Finding Colleges

Johnny Jones, October 1991

"As summer vacation after junior year begins, you should be working on a manageable list of about fifteen schools. Now is the time to lay aside those brochures and guidebooks and to start planning visits - preferably for the fall of your senior year, since your goal is to get a sense of the schools in action."

Like Insider's Guide to the Colleges, we also felt seeing the colleges offered a unique perspective. Of course, we read about the colleges prior to the visits. Some colleges had not impressed us on paper, but looked good after a visit. On the other hand, Bryan did not even apply to two other schools after we visited their campus.

On each campus Bryan spent the night with an undergraduate. This can be arranged through the admissions office, and is called an "overnight." At Northwestern, Bryan was referred to as a "Pre-frosh." He also ate the food (remember, you will have to live where you go to school, and food is important!) in the cafeterias at each school, attended a class or two, took a tour of campus, and looked in on the electrical engineering labs. We asked for an interview with an Admissions Officer, whether they were required or not. Bryan also requested to stay with Christians on campus, so he could check out campus attitudes towards religion.

I tried to look for the campus atmosphere, visiting places like bookstores and Student Centers while Bryan attended class. We made a point of reading the public bulletin boards. If there were more social events listed, that said one things; if posters advocated seminars regarding divestment from South Africa, that said another.

We also walked the main quad and watched kids interact with one another. On some campuses, "intense" came to mind time and time again. Even though Cal Tech was small and the campus beautiful and warm, no one seemed to notice anyone but their own small group. We were told one of the competitions on campus was to stay in the dorm as long as possible without going outside. Even on a sunny day, there were no frisbees flying across the quad. Every campus has its own vocabulary. This one had a word for doing anything besides studying: "flicking."

On the other hand, we saw a whale in the fountain with moving parts, built by these kids. Bryan bought a book of hilarious engineering tricks CalTech kids had pulled. I talked to a mother at the ISEF whose son had gone there, and she said he had a lot of fun. You cannot get a total impression on these visits. We would have been totally lost had we not prayed that the Lord would guide our impressions and lead us to the right school for Bryan.

Just down the freeway at Harvey Mudd, unicycles proliferated. Bryan enjoyed his hosts, and one professor took a particular liking to him. But Mudd offers only a general engineering degree. After we got home and looked hard at what he wanted, we had to cross them off the list.

Even watching how kids dressed said something. Do baseball caps or boat shoes prevail? That's significant if you're more comfortable with kids who wear one than the other.

We got the impression of political involvement at Washington University and at Northwestern. At every table in one cafeteria were anti-Gulf-war posters. Also, an upcoming seminar about Israel announced on a banner for its lead topic, "How Will We Respond to Jews for Jesus?" At both schools we also found unflagging members of Jews for Jesus passing their literature out on campus.

Before we knew to request a Christian host, Bryan asked his host (he stayed up playing Nintendo with him until 2 a.m.) about Christians on campus. His host replied, "I don't know of any." At Rose-Hulman, on the other hand, Rose Christian Fellowship, associated with Intervarsity Christian Fellowship, is one of the largest clubs on campus. We learned that Intervarsity is present on most campuses, and Campus Crusade for Christ on others. These are interdenominational Christian organizations, promoting Christianity on college campuses.

On the other hand, we rejected Duke outright, in spite of an excellent reputation in engineering, because of the Greek system there. Insider's Guide says, "A thriving Greek system is usually a sign of a socially competitive campus, a school at which not only joining a fraternity or sorority, but getting into the right one, really matters. The pressure to conform socially (i.e. `go Greek') can be intense and can cause problems for those who don't."

One of the selling points of Rice, where Bryan enrolled, is the College system. Each student is placed into one of the eight colleges, where he lives the years he resides on campus. Even when off-campus housing is necessitated, he remains in the college as a social group.

Each college has a budget, and sponsors events like plays and socials for the rest of campus, or for its own members. There are, of course, competitions between colleges. Males and females from all campus majors, from architecture to drama, are in each college. We thought that would afford Bryan an opportunity to know kids outside engineering as well as the kids he would meet in class. A professor and his family live in each college, and serve as advisors for the kids.

The campus atmosphere at Rice was intellectual, but relaxed. The campus is beautiful: there is a tree for every student there, and probably as many squirrels. The M.O.B. especially appealed to us: The Marching Owls Band members dress up like mobsters, and wander onto the field during half-time to produce some of the most creative and infuriating shows around: They specialize in political satire. Houstonians go to Rice football games to see the band.

Also, Rice is consistently ranked at one of the best buys in college education. Because of their huge endowment, their tuition is lower than most schools of comparable quality. A Comparative Guide to American Colleges says, "Rice is an unusual institution. Located in a region that has not thus far produced colleges and universitates of the first rank, it is one of the most selective institutions in the country."

The search was fun for us. Good luck in finding just the right college for you!