reviews of each school. Now I’m off to read about Wichita State which I’ve never heard of, but that reviews leaves me wanting to know more.
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My eldest is a freshman at Texas Tech (but almost a junior based on the dual credit and AP credits he had). He’s a business major but I know a lot of Engineering/Comp Sci majors…It’s one of the strongest programs they have. Tech is VERY invested in their students and the support has been great from what I’ve experienced. The traditional dorms are kind of dated but they’re doing a lot of renovations this year. My son has been in Stangel with no issues. Murray and Talkington are the newer/nicer suite style dorms. My son only had one class in a large lecture hall/100+ students, but again, pretty much all his GenEd classes were covered. The “smell” you get used to lol, it’s one of those West Texas quirks and depending on which way the wind is blowing it can be minor or major.
Campus life is fun, lots of traditions and things to keep them busy.
I was a little apprehensive on whether my son would be able to adjust in Lubbock or not (we’re from DFW), but it has been great for him, he’s thriving!
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Thank you for your feedback!! I really tried to go in with an open mind but I just wasn’t very impressed - it seemed like the tour was “going with the motions” - we were part of a large group too. We may need to visit again to see the other dorms and anything else we might have missed. 
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That’s a Shocker 
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Love it! Thanks to cc, U of Louisiana Lafayette is now on our radar. Never would have heard of it and now seems like could be a solid financial back up for s23.
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