<p>Our D did not want to go to school in the greater Boston area. This ruled out a good number of top notch schools(most of which she might have had a shot) but she didn’t like the academic networking/posturing that seemed to get more intense the closer to the triangle we got(on her visits/stayovers and such). The rest of the Northeast was fine though.</p>
<ol>
<li>Out of State</li>
<li>A city</li>
<li>Preferably Greek</li>
<li>A good theater program without having to major</li>
<li>Good shops around campus</li>
<li>Smallish but not too small</li>
</ol>
<p>I had a lot of non-academic reasons behind my decision:</p>
<p>This isn’t “trivial,” per say, but because of a medical condition I need to be within driving distance of home. But I didn’t want to go to college in this town or the next one over, so I looked at colleges not more than 4 hours away by car. This all but limited me to in-state schools, except for a few in Virginia, none of which caught my fancy. </p>
<p>I didn’t want Greek Life to dominate campus life. It’s okay if it exists, but I didn’t want to go somewhere where like 40% of the students are in a fraternity or sorority. (CoughWakeForestCough)</p>
<p>Not every school had to be super-liberal like me. But there had to be some form of a Gay-Straight Alliance club or something similar. I’m not gay or transgendered, but I do stand up for LGBT rights, and if they weren’t welcome, it wasn’t the kind of environment I wanted to learn in. </p>
<p>I like the freedom of having a car. I thought this was a rarity, but surprisingly every school I considered allowed cars for freshmen, which is something I didn’t think about until after I applied. </p>
<p>I was also turned off by the lack of classroom technology in one school I visited. From then on, I considered it important.</p>
<p>I want there to be some school spirit. It didn’t have to be D-I, but there had to be some pride in the programs. I also asked a lot about campus involvement, clubs, etc. This meant a lot to me. </p>
<p>As someone who will be majoring in Theatre (or possibly minoring), the productions were very important. I tried to watch a production at every school, and if I couldn’t I was able to sweet-talk my way into receiving a few clips. Student turnout was important at the shows I saw. I don’t want to do shows for some parents and the theatre students who didn’t get a part. </p>
<p>Campus aesthetics were a factor, to the point where I crossed one school off the list partially because their “quad” was poured concrete and all their buildings looked institutional. The other reason was that the town it was in was the most Godforsaken place I’ve ever been to. </p>
<p>Having a debate team was a factor, not extremely important, but it was nice when they did.</p>
<p>I was so picky when selecting a school, I even made an excel chart and set up a ranking system for each factor. I looked for a school with:</p>
<ul>
<li>a lot of school spirit (ended up being mostly D1 southern schools)</li>
<li>15-30% greek</li>
<li>study abroad program in Spanish speaking country</li>
<li>Rural area with an aesthetically appealing campus</li>
<li>accepted AP and dual enrollment credits</li>
<li>honors college</li>
<li>high percentage of OOS students</li>
<li>more conservative, rather than liberal student body</li>
</ul>
<p>Clemson was a perfect match, and Cornell and Auburn came in close 2nd!</p>
<p>These don’t seem non-trivial because they were deal-breakers.
Must be in California
Must within driving distance of home
Must have a theater department </p>
<p>The trivials were:
bathrooms - she has some real bathroom fetishes - meaning she really only like her OWN bathroom
a/c
cute boys</p>
<p>Turns out she really didn’t have any control over the trivials because where she is going 1/2 the dorms have A/C and 1/2 don’t - it a crapshoot. She doesn’t know her dorm until Aug.
