I knew there was a reason Temple was on my dang list. The good financial aid! Maybe we hit a bad day or came in from a bad direction, but “sketchy” was a kind description. I also think that bad neighborhoods have gotten really, really bad in the last year because of Covid. The homeless problem in Philly was way out of control. The reality is that I think this college tour showed us that S is not “bustling big city” dweller at heart. He even thought downtown Pittsburgh was a bit much (although he could tolerate it there). Considering his dream is to be on Broadway (which is still located in NYC last I checked), he might need to evaluate his priorities!
Love hearing about any college visits. Keep sharing. We planned on visiting the following colleges at the end of June:
Ohio University
Miami University at Ohio
Dayton University
Xavier University
Case Western University
Kent State University
We wanted to look at small, large, public, private, urban , and rural to see what our son likes. Unfortunately, due to car issues, we did not make it to Case and Kent. We are from MA and decided to focus on the midwest area. Our son likes a change of season so being down South is not on his radar with the exception of NC State so that visit may be next year sometime.
His father and I enjoyed all the tours. The visits to the four schools definitely revealed he wants to be in a more urban area and close to an airport even if he ends up bringing his car.
Xavier University really exceeded our expectations. He also really liked Dayton University. Of course, he told us when we arrived home he was all set with college visits for the summer. I will respect his wishes and won’t hound him until later in the year about virtual tours, in-person visits, etc. He wants to only take the SAT twice (fine with me) and ACT (just one time). Going to respect his wishes and just ride the wave. I have to remember this is his journey, not ours.
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Is it “emotionally healthy” for near-adults when their parents make their important decisions for them?
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My son said he didn’t want super urban.
And if your son said he wanted to retake a 34 ACT?
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My son may want to drive around at 2am and I wont let him to that either. Why? Because there is no benefit to him and it could only cause him potential harm.
I said I would not let MY kid retake a 34 and my rationale for that (and that is an unedited comment). Someone got offended. I even said it was fine for her kid if that works for them but to think of the potential negatives as well. Im all for looking at the big picture. I shared my thoughts and my experiences and that made some people angry. I dont think we need to go around in circles about it. Its obvious our kids are at different ends of the spectrum and thats okay.
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@nidaco Can I ask what you liked about Xavier? Its on my sons list.
You are talking about her and her kid, because her kid is the one who got the 34 on the SAT and is planning to take it again. Likewise, you were talking about her kid when you were talking about boarding school, repeating junior year, and maintaining a 4.0.
If I said I would never decide for my near-adult whether they could retake a standardized test because doing so would be “emotionally damaging” for my kid, then I wouldn’t really be taking about my kid, I would be talking about your kid.
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Again, Im not going to go in circles. We both said our peace. We disagree and thats okay. All of us parents are on discussions boards like this to gain information so we can best guide our own kids. I think its okay to share different thoughts and experiences.
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Sure, but we can do it without being judgmental of other kids or their parents, expecially when we know very little about their circumstances.
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Honestly, Xavier was not even on our radar until I read ububumble post about her son’s college search/journey. She was so informative and it was just a great post. So after that, I started doing my own research and also posed a question on the Xavier board. Another parent also went on to describe what a fabulous place Xavier turned out to be. We did the virtual info session and tour.
Pro’s
smaller university
compact, pretty campus
small size classes
no Greek life (son not interested)
Division one Basketball
urban area (Cincinatti)
near airport
seemed more diverse
access to a professional sports team ( attend pro baseball/football)
can bring car
all students have a success coach, career coach, academic advisor, and financial aid counselor
merit aid
not a big party school
Cons
smaller size ( smaller than what my son originally wanted)
no football team
not enough green (for our son)
We all just felt really good about Xavier when we left. The university really wants the students to succeed. So we will see how he feels in a year. I told him we would fly back out if he wants to apply and see if he could spend the night in the dorms.
He also had a male tour guide. Since the spring he has been on 6 college tours and this was the only one with a male guide. Plus, our tour guide was originally from NYC ( like my husband and I) so we loved having his perspective. Not sure if any of this helps you. lol. Definitely worth a visit in my opinion.
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Thanks so much!
They do have some programs my son may be interested in. My son too is going to struggle with no football. He doesn’t want ultra urban but doesn’t want too rural either. He will have to visit to get a feel for it I think.
@nidaco Xavier and Dayton were my S21’s top two choices. In the end, he chose Xavier. I can’t give any feedback yet as he does not leave for three weeks, but we have been very impressed by the personalized communication so far. And I can’t complain about the costs - we were lucky his final choice was also our least expensive option. Lots of merit and grant money. We are from MD, BTW, and surprised at the geographic reach as many kids are going there from mid-Atlantic and Boston area.
We really liked Dayton as well, but Xavier just seemed to be a better fit for our son.
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Would love to hear thoughts later in the school year. Make sure to give a report. 
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Hi! It’s been a while since I posted here. My D23 really started to get into thinking about college over the last year. She has many friends who are rising Seniors and so I think that has motivated her.
