<p>DD dropped small LACs from consideration because of small class size!</p>
<p>@youdontsay what a great story! I concur playing school was fun for us too!</p>
<p>
This is where I get uncomfortable–I’m just doubtful if that experience really revealed much about Brown as opposed to similar schools (i.e., Yale, Princeton, etc.). It’s no worse than some other things that lead to colleges being struck off the list, of course, and better than many, but…</p>
<p>There were other reasons… she realized she didn’t like the idea of an open curriculum. And Providence didn’t appeal to her either. She realized there were other less competitive schools she would have preferred to attend, so it was an easy decision to cut Brown out of the list.</p>
<p>But of all its peer schools, Brown with its open curriculum and no distributional requirements should be the least likely to have students who are just sitting in class without significant engagement. The class didn’t seem like a gut, nor was it one that might have fulfilled pre-med requirements. It was a bit mystifying.</p>
<p>Vicariousparent,
I know I am biased toward Brown, since my son is having an amazing experience there, but I am surprised by your daughter’s visit. My son sat in on several classes before enrolling and was blown away by the level of engagement and interest in the classes. This was in stark contrast to the other school I mentioned earlier where the students were completely disengaged. (I will not name the school, though, since I do not want to cast it in a bad light.) Perhaps your child sat in on a larger class, since my son sat in on smaller classes. Both of my kids found it useful to sit in on several classes at each school, since one class may not be representative of the school.</p>
<p>It sounds like there were a lot of reasons your child did not want to be at Brown, though. Some people do not like the open curriculum. Others love it. I know my son has found that the shopping period, open curriculum and ability to choose classes he really wants have been incredibly fulfilling.</p>
<p>The two opposing Brown class visits just confirm my earlier comment - it is the luck of the draw if you get a good or bad class and there are probably good and bad classes on every college campus.</p>
<p>We’ve been around this topic a million times but just to add one more anecdote to the cause in regard to only visiting colleges when students are on campus or not.</p>
<p>Disclaimer: I have already previously announced (several times) that I am an advocate for scheduling campus visits when it is most convenient and not to be hung up on trying to calculate how many strolling students one will run into.</p>
<p>A couple of weeks ago my daughter and I visited an east coast LAC on a beautiful sunny day while the college was in session. While we were walking from our car toward the admissions building we saw scores of students with backpacks walking to and fro. We even joked to each other: “Wow, look! Real students!”</p>
<p>After the info session, we started out immediately on our tour. While on tour – no one in sight. Grounds were deserted. We asked the tour guide about why there was no one around and she said “everyone is in class.”</p>
<p>So, ya never know. We’ve seen enough jeans and sweatshirts in our day. One more or less will not be her deciding factor. As always, YMMV.</p>