<p>S admitted to Villanova, sight unseen, Tulane likewise, with a scholarship. He likes Villanova better, we think.</p>
<p>Had our first visit and tour today. Villanova seemed shockingly undiverse--not only racially but in terms of the type of student. Very much seemed all of one type; kind of jockish confident guys who plan to get ahead. Women may be the same, not sure. Parents who are planning for that to happen and to sit on top of their kids throughout a four year education. Not much focus on intellectual exploration or curiousity at all. The meeting for parents of admitted students focused primarily on career placement (lame). Not a single administrator in sight. </p>
<p>We asked what the geopgraphic distribution of the matriculating class last year was and were told that this information is not released!! So they claim that they admit students from 48 states or whatever but won't tell parents where students are actually from. What kind of approach is that? Worse, they said that the first semester schedule of freshman in the College of Arts and Sciences is largely picked for them! This is college not high school! And the admissions office had no information on what was in this schedule and the information online is hidden behind a registration firewall. My wife felt like this was just a glorified high school. I hope that isn't the case. </p>
<p>We were told by student guides that most kids stay on campus and don't go home on the weekends and that there is not much cliqueishness resulting from the limited geographic diversity of the students but we wonder (we are from CA)</p>
<p>Our S may end up here but we felt that Tulane was a lot more like a real university than Villanova. </p>
<p>Oh, and the town close to campus (walking distance anyway) seems very lame. About three bars and two pizza places. Pretty disappointing. Don't know how this could be compared to Boston. </p>
<p>We would welcome comments from parents of students here that would make us feel better.</p>
<p>One more thing. We asked about tutoring. Were told that professors keep office hours. Ha! Looks like there is a math and writing tutoring center but otherwise it is left to departments to decide what resources to devote to this. Seems pretty casual to us.</p>
<p>Diversity? Not unlike the USA itself,not very…Didn’t see any administrators? ASK to meet one, they will do so without question…Lame town? If your comparing it to being “in” a city, you’re correct,but a 20 minute train ride,you’ll be in a city that NOTHING on the west coast can compare to…Philly isn’t NY,probably not Boston,similar to DC,but few cities can compare to the history/arts/great museums/restaurants that Philly has to offer…</p>
<p>Going to an admitted students next week,a brunch tommorrow…I’ll provide additional feedback soon</p>
<p>I understand your concern about Villanova. I attended a conference there a few summers ago. The campus is beautiful, and students seem happy, but I agree about the lack of diversity. The tour guide mentioned that “everyone goes to mass on Sunday night”. I got the impression that a lot of the students came from Catholic prep schools.<br>
There isn’t much in the surrounding area, but there is a train station right on campus. In addition to going to Philly, as qdogpa mentioned, you can take the train a few stops to other towns on the Mainline for better restaurant options. </p>
<p>Why does your son prefer Villanova to Tulane?</p>
<p>there is a large public school presence here…the notion that “everyone goes to mass” is absurd. sure, alot of people do, but it is definitely not overwhelming…one of my biggest complaints about the surrounding area is that it isnt as student friendly as some other schools ie cornell…i would like it to be more of a college town, but there are some other perks for lack of that…it’s only a 20 min train ride into one of our greatest cities, you can go as much as you want, no problem…as a matter of fact, one of my upper level poli sci courses is taking a field trip into philly today…as for the freshmen year schedule, it is called a core curriculum, deal with it…everyone gets through it although i would have much rather taken some different courses</p>
<p>My d is a senior-
It is not a diverse school, true. That was a negative for her coming from a more diverse public school culture. However, the biggest positive is the quality of education. The professors are truly excellent, and she has had a great education there. There is a large amount of core class requirements. That was fine for her given that these core classes in e.g. philosophy, are interests of hers. Again, the quality of professors made them good. As far as tutoring, the professors themselves ARE remarkably accessible! I don’t think your s would have any problems getting help in any class.</p>
<p>The students are given their first semester schedule for freshman year, that is true. But it is a schedule that is based on the requirements of the college they are in, and they are given some choice in terms of the math, language, etc. After that first semester, their advisor works with them to choose future classes/schedules tailored to their interests. They do not need to declare a major until 2nd semester sophomore year in the college of A&S.</p>
<p>The town is not a plus if it’s a real city environment your s wants for college. Philly is just a short train ride away right from campus, though, and is taken advatage of by students. It’s a great city!</p>
<p>My d has friends from many states there, including several from California! It is a fun place to go to school, everyone stays on campus, and she would assure you that there is no geographic differentiation among friends (in fact, I think would even be really confused by that concept or concern).</p>
<p>I hope this helps, PM me if you need more specifics!</p>
<p>i was at the 10 am friday meeting for parents of accepted students. I assume that was the one cwjthree attended, but that is something cwj could confirm.</p>
<p>It’s amazing how 2 people can be in the same room and get such a different prospective. first, there were 3 current students from different grade levels answering questions from parents and kids. I thought they had great composure and were articulate. If they represent the average undergraduate student at V I will be more than happy sending my S there.
