<p>I have friends who live in the Detroit area, and they have fantastic BLACK squirrels. Not sure if they are on the campus of U of M but to me that would be a huge incentive to go there.</p>
<p>I just visited a friend in Detroit who has black squirrels with red tails!</p>
<p>Oberlin has albino squirrels…</p>
<p>Our DD loved the fact that Boston University has a Jamba Juice on campus. Interestingly, the tour guide was very excited about it too - "it is the only one east of ?the Mississippi</p>
<p>(Jamba Juice is a smoothie place - they are really great). she didn’t like the Northwest school we looked at because she couldn’t flat iron her hair, and people were too sloppy and homogeneous in their dress. She actually sent a Yahoo quesiton about our next step in Chicago asking if the dressed up more. </p>
<p>they may be trivial, but she is so ecstatically happy at Boston University that they appear to have added up to a great decision. And I guess that’s what it’s about!</p>
<p>Here are a few of the factors that actually ended up influencing my decision to choose Santa Clara University over the other two that I was considering at the time from my narrowed-down list–Loyola Marymount University and Seattle University…</p>
<p>*Great on-campus dining. Seattle U and Santa Clara have catering and food services provided by Bon Appetit Management. Loyola Marymount uses Sodexo. Strike one against LMU!</p>
<p>*New, pristine facilities. Especially undergraduate dorms and library. I wouldn’t say this is trivial though.</p>
<p>*Jesuit. This was almost a non-negotiable from the start. The only non-Jesuits to which I applied were two Catholics (ND and U of Portland) and Stanford. </p>
<p>*West of Denver, inclusive of Denver. Sure, I applied to a few (3) colleges east of that line. But in all honesty, I never saw myself seriously attending them. Except perhaps ND…</p>
<p>*Skiing/Snowboarding Club in existence or within reasonable effort for creation. Skiing’s such a huge part of my life that I can’t imagine going without it. I did end up choosing perhaps the university (out of the three listed above) where skiing is least accessible, however. Tradeoffs. Although, I suppose if the war is between Tahoe, PNW, and SoCal skiing, Tahoe does sort of win.</p>
<p>*West Coast Conference men’s basketball is a huge plus. Even if SCU sucks, I can still openly cheer for Gonzaga (which is located in my hometown). Strike one against SU!</p>
<p>*Transportation was a huge deciding factor for me. I want my city to be reasonably accessible. But I don’t want to be downtown. 10 minutes by train to Palo Alto and 50 minutes to San Francisco is perfect. Los Angeles doesn’t have a well-developed mass transit system. Seattle U is right downtown, but the airport is somewhat of a trek. And it would almost make more sense to drive home, but without a car, complications arise. Santa Clara is right across the street from San Jose Int’l. And LMU’s easiest airport access is LAX, which is not my preferred Los Angeles-area airport and a total mess logistics-wise.</p>
<p>*Culture/Recreation. Santa Clara is within easy access of San Francisco for culture, but also Palo Alto, San Jose, etc. I can hear live music, take in the arts scene, have fun with photography…the list goes on. There are hiking, biking, skating, and camping opportunities nearby, as well as the beach. Tahoe’s not TOO far, and Yosemite is there as well. I wouldn’t say this is trivial…</p>
<p>I don’t know. I wanted a campus that wasn’t TOO urban (i.e. Seattle U–I want to be able to sleep, but within reach of everything a major city has to offer. I plan to visit San Francisco, ski at Lake Tahoe, camp, hike, bike…all as much as I possibly can. I want to take in the area and grow. And then perhaps go to Seattle U or UW for grad school. Because as much as I love the town, the campus just seemed too…small, condensed, urban, built-up, etc. for my undergrad.</p>
<p>I should perhaps add, as well, that I turned down full-tuition scholarships at both Seattle U and Loyola Marymount on these and other factors (although, I do suppose SCU did offer me a near comparable amount of Aid).</p>
<p>Tour guides have been known to pass on a bit of misinformation. 
