[SuZQuzie]

Wow, we had a great time. Jeff's mom didn't complain too much about UW for Jeff, but she did sneak it in.

For those that don't know, Jeff, his mom Ilene, my mom, & myself went on a mini college tour from last Wednesday till today. The tour went as follows:

Wed. Aug. 23 - Fly from Burback, CA to Seattle, WA.
Thurs. Aug. 24 - Tour University of Washington (UW) & visit Yeager GF.
Fri. Aug. 25 - Fly from Seattle, WA to San Francisco, CA & check out SF.
Sat. Aug. 26 - Tour Stanford University & drive to San Luis Obispo, CA & visit Cal Poly SLO & check out SLO.
Sun. Aug. 27 - Visited the Equine Center at Cal Poly SLO & drove threw Univeristy of California Santa Barbara & then home.

Sorry for the fuzziness in some of the pictures - I was taking them on the fly.

University of Washington
Wow! It's gorgeous there! It's green, the people are down to earth, it's not a "bling-bling" based society, & there are other Californians there that left Cali for the same reasons I hope to! The buildings are just amazing. The library is HUGE & reminds me of Harry Potter. The biology department (my area) is one of the top ones on the west coast. Same with the engineering department (Jeff's area). I could see myself being there. The downside is that there is no equestrian team. The bright side to that is that I can work threw college riding horses without getting dq'd. I also love rain & really wouldn't mind the clouds. The students also raved about the food, plenty of coffee EVERYWHERE, & Wi-Fi in every building. There are also plenty of housing options & the apartments aren't excessively expensive there.

Stanford University
Before our visit, when I thought "Stanford," I thought of grey buildings, students moping about, & all work & no play. Wrong. The buildings appear golden in the sunlight. There were students playing in the beautiful fountains they had there. The workload is a fair amount, but Stanford students aren't overwhelmed & still have time to be college students (we talked to other students, not just the paid tour guide ). The students all seemed very happy there. The Red Barn where the horses are kept is AMAZING. Two big arenas, a round pen, a hot walker, in-&-outs, stalls, turn-outs, good hay, trainers (including my trainer! Jim Hagman down at E*, who is a great trainer, also flies up to teach lessons at Stanford!), & all levels of riding from beginners to Olympic prospects. And board is very reasonable at $550 a month which includes board, feed, bidaily mucking, & limitless lessons with top West Coast trainers that come to teach there! There is also a foaling stall & mare care there for Penny. The thing I didn't like is that dating is nearly nonexistant, the campus is excessively huge, & some of the kids are a bit snooty. Also, tuition alone in $32,000! Supposedly, once they accept you, they want to keep you & are a great help in the area.

California State Polytechnical Univeristy San Luis Obispo
I was very disappointed. Block buildings, ditzy students, lots of parties (I'm not a big partier), pressure to join the Greek system, non-challenging work, mediocre Biology department, okay food, HORRIBLE horse area... eww. The horse area was disgusting. The "pastures" were hard & the ground was simply ground in manure - not gravel, sand, or grass - manure. The horses were rather unsocialized. They wouldn't come over to say "hi" like most of the horses I know would. Only ONE horse did so out of about 50 to 70 horses. Yes, some of them were eating, but not all of them! Also expensive living and okay food.

University of California Santa Barbara
We didn't really look at this place, but rather drove threw it. Jeff's brother is going there for the law & Soceity department since he wants to become a lawyer. I have no desire to attend there personally, however, I would go there before Cal Poly.

Preferences Before
Cal Poly SLO
U of W
Stanford

Preferences After
U of W \ I like these two near equal, but
Stanford / UW just a teeny bit more.
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Cal Poly SLO

We go to check out UC San diego next weekend.

I may add more pics soon from the mom's cameras.

[honeydoozy]

WOW - you guys packed a lot of visiting into a short time!!

I'd take Stanford over UofW for a couple of reasons:

1.) Strong biology program + strong horse program = more crossover opps.
2.) Closer to home - for all the obvious reasons ( holidays, friends, family)
3.) Name recognition - yes, some influential people DO care about that
4.) Significant opportunities to keep up with riding and stay close to Penny

While WA does have some upsides, I *personally* would go with Stanford.

Good luck with your decision!!

[GeM]

UW is an amazing place, but it does rain a lot! lol
All joking aside, it's a fab school. I love it, but I don't know if I want to live in Seattle.

[wyldterv]

Originally Posted by honeydoozy

3.) Name recognition - yes, some influential people DO care about that!

While I'm NOT a big UW fan (went to competator college, lololol) UW is one of the BEST Biological Sciences Colleges in the WORLD these days and their cancer research centers are the top! So you'd have plenty of name recognition with UW or with Stanford...

COFFEE COFFEE EVERYWHERE but also some darned good Deli's, pizza joints and AWESOMELY wicked brew pubs exisit in the U district as well, lol... With Microsoft's HQ's being so close to Seattle, ALL of Seattle is pretty much WI-FI these days

[ladida]

Sounds cool. Stanford is a large attraction for people in my school and it is VERY selective, not only smarts but connections (meaning $$$)

But it seems very nice from my friend's siblings that have gone there.

[Paint_luver]

Very exciting sounding!! I remember visiting colleges not long ago too, and it's crazy that I'm now actually typing this from college!

I think both of your top picks seem great!

[ItsAThought]

So cool! Glad you got to see all the places and got to see for yourself what they were like. Whew, think if you went to Cal Poly SLO!!! eek! lol

[OrangeRikki]

I like the sounds of Stanford!! I was actually invited to go there this summer for classes, looks like a really nice place!

Good luck picking, sounds like you've got a tough choice!

[EmazingCasper]

Sounds like a bunch of fun!!!!!!!!!!!!! Good luck picking which one!

[ches]

I picked my grad school based on prestige rather than curriculum and it was a huge mistake. Luckily I'm on a teaching assistantship so I don't have to actually pay the $12,000 per semester bills that show up in my mail box every semester. "Stanford" is a name that absolutely can open doors for you all around the world. On the other hand, if you want to go on to grad school, do undergrad research or want to go to vet/medical school, then UW is going to be renowned in the industry and will count more than Stanford.

I wouldn't worry too much about whether or not the school has an equestrian program. As long as you don't take on too much (part-time job, sorority, etc.) then you should be able to do your own horsey thing and compete in local shows. To be honest, college competition is probably going to be below your level (if the west coast college riding is in the same league as the middle-TN college riding).

The tuition at Stanford is heart attack inducing, but as an out-of-state student, won't UW be almost as expensive? Most students change their major at least once (I changed mine, hubby's on his 4th major!) so just because you start out in the biology program, it doesn't mean you'll necessarily end there. In that light, will you get a better education at Stanford?