Who knew this was a thing? I suppose it was when I was looking at schools but I just put the two schools I was looking at in a hat and picked one. That was only a million years ago. Things have definitely changed since I went to college.
Elsa and I just got back from looking at Iowa State and University of Minnesota. Elsa chose these schools because they are in the top 5 for Fashion and Merchandising - can you believe it? Two midwest schools! Ha! There is so much information out there and so many schools, so going on a college visit really helped shrink some of the information down a bit.
Couple observations…
University of Minnesota is nothing like the University of Wisconsin - Madison - I assumed all Big 10 schools looked the same - big
Iowa State has a math formula to see if you get in - why don’t all schools do this?
Dorms are so much nicer than when I went to school - the lofts are included - pretty sure my roomates dad put together a makeshift loft the day we moved in and somehow it never collapsed
There is an app for your laundry! Remember how we would drag all of our laundry down in those awful basements only to find every single washing machine full? Not any more - you can download an app that tells you which machines are full and then when you do finally put your laundry in - you can set a timer on the app and know exactly when your laundry is done - seriously? Can they make it any easier for these kids???? And you don’t need coins either - it’s all on your student ID - what?
A lot of kids on our tours did not know what they wanted to study yet and Iowa State really has a nice program for kids who come in undecided. I was really impressed.
There are so many ways to get involved and clubs to join. There is actually a “people watching club” and a “people watching the people watching club”
There are still a few more colleges we want to look at but I think we both feel a little better that we have begun this journey and it’s not as scary as we thought. I kind of want to go back to college...just for the laundry app and the people watching club...who’s in?
~Jen
To be honest, I felt like I was pretty behind on the whole “college visit” thing. People at my school have been visiting colleges since last summer and my first college visit was around four days ago, like I need to start applying soon. A couple friends of mine have already done around 4-5 college visits and two of my closest friends have already committed to schools (love you both ;) ). And now here I am. I have to say Iowa State gave us a ton of information about all of the colleges within the campus. Iowa was pretty medium sized, you could get to wherever you needed to go by walking (and trust me we did, I was sweating an intense amount). On the contrary, The University of Minnesota was HUGE, and I LOVED IT. We didn’t receive as much information at the University of Minnesota but I’m pretty sure it’s because the school was twice the size, which means twice the information. The Minneapolis campus was absolutely beautiful and had the best Big 10 feel ever!! One of the best parts of the University of Minnesota is that my family is only 1-1.5 hours away. I think that would really help me with college knowing I can go visit them whenever I need to. Overall, these two college visits were so amazing! When I go see any more colleges, it’ll be hard for them to compete. Oh and the best part was getting my Caribou Coffee!
~Elsa
