Sunday, April 03, 2005

College Tours-Longwood University

In the continuing search for the perfect school, today we visited Longwood University. Not sure that No. 4 was as impressed as with other schools (William & Mary, James Madison), but she was not turned off. The school did an excellent job of presenting itself. The Dean of Admissions and President were present and addressed the prospective parents and students, something none of the other schools did. Parents and students had separate information sessions, a definite plus in explainig the school. They even did a pretty good job of being proud of the school's decision to move to Division I in the varsity sports in which they compete. Men's basketball was discussed with some pride (although they didn't mention their 1-30 record and setting an NCAA record for the number of consecutive losses). Still moving from Div II to Div I is not without difficulty.

The tour was carried out very well, although seeing every building on campus got a bit long. Our tour guide did an excellent job of explaining, from the student's view point, life on campus. No. 4 is now over the shock of seeing how small dorm rooms can be, and is thinking about adjusting to having to share, for the first time in memory, a room.

No. 4 saw the required internship as a plus and saw no negatives. I think a small school may have certain advantages over a large school.

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