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Gonzaga University- the campus felt a bit unsafe and my daughter is second guessing schools on the west coast

I'd stay away from anything within a day's drive of Seattle. THe liberals there are batsh!t crazy!!!

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Anonymous wrote:My daughter did an overnight with her cousin at Santa Clara and she didn't feel like she'd fit in there

If our world ever returns to normal, I also recommend overnight visits. They are less scripted than Admissions tours. My daughter really found them to be informative.

What didn’t she like about Santa Clara? What do students do there on weekends? There didn’t seem be a lot right there or around campus.

+1

Anonymous wrote:Why no summer tours? Because campuses are empty?

Empty, sleepy, hot, low energy level. Made that mistake with Princeton. Amazing school but don't visit in the summer. Visit when in session on a weekday if possible if it is a serious contender.

Anonymous wrote:My daughter did an overnight with her cousin at Santa Clara and she didn't feel like she'd fit in there

If our world ever returns to normal, I also recommend overnight visits. They are less scripted than Admissions tours. My daughter really found them to be informative.

Anonymous wrote:U MD - maybe too close to home?

Brown - too social

Haverford - too small

Wow-- my dd is a freshman at Brown complaining about lack of social scene!

My kid dropped consideration of MIT before the info session even began. And dropped southern schools with a big greek scene, even if very good schools.

Why no summer tours? Because campuses are empty?

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Anonymous wrote:Admissions rep.from Mt. Holyoke asked me where we summered. Nope. Not gonna fit in there.

Wow. I’m shocked. We visited twice and both my kid and I loved it. It seemed very warm and caring. And trust me, we’re not “summer” people!

+1 We actually thought it was the least like this out of the ones we visited.

Shows what an outsized impact tours and meetings can have.

Very very true. A good tour can deal the deal and an off tour or some difficulty with the tour or the weather, etc. can sour a student on a school.

+1 My DD had a bad tour early in the summer (learned my lesson, no summer tours!) and now I'm doing damage control, encouraging her to take another look. It does have a good program for her interest (although the tour guide knew nothing about that major) and is the natural choice to have on her list as both an admissions and financial safety. I learned after that to, whenever possible, plan for open houses rather than general tours since she'll have more opportunity to talk with people in her specific interest area.

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Anonymous wrote:Admissions rep.from Mt. Holyoke asked me where we summered. Nope. Not gonna fit in there.

Wow. I’m shocked. We visited twice and both my kid and I loved it. It seemed very warm and caring. And trust me, we’re not “summer” people!

+1 We actually thought it was the least like this out of the ones we visited.

Shows what an outsized impact tours and meetings can have.

Very very true. A good tour can deal the deal and an off tour or some difficulty with the tour or the weather, etc. can sour a student on a school.

My DD said she didn't like the way MIT played up the "quirkiness" of the students on the virtual tour.
Meanwhile when I was watching it encouraged me she'd have some fun for a change! Lol.

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Anonymous wrote:Admissions rep.from Mt. Holyoke asked me where we summered. Nope. Not gonna fit in there.

that’s odd, as Mt Holyoke has a big international population, and it’s not all rich kids like some of the colleges courting foreign tuition.

Do you think that a lot of poor college students from other countries wind up at one of the original 7 sister colleges? I heard about one who had to be taught how to do laundry because in her home country, this task was handled exclusively by servants. (Though, I understand in many countries that is much more common than here).

But yeah, MHC is not notorious for having privileged kids. I would say Conn and Middlebury are worse for that.

Agreed, though it was an American girl that set the washer on fire when I was there. She put too much in it; had never done laundry before. This was a while ago, and i'd say the privilege level is reduced now. This is all an aside. It's ranked high for best classroom experience.

Parent of a student at what was a Seven Sisters college (no longer). All those colleges actively court international students and don't care about whether those students have money. And all the students my DC has encountered, even American kids from privileged backgrounds, know how to do laundry for themselves. Times have changed. The super privileged students, wherever they're from, would be embarrassed now to be ignorant about laundry--even if they usually didn't do it at home!

Anonymous wrote:Lawrence because it was too remote and Clark because it was too “gritty.”
For second kid, Chicago and Northwestern because it was FREEZING the day we toured, Hopkins because it was too STEM/pre-med focused, Dartmouth and Amherst because, well, he didn’t really articulate. Then COVID shut all the touring down and he had to fly blind. Maybe a good thing given how easily turned off he was being.

You were wise, though, to tour Chicago and NU in the winter. If possible (pandemic aside) students should visit schools not just when it's pretty outside! That was my mom's thinking. We are from the south and when I wanted to apply to NU she said we would visit it in winter because I should see how the university handled snow etc. When we visited there was black snow everywhere from being plowed and compacted, and it was cold. I loved the school and went there, but was so grateful we visited at the worst point of the year, in weather terms. I knew what I was getting into. If your son was truly revulsed by the cold, he would not be happy at Chicago or NU, believe me, so that was a gut reaction on his part that was worth listening to!

Lawrence because it was too remote and Clark because it was too “gritty.”
For second kid, Chicago and Northwestern because it was FREEZING the day we toured, Hopkins because it was too STEM/pre-med focused, Dartmouth and Amherst because, well, he didn’t really articulate. Then COVID shut all the touring down and he had to fly blind. Maybe a good thing given how easily turned off he was being.

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Anonymous wrote:Virginia Tech. Declared it "in the middle of nowhere" and "bleak."

+1 This was unfortunately DC's response also.

same here

Interesting. I thought the campus (Hokie stone) was wonderful and could really see our DS there. Great food. Super engineering program. DS went to UVA instead but I really liked our tours and visits at VT.

But did your kid? I thought it seemed great too, but kid was a solid no. As an aside, everyone talked up the food but when we ate at the dining hall it seemed pretty typical cafeteria fare. What did we miss??

Oh yes, he liked it too. We went three times. Once for accepted engineer day. I thought the food was great. I liked the enthusiasm of the students we met. DS was very intent on applying EA (no ED then). Enjoyed our day there.