So, for spring break, instead of swimming or watching movies or reading or relaxing, I went on college visits! Whoopee.
Yep, that's how I felt the day before leaving. I was feeling a little bit like my social life, dominated for the past five? six? months by the musical Curtains, had died. Depressing, right?
North Carolina and then San Antonio were my destinations. I was to be accompanied by my courageous father and blood-shedding little brother (oh the horrors of heavy suitcases and light fixtures!).
But anyways, we started by driving all the way down to Houston to save airplane fare (always economical!) and barely made our flight.
However, once we stepped outside the Raleigh airport and into our clean rental car (don't you love that smell!?) after a confusing mix-up involving Prius's and a guy named Butler (a name which would haunt our whole journey!), we, or at least I, felt like North Carolina was THE perfect state, clean looking, smelling, and with the most magnificent weather!
To continue with our journey, we drove a few hours over to Charlotte (we could have just flown into the Charlotte airport and saved those few hours-maybe finding real food instead of burgers, a recurring theme- but once again, economy over comfort!)
Maybe I'll actually start with my chosen topic now. COLLEGES!
First was Davidson. Home for nerds? yes. Tiny? yes. Gorgeous? yes. Great theatre? yes. Division I athletics? yes, though I really couldn't care less. But you might. Dream school? I think, therefore the answer is YES!
Although this school may be small for some folks (1800 students) and may not offer amazing science and math programs (the science building was pretty kickass anyways), it has very strong English, political science, and theatre programs. It is one of the most selective and highly ranked liberal arts colleges in the Southeast (rating up there with Washington and Lee - the Fiske guide gives it four and a half stars for academics). My favorite part was the eating club system (aka Greek life for the non-elitist) and free laundry service (legit!). However, all of this is figured into the tuition, which is pretty steep. There are quite a few merit and athletic scholarships given out, though. The dorms were so-so, not awful, but not exactly spacious. The cafeteria food looked edible, but we actually ate at a cute little old-style cafe in the actual town of Davidson (no drive-thrus allowed there) which had amazing wraps and sweet potatoe fries. Eat there. I almost forgot the honor code which actually is supposed to work! Cheating and theft are almost non-occurrences. Pretty sweet for those morally aligned among us. Visit and see for yourself if you want an intellectually stimulating and comfortable college life!
Next was Wake Forest. I can't judge this fairly, since our visit was scarred by an admissions lady with the ummm...uhhh... habit (pet peeve). 20 times per minute. I counted. We also had a pretty crummy tour guide. So, although the campus was gorgeous and the eating hall looked the best out of all the schools we visited...I was not impressed. However, my dear father has insisted that I do more research and probably apply. Just in case. (My just in case list expands with every college I visit. No yes-man needed in this family.) But visit. It is pretty enough to warrant that. And the t.p.ed (tped? tepeed?)trees were pretty funny to see (a tradition arisen out of pride. The students t.p.ed their own trees before Duke students could. How admirable)
The following day, we visited UNC-Chapel Hill, continuously ranked as one of the top public universities in the nation, with the third largest library system after the Library of Congress and Harvard. Yes, I was influenced by the rather impressive library. The campus was gorgeous and a few new music buildings had just been constructed. Our tour guide was very good and even pointed out one of the seven foot basketball players, just in case we didn't notice him. The downside here was that over 80% of the incoming students are required to be North Carolina residents and the tuition rises drastically for out-of-staters. If I received a big enough scholarship, though, I would definitely be able to survive for four years here. There is also a rather awesome program with Duke, where 18 students from each school switch campuses for a semester. We did drive around Duke, which was like entering a castle ground (my dad disapproves of Duke though, so we didn't actually take a tour). Application will be in the mail for sure.
Finalement, we arrived back in Texas and drove to San Antonio to visit Trinity University. I loved it as well. Luverly weather complemented the beautiful campus, mostly a very uniform and stately red brick. The dorms were the standout feature (they were rated best college dorms by CosmoGirl!). I mean, suites with private bathrooms and walk-in closets, not to mention balconies? Ahh... For this high-maintenance chick, it was perfect. However, the academics, though improving, are not exactly Harvard standard. And the English program is not one of the strongest. In fact, it sounded like engineering and pre-med were very popular. However, the music program is relatively strong and there's a creative writing minor! The tour guides were great, the info session was wonderful. If you are looking for a Texas school with strong enough academics in a culturally rich city (remember the Alamo!) located in an oasis full of trees and friendly people...come here! Application will be sent.
Soooo this was my spring break. Hopefully it is helpful to whoever is crazy enough to read it. At least it helped me organize my thoughts a bit. If you are really serious about finding the perfect college, be sure to visit these schools. Or at least spend a week in North Carolina. Mountains to the west, Beach to the east (Disregard the fact that all of Nicholas Crap Sparks books are based there. It doesn't affect the quality!)
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