She is interested in studying Creative Writing/English and Theatre and would like to continue being involved in music and dance, although not as majors. We started with a pretty long list of potential schools, and did a bunch of online sessions last year, mainly online fairs or multi-institution presentations, and watched a lot of videos. From there, she decided that she doesn’t want a BFA program for either major interest, so that narrowed our list a bit.
We started doing tours this summer. Here is where we’ve been:
Amherst College - beautiful campus, nice tour guides. Tour was outside only but they did a good job of describing the buildings and how students interacted with them (if that makes sense - it was more than “this is the science building, this is the library” - they told stories about them which made it helpful to think about what students would experience in them). D23 felt like there was good community there and she was impressed with the campus and the bike trails (can’t remember the last time she rode a bike here at home, so surprised that this is what stood out for her). They did an info session outside under a tent after the tour (they had about 5-6 tours running at once, each with 4-5 families) and the student tour guides stayed and answered questions, which was helpful.
Connecticut College - to be honest, I had a certain impression of this campus from these boards, and their online video did nothing to dispel that. However, I was pleasantly surprised on our tour. Our tour guide was an international student from Pakistan and he was very friendly and personable. He described a campus community that our D could see herself enjoying. We were glad to see them doing renovation work on one of their arts buildings as we want to be sure to find a school where humanities and the arts are not an afterthought. D really liked the campus, was impressed by the honor code, number of coffee shops, and the bike trails (again - apparently biking is an essential part of the college experience for her) She was also impressed by the rooms (we did go inside two buildings -one dorm and one admin building). Most students stay on campus all four years and are pretty much guaranteed a single after freshman year if they want one. We saw a single room which was pretty big for a single Someone asked our tour guide if that was typical and he said that it was. Finally, the guide talked about the arts programs having an “innovation focus” which my D found interesting.
Wesleyan University - Not as impressed with our tour guides here. We had two and they didn’t engage with the 6-8 families on the tour much at all. In our previous tours, the guides at least asked the students to introduce themselves and/or say something about their interests but there was none of that here. They also didn’t talk at all until we stopped at a building, so the beginning was awkward as they just set off from the Admissions building and we tried to keep up. First stop was the arts buildings. In a word - UGLY. Why anyone thought Brutalism was an appropriate architecture style for a college I have no idea. And the rest of the campus was fairly traditional- looking so these really stand out, in a bad way. The programs sounded pretty good though. From there we took another awkward, silent walk up to one of the theatre buildings, where of course they mentioned alum Lin-Manuel Miranda and had my D’s full attention. Again, the theatre program sounded interesting, and at least here the building looked OK too. We stayed outside for this tour but got to see the outside of the residence areas for most classes, as they house by year. Nothing that was impressive. All looked like they would be total chaos during the school year, and the tour guides even said that seniors have “a bit too much freedom” from Res Life in their housing. I really wanted to like this school based on what I had read/seen online but I really did not. However, my D liked it enough to keep it on the list. She liked the themed residence ares that they have, including one for creative writing students called “The Writer’s Block”. I did like that it sat right in Middletown as I think having that kind of access to shops and restaurants is nice. We had a quick breakfast downtown at Brew Bakers before our tour, and that was very good.
While we were in CT we also drove to New Haven and walked around the Yale campus. I loved it there (and my 12 year old loved it too). The integration with the city is just what I would want, but my D found it overwhelming. I think she’ll ultimately choose a small LAC in or near a small-ish town. We did have an excellent lunch at Claire’s Corner Copia.
We also did drive-through tours of Sacred Heart and Trinity but it was hard to learn much from that and my D has said that she doesn’t want to do any more drive-through tours. I thought both campuses were interesting in their own ways. Sacred Heart packs a lot into their space, and their new on-campus diner looks fun. They had lots of new construction - mainly res halls- which were impressive. Trinity was more traditional-looking than I expected and I thought it was pretty. Everyone warned us that it wasn’t in a great part of Hartford but I don’t think I would have concerns sending D there.
We have a few more tours scheduled for next month - Mt Holyoke, Colgate, Hamilton, UMass Amherst, and University of Rochester. For most of these, students will be on campus, so that will be very different from the somewhat quiet tours we’ve had so far.
Hope this is helpful. I always enjoy reading about the tours others are taking.
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I thought this might be a deal breaker for my son as he is a HUGE sports fanatic. However, Xavier’s basketball program is nationally known and a big source of pride for Xavier students. My son decided that having at least one D1 well ranked spectator sport was enough for him and that all the other benefits of going to Xavier outweighed the lack of football. Plus, being on the outskirts of Cincinnati means an easy trip to go to MLB and NFL games for a sports fix. My son is already angling to go see the Bengals play his favorite team, the 49ers, since they are playing in Cincinnati this year. Being from MD, he rarely gets the chance to see the 49ers play.
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Interestingly, as far as I know, Wesleyan describes its notable departures from neoclassical and neomedieval architecture as mid-20th century modernism:
When you visit Hamilton, you will notice a significant collection of buildings designed in brutalism:
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AP scores posted early this AM, for those waiting! D23is out of town and texted me bright and early with the good news—three 5s! One “went terribly” so she is quite surprised.
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Congrats! The site must be overwhelmed as it’s telling us to check back later this afternoon.
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