The bathrooms are like any other dorm bathroom - shared!!! (But she did an overnight in Dec and had a great time and even managed to use the bathroom so I think she will survive… 
No way of knowing what the boys look like till she gets there but apparently at the overnight she met some very nice boys who left her with a favorable impression of the school.</p>
<p>But on this subject I have a friend with a very smart daughter who ruled out Stanford completely because on the tour there were some weird sort of worm-like bugs in the trees that freaked her out. That always impressed me as how trivial things really do influence these kids.</p>
<p>Udubhuskies- She was seriously interested in the University of Washington, until she recently learned that it has the quarter system. Now it is dead in the water, and she won’t be applying, so you don’t need to worry about any competition from her.</p>
<p>I’m not sure many of these are really that trivial. My D loved the area where her freshman year college is located. She’d hiked, rock climbed and skied nearby many times since she was small. She knew it would be beautiful every fall and there would be plenty of snow in the winter. She thought a small New England town would be perfect for her. EXCEPT.</p>
<p>A couple of weeks into the second semester she got REALLY sick-and the campus health center isn’t open 24/7. She needed to get to the hospital but there was literally only a single cab available that day and it was busy. She had to take the bus (after waiting for it, of course), doubled over in pain and puking. No one she could find in her dorm had a car. She began looking at transferring to a large city school sooon after that.</p>
<p>For those of you who consider college in a small town as your best/only option, have you made a plan for when/if you get very sick? I think this is so NOT trivial. MY younger D took small town schools off her list after her sister’s experience.</p>
<p>^^Is the school big enough to have campus security? I always thought that’s who you could call in an emergency.^^^</p>
<p>@Thumper1: What schools did your daughter find? My D is a rising senior and has the same interests. She plays viola and an orchestra she can play in without being a music major is not a triviality for her, it’s a requirement. Most medium to large publics that offer engineering in our state (Ohio) fit the bill. I’m not as sure about the privates.</p>
<ul>
<li>Not located in a city, but within easy reach of one</li>
<li>Must have seasons</li>
<li>No Greek life</li>
<li>Small and undergrad focused (LAC)</li>
<li>Pretty campus</li>
<li>Outgoing, welcoming, non-exclusive student body</li>
<li>Theatre program without a theatre major</li>
<li>Preferably in the Mid-Atlantic region</li>
</ul>
<p>Almost all of the colleges on my list meets those requirements, although I’m not married to all of them.</p>
<p>Finding out my state’s flagship U ranks as having the 10th best dorm food in the country and then trying the food out for myself sealed the deal. At least my school is top ten at something.</p>
<p>Mine are:</p>
<p>Within the tri state area + 1 (NY, NJ, CT, PA)
In Urban/suburban area
Withing 3 hours from home
Diversity
Intramural Sports (Not a deciding factor though)
Free laundry would be nice
& being able to have a car first year would be nice as well</p>
<p>sseamom–I agree-call campus security in a situation like that. Many smaller schools have EMT’s on campus or the campus security people will drive you to the dr/ER if you need to go. There are plenty of options, you just have to know what they are.</p>
<p>For our oldest the only thing he cared about was a campus small enough that he wouldn’t get lost-found a school where every building was off one main sidewalk–worked for him</p>
<p>Our second only really wanted a smaller campus with his program, easy enough.</p>
<p>The next two also like smaller schools but DD wants a rural or suburban setting, nothing in a big city, they have to have her sport and the girls on the roster have to “look normal” :D.</p>
<p>DS wants either an intramural team, marching band or intercollegiate team he can join with the preference being a marching band.</p>
<p>D1 Sports–I would love to be able to go watch a great basketball or football game on campus (or play in the pep band!).</p>
<p>Marching/Pep Band</p>
<p>Near a moderate or big city</p>
<p>D1 sports, Greek life, school spirit, near a city etc. </p>
<p>Maryland has sushi in the convenience stores and they make their own ice cream. I was sold immediately.</p>
<p>I picked Oxford over Cambridge on the size of its library and because it was founded earlier :)</p>
<p>This thread smacks of first-world problems. </p>
<p>Poorer kids in the USA as we speak would love to go to any college, food selection, type of soft drinks sold on campus, and proximity to McDonalds be damned.</p>
<p>IceQube–I really dislike the "first world problems’ saying–like we said growing up–so move there if you don’t like it here,…also, the Poorer kids in the US have it FAR EASIER than the rest when it comes to going to college. There are federal, state and local programs all over the place to get those kids through college with no cost to them…</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>And if the choice were between “go to school without a marching band” or “don’t go to college at all”, this statement of yours would mean something.</p>
<p>This was a great topic for our S since he was willing to address these non-academic factors long before he was prepared to truly focus on academic issues. Some of his criteria were:</p>
<p>Urban setting with access to a large city
Small school where he could get to know everyone
Open and flexible curriculum
Little or no greek presence
Collaborative as opposed to competitive environment
A good study abroad program
Diverse (in every way) student body
“Fun”</p>
<p>Ultimately he added: excellent academically; offering four specific majors that he was considering; and away but reasonably close to home.</p>