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The son of my hair dresser is a senior in college at Old Dominion University (ODU), so I asked her to share with me their college search experience. English is not her first language. She speaks with typical short phrasing. I remember using the same type of short phrasing when I attempted to speak German many years ago. I wanted to get my point across with the fewest amount of words. The German language confused me because it adds all the helpful words to the end of the sentence. When a German is done speaking, I have to move all the words back into an English sentence order to figure out the meaning.  When I was in Germany, I could never remember what to put at the end.

Because Dale and I are not native Virginians, we do not have established opinions concerning Virginia Public Colleges. My fellow Virginians, however, have strong opinions on college reputations in the state. When Josiah told kids at school he had visited Longwood, they all replied, “You don’t want to go there. It’s a party school.” Long ago and far far away as a high school senior, I recall being certain that Saint Cloud State was the biggest party school in Minnesota. I never visited it, but everyone said it. Therefore, I believed it was true.

Before her son went off to college, my hairdresser did thorough research. She asked all her customers their opinions and then she and her son went to visit colleges. Through the process, she discovered the following opinions. Longwood and ODU – Party Schools, Virginia Polytechnic Institute (Tech) – Violence School, James Madison University (JMU) and Mary Washington – Girls School, George Mason University (Mason) – Commuter School, University of Virgina (UVA) – Snob School, William and Mary – Depressing School, Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) – Bad Area School, and Christopher Newport University (CNU) – Happy School. She wanted her son to go to CNU, but he chose ODU for the engineering program.

Last weekend, Dale, Josiah and I went to visit CNU, the happy school. My hairdresser was not the only person to recommend CNU to me. Many parents I had talked to commented on the positive environment both on campus and amongst the students. Each year, a number of students from Josiah’s high school go on to attend CNU. It is a popular destination for FCS graduates along with the local community college and Liberty University.

CNU is located in Newport News and I was expecting a dicey location from the stories told by Dines of life at Fort Eustis. Luckily, the college is located in the good part of Newport News and is very safe. We again encountered the blue safety poles students could press for security throughout the campus. We learned the safety poles were put into place on all state campuses in response to the Virginia Tech shooting.

While many Virginia state colleges were founded long ago. (UVA was founded by Thomas Jefferson in 1819.) CNU is only 50 years old. The academic buildings and dorms are in a good state of repair and the entire campus has recently undergone extensive renovation. CNU is within the top five colleges in the bizarre category of “colleges with dorms like a palace.” Although the dorms were nice, I would not describe them as a palace. The rooms are a good size with two students per room and four students sharing a bathroom. To ease all concerns of anxious weather forecasting moms, the dorms were built to withstand a category 4 hurricane.

Everyone we met was pleasant and helpful, from the student barrister at the coffee shop to the security guard at the performing arts center. They gave good reports about the students, faculty, and opportunities at the college. Awhile back, my friend, Sue had told me that CNU was a public school with the feel of a private university and she was right. The marketing and branding of the school emphasizes this characteristic.

The most encouraging aspect of the school to me was how positive the administration was to Christian groups on campus. We saw signs for a church that met in the auditorium, for van pick up of students interested in attending Sunday service, and for multiple small groups and Bible studies. The signs were displayed alongside signs for the quidditch club and the zombie club. CNU encourages all sorts.

The architecture of the campus is Old Virginia red brick and white columns, and the campus has a beautiful performance arts center. The arts center had a kiln room, a woodworking shop for building theater sets, a dance studio, multiple practice rooms, three different size theaters, an inner courtyard, and much more. We could certainly see the emphasis the college placed upon the arts department.

I found one tidbit our student guide told us very clever. CNU has the students fill out a survey, similar to an eharmony survey to help them match up roommates who will get along. They also house students with similar interests near each other in the dorms. All the students participating in the leadership program or the scholar program are housed together. Upon learning this, Dale and I asked Josiah if he wanted to live in the nerd dorm.

Other students are housed with those in their field of study and all students must live in the dorms through junior year. These requirements are in place to help students complete a degree within four years.

There are plenty of opportunities for Josiah in English writing and journalism. There is a student newspaper in print and online and all English majors get jobs in the writing workshop, teaching other students how to write term papers. They encourage students to pursue technical writing and journalism internships. CNU had the most proactive English department we had so far observed on our visits.

Even though Dale has declared CNU #1 on his list, Josiah is reserving judgement until after we visit UVA and William and Mary.

For me, I have to agree with my hairdresser. “Everyone at CNU happy. Students happy. Parents happy. Teachers happy. Happy school.”

On Monday, Dale, Josiah and I went on a college visit to Eastern, a Christian College in the suburbs of Philadelphia. We arrived for the visit the night prior, stayed in an old hotel nearby, and walked through downtown Wayne to an Italian restaurant for dinner. We walked past the largest Wawa we had ever seen. It was a large convenience store, not like the gas stations we have around here. On our walk back to the hotel, we stopped at a Diner for dessert, tea, and coffee. Meanwhile Abby was at home caring for her two younger siblings with the help of The Robyn.

When I relayed our fist night’s actions to Abby, she protested “You stayed at an old hotel without me? You ate at an Italian restaurant without me? You went to a Diner without me?” She was indignant. Over the course of the visit to Eastern, we did everything Abby loved to do at the college she wants to attend.

Even though she is only a sophomore in high school, Abby has been researching colleges. When Josiah and Abby’s high school had a Christian College Fair that she could not attend because of a Field Hockey game, she sent me with a list of colleges I needed to get information about. “Make sure you go to the Eastern booth,” she said. “That’s number one.”

