<p>I know someone else who had the special feeling at Grinnell, and enrolled there. She is now in last year of residency at a top medical school. I’d be happy your son found a place he really likes.</p>
<p>Cat dorm.</p>
<p>Great tour guide
H.S. friends planning to attend
Big university but campus not huge/ intimidating
Campus was 5 hours from home (not too close or too far away)
Could take his truck to college.
Was blown away by the football stadium</p>
<p>emeraldkitty, we do not have pets, so D’s eyes lit up to hear of a dorm that had puppies the students were training to be service dogs! </p>
<p>I made my daughter revisit some of the schools once she was accepted. This formed her choice more clearly and she ended up at the college that wasn’t her top choice because she had an amazing visit that left her with no doubt.</p>
<p>No drastic movement, but a pretty campus, preferrably in a middle of nowhere was close to the top of D’s criteria…and 4 years later, she still does not like big cities at all, the best cities in the nation, she does not care…makes her feel like fish out of water, stressed out.</p>
<p>Who knows what really made the difference, but the fact that CMU had whole clusters of computers for Linux fanciers certainly made mathson’s eyes light up. It was also a plus that his major/school offered two separate tours (computer science and robotics) in addition to the general campus tour. </p>
<p>Younger son went to a presentation by the person who runs the Global Institute at Tufts. He came back having found out about the course he teaches and said it sounds like kind of a cult, but amazing. (The course is amazing, though in retrospect ds says he shouldn’t have tackled it freshman year.)</p>
<p>One of the little things that sends a college rocketing up my personal rankings is if the bookstore stocks clothing with the school’s name in other alphabets. If there’s a market for “Whassammata U” T shirts in Hebrew, Chinese, Russian, etc., then that’s a student body on my wavelength.</p>
<p>Boris and Natasha would NEVER buy a Wossamatta U tee-shirt in Russian. They hate that moose. </p>
<p>The school my D ended up at was near the bottom of her list because she initially thought it felt too big. We made her do everything associated with visits, questions, applications and follow-up. She is dual degree and what completely changed her mind was how responsive and helpful the administration, department offices and professors were. She came to the realization that with dual degree those relationships would be key. She is in middle of freshman year and so far thrilled with her choice. </p>
<p>My son thought he was interested in a STEM school because Tech-wise, they were clearly ahead in ‘toys’. However when he went back to student acceptance day, he found the students to be a bit too geeky and decided to go to a more rounded school. </p>
<p>When we searched for STEM school for DS, music opportunities was an important factor. We found them in different flavors at most schools. I’ll mention here because for others it could be a “little thing” that helps offset academic stresses. </p>
<p>We dragged mine to VT almost against his will since his mind was already set on one school. There we met a prof in his intended major who ended up spending four hours with him, touring, talking & having him sit in his class. That type of interest in one prospective student, especially in a school the size of VT, was amazing. He hasn’t picked yet because financial aid, if any, could play a factor but it went from one strong favorite to two strong favorites. </p>
<p>@lakemom 
I couldn’t help but giggle at that story. </p>
<p>My DD chose her school because of the food! Oh, and the financial aid was pretty good too! </p>