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

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Which means you don't get to see your kids as often. Maybe that's why people don't want to send their kids that far away.

My kid goes to a state school a few hours away. I don’t really see them these days, because they’re constantly working- internship in one city that’s far away and then research hours away. You’re not immune to this by forcing your kid nearby.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Which means you don't get to see your kids as often. Maybe that's why people don't want to send their kids that far away.

My kid goes to a state school a few hours away. I don’t really see them these days, because they’re constantly working- internship in one city that’s far away and then research hours away. You’re not immune to this by forcing your kid nearby.

+1, I also wonder if these parents realize their kids may leave anyway one day for a job. What if your kid wants to take up a tech gig in SV? Or a climate tech role in Austin? Kids often need to follow the jobs somewhere else.

[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.

missed a few good ones: USC (#28), Pepperdine (#84), University of Santa Clara (#59). All in very desirable locations.

A typical path of a successful academic is: BS (west coast or east), PhD (east coast or west), Faculty (wherever you desire to live).

[Anonymous]

Only because we happened to be there for trips. Saw Stanford, UCLA, UCSD, UCI.

Ended up not applying to CA.

Some other schools that are closer take just as long to reach. But the time difference make phone calls tougher.

[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.

missed a few good ones: USC (#28), Pepperdine (#84), University of Santa Clara (#59). All in very desirable locations.

A typical path of a successful academic is: BS (west coast or east), PhD (east coast or west), Faculty (wherever you desire to live).

Academics almost never have a choice in where they want to live. They're fully following the market.

[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.

missed a few good ones: USC (#28), Pepperdine (#84), University of Santa Clara (#59). All in very desirable locations.

A typical path of a successful academic is: BS (west coast or east), PhD (east coast or west), Faculty (wherever you desire to live).

Academics almost never have a choice in where they want to live. They're fully following the market.

Not necessarily. And if you land in a good school in a good location for a tenured position, it is amazing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Only because we happened to be there for trips. Saw Stanford, UCLA, UCSD, UCI.

Ended up not applying to CA.

Some other schools that are closer take just as long to reach. But the time difference make phone calls tougher.

Like, how do you go from here to Dartmouth?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

missed a few good ones: USC (#28), Pepperdine (#84), University of Santa Clara (#59). All in very desirable locations.

A typical path of a successful academic is: BS (west coast or east), PhD (east coast or west), Faculty (wherever you desire to live).

Academics almost never have a choice in where they want to live. They're fully following the market.

Not necessarily. And if you land in a good school in a good location for a tenured position, it is amazing.

Yes, but that is exceptionally rare and highly competitive. Academics do factually follow the market, because a position in their subfield has to open in a school for them to go there and those positions are often not tenure track. Most academics do not get to choose where they land.

[Anonymous]

Yes-but only cause an aunt lives in San Diego-USD and UCSD. Applied only to USD-and didn’t receive enough merit so moved on. It was definitely a top contender.

[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.

Of course.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kids have *applied* to these schools but we never toured. In my mind, the only reason to tour a school before senior year is to figure out where you want to ED. Those schools weren't in contention so we didn't visit. In reality, the kid will get into just a tiny fraction of where they apply so there's no reason for the time, expense, or frankly getting their hopes up until it becomes a real choice.

I posted earlier that we did the trip because there was a target school in the mix, not just reaches, we could afford to make the trip/mini-vacation, and we needed to feel comfortable with a possible cross country move for college. In theory, we could have waited to visit once accepted but honestly it was nice that my kids already had visited enough of the colleges on their list that they could narrow down decision quickly once the acceptances came in. We were able to stretch out campus tours from spring break junior year to fall of senior year and plan around breaks from school etc. The accepted student events are more of a compressed schedule and less flexibility in picking a date so we wouldn’t have been able to do more than 2 that required any big travel.

[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.

missed a few good ones: USC (#28), Pepperdine (#84), University of Santa Clara (#59). All in very desirable locations.

A typical path of a successful academic is: BS (west coast or east), PhD (east coast or west), Faculty (wherever you desire to live).

From Texas…Toured with kid 2 years ago. From Santa Clara down to USCB, Pepperdine, UCLA, USD and UCDS.
After touring, Kid only wanted to apply UCSB and Pepperdine. Got into both. Also only applied to UT and didnt get in (right outside of top 5-6%).
We thought she was going to UCSB, but after touring again, she coudnt resist Pepperdine environment….sure the large merit award helped….

[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.

Claremont might be too niche if looking at Harvey Mudd or CMC but definitely not too small: the campuses are all adjoining and you can’t necessarily tell which campus you are on some of the time. Taking courses at other schools is extremely common…it has midsize university qualities

Do the Claremont colleges have research opportunities for undergrads comparable to schools like Penn, Cornell, JHU, Stanford?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Son visited Stanford, UCB, USC, UCLA, UCSD his sophomore year (October). He loved all of them. Also looked at Chicago schools. He applied REA to Stanford and has accepted offer.

What are rough stats and profile and how does a regular unhooked kid get into Stanford? I thought they only take Olympians, F500 CEOs' kids or FGLI?

[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.

Claremont might be too niche if looking at Harvey Mudd or CMC but definitely not too small: the campuses are all adjoining and you can’t necessarily tell which campus you are on some of the time. Taking courses at other schools is extremely common…it has midsize university qualities

Do the Claremont colleges have research opportunities for undergrads comparable to schools like Penn, Cornell, JHU, Stanford?

You can do research with professors at any of the schools. You lack in terms of a medical school or those sorts of things, but there’s a lot of research and you get preference for REU opportunities, because you come from an LAC. I think it’s a good bet.