<p>I have an organizational suggestion. It seems to me that it would make more sense to post college visit info/reports under the individual college in the college list thread rather than in the parents forum. This way people currently on CC, as well as in the future, will be able to find the info easily rather than having to search the entire CC forum. Again, just a suggestion.</p>
<p>Only thing is people usually visit more than one and don't want to click into all the different forums. Also, at a certain point, I find I am interested in the trips of people I feel I have gotten to know a little bit in a cyber kind of way, even if the colleges they see aren't on a list for my kids. I am still waiting for curmudgeon to do a trip report on some California schools...Fear and Loathing on the College Trail.</p>
<p>I know the moderators often move college trip reports to the individual college folder after they appear here.</p>
<p>I prefer to post here on the parents section because, in the past, when I have posted college visit reports in the college search thread, I have sometimes been flamed for my comments and/or views by various posters on the other threads. It can be extremely discouraging to put a great deal of time and effort into a trip report only to have posters react rudely and put down schools for being beneath them. Or, to receive hundreds of very angry and nasty emails, as I once did, from students at a particular school who disagree with my comments on their school. Frankly, I don't have the time or energy to deal with that sort of thing any more. The parents board (including the students who tend to read it) is a much more civil environment. I do direct some kids to specific trip reports that are posted here if I know they are schools they might be interested in. Also, most of my trip reports are based heavily on MY thoughts as a parent and are therefore probably not entirely suitable for the more general thread.</p>
<p>I rather enjoy them here. I feel like I've gotten a taste for schools that I will never get to visit and know little about. I've had occasion to pass on this info to others. Carolyn's posts are among my favorites</p>
<p>Thanks Bookworm. :)</p>
<p>Posting here lets us parents start thinking about schools that were outside our radar, for whatever reason. So bottom line, we might not think to look up the school, but then when someone posts a positive or informative comment, our interest is piqued.</p>
<p>It happened today for me -- this week has seen my daughter (hs junior) come home morose because all her senior friends have been rejected from their reach schools, and a girl with stats very similar to hers was turned down by Barnard. I talked with her about the importance of focusing on safety schools right now. When a parent mentioned American U's practice of no classes on Wednesday - something I thought my daughter would like -- I definitely perked up, and went over to the American site, and pulled off a few more stats & details of interest. My d. is interested in politics, and was despondent over her friend's Barnard rejection in part because the friend also was foreign exchange student. From the web site, I learned that American really values internationalism (many international students, strong study abroad program, etc.) and that my daughter's stats make it a good safety for her-- and in terms of her current areas interest, maybe a real match. So I added it to my file of "colleges to look into" for her. It might not have occured to me to check into that school otherwise -- I remember tossing the American brochures into the recycling bin 5 years ago when my son was looking at colleges. But the landscape has changed somewhat since then. </p>
<p>So I think the practice of posting reviews here first is a good one - and I do also think its a good idea for the moderators to move the posts later on.</p>
<p>I like having the posts here because if they're on the individual college boards, I won't see many because I only look on those boards for colleges I'm already familiar with.</p>
<p>I think, though, cross posting would be a good idea.</p>
<p>OK...OK...I withdraw the suggestion. I was thinking about where I would look for the information. I see now that many of you share the information here for other valid reasons.
It is kind of like when they renovated the local grocery store a few years ago. I loved the new layout, I could find everything. When I mentioned it to my wife, she hated it. She said "A man must of laid this store out. I can't find a thing!"
I can see now that this is more than a repository for information. It is also a form of interpersonal commmunications. Thanks for broading my point of view on how and why people share college reports on the parents board.</p>
<p>Workingforblue. Nice post.</p>
<p>Hear, hear!</p>
<p>How about the mods adding a section on the main page titled "College Visits"? Posters identify the colleges they visited in the thread title and highlight the different schools in color in large 16-point fonts inside their posts.</p>
<p>workingforblue, it was a very good suggestion, but I agree with the other posters. And when I'm looking for trip reports, really all I do is search for the school name in the title of the thread -- sometimes I have to wade through some irrelevant threads, but I've actually found it to be surprisingly easy.</p>