<p>The bad thing about the CC & flagship U my D previously attended (Kapiolani Community College & University Hawaii at Manoa) is that both were very commuter-oriented and have very little “campus life,” which D found very disappointing and spurred her transfer.</p>
<p>At USC, where both are currently happily enrolled, there IS a significant campus life and also in the apartments near campus.</p>
<p>Not fond of some of the campus bureaucracy that the kids had to go thru to register for classes that required approvals & signatures. BOTH kids had that problem this spring semester, so I think it might be more indicative of the hassles than if just one of the kids had the problem.</p>
<p>Am also unhappy that USC doesn’t let the kids know until AFTER registration for the term whether they were admitted into the school they’re applying for (e.g. Cinema) --not helpful to the student and graduating on time.</p>
<p>Caltech: As a mom, I don’t like the food plan: One meal a day, five days a week. Breakfast is cereal and stuff kept in a common kitchen(if you live in one of the houses). Students are on their own for lunch and all weekend meals. DS opted out of the food plan after his freshman year, but I worry about his eating habits since there’s just a shared kitchen and he tells me the fridge is always so full he can hardly get anything in it. </p>
<p>And I do worry about the stress level on campus. (but that may be my stuff). </p>
<p>And just as an aside, I get so annoyed at people thinking its CalPoly. Really, they’re different schools.</p>
<p>I’ve run into people who think Pomona College and Cal Poly Pomona are the same school, too. Not everyone is as focused on colleges as we parents who are paying tuition these days. I’m sure there are other differences, but the tuition is certainly the most obvious one to a Pomona College parent.
I’m trying to think of other negs of Pomona, but son has had no complaints. If he were here and I asked him, I’m sure he could come up with some…:)</p>
Freshman advising - it’s kind of random. Your adviser is your dorm proctor who may or may not know anything about the needs and requirements for your concentration.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Dorm and House rooms seemed a little run-down to me. They could use some renovation.</p></li>
<li><p>No student union building. The Science Center serves as an adequate functional equivalent, but they could use the real thing.</p></li>
<li><p>They have way too many Deans with overlapping responsibilities and empires. I never could figure out who exactly was in charge.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Dartmouth
Social life revolves around alcohol more than I would like.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>The town is too small and isolated.</p></li>
<li><p>It’s only freshman year, but so far I can’t see where it’s any more “undergraduate focused” than Harvard, and Dartmouth is ranked #1 for undergrad teaching by USNews. Maybe it’s just that Harvard is better than everyone says.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>The only negative I’ve seen so far is the difficulty getting off campus if you don’t have a car…and these days you won’t have one if you are a freshman. There are zip cars but they can get expensive. </p>
<p>Would you consider your kid preferring campus food to home cooking a negative?</p>
<p>Cal Poly - the forced furloughs of professors leading to a full week (out of 10) of class time being cut for the students every quarter. It’s the students who are bearing the brunt of the CA budget mess.</p>
<p>I never knew people confused Cal Poly with Cal and Caltech, but then again Cal Poly is pretty unknown outside of California.</p>
<p>mom2collegekids: I think that is a big part of it. With multiple dining halls and various nights for different ethnic foods in different places there is no way I can keep up. But…when I asked about his favorite campus foods he told me steak. Steak, this kid never eats it when we grill it and won’t order it in a a restaurant. In case you haven’t noticed home for this kid is Texas. So how can cafeteria steak make it to a favorite food category? I never thought I’d hear myself ask what kind of cut and how is it prepared to try and simulate campus food, especially not steak!</p>
<p>I’m sorry Billy P, I couldn’t resist deviating from the topic a tad.</p>
<p>Too much $$$$$$$$$$$$$ for such a short academic year ( mid Aug to very early May, with a month off at Christmas, and the occasional “snow day”…( Duke)</p>
<p>University of Southern California suffers from the same thing. Sounds like it ought to be part of the UC system…</p>
<p>What’s the one bad thing about my kid’s school? (Other than nobody in her home town has heard of it…) Pain in the neck to get to WallaWalla, WA. from just about anywhere that isn’t WA or OR.</p>
<p>HMC for Karen Colleges:
There is a lot of underage drinking; in fact, according to geek_son it’s pretty routine in some circles. HMC is a “wet” campus by design. At parent orientation, they said this results in fewer alcohol-related incidents on campus. Well, apparently they’re getting a lot more of them this year than they’ve had in the past several. From last semester I count four cases of alcohol poisoning resulting in hospitalization, plus one student who went to class drunk, passed out, and couldn’t be revived for a while. And a case of marijuana use resulting in hospitalization. These aren’t all the cases of course, just the ones that required a medical response. I think maybe the Honor Code approach isn’t working so hot for recent students where drinking and illegal substance use are concerned.</p>
<p>Love the programs, personnel, facilities, and social outlets (there are plenty of alternatives to getting wasted with an unregistered keg or doing shots in a dorm room). Love the academic support. The food’s pretty darned good too, though geek_son says it could stand a little more variety. Very happy with the college overall, but the substance abuse thing looks like a growing problem. I think they’re aware and taking measures to try and nip it in the bud… We’ll see how that goes.</p>
:DHAW! Didn’t experience this with geek_son, although he went through a “please, God, no more stir fry” phase until he remembered that mine’s better. :p</p>
<p>But he swears he sleeps like a baby in his teeny lofted dorm bed, and he tosses and turns until dawn at home (ok, in truth he probably goes to bed at dawn when he’s at school). So I changed out all his bedding and put a pad on his (very nice, queen-size, pillowtop) mattress to mimic his dorm bed. I’m trying to recreate the benefits of a good night’s sleep in a dorm room. Who’da thunk? ;)</p>
Didn’t experience this with geek_son, although he went through a “please, God, no more stir fry” phase until he remembered that mine’s better. :p</p>