East coast families: did you and your DCs tour colleges in California?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How funny so many posters in DMV aren’t willing to send their kids so far. I’m in California, and many kids spread their wings and go to college all over the country- the south, the Midwest, northeast. Yes, it’s far, but airplanes…

Parents here are weird about travel. They’ll complain about a $200 ticket from DC to LA, but they happily will spend $90,000 on an education. It’s nonsensical to me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How funny so many posters in DMV aren’t willing to send their kids so far. I’m in California, and many kids spread their wings and go to college all over the country- the south, the Midwest, northeast. Yes, it’s far, but airplanes…

There's just so many more great colleges/unis of all sizes per capita in the Northeast/Mid-Atlantic (than CA) that there's no need to go as far as out west. I do understand why kids in CA are looking at New England or Northeast tho.

I see it the opposite way. So many great options in California. New England has trash public schools and a ton of tiny privates.

???

BU, Harvard, Tufts, Penn, Princeton, Georgetown, MIT, GW, Johns Hopkins and NYU are "tiny" privates? UVA, U Mass Amherst, Willima & Mary are all trash publics? Ok Jan.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How funny so many posters in DMV aren’t willing to send their kids so far. I’m in California, and many kids spread their wings and go to college all over the country- the south, the Midwest, northeast. Yes, it’s far, but airplanes…

There's just so many more great colleges/unis of all sizes per capita in the Northeast/Mid-Atlantic (than CA) that there's no need to go as far as out west. I do understand why kids in CA are looking at New England or Northeast tho.

I see it the opposite way. So many great options in California. New England has trash public schools and a ton of tiny privates.

???

BU, Harvard, Tufts, Penn, Princeton, Georgetown, MIT, GW, Johns Hopkins and NYU are "tiny" privates? UVA, U Mass Amherst, Willima & Mary are all trash publics? Ok Jan.

note: I included northeast (not just new england) since the original comment was about northeast & new england.

but even for new england alone, harvard/tufts/BU/MIT are hardly "tiny privates".

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How funny so many posters in DMV aren’t willing to send their kids so far. I’m in California, and many kids spread their wings and go to college all over the country- the south, the Midwest, northeast. Yes, it’s far, but airplanes…

There's just so many more great colleges/unis of all sizes per capita in the Northeast/Mid-Atlantic (than CA) that there's no need to go as far as out west. I do understand why kids in CA are looking at New England or Northeast tho.

I see it the opposite way. So many great options in California. New England has trash public schools and a ton of tiny privates.

???

BU, Harvard, Tufts, Penn, Princeton, Georgetown, MIT, GW, Johns Hopkins and NYU are "tiny" privates? UVA, U Mass Amherst, Willima & Mary are all trash publics? Ok Jan.

I like how you pointed out quite a few universities that are like hardly medium sized and are tiny asf.


Don’t Jan me with your bullshit. California has 9 public university options in state that are great and various different private schools from USC to Claremont to Caltech to Stanford to…

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How funny so many posters in DMV aren’t willing to send their kids so far. I’m in California, and many kids spread their wings and go to college all over the country- the south, the Midwest, northeast. Yes, it’s far, but airplanes…

Parents here are weird about travel. They’ll complain about a $200 ticket from DC to LA, but they happily will spend $90,000 on an education. It’s nonsensical to me.

+1, I don’t understand it either. Most of these kids aren’t driving or taking the train to their New England colleges either. They can, but the Amtrak isn’t cheap. We toured west coast schools, cause they have many good ones and the weather is pretty nice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How funny so many posters in DMV aren’t willing to send their kids so far. I’m in California, and many kids spread their wings and go to college all over the country- the south, the Midwest, northeast. Yes, it’s far, but airplanes…

There's just so many more great colleges/unis of all sizes per capita in the Northeast/Mid-Atlantic (than CA) that there's no need to go as far as out west. I do understand why kids in CA are looking at New England or Northeast tho.

I see it the opposite way. So many great options in California. New England has trash public schools and a ton of tiny privates.

???

BU, Harvard, Tufts, Penn, Princeton, Georgetown, MIT, GW, Johns Hopkins and NYU are "tiny" privates? UVA, U Mass Amherst, Willima & Mary are all trash publics? Ok Jan.

note: I included northeast (not just new england) since the original comment was about northeast & new england.

but even for new england alone, harvard/tufts/BU/MIT are hardly "tiny privates".

Harvard is only 7000 undergrads. Tufts is about the same size. I’d say those are fairly small in the context of American higher ed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So interesting reading this - we’re in CA and the only schools DC are applying to are not close to home (Chicago, Ann Arbor, NYC, Boston, Pittsburgh). None of which DC (or us) thought were “too far from home”. Not applying to one school here in CA.

Interesting, may I ask why? Does the kid plan on returning to CA or staying out East or Midwest?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If so, which ones?

