<p>I haven’t actually made a decision yet, but I have essentially narrowed it down to two options. Here are the reasons I’m considering them:</p>
<p>Appalachian State (studio art major)
-campus is consistently ranked among the most scenic in the country
-inexpensive, not too far from home
-has an RLC for art majors that takes yearly trips to Manhattan to visit renowned art museums
-sports culture (particularly football) is prevalent, but does not dilute the school’s academics
-great off-campus dining options</p>
<p>UNC Charlotte (studio art major)
-excellent suite-style housing available to freshman
-inexpensive, quite close to home
-campus is located far enough away from the center of Charlotte so as to avoid the horrendous traffic and crime
-campus is located close enough to the center of Charlotte that art museums and other cultural attractions are easily accesible
-school is set to have football team join C-USA in 2015 (FBS football would be great!)</p>
<p>If anyone has anything to say that would help me make my final decision, it would be greatly appreciated.</p>
<p>Harvey Mudd - Super-smart kids, small school, good CS and Math majors, professors love teaching, not having to fight with grad students for research opportunities, 4-year on-campus housing. Limiting factors were: must either “meet need”, provide big merit scholarships, or be in-state publics, and he knew this from the beginning.</p>
<p>It caused him pain to turn down Colorado College, with the one course at a time schedule.</p>
<p>Living in SoCal was a bonus he claimed not to care about until he has to be home in Colorado in the winter. Other irrelevant (to him) items: location, weather, popular prestige (actually, I suspect there was anti-prestige in his list), food, M/F ratio.</p>
<p>Northwestern University - for the double degree progarm (B.A and B.Mus) in 5 years. Coming out of high school, my son could not decide if he would want a career in music/theater. So this program was perfect for him. He enjoyed studying music and completed his music degree, but decided ultimately he will only have this as a hobby. He will be attending a T5 law school this fall. NU gave him an excellent foundation to pick either career choice.</p>
<p>S really couldn’t have cared in terms of location, size, or type of school; he was primarily interested in whether a school offered what he wanted - graphic design as well as a liberal arts education - a BA versus a BFA. He chose to go with UCLA after a post-acceptance trip because the program was a good fit, and he absolutely loved the campus (“Mom, it’s like a vacation resort!”). It turned out to be a great match, leading to him working during his student days and continuing on almost ten years later, thanks to great networking opportunities. Now he goes back as a guest lecturer!</p>
<p>D, on the other hand, wanted a small liberal arts college, near an ocean (not a lake), far enough from home so that parental units wouldn’t be visiting all the time (LOL), and had a consortium. She applied ED1 to Pomona College for those exact reasons and loved her time there. Took advantage of the Claremont Consortium, paid internship and research assistantship, funded research for her senior thesis, and, again thanks to networking ops, landing a job in her field of interest (transportation in MA) just a couple of months after graduation.</p>
<p>@ BlueUkiyo
I live near App State, and have worked closely with their professors. They tend to be really interested in their students. I don’t know if you’ve visited yet, but if you’ve not you should set up a meeting with the main Professor in your subject. It was the visit that helped me choose my college, otherwise I wouldn’t have considered it :)</p>
<p>My daughter wanted the quintessential Southeast Conference experience – large school, big football, Greek life with gorgous houses , beautiful campus with historic buildings AND an outstanding international business department. While she ended up majoring in Finance with Chinese as a minor rather than IB, she had a fantastic experience at the University of South Carolina. </p>
<p>They also gave her a big scholarship to make me happy, too.</p>
<p>I have a freshman at App State (we’re OOS) and is very happy so far. Primary factor at least initially was the campus and its surroundings; has not had any huge classes, found a Living Learning Community that piqued interest and is currently residing in one of the nicest dorm/LLC on campus, and did I mention the surroundings? </p>
<p>At the end of our second visit which happened to be an Open House, as we were walking back from the new Education building having been able to talk to a couple profs, the comment was made: “I just feel like I’m supposed to be here!”</p>
<p>Thank you for your reply. I’ve had multiple siblings attend Appalachian State so I have been on campus many times and I do like it. Now that you mention it, it would be a good idea to meet with a member of the department personally.</p>
<p>@ deck61:</p>
<p>This LLC you’re referring to is the Watauga Global Community, correct? I am also interested in the community. Is there anything you could tell me about the student experience in the WGC?</p>
<p>I’ve got two Hokies crazy about Virginia Tech. One is about to graduate, one about to start. We looked at schools all over the east coast with the first one (of course that was mainly for me and my first child entering college naivete) :), at almost every Virginia school with the second. </p>
<p>For the oldest, he had a pretty short list of factors that made his decision:
very strong in his major
cost. Knew he wanted to do BLA which takes five years to complete
location. Wanted to be far enough away from home to feel like he was “going away” to college.</p>
<p>For the youngest, who put way more thought into it than her older sibling!
