Outside of academics, what factors to look for in terms of fit

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hot co-eds

Absolutely. Gotta check out the girlz ahead of time if you're an ice cold hustler.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Looking for advice from families who have older kids in college…

My DS has his list narrowed down to a few very similar schools. With academics and cost being very comparable, I’m curious about some of the smaller day-to-day things that enhanced your kid’s college experience…also looking for negatives that they may not have considered when making their decision. Thanks!

By "academics" I am assuming you mean your student understands all coursework involved in graduating. And that they are ok taking all of those course requirements.

Career center for their major how does it work, internships same etc, career fairs what companies come. This is not always equal at all schools.

As for quality of life, how will said student get to and from school. If it's Indiana and they are coming to VA and MD what a pain at Thanksgiving etc... for example.

Apartments near campus costs etc.. for sophmore year and later how does that even work?

Health Center, urgent car off campus in case the Health Center sucks many do. Make sure they understand the Health Center can not give you ie parents any information the student is an adult in their eyes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Things that swayed my kids one way or another...

Variety of housing options
Quality and variety of the food
Extracurricular activities -- could they continue specific ECs, how competitive is it to join clubs
Rec centers - does it have good equipment, how crowded is it (can you actually get in to use it when you want to)
Extended visits where they could meet with several students and get a sense of the "vibe"
Surrounding area - does it have places they want to go, how hard is it to get around
Academically - how many required general ed classes are there, how flexible is the curriculum, what kind of supporting research centers or other facilities do they have to support experiential learning.

Vibe is a key factor for my kids. As you walk campus, talk to students and tour guides, does your kid "feel at home" and see themselves fitting in. Some campuses, my kid really saw it, others it helped them to see, while the academics are great and it's an amazing school, they will do better at the other choices

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Things that swayed my kids one way or another...

Variety of housing options
Quality and variety of the food
Extracurricular activities -- could they continue specific ECs, how competitive is it to join clubs
Rec centers - does it have good equipment, how crowded is it (can you actually get in to use it when you want to)
Extended visits where they could meet with several students and get a sense of the "vibe"
Surrounding area - does it have places they want to go, how hard is it to get around
Academically - how many required general ed classes are there, how flexible is the curriculum, what kind of supporting research centers or other facilities do they have to support experiential learning.

Vibe is a key factor for my kids. As you walk campus, talk to students and tour guides, does your kid "feel at home" and see themselves fitting in. Some campuses, my kid really saw it, others it helped them to see, while the academics are great and it's an amazing school, they will do better at the other choices

+1 DD had a clear take on the "vibe" at schools that to me seemed pretty darn similar. In the end she picked the place where she felt at home. IMO, you don't argue with the vibe assessment.

[Anonymous]

A few questions and considerations my junior has added to her basic list (which includes many mentioned in this thread) after visiting a few schools:

— is housing guaranteed for all 4 years? Are students required to live on campus all 4 years?
She doesn’t necessarily want to live on campus every year, but feels like she wants the option available. She doesn’t want to be scrambling every year, if apartments are scarce or expensive or inconvenient to campus.

— are there practice rooms available for non-music majors? Are there music opportunities for non-majors?
Not a music major, doesn’t want to worry about working around roommates to practice her instrument, and wants to find an ensemble of some sort to continue playing with a group

— library environment. Would love a cool old building; but at the very least, it needs a large physical collection and lots of comfortable, inviting, quiet study space.
She’s already become much more open to larger schools, after touring one too many lovely small schools whose physical book collections fit on a single floor. Or where the library was just kind of waved at vaguely from across the quad.
I think in her mind, the quality of the library and its collections is indicative of the quality of the education. Not sure how accurate that correlation might be, but I guess there are worse ways to pick a school? Maybe not as a primary factor, but as a tiebreaker, at least.

[Anonymous]

One thing we hadn't considered but was a short term issue at the school my kid picked... where are the hang out spots on campus? She's at a small school and it didn't really have a central "student center" that filled that role. But a renovation had been in progress that included that kind of gathering space and they have it now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Looking for advice from families who have older kids in college…

My DS has his list narrowed down to a few very similar schools. With academics and cost being very comparable, I’m curious about some of the smaller day-to-day things that enhanced your kid’s college experience…also looking for negatives that they may not have considered when making their decision. Thanks!

Whatever she needs from a college, look for that.

