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Last weekend, we conducted college visit #5, the big show. For native Virginians, The University of Virginia is held in high regard. It was established by Thomas Jefferson in 1819 and part of the campus is a UNESCO world heritage site. Everyone speaks of UVA’s prestige. Even my hairdresser, although she terms it a bit differently. “UVA – snob school,” she informed me.

I had been to Charlottesville before, when my Dad was at the UVA medical center, but this was my first walk about the campus (UVA refers to the campus as “the grounds”). The grounds are filled with old Virginia red brick and white column buildings, giant magnolia trees, and a large lawn where (rumor has it) long ago the students used to ride horses and fire off pistols.

The feeling of being in a historic location is evident and the realization that buildings and dorms are really old is all around. The building where our information session took place had fire hose connections on the walls. There were marble and stone floors and large murals on the walls leading to one of the libraries. The libraries give students access to 5 million books. UVA is a storage site for the Library of Congress and has the reserve copy of the Declaration of Independence. I was going to post pictures of the library wall murals until I realized, as with paintings from the Greeks and Italians, most people in the murals lacked clothing.

Although the murals were a tad scandalous, UVA students are only allowed to behave in a scandalous manner if they are members of the secret society of imps. Imps dress up in devil costumes and cause trouble. While watching the Tour de France on television, I have occasionally seen a guy dressed in a devil costume running next to a bike rider. I now wonder if he was a student from UVA. I can’t quite fathom how the parent of an imp would explain their child’s collegiate experience. “I’m so proud of my son. He attends the prestigious University of Virginia dressed in a devil costume.”

UVA has many fraternities, sororities, and secret societies which our tour guide attempted to explain by telling us the following, “Here are the symbols of three secret societies. I don’t know who is in them. You can only find out when the member graduates or dies. They occasionally donate money. I don’t know what else they do. Any questions?”

“Why are there still secret societies in the year 2012?” I thought. For some reason, “I’m in, you’re out” still draws a crowd. UVA students, whether in or out, are all required to operate with morals. The students must sign a pledge to adhere to the honor system. They commit to not lie, cheat or steal.

Getting accepted into UVA is quite difficult: 23,000 students apply; 7,000 students are offered admission; 3,200 students are accepted. Over 70% of students admitted are in the top 10% of their high school class and the mid range of those students’ test scores are SAT 1900 – 2200 and ACT 29 -33. Students are encouraged to submit 2 letters of recommendation and discouraged from submitting 32 letters of recommendation. (An applicant did this.) Students are further encouraged to attend a school with a set numeric grading system and to avoid attending a school with a sun – star – moon grading profile. (I did not make that up.)

The prospective student must also submit an essay of 500 words or less on their future hopes or on a topic meaningful to them. The topics can be as broad as “giving back to your community” and “the best pen to buy.” I figure the first essay was written by someone going into a major containing the word “policy” in it and the second essay was written by a guy applying to the business school. The majority of our tour guides had majors with “policy” in the title. Nothing so simple as biology, math, or English was mentioned.

For those privileged few who gain acceptance, their work has just begun. They now enter their “personal road to discovery.” The competition does not stop when you enter UVA, it accelerates. Students compete for being accepted into a certain major, for the opportunity to study abroad, for summer internships, and for the privilege of spending a semester at sea traveling the world with a group of fellow students and professors.

One of the students who briefed us had spent a summer internship in South America researching greenhouses in which to grow sustainable food for impoverished areas. Then, she spent a semester studying reefs and volcanoes in New Zealand through the study abroad program. She was currently living in the heritage site dorms. She talked fondly of her African drumming class. She listed accomplishment after accomplishment, opportunity after opportunity. She was, of course, majoring in something with “Policy” in the title. Most definitely, she was driven.

UVA is certainly the school for students with a tremendous drive to succeed. The opportunities and experiences are unparalleled. This was the first college visit where I heard prospective students ask if they could double major. Unfortunately for them, double majoring was discouraged by the current students. They emphasized how difficult it was to complete a double major within 4 years. All students are required to graduate UVA in 4 years, no extensions. “Student self governance” was the phrase of the day. I suppose it has more of a positive ring to it than, “Pick yourself up by your bootstraps!”

One negative thing about UVA is the housing. The dorms are old and crummy with shower rooms and toilets at the end of halls. We were told we could not go inside the dorms for safety reasons, but I suspect the more likely reason was because most parents would not want their children living in buildings resembling old barracks. (This did not concern Dale and I. We both thought, “Lived in worse.”) There was only one thing modern about the dorms. Students can choose their roommate via facebook.