-wanted a big school with the chance to meet lots of new people
-School Spirit, sense of community, big sports school environment
-cost. Knows she wants to go to grad school so is trying to save money for that
-rural setting. Loves the country, the mountains and feel of SW Virginia
-academically challenging, but not to the point that she would feel overwhelmed and not be able to engage in things she is looking forward to doing such as joining different clubs, etc.</p>
<p>Thanks for starting this thread; it is fun to see all the different variables these kids have on their minds when they make their decisions. :)</p>
<p>BlueUkiyo: yes, it is Watauga. I will be there this weekend so will ask for student input about their experience so far. It was a definite bonus to have a small group of individuals to bond with from day one, especially coming from a small, private, OOS high school. I do know that the entire group has the class together 2 days a week, and on those days, eat lunch together as well. I do know from conversations with my child that the discussions seem to be pretty engaging, and have opened up some new perspectives/thought processes for my student. After all, isn’t that what colleges have as one of their primary goals!!!</p>
<p>Another added benefit for my child (although can’t say if it has been taken advantage of!!)is that the foreign languages LLC is housed in the same building, and my student has expressed interest in foreign language study.</p>
<p>My parents were pretty much 100% supportive of every school on my list (which included Nova, NYU, Loyola Maryland, American, among others). I wanted to be in a city, but not quite as urban as NYU. I wanted to be away from home, but close enough that I could hop on a bus/train and be back in under 5-6 hours. I wanted a school that I knew would challenge me, had a well-rounded liberal arts based curriculum (as I had no idea what I wanted to major in). I wanted a school that was social and had a lot going on, but not too much of a crazy party school</p>
<p>I’m also the youngest, so my parents had gone through the process already and let me guide the process</p>
<ol>
<li>As it played out, seeing God’s hand in everything pointing only to this school.
2.?3.? Honors college, giving us (parents) the smaller community, combined with D’s desire for a large school. Honors also knocked this school up several notches, originally a “safety,” but now comparable to the reaches on her list.
3.?2.? Cost</li>
<li>Location, both in proximity to home and more options for major-specific internships.</li>
</ol>
<p>Homeschooled theater major recently picked the school that offered more personal attention over the big-name program. </p>
<p>It was 50-50 for a while until the full-tuition scholarship tipped the scales. </p>
<p>Other positive factors: enthusiasm and personality of parents. Flexibility to double major. Good mix of local and international students. More opportunities to travel. </p>
<p>Other negative factors: Greek life was too prominent at school she said no to, and sororities were largely segregated by race.</p>
<p>DS picked the instate big private U that offered him a full tuition scholarship over 2 Ivys- the decision was made after visiting both EC colleges for the first time during admitted student week- turned down D because he was not into the frat/ drinking environment and felt D was too isolated, and B because their music program left much to be desired and he wanted to minor in music.
The tipping point was he realized he really wanted to stay in Calif , and did not want us to pay more for his education than was really necessary.
Good thing DS inherited his Dad’s frugal genes! He’s now in Grad school getting his PhD - fully funded and we are all happy that the educational choices he made have turned out to be the right ones. .</p>
<p>It was between Seattle University and Rochester Institute of Technology. These are the only two schools in the United States that offer a Bachelor’s in Diagnostic Medical Sonography. Let that sink in a bit.
I chose Seattle because I would MUCH rather be in Seattle than Rochester. It was also much more “me”, personality-wise. Seattle’s far away from LA without being a huge hassle to move back and forth from, as Rochester would have been. And come on, I’m not a tech geek. I like my liberal arts too. And the campus was infinitely nicer to me than RIT’s.</p>