Love my sons voice teacher. She is helping SHOVE my kid into narrowing his list!!
He did a quiz and things important to him in a college are: student life, dorms, campus food, campus, local area, professors, athletics.
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We were at Vassar for a tour on 8/18 and had the same experience - masks were required in all indoor spaces and we had to show proof of vaccination and booster.
We were just finishing a week of college tours and Iām sure that many schools have different requirements for tours than they do for students (and for good reason - we had just been on six other college campuses over the previous week).
My daughter is a dancer too and also spent a year dancing in masks, so it didnāt bother us.
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If you have time it would be so great for you to share your impressions in the college visit thread. It has been a lifeline for so many - really amazing.
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Could you link it here please?
Here you go!
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My daughter got this invitation. We had already visited NEU (she absolutely hated it) so she wonāt be going to the Preview Day, but maybe she got it because we had already toured the school?
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I feel like kids either love Northeastern or hate it when they visit. My son loved everything about it, but has an open mind and lots of other good choices. He did sign up for the Preview Day as the timing worked well with the long weekend and we can drive-so saving $ on airfare. For those I know of who have been invited, Iām hearing itās either NMSF students, College Board recognition students or those who have visited in the past like your daughter (shown some interest.) So who knows exactly why my son received the invitation? But heās happy to learn more about the programs and student life.
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@AmyIzzy my oldest and I toured NEU about six years ago. She loved it and applied but opted to go elsewhere after applying EA and getting deferred. D23 and I were in Boston last month. We didnāt do an official tour but since we were nearby touring BU, we decided to walk to NEU and just walk through the campus and see the area. She prefers an urban campus so in that sense, NEU was right up her alley. Itās not on her list but she really liked the campus and location. She would love to go to school in Boston.
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Boston is the perfect place to go to college! We visited BU and I continue to think it is quite underrated, though much more selective now than it was even a few years ago. Definitely on the upswing. Great location and academics. My son is applying there RD, as well as Tufts and Harvard, so he likes Boston too!
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Agreed! Boston is a great college city! We did several tours last year and the first set were vastly different schools (on purpose) so we could pinpoint things he liked/wanted and disliked/didnāt want. We quickly learned he is leaning towards a small to medium sized school or larger school with a honors program that might make it feel smaller, he wants to be in or near a city (does not want to be āin the middle of nowhereā) and seemed drawn to schools with more of a modern, updated look vs. the older architecture or āHogWartsā look (not that the look of campus is a make or break thing!) Having said that, he will be applying to Fordham (due to the potential for a large scholarship for Hispanic Scholar recognition) but he thinks maybe NYC is TOO MUCH city so heās not sure about that one. To me, itās similar to Boston, but he sees it as having a bit more hustle, bustle and craziness. We probably wonāt be able to visit Fordham until after acceptances, so heās keeping an open mind. I was surprised how much he liked Northeastern. A co-op school isnāt exactly ideal for a psychology major, but he really likes the rigor and research opportunities and the students we met seemed like āhis peopleā as far as interests and academic focus. We did visit BC and he thought it was a pretty campus (although not that modern look he likes) but he just wasnāt feeling the vibe. We didnāt visit BU because itās kind of known as a neighborhood school and heās looking for a campus experience. But definitely a great school!
Fordham is definitely that hogwarts style. My kids loved the old school vibe. Itās way out in the Bronx, so itās not exactly in the city, but very urban.
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We were surprised at how nice BU was, it doesnāt have a traditional quad type campus but is in a lovely neighborhood and has some great riverside green spaces where students were hanging out. My older d applied to and got into BC but went elsewhere- she really liked it but I think it is another school kids like or donāt like from the first moment. And also - you canāt compare NYC to Boston - Boston is much smaller and less intimidating- NYC is very different. My older d who loves DC and Boston hated and found stressful working in NYC for one summer. You have to visitā¦
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Yes, the pics of Fordham at Rose Hill definitely look that way. Made me think maybe heād prefer the Lincoln Center campus but then we are back to him wanting a more traditional campusā¦and Iām sure thatās not it. Canāt win! Lol.
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I should clarify that weāve been to NYC several times but never visited Fordham. My daughter did lots of musical theatre in high school so was involved with Young Performers of America in NYC and some training workshops, plus she did look at a few colleges for music (New School & City College) but ended up in New Orleans. So maybe I just got used to the crazy energy there (we usually stayed near Times Square) and I didnāt see it as such a big contrast to Bostonā¦but I think my son is right. Iām tempted to have him look at BU, but he did look at Suffolk and didnāt like how spread out the buildings were, so guessing itās a similar set up to BU.
