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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]This thread definitely went off the rails.

My youngest child attends Loyola MD. Up until the 11th hour she was set on Fairfield University.

Most of the schools that my youngest looked at were mid size mid tier Catholic Universities. I am not sure why she was attracted to these schools as while we are Catholic we are what I would call non-practicing.

As she is my third I have visited a lot of schools and have  had two older children attend other schools.

We live in Fairfield County. My wife has always liked Fairfield University and has spoken highly of their graduates as she is a Nurse at a local hospital that has hired a lot of Fairfield University nursing graduates.

So we are from the area and had an understanding of the reputation of the school and are obviously familiar with the town.

Comparable schools were Marist, St. Joe’s in Philly, Providence, Loyola MD, and I’d say Fordham.

My DD applied during the Covid cycle and it is my opinion that cohort had an easier admissions cycle with strong financial aid offers.

Fairfield gave us a strong financial aid package.

Here is what I didn’t like:

The new management building was a hike from the freshman dorms and given the topography and the LI Sound I thought it was going to be an unpleasant walk during the winter months.

I was not a fan of the cohort of students. Too homogenous.

I like the idea of my kids getting out of the bubble (we live in an UMC Fairfield County Town - it’s not indicative of lives most people live). Fairfield was too close to home and worried it would turn into a suitcase school for my DD.

For the price of Fairfield I thought there were better values.

I thought my DD was decided on Fairfield until her and I were driving to school one morning and she told me to send the deposit to Loyola MD.

My daughter’s  reasoning - she had gone to a second on campus accepted student event and felt that the kids were not very friendly or welcoming.

Unbeknownst to DD my DW and I shared a reservation that socially Fairfield University might be tough for our DD.

Loyola would not have been first choice for my DD. I liked Muhlenberg.

But I will say my DD and I visited Loyola during Covid and in what appears to have been some serendipity met one of the administrators that is now the president. He was down to earth, we talked about the risk Covid put on higher Ed - he made me feel very comfortable with the staff at Loyola and I had the sense that my DD would be in “good hands”.

Loyola has been a success for my DD. She has found her friend group - she is definitely out of the bubble - she can take Amtrak if we cannot drive her and she has met a mix of other kids from a variety of locales and SES backgrounds.

She is working on her academics, achieving success, and I hope feels good about herself and her choice.

As Loyola is D1 they seem to have good school spirit and attend and support their teams.

Loyola MD was cheaper then Fairfield. I was prepared to pay for Fairfield but will admit financially I was happy about the Loyola decision. Obviously our family spends money going down to Baltimore but we like the trips.

I did not mean to hijack this thread and have my post be a booster to Loyola. Rather I thought to share our experiences.

Of the schools with a similar vibe I found Marist to be the most expensive and not willing to work with you. Providence was surprisingly generous as my DD was initially wait-listed. Fairfield also was willing to work with us.

I hope you found this helpful and wish you and your family good luck on your college search.[/quote]

Niece is a freshman at Fairfield and having a similar experience with how your daughter felt during her second time touring. Compared to similar schools like Loyola, Fordham, Providence Fairfield in particular always seems to get a cliquey rep. [/quote]

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