Based just on reputation, it seems UCLA and Berkeley are too large and "sink or swim", the other UCs are too expensive for OOS students, Caltech is too hard and cutthroat, Stanford is too impossible, Claremont Colleges are too small or too niche. What are other schools that east coast families found have to be worth long the trip to visit in person? DC is a high stat junior at a top private; above are schools college counsellor and friends of older kids mentioned for campus tours.

Yes, we made a vacation of it and included a target school, LMU, along with reaches - USC and UCLA. We also did the tourist things like a studio tour, SoFi stadium tour, the pier while we were there and also ate well. We still have good vacation memories from the trip. I will say this though, I had to watch the campus tour schedule like a hawk to get the times lined up for the timeframe we wanted to visit.

In terms of UCs being too expensive OOS, the private CA colleges are likely more expensive. The exceptions where it might be less than UCs OOS is if your family qualifies for a lot of aid and the private college meets needs and has generous aid OR they are applying to a target school where they are competitive for top merit which might be 25-30K off tuition.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So interesting reading this - we’re in CA and the only schools DC are applying to are not close to home (Chicago, Ann Arbor, NYC, Boston, Pittsburgh). None of which DC (or us) thought were “too far from home”. Not applying to one school here in CA.

Our kid is looking all over, except the south. Almost applied to one in the UK. We are encouraging kid to explore a new area and kid is excited about a lot of possible locations.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How funny so many posters in DMV aren’t willing to send their kids so far. I’m in California, and many kids spread their wings and go to college all over the country- the south, the Midwest, northeast. Yes, it’s far, but airplanes…

And yet, here you are on DCUM.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If so, which ones?

Based just on reputation, it seems UCLA and Berkeley are too large and "sink or swim", the other UCs are too expensive for OOS students, Caltech is too hard and cutthroat, Stanford is too impossible, Claremont Colleges are too small or too niche. What are other schools that east coast families found have to be worth long the trip to visit in person? DC is a high stat junior at a top private; above are schools college counsellor and friends of older kids mentioned for campus tours.

Yes, we made a vacation of it and included a target school, LMU, along with reaches - USC and UCLA. We also did the tourist things like a studio tour, SoFi stadium tour, the pier while we were there and also ate well. We still have good vacation memories from the trip. I will say this though, I had to watch the campus tour schedule like a hawk to get the times lined up for the timeframe we wanted to visit.

In terms of UCs being too expensive OOS, the private CA colleges are likely more expensive. The exceptions where it might be less than UCs OOS is if your family qualifies for a lot of aid and the private college meets needs and has generous aid OR they are applying to a target school where they are competitive for top merit which might be 25-30K off tuition.

True. USC is $99,342, but over $100k a year if you add in travel expenses. Oxy is right behind but makes no sense for OP since she says DC has top stats (Oxy is 45% selective). Pomona is worth a visit but also $94k*

[Anonymous]

My family lives in LA so we’re in CA multiple times a year. Have toured a bunch of schools over there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How funny so many posters in DMV aren’t willing to send their kids so far. I’m in California, and many kids spread their wings and go to college all over the country- the south, the Midwest, northeast. Yes, it’s far, but airplanes…

And yet, here you are on DCUM.

No community in CA; plus PP dreams of living in the DMV.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How funny so many posters in DMV aren’t willing to send their kids so far. I’m in California, and many kids spread their wings and go to college all over the country- the south, the Midwest, northeast. Yes, it’s far, but airplanes…

And yet, here you are on DCUM.

You didn’t say anything.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If so, which ones?

Based just on reputation, it seems UCLA and Berkeley are too large and "sink or swim", the other UCs are too expensive for OOS students, Caltech is too hard and cutthroat, Stanford is too impossible, Claremont Colleges are too small or too niche. What are other schools that east coast families found have to be worth long the trip to visit in person? DC is a high stat junior at a top private; above are schools college counsellor and friends of older kids mentioned for campus tours.

Yes, we made a vacation of it and included a target school, LMU, along with reaches - USC and UCLA. We also did the tourist things like a studio tour, SoFi stadium tour, the pier while we were there and also ate well. We still have good vacation memories from the trip. I will say this though, I had to watch the campus tour schedule like a hawk to get the times lined up for the timeframe we wanted to visit.

In terms of UCs being too expensive OOS, the private CA colleges are likely more expensive. The exceptions where it might be less than UCs OOS is if your family qualifies for a lot of aid and the private college meets needs and has generous aid OR they are applying to a target school where they are competitive for top merit which might be 25-30K off tuition.

True. USC is $99,342, but over $100k a year if you add in travel expenses. Oxy is right behind but makes no sense for OP since she says DC has top stats (Oxy is 45% selective). Pomona is worth a visit but also $94k*

I don’t think travel expenses matter if you’re the family paying $99,000 to USC. After freshman year, trips really diminish, so cost of travel drops a bit.