Sunday, June 12, 2011

Summer College Tour: War Eagle or Seminole?

I'm posting early this week because we are on the road and touring colleges with our darling daughter.

As we head into our Darling Teen's senior high school year, we're putting in the final push for her college search. I can't believe she's almost a grad and heading out the door. I'd like to be excited about the extra writing time, but to be honest, I just can't imagine our house without her in it. She's a fun, smart, sassy girl and we truly enjoy her as a person.

But we have to let her go. And part of letting her go is checking out where she'll fly to when she leaves. Last year we toured Princeton, University of VA, Duke, and Auburn. We also did sniff tests and drive through passes at University of Florida, Florida State (my husband's alumni for grad school), Virginia Tech, Vanderbelt, Emory, and University of South Carolina.

This week we are invited to a War Eagle Day at Auburn University. I'm excited to go and see my teen's reaction to this more personal tour of one of the top schools in Alabama. It's a beautiful campus and our initial tour really sold us on the university's programs and student life. So today the family is loading up the car and heading to Auburn to spend the night and then do our War Eagle Day on Monday.

Monday afternoon we drive to Tallahassee, Florida to officially tour my husband's alumni grad school. He got his PhD in Physics from Florida State and the Dean of the Physics college was his advisor ( a LONG time ago). We hope to hook up with his former advisor and wow our darling teen with Florida State's many fine attributes. It's a trip down memory lane for Darling Hubby so he's very excited about the tour.

I'l be blogging all about our adventures this week on Wednesday. Meanwhile, which of these two schools do you think she'll fall in love with this week? My husband's alumni FLORIDA STATE or Alabama's finest, AUBURN?

Cast your vote and I'll keep you posted!

13 comments:

Heidi said...

I don't know which one Mallory will choose, but I would choose Florida! Much closer to Disney World that way.

Christine said...

Me, too!! And you know I'd love to take the trips to see her then off to DW to have fun!

But they are both good schools. She'll probably apply to both of them.

:-)

Cheryl said...

AUBURN!!!! Being a graduate and having my son graduate from there, I can honestly say there is nothing like being in the Auburn Family. You are never a stranger on that campus - everyone is nice and greets you with a "War Eagle." We would love to have her with us!

Cheryl said...

AUBURN!!!! Being a graduate and having my son graduate from there, I can honestly say there is nothing like being in the Auburn Family. You are never a stranger on that campus - everyone is nice and greets you with a "War Eagle." We would love to have her with us!

Cheryl said...

AUBURN!!!! Being a graduate and having my son graduate from there, I can honestly say there is nothing like being in the Auburn Family. You are never a stranger on that campus - everyone is nice and greets you with a "War Eagle." We would love to have her with us!

Cheryl said...

Okay why did it post my comment three times? Sorry! But I guess blogger likes Auburn, grin.

Lisa Dunick said...

I don't have a favorite of the ones you've mentioned, but can I give you a little piece of advice as she makes her decision? I've taught in colleges for the last 10 years or so, and if I were taking my sons through college tours I'd ask one important question that might not be covered in the tour: What is the ratio of TA-taught courses to professor-taught courses? In some of the bigger state schools, departments rely heavily on grad students or part-time adjunct faculty to teach a lot of courses. As a student who is going to have to sit in the classes and as a parent who may be footing the bill, you want a school where the student is going to actually have access to tenure-track faculty sooner rather than later. It's not that grad students aren't good teachers. Most truly are, but they and adjunct faculty don't usually have PhDs and they definitely don't have the networking clout that professors have when it comes to letters of recommendation once the student graduates. And, for the amount that people have to pay for college nowadays, it's kind of a bait-and-switch if your child isn't going to have a class w/ a professor until maybe their senior year.

Christine said...

Cheryl: You're enthusiasm is contagious. I love the Auburn campus and it does have a great family atmosphere. I will look for the Cow who was the Homecoming Queen when I'm there ;-)

Christine said...

LIsa: Thank you so much for your advice. I'll definitely ask those questions when we are touring. Darling Teen is looking at the Honors Programs at both colleges. They have smaller classes and I believe they are more likely to be taught by Profs with PhDs. She has to get invited based on her GPA and National Test scores (which she's done very well on thank goodness), but that is a good alternative to the larger classes being taught by TAs :-)

Katherine Bone said...

Christine, both #2 and #4 had the same dilemma. #2 went to FSU and #4 goes to Auburn! How cool that your darling daughter is looking at both schools.

Lisa is right about the TAs, at least in reference to FSU. #2 encountered many while she was there. The problem being that the TA was in charge and problems in class could not be addressed to professor because professor did not want to be bothered. Therefore, grades were given according to TA's opinion and not professor's.

#4 has not encountered this problem at Auburn yet. She's a junior. But from what I understand, Auburn provides better ratios of students to teacher in classrooms.

Both are big name schools that provide a smaller campus atmosphere, which is something we have always loved.

The big question is out of state fees versus instate. Florida is one of the only states in the US that will not honor instate fees for majors that are not given in a prospective student's home state. #2 would have classified for this but under Florida's ruling, FSU had to charge her out of state fees.

With Auburn, you get the same atmosphere as big name schools, better student/teacher ratios and instate fees.

I do love Oseola and his flaming lance starting off each home game! Games at FSU are unbelievably fantastic!!

Then again, an eagle flying around the stadium before each Auburn game is an amazing spectacle, providing goose bumps for all. ;)

Good luck as you travel to each school and bask in the wonder of college glory. You can't go wrong with either school!

Carol Burnside aka Annie Rayburn said...

I wouldn't venture to offer an opinion either way. Don't know enough about the schools and you're already getting great advice here.

However, I will wish you safe travels and fun times during your tours. :)

Christine said...

Hi Kathy: I didn't know you had Seminoles and War Eagles in your house! Wow, that's great. I'll be calling you to talk more about the schools when we return. I think the best way for Mallory to attend the big schools is via the Honors programs after your comment about the TAs and class size confirming Lisa's.

So today we head to Auburn for our War Eagle Day! Really looking forward to it and can't wait to post about it on Wed.

:-)

Christine said...

Hi Carol: Thanks. We are safe and sound in Auburn. It is a fun college town and the campus is beautiful. We strolled through downtown yesterday, and drove through the campus. We saw the two trees that were so viciously poisoned by the psycho Alabama fan, and they look like they just might make it!! Lots of love going into saving the trees.

:-)