Finally, Loyola

So here we are at Loyola University on Saturday, an admissions "Open House" for Loyola. We went to the student center to confirm our registration and then it was off to the gym for snacks. Maura headed straight for the Diet Coke - no surprise there, and I went to look for the cookies. Grace gathered academic information.


After snacks we are off on a tour. We start in an academic building that is 101 years old and looks wonderful. Once inside you notice that Loyola differs from most other colleges, even from other Catholic colleges (De Paul, Boston College), it that there are statues everywhere.

Once inside the classroom there are more reminders of religion. A crucifix on the wall next to the clock. Okay.

Their new technical information center is right on Lake Michigan and it is beautiful.

To the right of the new building is a chapel that is in the process of being redone. It is beautiful.

Finally, after hanging around waiting for a friend of Grace's, Ellie, to show up at the athletic center, we hit the bookstore for some product, and then loaded up for the drive back to the flat lands.

A great trip.

More Rain - This Time at Northwestern

Friday morning, here we are at Northwestern. More rain, but a great looking campus with a ton of programs. One of the treats was running into Patti Soskin and Maddy on this tour.

Northwestern is right on Lake Michigan, and I can only imagine what a joy that must me when the weather is hot.

A birding highlight for the trip was seeing a ruby crowned kinglit on the fill land that the University has built into Lake Michigan. There science and math facility is on this land, as is the athletic facility.

One thing I learned is that Northwestern is the only private college in the Big Ten. You have to admire a school of eight thousand undergraduates slugging it out with schools like Ohio State and Madison that take more than four times as many students.

The arch was donated to the school in 1993 by the retiring head of school.

The final picture is of one of the libraries on campus. It is supposed to look like books flying off the shelf. In a moment it really started to rain hard here, and then we went down to the lake front to see the north part of campus.

First Stop - U of W in Madison

So here we are at Grace's. We are ten minutes late, but Grace is ready to go.





So we are off. Here is raining in St Paul.











Here it is raining as we cross over the St. Croix into Wisconsin.







Four and a half hours later, we pull into Madison. Here is the Capitol building, in the heart of town, and it looks as if the sun might be coming out.


After one of the longest tours in the history of college admissions visits, we are at the top of hill - a scenic view if you will. I asked the girls' for a photograph. Vintage silliness on the part of Maura and Grace.

Next to one of the buildings where we they do Admissions work, you can see Lake Mendota in the background. Still a gray day, but you could easily thing of how nice this would be in warm weather. On the tour, I asked the guide if the lake froze in the winter and she said, "yes". The girls ranked this my high water mark for stupid questions on the trip. You can tell I was in rare form early on this trip.



I took the picture of this building because I liked the way it looked.

I don't think the girls will be applying to Madison.

University of Chicago

On Friday afternoon we visited the University of Chicago. It took about 20 minutes to find a place to park but things went well from there.

When most people picture a college campus, I bet the picture buildings like these. Ivy covered brick buildings are to be found everywhere. Very scenic.

Not all of the buildings are old and ivy. A dorm was done in bright orange and yellow. The new building for athletics was also very creative. That building has the first Heisman trophy in in.

One of the highlights of the tour was the nut job with a hole in the back of his jeans and black underwear. Check out the guy in the red and white knit hat. He spent all his time huddling with his girl friend in the red and black coat. I wanted to Grace to stuff this guy in a garbage can. Hey Newton, buy yourself some pants and save the art show for someone else...

This looked like a fun place to go to school, one of many good choices (even with a Newton who thinks its okay to go around with a whole the size of softball in the back of his jeans).