As for the 2 administration, my wife and I thought they gave a fantastic overview of what to expect over the 4 years a student will be there. </p>
<p>cyjthree, I am not sure what you are expecting but when you say the male students are “confident guys who plan to get ahead”, i am stumped. I hope my child fits into that definition.</p>
<p>About the only thing I can agree with is the lack of diversification. that doesn’t bother me as we live in NYC where he has survived his 17 years in one of the most diversified cities. </p>
<p>I assume you will be spending over 200k over the next 4 years. If your concerns are as strong as you voice hear, why would you do that? You obviously do not like much about the school. </p>
<p>we have visited the school 3 times over the last year, and we are loving it more each time. Yesterday, after the meeting, we asked the administrative person that was at the meeting how we would be able to see a dorm room as we did not need to go on another tour. He took us from the meeting room, walked us across campus and had a student take us to one. The student was amazing in not only showing us the dorm room, but answering additional questions my S had. Without asking her, she gave us her email address and said to email her if any other questions came up.</p>
<p>My son received merit scholarships for 1/2 tutition from 2 other excellent schools and nothing from V. when we arrived back home, My S asked if he come make his deposit to V which we immediately did. He shook my hand and said thanks Dad for everything. I will always remember that moment.</p>
<p>"My son received merit scholarships for 1/2 tutition from 2 other excellent schools and nothing from V. when we arrived back home, My S asked if he come make his deposit to V which we immediately did. He shook my hand and said thanks Dad for everything. I will always remember that moment. "</p>
<p>dadnyc, thank you for your post. You have confirmed what our experience at Villanova was like, and most likely my son will be attending next year as well. </p>
<p>cwj, incidentally, UCSB was also on my son’s list, as it is on yours. The description you give of Villanova was nearly identical to what we thought of USCB, except the students we saw at UCSB looked more like they were vacationing at a beach resort instead of attending college. </p>
<p>As far as “confident guys who plan to get ahead,” NJ’s and NY’s outstanding public schools, which send many kids to Villanova, produce thousands of these types of achievers, who go on to high powered careers in Manhattan, Philadelphia, etc. We view this as a good thing.</p>
<p>We have seen and toured many colleges, including several Ivy league, and I can assure you our standards are high. We were very impressed by all aspects of Villanova. However, Tulane is also an excellent choice and offers some different options. You have a nice problem - at least two good schools to choose from. Good luck!</p>
<p>Like qdogpa and dadnyc, my son is also likely to attend Villanova next year. And like them, in reading cwjthree’s original post, I wonder if they saw the same school that we did. Our family attended the Accepted Students Day in March. All of the panel presentations featured a diverse variety of current students, in different colleges describing different experiences. We heard about undergraduate research opportunities, service involvements, athletic and social activities. We heard from a recent graduate who talked about how his four years at Villanova shaped his post-grad plans. All students we heard and met through-out the day were articulate, dynamic and undyingly enthusiastic about their school. I love that description of “jockish confident guys who plan to get ahead”…that pretty much describes my son to a T, so I’m sure he’s found the right school.</p>
<p>But this quote: “Not much focus on intellectual exploration or curiosity at all”, could not be further from our impression. All of the speakers we heard emphasized the breadth and depth of their academics, and most were able to describe internships and other experiences that solidified their choice of majors/areas of interest. Many tied their service experiences into their academic interests. We also appreciate how the core curriculum can give a student the opportunity to explore academic areas beyond a narrow focus, and perhaps open up areas of interest that an 18 or 19 yr old wouldn’t even know existed. The professors that we met went out of their way to make us feel welcome and even offered their phone numbers and email addresses for future contact.</p>
<p>Our son also received significant merit offers from two other well-respected schools, and is likely forego those offers for Villanova. I think he’ll have a great experience.</p>
<p>I’m visiting next week, but hearing such negative comments scares me tremendously x_x</p>
<p>I’ve heard a lot about the lack of diversity, but how severe is it? I’ve read statistics for Nova, but as an African-American, will I stick out like a sore thumb?</p>
<p>According to Princeton Review, Vllanova’s Quality of Life Rating is a 96. The Academic Rating is an 88, with “Profs accessible rating” an 89. These are very good numbers are are all higher than nearby University of Pennsylvania.</p>
<p>Villanova: 55% are from public schools, 76% are Caucasian, and 5% African American. At Penn, 8% are African American. That’s not a huge difference, although Penn has 18% Asians compared to 7% at Villanova.</p>
<p>going tommorrow, actually today(seeing it’s after midnight) for a “brunch”…will report back anything negative, which i don’t expect…next weekend is another accepted students day,and will do likewise…</p>
<p>ah im so excited to come to VSB next year & go to candidate’s weekend saturday! ill report anything good, but most likely ill have positive feedback since this is THE school i want to attend</p>
<p>I don’t want to get into a battle with parents of my S’s prospective classmates so won’t. As fallenchemist observes, these are my views not his.</p>
<p>I think many of the comments here embody what concerns me about Villanova–a narrow, goal oriented careerist view of education that is controlled to a substantial degree by parents who see themselves as shelling out the money. We are not about to tell our son not to go so a school becauee WE don’t like it. He has to go there. And it is his education. Since it is his education and not ours, we were nonplussed by the comments of the study abroad administrator about how much the school involves the parents in the process. Well of course parents need to be involved, but this is the student’s education not the parents’. </p>
<p>The issue with diversity is not so much race as it is outlook and background. I’m glad that NY and its environs turns out thousands of high achiever Wall Street types (I know many of them) but I think the value of an education from a great national school is being exposed to a lot of very intelligent people with different backgrounds and aspirations and interests. I think Villanova is trying to get there but isn’t yet. It is still hanging on to some kind of vocational training focus. Just check out the career center placement search function that shows by major what company each graduate joined. I’ve never seen that at any other school’s website.</p>
<p>Tulane is not perfect either and we aren’t living in a perfect world so we’ll see what happens. In the meantime good luck to all concerned.</p>
<p>I should also note that we were not able to go to the admitted students day referred to earlier or to the candidate’s weekend next week. It is easy to imagine that these programs would paint a better picture.</p>
<p>The Villanovan this week has a column about the poor support the school offers in the tutoring area other than for atheletes. Seems to be a financial issue. So, administration, get off the dime and provide some services for $50K.</p>
ill report anything good, but most likely ill have positive feedback since this is THE school i want to attend</p>