Competitive or collaborative, rigorous or easy to cruise, greek or nerdy, LGBTQ friendly or religious, diverse or monochrome, city or small town, harsh winter or mild one, big or small campus, athletic crazy or science geeks, close to home or new area, outdoorsy or urban, party animals or chill gatherings, strong alumni or indifferent, in an area ideal for year long internships and part time jobs or club hoping and concerts, etc etc.

[Anonymous]

OP- you remind me of all those home buyers with their huge list of 'must haves' who become very humbled when they enter the DC or NYC or Bay area housing market.

Apply large and wide and then see what you are actually left with. lol

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP- you remind me of all those home buyers with their huge list of 'must haves' who become very humbled when they enter the DC or NYC or Bay area housing market.

Apply large and wide and then see what you are actually left with. lol

Sounds like this is where the OP's kid is. "DS has his list narrowed down to a few very similar schools."

That's when figuring out the nuances between on-paper-very-similar schools matters.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Things that swayed my kids one way or another...

Variety of housing options
Quality and variety of the food
Extracurricular activities -- could they continue specific ECs, how competitive is it to join clubs
Rec centers - does it have good equipment, how crowded is it (can you actually get in to use it when you want to)
Extended visits where they could meet with several students and get a sense of the "vibe"
Surrounding area - does it have places they want to go, how hard is it to get around
Academically - how many required general ed classes are there, how flexible is the curriculum, what kind of supporting research centers or other facilities do they have to support experiential learning.

Vibe is a key factor for my kids. As you walk campus, talk to students and tour guides, does your kid "feel at home" and see themselves fitting in. Some campuses, my kid really saw it, others it helped them to see, while the academics are great and it's an amazing school, they will do better at the other choices

+1 DD had a clear take on the "vibe" at schools that to me seemed pretty darn similar. In the end she picked the place where she felt at home. IMO, you don't argue with the vibe assessment.

At the school my kid ultimately picked, they just felt at home from the first tour. Ironically, each tour we did (2) they had multiple guides and you could pick one. So they had an engineering major (STEM), a premed (but humanities major), humanities/social sciences (not premed), etc. Well my kid picked the engineering major both times, and got not just an engineering major, but a Chem E major (my kid's chosen major) both times. So it really helped to see that the tour guides were interesting, engaging kids that are similar to my "non geeky" engineering kid.

Then the school my kid chose has a unique "core curriculum" where you take courses in all 3 areas: STEM, Humanities and Social Sciences. Your major covers one, and then you take 12 credits in each of the others in the SAME discipline. They want you to focus in depth on something you love. That really appeals to my dancer kid. They will be taking 12 credits of dance and 12 credits of Psychology and their freshman writing course. That is it---no history, no theology, no philosophy, no literature, etc. Instead they do their history with the history of dance along with actual dancing. They don't have to take courses they don't like/don't want to take to just check boxes.

Really from the moment they set foot on campus first time, I could see something different in my kid about the campus. At first I thought it was because the previous day had been two campuses they absolutely did NOT like (Troy NY is not a nice town). They had immediately found the place they really loved and was a Target school (so achievable and not single digit acceptance rates. Thankfully it all worked out

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hot co-eds

Absolutely. Gotta check out the girlz ahead of time if you're an ice cold hustler.

My DD wound up at a university where she was one of what she said felt like the few straight girls who were good looking and said she wound up pursuing guys at a school about an hour away.

[Anonymous]

Agree that overall vibe is critically important. Also gender balance and friendliness of the student body.

It’s difficult to underestimate the importance of campus visits. One of the places my kid almost ruled out became his top choice after visiting. We only went because I pushed.

[Anonymous]

Our students evaluated:

1) Semester or quarter system
2) Freshman year dorms (location, typically how many students per room, amenities)
3) Residential requirements for Junior/Senior year
4) Ease of transportation to/from school - to home, to nearby cities etc
5) Freshman year curriculum - what classes would they have to take, were they direct admits into the interested major
6) Clubs/organizations of interest
7) Could they have a car on campus (freshman year, never)
8) Make up of student body


There had already evaluated their list based on school location, size etc.

[Anonymous]

How much credit is given for AP/IB scores and do those replace required classes or do they go to general elective credits. If they can replace a required class, does that only apply to general eds or can they replace a major class?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hot co-eds

Absolutely. Gotta check out the girlz ahead of time if you're an ice cold hustler.

My DD wound up at a university where she was one of what she said felt like the few straight girls who were good looking and said she wound up pursuing guys at a school about an hour away.

I don't get this. It sounds like your daughter had little to no competition on her campus, so why wasn't she beating off dudez with a stick? Unless the dudez were as awkward and un-straight as the girlz.