What are your child's "trivial factors" in college selection?

<p>For research sake, what is the allure of squirrels?</p>

<p>They’re fat and have fluffy tails? LOL</p>

<p>My son wants a beautiful traditional campus with lots of green space in a college town. He would like it to be in a moderate climate (not too hot or cold). The school needs to have an Ultimate Frisbee team (a club sport is okay.) It should have a very active Outing Club where he can both ski and hike and learn to rock climb. The school should have a lot of school spirit, where rooting for the school team is the popular activity to do on a week night or weekend. The school needs to be mid-size and offer both professional and liberal arts degree options. Students who go there should be diverse from all types of backgrounds. Also, to make his mother happy, it needs to be on the east coast.</p>

<p>Squirrels could be vicious. I don’t think they are very cute. But it is just me.</p>

<p>The squirrels at Macalaster aren’t really black, they are just dirty :D.</p>

<p>How does one ski with a moderate climate?</p>

<p>MACLASSOF2013–I was going to suggest a few schools in Montana until I got to the east coast part :D.</p>

<p>Pomona says the school isclose to skiing, but doesn’t fit much of the other criteria.</p>

<p>My D just likes wildlife, so squirrels are an indicator of the wildlife. We spend lots of time at home looking out at the backyard to see rabbits, ground hogs, deer. The thread title did say trivial! She also doesn’t like schools where all the buildings look similar (part of the reason she didn’t like Amherst, I think?). Wesleyan had more of a mixture of building styles in her opinion.</p>

<p>Older D - Mock Trial
Younger D - a place for a pre-med major to keep on dancing (ballet, jazz) for fun.</p>

<p>Emeraldkitty, if they had found a school with a cat dorm they would have been in heaven!!</p>

<p>dheldreth–check out Creighton in Omaha, NE–beautiful dance studio and they have an excellent placement rate into medical school (especially their own medical school).</p>

<p>Sylvan, thanks for sharing! And that’s funny LasMa, has your daughter stayed at the Midwest school though?</p>

<p>Oh, didn’t object to the squirrels – just curious.</p>

<p>Yes, Wes’s buildings are much more diverse than Amherst’s.</p>

<p>Many of these considerations aren’t trivial at all. It’s so much better than to get to a school and discover that ballet dancing, ice skating, playing in the symphony or band are not available. I think the kids are smart to look at these things.</p>

<p>Squirrels? Maybe not so vital, but I can see the point of being near wildlife. However, D saw a lot of squirrels at Barnard in the heart of NYC. I’m pretty sure they’re everywhere. But it’s sweet to look for them. And my D’s need of Starbucks? Pretty sure that was pretty trivial, but she did end up studying there.</p>

<p>No judgment – just curiosity.</p>

<p>Actually, coffee is often a drug so in certain audiences it might be more important to be close to a Starbucks than to have ecclectic clubs to join, when they could just as easily start them!</p>

<p>Sent from my SGH-T959V using CC</p>

<p>What exactly is a “cat dorm”? Is it BYOC? Or are there just a few dorm-wide pets that are shared by all?</p>

<p>Reed has a cat dorm. Amother CC parents daughter was in it. I believe she was allowed to bring her cat. ( one cat, one floor)
As some of the profs bring their dogs to class however, I expect the cat probably stayed closer to the dorms.
My D actually was in sub-free for three years, then in the Reed townhouses.</p>

<h1>1 (son):</h1>

<ul>
<li>not preppy</li>
<li>college where it’s valued to be a thinker, but not full of intellectual poseurs</li>
<li>major league city – i.e., major league sports</li>
<li>ended up attending: University of Chicago</li>
</ul>

<h1>2 (daughter):</h1>

<ul>
<li>college where she wouldn’t find herself sitting next to a bunch of kids from her high school</li>
<li>location in a “real city,” preferably in the east</li>
<li>ended up attending: RISD (Providence barely qualified on the “real city” criterion, but it was close enough to NYC to allow her to escape a few times per semester)</li>
</ul>

<ul>
<li>must have relatively warm weather year round</li>
<li>fairly close to a decent surf beach</li>
<li>as few kids from my high school as possible</li>
</ul>

<p>And that was pretty much it. But it did limit my choices to mostly southern California schools, and ones that wouldn’t accept a ton of kids from my area at that. USC seems like it fits perfectly (2 of us are going), so I’m happy!</p>

<p>Are squirrels not common in some parts of the country? I guess I never paid attention.</p>

<p>For anyone who doesn’t have access to squirrels on campus, you might be satisfied with a plush mascot from Haverford: <a href=“https://www.admin.haverford.edu/bookstore/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=6&products_id=66[/url]”>https://www.admin.haverford.edu/bookstore/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=6&products_id=66&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Or if you’re not a squirrel fan, consider Mississippi State Univ.</p>

<p>[MSU</a> offers squirrel hunt events for youth (01-12-2012)](<a href=“Mississippi State University Extension Service |”>Mississippi State University Extension Service |)</p>