College Tours

I'm taking today and tomorrow off to go on my younger daughter's first college tours. Today we visited Bryn Mawr College and Drexel University. Tomorrow we are planning trips to Pratt Institute and State University of New York at Stony Brook. I'm certain that we won't find the prefect match on these outings but I'm hoping we can expose her to several different types of school and she can somehow narrow down her preferences.

Each of the schools today had their pluses and minuses but on the whole I think she was more impressed with Bryn Mawr than Drexel. I was too.

From my perspective I want her to know that she has a choice. We have a deal in our family that I am willing to pay for 75% of whatever they choose. Beyond that they can go where they want. I never felt that I had that choice. My parents were not fans of out of town colleges and I never forced the issue. My sisters went but by the time my turn came they were convinced that it was not a good idea for me. So, my college years were spent at a commuter college which didn't cost them anything other than feeding and sheltering me (and putting up with the odd hours of my coming and going). A good friend of mine referred to those years as four more years of high school although, in my case, that was seven more years of high school.

I'm appreciating the days off from work too.