I regularly visit a Jamba Juice in Woodbury, MN (east of the Mississippi), and there is one in the B terminal at O’Hare. I am guessing there are more than that east of the Mississippi, so don’t let your D be fooled!</p>
<p>Ok, I did a search for Jamba Juice and their search engine is faulty, which might account for the misinformation. You can’t search by state alone so if you try that it shows up with “no results found”. There are a bunch of the east of the Mississsippi :D.</p>
<p>Ok, I did a search on the squirrels because I wanted to see what all these different squirrels looked like and found this: <a href=“http://www.sctimes.com/article/20120703/NEWS01/307030007/Research-fellows-study-southern-flying-squirrels-St-John-s-Arboretum[/url]”>http://www.sctimes.com/article/20120703/NEWS01/307030007/Research-fellows-study-southern-flying-squirrels-St-John-s-Arboretum</a></p>
<p>Great opportunity for all the squirrel lovers :D</p>
<p>The University of Louisville includes a hunt for their white squirrel during campus tours. I always thought this was somewhat bizarre, but based on this thread, it seems like they are on to something.</p>
<p>DD liked the idea of having a wall around campus so that she could clearly define where the school ended and the city began.</p>
<p>DS always asked about the availability of basketball courts for pickup games. He was very impressed that Northwestern has a gym open 24 hours.</p>
<p>“Trivial” factors:
- dining hall options and hours - how many choices and how early or late do they close? One campus we visited had one main dining hall that closed at 7pm! Crossed off kid’s list. On a related note, prefers the all you can eat buffet style rather than price by item cafeteria style.
2)students walking around actually speaking with one another as opposed to earbuds in place as they cross right past each other</p>
<p>
Wake Forest is perfect at this. It’s walled/fenced in, and there’s only a couple entrances to campus. It’s very well defined.</p>
<p>S is a rising HS junior and has so far mentioned a couple of trivial factors (meaning they would not be deal-breakers but would be considered) with regard to the appeal of various schools:</p>
<p>1) not too urban – he thought at first he would love a highly urban environment, but changed his mind after visiting a few urban campuses;
2) students and others in area not too radical in appearance – he is open to radical ideas and has a few of his own, but he is really tired of all the people he sees in Austin with radical hairstyles, piercings, and body art.</p>
<p>What a fun thread! Little things that helped D make her choice: warm weather, great football program, big enough to have options if she changed her mind about what to major in, a ‘college-town’ feel around the campus, out-of-state, and lots of intramural sports opportunities.</p>
<p>agree that this is interesting!</p>
<p>my D says she is looking for something close to the beach, football, and a good M/F ratio! Oh, and it would be nice to have a good chemistry/education program!</p>
<p>^^ At least she has her priorities straight! :p</p>
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<p>Yes, there a quite a few Jamba Juices in Minnesota, on both sides of the Mississippi. There are at least 30 in the Chicago area. There’s one at Bowling Green State University in Ohio. There are 3 in the DC-Baltimore area and two more on the way. There’s one in Philadelphia. There are about 25 in the great New York City area, and one in New Haven, CT. Heck, the one at BU isn’t even the only one in Boston; there’s another one at Northeastern.</p>
<p>I think this goes into the category of “egregiously bad tour guide misinformation.”</p>
<p>It would be a whole different thread, but I have to mention as an aside that my mother (in her 80s) is convinced that the statue on top of the US Capitol is of Sacagawea because an intern told her this on a Capitol tour many years ago. D1 interned in DC last year and gave Capitol tours… and learned that some interns tell outrageous stories like that just to see what tourists will swallow. My mom is convinced, although D did attempt to straighten the misunderstanding out with her. Anyway… back to the “trivial factor” discussion.</p>
<p>Attractiveness of student body (huge factor)</p>
<p>My trivial factors:</p>
<p>-Cold winters and mild summers.
-Very little Greek presence
-Some sort of “Bible as Literature” course. I’m not religious but it’s a hobby.</p>
<p>my daughter loves J crew and patagonia, off to Maine she is going!</p>