Josiah and I went to the Eastern booth without her and then went to the college without her as well. She considers this completely unfair.

The visit started at 8:30am with praise and worship. I knew I was on a college campus when the worship set had songs by both the Newsboys and David Crowder. Thankfully, the student led worship team threw in Stuart Townend’s In Christ Alone to help us old folks find the rhythm. After worship, the admissions department introduced themselves and the President of the University gave a short talk.

We then went on a tour of the campus. We hiked about over the hill and through the woods, back and forth this way and that at a fairly rapid speed. Eastern students must certainly stay in shape hiking between their classes and the dorms. The campus is quite picturesque with streams, bridges, a waterwheel, and a pond. The college is fairly small in population with 1700 students, and there are not many buildings, but the campus grounds are extensive. My own experience with college dorms is limited to military barracks. Therefore, in all the colleges we have visited, upon sight of the dorm rooms, I am pleasantly surprised. When only four people have to share a bathroom, when everyone gets a closet, and when no one has to make their bed, I consider the accommodations luxurious.

After our tour, we came back together to hear Tony Campolo speak. He is a professor of sociology at Eastern. He is also an Italian from Philly through and through and is quite old school in his vernacular. He has been very influential at Eastern in promoting the college motto of “Faith Reason Justice.” The students are encouraged to “grow in faith, learn to reason, and help bring justice.” The students are active in service projects with Habitat for Humanity, Opportunity International, Food for the Hungry, and International Justice Mission. The college faculty and the students take to heart James 2:17 “In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.”

Afterwards, Dale and Josiah went to a musicianship class to stretch their brains, I went to a tuition assistance class to stretch my wallet, and we all ate philly cheese steak to stretch our stomachs. The cheese steak was offered in the cafeteria under a sign proclaiming “traditional foods.” It is a good thing the majority of the students are from Pennsylvania. A southerner might be a bit surprised to discover cheese steak as a traditional food.

Our drive to Philly on Sunday afternoon was 3 hours with no traffic. Our drive home on Monday afternoon was 4 hours and 15 minutes thanks to the state of Maryland. Someone thought it would be a grand idea to close off one lane of the I95 southbound bridge which crosses over the Susquehanna river. Of course, there was no construction work, just construction barrels.

When we arrived home, I gave Abby an Eastern school binder and a dessert from the Diner in an attempt to placate her.

Unfortunately for me, I don’t think it worked.

Last Saturday, Josiah took the ACT (college enrollment test). The ACT is the test frequently taken by college applicants in the US Midwest. Here in the Eastern US, most students take the SAT. Unfortunately for Josiah, his mother has signed him up to take both tests. He will be taking the SAT next month.

The ACT is not offered in as many high school locations as the SAT, so Josiah had to drive 30 minutes north from home to the test location. He was required to sign in by 8am Saturday morning, and bring identification, two number 2 pencils, an eraser, a calculator, and a snack.

Prior to Saturday, the farthest north Josiah had driven alone was to Quantico. In the hand drawn maps and exit number memorization quizzes I had given him when he was learning to drive, the I95 map’s accuracy ended at exit 118 to the south and exit 150 to the north. Beyond exit 118 was simply “driving to Richmond” and beyond exit 150 was simply “driving to DC.”

I could lie and say that I thought long and hard about whether I should allow Josiah to find his way to the testing location in a timely manner, but you wouldn’t believe me. I didn’t consider it for a moment. Instead, we drove two cars. Thankfully, it turned out to be a fairly straightforward trip up Highway 1. We arrived at 0740, and I got out of the van and walked over to the car. Josiah opened up his door and looked at me with a quizzical expression. “I’ve got 20 minutes,” he said.

“Get out of the car,” I replied.

As usual for him, no thought was made to the number of people waiting in line to sign in, the need to find the room he was assigned to in a high school he had never been inside of, or any other such planning and preparation.

Why not just dash into the school at the last minute, slide into a desk, and fill in some ovals?

As I was standing behind him inside the school watching him show his identification while he held a paper lunch sack with his name written on it, I realized how I must look to the other students and the test administrator. They are looking at a kid who has a beard, drives a car, is 17 years old, and is followed everywhere by a very testing mother.

After he signed in, I told Josiah “Good Luck” and walked out. I had already instructed him on how to drive home after the test.

Maybe it’s time to let him grow up and accept responsibility. The cost to me is not great: just $49.50 if he should per chance miss the test because he doesn’t get up on time, departs late, gets lost while driving, sits in his parked car too long, forgets to sign in, goes to the wrong room, leaves his cell phone on in his pocket, loses both pencils, etc.

Surely, that wouldn’t happen.

Many parents try to influence their children to enter the family business; be it a restaurant, pawn shop, or law firm. Both my Mom and Dad served a stint in the Air Force and one brother and I joined the Army. Dale’s Daddy had a military career with combined service in the Air Force and the Army. Dale and three of his siblings joined the Army. His one sister, who did not join the military, has one son in the Army and another son soon to join.

Dale and I are attempting to avoid this parenting path. We have told our children we will not force them into the military.

After Josiah registered to take the ACT, he began receiving admissions info from various universities. Upon receiving material from a college in Vermont, he looked the university up on line and discovered a frequently googled query, “Do only hippies go to this college?”

Yesterday, he received an admissions letter in an embossed envelope with “Your exclusive nomination is enclosed” printed on the outside. He looked at it and set it down. He did not even bother to open it.

The letter was from VMI.

A few pictures from our recent visit to Longwood University: