<p>voronwe - crash here. Looked at Muhlenberg because of its theater dept. - that got good reviews. However, the campus itself seemed "dead", the dorms were shoddy, and our tour guide - who was a dance major and very nice - expressed her boredom with the school, the smallness of the student body, and dullness of Allentown and she was just a first semester junior and still had nearly two more years to go! That did not bode well for my kid so we moved on to other schools.
And yes I meant Trinity in Ct. where one of my kids is now - and is very happy. It turned out to be a great fit.</p>
<p>DKE: I'm SURE there are lots of good classes at UF. It's just that we were there for a limited amount of time, and DD only sat in on one class, which she had been assured was a terrific class. It wasn't. It probably was not representative of the other honors classes. But the school was not right for DD. Also, the honor dorm was sterile and claustraphobic, and she really did not like the alligators. Silly reasons not to like a school, I know!</p>
<p>Hey, you never know. We read glowing reviews of a particular English class and arrived to find the prof's lecture dull and many of the students literally asleep at their desks. Pretty well-known university in New Haven. ;)</p>
<p>Crash, sorry to hear about your Muhlenberg experience. We'll be there for an initial visit in a few weeks during S Spring Break, hopefully we'll fare better. We used to live in Allentown (not too far from campus) and I think my S has a higher opinion of the city than most of the 'Berg students do. You just have to know where to look.</p>
<p>I really, really wanted to like Amherst... but I just couldn't. Something just didn't click... my tour guides both came across as apathetic and blase, and there was an air of smugness about them and the campus in general that just really turned me off. Stanford was also quite disappointing... for all the hype about its programs and location, the campus was way to spread out for me, and it felt kind of pre- professional and fake to me. Tufts personified boring... it was just OK in every respect... I didn't even stay for the tour. I wanted to love Barnard so badly, but it was just filthy and unsightly. Harvard was beautiful, and Cambridge is quite possibly the best college town I've ever seen, but it was just too overwhelming for me... more a place I'd do grad work. On the other hand, something just clicked at Yale, Williams, and Swarthmore... the people at all three seemed like a group I'd be excited to spend four years with.</p>
<p>We had an interesting walk through Yale's campus. While looking forward to the visit, fully expecting to love it, we didn't-- for various reasons. And each of us found all that stonework rather cold (compared to warm brick), but what really took us aback was reading some of the postings on the outdoor bulletin boards--which can tell you a lot about a school. This one in particular caught my eye: "Come meet some real townies....volunteer at the homeless shelter..." I thought this particular statement was quite revealing.</p>
<p>This whole thread reminds me of the backhanded compliments my mother in law dishes out.
Like upon noticing my feet were tan she remarked " Oh, I wish I could stand to lay around in the sun, but I always have to be doing something, I just can't help it"!
( in my defense it was self tanner- I don't lay around in the sun either- but I just :) )</p>
<p>I am actually glad that my daughter at least wanted to go farther away than the big U in town, although I do wish she would have looked at Whitman- it sounds great and she would have gotten merit from the state. oh well perhaps the next one.
While the people on these boards are very cognizant of "name schools", I notice that many of my friends are looking at regional schools often public out of state for their kids and very happy with them too. They don't even look at smaller private schools, too much money- and they don't realize that many privates have their own merit aid even if you don't qualify for need. still a lot of money however</p>
<p>Emeraldkity, I could swear that we have the same mother-in-law, but I don't recall meeting you at any of the family reunions.</p>
<p>Schools I wished I liked but didn't??? I really am quite easy as I went to a commuter college and anything with a dorm would look good to me...but in the whole scheme of things, I was very disappointed in RPI in Troy. My son got a HUGE scholarship there...the RPI award and would have cost us practically nothing to send him there...but it had NO charm. They actually took a beautiful church, gutted the inside, and made it into a computer lab! Not one statue or piece of artwork on the whole campus. Even techies need to have some exposure to the arts or they become "dull" boys. The other was Johns Hopkins...while I'm sure it would have offered wonderful opportunities in the sciences, I saw not ONE happy kid..rather very solemn and almost borderline depressed.....very little camaraderie observed. Not that my d got in...but on some level she was relieved. U of Chicago while apparently some sort of haven for young people with inquisitive minds...the surrounding community frightened me to death and I am a native NY'er. I became rather suspicious when the tour guide kept reiterating how the security is as good as it ever has been and how the incidences of local crime have decreased!!! But when I secured a copy of their underground newspaper....a VERY wise thing to do on any campus, BTW, they actually had a local map with asterisks where muggings had taken place the month before!! Some, I might add very close to campus...and to get into a dorm was like entering Fort Knox....I was scared! .....My D of course thought it was great!!! the Joys of Innocence!</p>
<p>sgiovinc1: I'm interested in all the comments about UChicago, and though we haven't yet visited, I was interested in your comment that getting into a dorm there "was like entering Fort Knox." Well....I would hope so. Of all the schools we did visit, not one would allow us to see a dorm, and I think that's the way it should be. So much of the crime that occurs on college campuses around here, occurs because dorms were not secure (mainly because students were lax about their comings and goings). Also, we actually started paying more attention to schools that pay attention to security issues. We found those campuses that didn't (with no blue phones, minimal lighting, etc) have also had recent serious problems. Those campuses that don't address security are the ones that scare me, because I think they're in denial. In our search, it seemed that the urban campuses, though perceived as being more dangerous, were in fact more aware of security issues, making the students more aware, and ultimately perhaps safer.. Just my thought.</p>