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My friendās son just moved into the dorm at Fordhamās Lincoln Center campus and the view from his room is amazing! I would never get any work done because Iād be staring out of the huge windows into downtown Manhattan.
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Wow-how amazing is that? Side note that housing at Roosevelt & Columbia College Chicago had absolutely incredible city views. My parents were with us and asked if they had senior citizens housing too. Lol. But the Lincoln Center view must be awesome! That might be a nice bonus!
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@AmyIzzy Iām a Fordham grad - I went to the Rose Hill campus in the Bronx. It is most definitely URBAN in every sense, however the campus itself is enclosed and has a very traditional campus feel - lots of green space and trees, old and new buildings. But, the minute you step off campus, you are definitely in the city! Itās not like say, American University, which is IN Wash DC but in a residential area. Fordham is very urban. Horns honking, commercial strip full of bodegas, stores, etc LOL And Little Italy is just a few blocks away.
D23 and I went to Boston a few weeks ago. We did official tours of Emerson and BU, but also walked thru the NEU campus and BC (our hotel was right down the street from BC so figured Iād show it to her since we were there. BCās campus is pretty, but I personally was turned off years ago when my oldest and I did the info session & tour. D23 actually met with a BC college rep at her high school yesterday and got a similar vibe so does not plan to apply. We also stopped at Brown, a reach school but she wanted to see it since we were passing by Providence. She loved how the campus was integrated into the neighborhood - urban, but not in a ābig cityā way.
She loved BU. Not an enclosed campus like Fordham, but a nice area of Boston. A good mix of urban but still a sense of campus feel. I admit I liked it a lot more than I thought I would. D23 will apply, but knows itās a crap shoot given itās low acceptance rate, plus it will be top end in terms of cost so most likely she will have more affordable choices.
On our way back, we stopped at Fordham. She has been on campus before but just a quick walk around when we stopped in Little Italy when we were in NY last year. It was move in week so no official tours. While I could have given her a tour, a lot has changed since I graduated, so I arranged for the son of a friend of mine to walk us around and get his perspective since he is a current student. I was pleasantly surprised that she put it at the top of her list, ahead of BU. I thought she would have preferred the cleaner, quieter neighborhood as well as Boston itself, but I was wrong. She appreciated that Fordham has a true campus, while at the same time, Little Italy blocks away, and easy access to Manhattan.
Editing to add, years ago, the BC info session had a student panel - they were great! Iām sure the student body there is lovely, but just turned off by their admissions folks. Donāt mean to diss all of BC for a couple of bad apples.
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My daughter had just come from BC (which she absolutely loved) and just knew NEU was not for her. Maybe we were there on a bad day for admissions, but the admissions presentation was severely lacking and the tour guide could not be bothered. Campus was SO crowded and we just felt like it wasnāt kept up well at all. Of course, again, we had just come from BC which is simply stunning.
Counter that with George Washington, which we visited about a month later, and the urban campus was a huge draw for my daughter. But, the admissions presentation was excellent and the tour guide was so engaging.
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Isnāt it amazing how our kids can get that instant sense of what they want (and donāt want) when they step on campus? Sounds like she really liked the vibe of Fordham and something about it felt welcoming and right for her. It certainly sounds like a great school and Iām honestly not sure how my son would feel about either the Rose Hill or Lincoln Center campus-my predications have been wrong before, so not even going to try. Iām sure he would like that city feel outside of the Rose Hill campus as he doesnāt want to feel isolated. We visited the Emory Oxford campus and he was like āno way, itās too far from Atlanta and way too small!ā He ended up taking Emory Atlanta off the list too for other reasons but liked the city part. I get what you are saying about BC. I seem to recall some similar reservations during the info session. My son went back and forth on whether to apply but just said āitās not for meā in the end so no arguments here. One big positive about Fordham is the new president, Dr. Tanya Tetlow. They stole her from my daughterās school, Loyola New Orleans, which made us so sad! She is incredible, very personable and will be a huge plus to the future of Fordham.
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How does your daughter like Loyola? My daughter is going on a āfield tripā with her IB class later this month to tour Loyola and Tulane. We lived on the Northshore of NOLA for years, but weāve never been on either campus. Sheās really looking forward to checking both schools out although sheās not overly crazy about the idea of New Orleans. 
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