re above Northwestern comment. When son was there for an awards ceremony for the gifted talent search (top percent SAT/ACT test scores) I got a similar vibe. The student presentations included some sorority who made a bunch of money for charity with a dance competition. How not to impress academic superstars in middle school. The highlight was the lecture from an area Nobel laureate- he did an excellent job. The student presentations and the lackluster campus were a turnoff for me and son was not excited about it. It never was on a list for college applications.
@wis75 just to be clear, itās not a dance competition and itās not one sorority. All sororities and fraternities band together for dance marathon where kids offer to dance for 24 hours straight to raise money for charity. It is a huge event at the student center and many, many kids Greek and not Greek come up to show support for the dancers. Thereās just a big dance floor and the kids get very few breaks. Itās super fun for all and the kids have raised $20 million in the last 30 years.
We didnāt have a good impression of Northwestern either. Probably my husbandās biggest disappointment of the college search was that DD refused to apply because he loved it. In DDās defense, the student working admissions the day we visited was condescending and arrogant, and then the tour guide spent a long while talking about how his laptop was stollen. The nail in the coffin was the quarter system and having engineers tell her that classes were taught at a brutal pace. I could see my husband trying to mentally will the students to be more positive but it just didnāt happen.
But- to highlight that instead of something academic was not showcasing the fine academics. I was trying to make it a short statement as well. To use that as a highlight instead of how the academic elite would want to be there, hmmm. The Greek system is a turnoff for me and there are plenty top tier Uās in the region without that emphasis. Northwestern sits on the Lake Michigan shoreline and, some 15+ years ago did not seem to make use of that asset. Buildings also boring- with great architecture so close in Chicago.
D19 has many things against Northwestern (and she has a PT position in a lab there) - momās grad school alma mater, not enough green space (true), no central location (quad) to hang out besides some āstupid rockā (true), girls from her high school all join same sorority (true). Bottom line, she just doesnāt like the vibe there.
"How not to impress academic superstars in middle school. "
Sounds like NW might have just one program they use for all middle school kids, which is a big mistake. I realized that very quickly when I was volunteering as a mentor in middle schools around the large metro area we lived in at the time. At the schools where most of the kids were low SES and/or struggling academically the kids were laser focused on talking about what it was like to talk to the players on my NBA team client and whether I could get them certain autographs. At the very academic focused, high achieving schools the kids glazed over if I mentioned the NBA team and instead wanted to talk about one of my publicly traded clients and what I studied in college. All of them were good kids, they were just interested in different things and if you chose poorly, you lost their interest quickly.
Getting back to the theme of the thread, my son didnāt even want to look at NW. We were visiting UChicago and I suggested we take a look at NW, too.
Him: Nah, no need.
Me: But weāve flown all this way, weāre here for a few days, weāre staying nearby and NW is a great school. Letās just take a quick look.
Him: I know I love UChicago and itās got a better math department. Iāll just go there. Letās go get pizza instead.
Me: (internal dialogue, not spoken out loud): well, good luck with that oneā¦
milee30. Chicago was many weekends for us by car. We avoided U Chicago because son at 16 was a runner and we feared he would ignore advice on where to run off campus. A mistake on our part? Perhaps. Knowing his college and post college life it is fine we ignored it. The pizza was a good idea even if son was unrealistic about the ease of getting into schools.
Yeah, trust me - I understand. They tend to come with a mind of their own and their own ideas on what is important. You can lead a kid to college (or in your case, keep him away), but you canāt make 'em like itā¦
Younger son refuses to look at any school his brother applied to or the one his mother and I went to. Also refuses to consider any NYC area schools (heās a huge fan of all the Boston teams) as he doesnāt want to deal with NY personalities. Told him NY is the biggest, richest place in the country which sends students everywhere in large numbers so he will not be able to avoid them.
D1 was turned off to Northwestern when the student tour guide spent nearly half the tour talking about how many famous actors and comedians were NU alums, and much of the rest boasting up Greek life. The vibe was distinctly un-academic.
On second thought, thatās not a stupid reason.
Iām forced to concur that itās not a stupid reason, if for no other reason that I did something analogous in my own college search. I was looking for schools that were liberal, LGBT friendly, not religious, not preppy, not yuppie, etc. There was no way I could visit each school recommended to me. This was also long before the Internet.
I pored through the viewbooks or brochures and went to the admissions rep presentations and watched their promotional videos. I eliminated schools where too many people looked like missionaries, Alex P. Keaton types, or like they belonged in a country club. I didnāt pay particular attention to beards, but it certainly didnāt hurt the score. Men with long hair were definitely a plus. Popped collars were a big minus. Schools that passed my screening test included Beloit, Grinnell, Bard, Macalester, Oberlin, Reed and Carleton (where I eventually ended up).
Lol @ProfessorPlum168! My son was a proud Slug for four years. He even played on the basketball team.
He bought team shirts with a large slug mascot image for his AAU coaches back home (where no one has ever heard of UCSC). One of these coaches told me that he had worn his shirt out in public and someone had asked him about it. He explained that it was the school one of his former players was attending. The person then said āOh, I thought it was a rec team for old slow people, or something.ā :))
Bumping because this thread is so much fun to read. =))
Good to keep bumping this thread! One of my favorites.
I need to mention (following all of the arachnophobia posts) that one of my kids wouldnāt look at colleges in the South because s/he presumed there would be more bugs ā warmer climate = more bugs goes the reasoning.
This is a child who lives in NYC with rats and cockroaches galore, so . . . you know, so logical.
āThis is a child who lives in NYC with rats and cockroaches galoreā
We live in Florida, so plenty of bugs, all sorts of bugs. But yes, the rats around here rarely reach the super size of the NYC mutants; our are so much smaller my boys didnāt even realize yours were rats. We were in Manhattan a few months ago and came upon one of the super-mutant NYC rats that had been squished flat in the street. My boys reaction, āOh, mom - thatās so sad. Somebodyās cat got hit!ā
I dunno @Dustyfeathers, I think your kid is onto something. I was just telling a friend last night that Iām not ready for winter, but I am ready for the first hard freeze to kill the bugs. I donāt think I want to worry about needing mosquito spray in December either!
Daughter didnāt want to even visit Skidmore because of the name. I added it on the visit coming back from Hamilton and she actually liked it, I didnāt. She got wait listed any way since we needed financial aid.
My daughter eliminated all schools with purple as a school color.
āMom, I already have enough schools on my list and NO ONE looks good in purple.ā
When S2 asked S3 to join us on his college tours, my heart warmed at the thought that he respected his little brotherās opinion so much. The opposite turned out to be true. S3 loved Clemson? Off the list. S3 thought that Caltech seemed boring and nerdy? Moved to the top of the list.
When S3 was looking at colleges I suggested Clemson and told him that he loved it when we visited with S2. He said that if S2 ever considered it no way is he applying. S3 also ruled out BC after visiting because all the statues made it feel too Catholic. ND he loved, however, because it was Catholic āin a cool wayā.
D2 ruled out Pomona because the tour guide pronounced library ālibaryā. āFor 50k a year you would think they would teach them how to count 'rās.ā
D4 wonāt look at UWI-Madison because she thinks that beer cheese soup (which she thinks is super weird and gross) sounds like a drunk Wisconsin frat boy concoction, therefore all frat boys at UW-M must be super weird and gross.
My daughter ruled out several whose school color was orange.