<p>No, I think you missed the point. Most of the schools told us about their security..the blue phones, the escort service, etc. What I found most unsettling was in spite of all the hub-bub about security, in the underground newspaper there were still places that were still vulnerable...like walking on the street near the campus! I supposed if you wanted to venture out of your immediate environs, there was a possibility of a mugging and the underground did not hesitate to share that news. I suppose if you wanted to have an off-campus apartment, there could be problems. As it turned out, my D is going to Carnegie Mellon where she lives in off campus housing in an apartment, stays late on campus, and then has an escort walking her back to her apt. every time. Carnegie's environs appeared alot safer to me and I am much more relieved that she is NOT in an inner city environment. Just my thought on college life for a GIRL.I would have had no special concerns for my sons..one of who ended up in West Philly.</p>
<p>Some of this has to do with the extent to which colleges reach out into the community. I lived in West Philly for 12 years, at a time a time it was "much worse" (we lived near "MOVE", west of UPenn by about 10 blocks), and neither my wife nor I ever experienced any problems, and we walked alone at all hours of the day and night (at one point, my wife worked until 2 a.m. and took public transportation.) But Penn (at least in those days), made a point of actively reaching out into the community.</p>
<p>Never felt the same at UChicago. Rather, I felt like we lived in a white Bantustan, with police - both city and university - ringing us on 3 sides (47th, Cottage Grove, and 61st) with the Lake on the 4th. Could be different now - haven't been in awhile. Can't tell about Yale, except the tour guide kept on going on and on about the blue phones, and the gates, etc., and I kept on wanting to know how students were involved in the community, rather than protected from it. I had the suspicion that this kind of talk may have been reserved for white parents, though since there weren't any Black ones, it would not be fair of me to judge.</p>
<p>sgiovinc1: No, I understood what you were saying, and I appreciate the info about the underground newspaper, too. I was simply making my own point. Specifically, though, I do like to hear about accessibility of dorm entrance akin to "entering Fort Knox." Good for them. And, yes, sadly--here in the 21st C--we <em>still</em> have to worry about concerns specific to girls, that aren't so for boys. But...I do think how each of us perceives safety of campuses/urban environments/rural environments, etc., is all relative.</p>
<p>I also generally feel safer in the city rather than the suburbs- although I also feel pretty safe in the country although when I am out by myself I feel like I am always watching for critters.
I grew up in the burbs when Ted Bundy was scouting Lake Sammamish & it was just my general impression that it seemed less like a neighborhood and people were less likely to get involved than in the city- where I have rarely felt unsafe.
This city just seems to have more people out and about and more lighting. Suburbs so dark that oftentimes you can't even read street signs. D college is fairly well lit & also have added phones in recent years to campus- although campus is fairly small. The UW however can get spooky at night in the fog especially when you aren't sure of where you are going.</p>
<p>emeraldkity4: I completely agree with feeling safer in a city than in the burbs (or way out in the country, for that matter). And I guess that was my point....Seems to me that urban college campuses tend to be much more aware (less in denial) than those located out in the picture-perfect burbs, or worse yet...out in the middle of nowhere.</p>
<p>One thing about the "bad neighborhoods" in cities. I used to live in NYC in the area of Avenue C & 14th street... not a A+ neighborhood by any means... I always felt very safe because it was a "hang out on the front stoop" neighborhood where people we always around & about. You felt like if you scremed, people would hear you. I never felt scared because I was never alone on the block.</p>
<p>Drew University. On paper, and even during the first visit, it seemed ideal: beautiful campus, near to NYC, NJ Shakespeare festival there during summers, new art buildings, great president (Thomas Kean), all the right "we're going places" quotes.</p>
<p>But on the post-acceptance visit: daughter's "hostess" said "I've got to study for a test tomorrow, so why don't you just watch tv in the basement." Daughter found kids really dull and not inquisitive. At the parent-student lunch, no one made any attempt to talk with us, etc.</p>
<p>Wished she'd liked it, but no go.</p>
<p>Also, the VERY WORST tour guide we ever had was at Tulane!!!</p>
<p>I admit I would not have Tulane as a choice- although I havent visited, it just doesn't seem to be the safest town, and if you were concerned about students drinking......?
I do think that it has a decent rep as a good school however- and if you are the kind of student who isnt' going to go to parties off campus during mardi gras when you are a freshman, take off by yourself and get yourself murdered like a classmate of my daughters, I think it could be a fun and studious school.</p>
<p>Alphabet City! Shout out! </p>
<p>East 9th Street grad here--the drive through 'pot' street for many years. Pot dealers would see us walk down the block and holler "Rezziden'! Rezziden'!" Or, if police were coming round the corner: "Radar! Radar!"</p>
<p>Those guys worked through rain and snow and most had two strikes. Stoop conversations always turned to the possiblities of what would happen when they got that third strike....</p>
<p>It was a crazy neighborhood, but I cruised throught there at all hours without a bother. The Upper West Side during the late 80s was scarier.</p>
<p>emeraldkity4-
I hate for Tulane to get the blame for the death of that young man. The area around Tulane is as safe as any school in a major city, as long as you are mindful of your surrounds. As far as drinking, while New Orleans as a city seems to party hard, the kids at Tulane are just like most other college kids. The main difference is alcohol seems to be much easier to get in New Orleans. My son has mentioned that he has seen kids as young as 13 at bars in town! Some kids are not able to handle the temptations of New Orleans; those students will be better served at another school other than Tulane. For those that know their limits, Tulane is a fine school.</p>
<p>FYI-When my son first looked into Tulane I told him, no go. When the scholarship arrived, I changed my mind. Whould I send my next child? Most likely not, but mainly because Tulane isn't her style.</p>