February Vacation Misson!

I guess we've been in denial that college is bearing down on us, but this February vacation we decided to get serious about going on some college tours with Maddy. I lined up THREE tours this week.

First up was Curry College which has a program for students with learning challenges that seemed ideal for Maddy.

Review: The program was great and very supportive but the college itself is so small that Maddy wouldn't likely need any additional support. This was a PERFECT first college to tour. It gave Maddy a real practical idea of  what college life could look like, and for the first time she could visualize that life for herself.

And then we had some celebratory tacos!

Next up: UMass Dartmouth

Review: Personally I had thought that THIS was likely the ideal choice for Maddy. It has the major she wants (Marine Biology), it's a state school (because money IS a factor) and it's on the smaller side. But the "vibes" were definitely not good. It was a holiday so having a completely dead campus didn't help. It was also freezing cold and windy. But the real red flag(s) was seeing a handwritten poster in a dorm window that said "Help, get me out of here!" and having a kid yell "This place sucks" out a window as we were starting out on our walking tour. The buildings were cool in a abstract brutalist architecture kind of way, but not well maintained and SO inaccessible. There was about a million level changes in every building! I think this school has been eliminated from contention.

Next up: Bridgewater State

Review: So far of the three school we saw thie week, Bridgwater is the winner! Small but not TOO small. The campus is connected to Boston via the commuter rail, it had a nice vibe and it has robot food delivery! Unfortunately they don't offer marine biology as a major but maybe she can work around that if it turns out that this is the right school for her.

Seeing three colleges in a week was exhausting but a really good exercise. (Not to mention a good way to snap us out of our denial!)  We could see the things that seemed the same (dorm rooms = identical) and the things that felt different ("vibes"). We know we're just at the beginning of this process...it's going to be a long road!