New high tech dorms are being built at UVA. When they are complete, the dryer will text the student when his clothes are dry.

Dale, Josiah, and I have more college visits to make before our search is complete. Next on the list is a college even older than UVA: William and Mary. It is so old, Thomas Jefferson attended it as a student.

Yes, it’s true. Wherever we go in Virginia, Thomas Jefferson is somewhere nearby.

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 traveled down to Farmville, Virginia for a college visit at Longwood University. It’s a Virginia Public University a little over 2 hours away with approximately 4000 undergraduate students. The college was established in 1839 as an all female college. It became coed in 1976 and changed over to a university in 2002. It is now 31% male. I told Josiah if he went there, he would get the same ‘I’m outnumbered’ experience as I had in college. Although, his ratio is not quite as severe as mine (10 to 1). Dale remarked that I should be thankful I was blessed with such a good guy to girl ratio, because it enabled me to pick the cream of the crop.

Yep, he’s the cream of the crop, alright.

The campus looks like Old Virginia with its brick buildings and white columns. We could walk from one end of campus to the other in 10 minutes. There were plenty of lawns, a giant magnolia tree, and a fountain. The dorm rooms were a decent size. Each room has two students and two dorm rooms share a bathroom. There is a laundry room and an RA on each floor. There are all female dorms and coed dorms.

The student to teacher ratio is 20 to 1, and professors not grad assistants teach the classes. The admissions people emphasized that the professors really get to know their students and each professor keeps office hours to be accessible to the students. This tidbit made Dale and I laugh, as well as the mention of the College President having an open door policy. We chuckled further when we saw the honor code displayed prominently in the library. Furthermore, freshman are not allowed to have cars on campus. In the autumn, in a mass show of support for their athletic teams, all the students (with Longwood scarves in hand) march across campus to the first sporting event of the season to cheer on the team.

All these little bits here and there bring back memories to Dale and I of our dear alma mater. The reason for all this similarity: in 2010, the former dean of West Point became the President of Longwood University. I personally suspect, over the course of time, the number of guys on campus will begin to increase.

The campus is very safe. There are blue emergency poles all throughout campus. If you press the button, campus security will be there in 2 minutes. All dorms are only accessible to those who live in them, and there is a door watch person who ensures no one enters the dorm who does not live there. Back in the military, we called this person the CQ (charge of quarters). Furthermore, there is an organization on campus called the night walkers who will walk with you across campus until 4 am if needed. Dale remarked he would feel safer walking by himself than with someone termed a night walker.

There are all kinds of handy dandy jobs on campus for students to apply for besides RA, door watch person, and night walker. Each dorm has a student who is its designated tech support available 24 hours a day. If a student is tech savvy, the university will send them to class to learn the in and outs of trouble shooting and then pay them to find lost papers on crashed computers in the middle of the night. A student can wipe down equipment at the gym, check ids, or give tours for a job.

Every thing is accessed and paid for through your college card. It gains you access to the gym’s climbing wall, the cafeteria food line, and your dorm. You use it for the cost of the washing machine and the cost of your books at the bookstore. I found it most remarkable that it could also be used to buy food at the restaurant all Manrys love just down the street. Modern technology – it’s amazing.

There are two secret organizations on campus, one group is chosen for academics and another group is chosen for leadership. The leadership organization has blue rotunda symbols painted on the walkways throughout campus. A student is never to step on one for fear of something bad happening. The academic organization has black crowns painted on the walkways and it is considered good luck to step on those in the pursuit of good grades. Students specifically run outside to do this during finals week. At West Point, we had to sneak out at midnight and spin the spurs on Sedgewick’s monument if we wanted such luck on an exam. I have come to suspect there must be academic luck spots on every college campus.

In a bit of strangeness, Longwood’s secret leadership organization CHI marches through campus in hoods each year chanting as they march along. The members only reveal themselves at a bonfire before their graduation. Josiah found it amazing that in 2012 secret organizations still march around in hoods on their way to bonfires.

I reminded him we live in the south.

We all really liked the campus: the number of students, its accessibility, and the academic emphasis. We got the feeling it was a good place to go to school. The students were very positive and we figured Josiah would not likely get lost. We have several more college visits to do, but Longwood definitely stays on the list.

We had a mild autumn and winter has not yet arrived. I took some of the flower photos while on a field trip with Zeke this autumn in the gardens behind the Kenmore Plantation in Fredericksburg. Although there have been nights below freezing, my fourth of July rose was still blooming on the fourth of December. On Saturday, 7 January, I saw my quince shrub blooming. The quince must have decided we are not going to have winter at all. Dale put the photos together for me over the weekend and I planned to post them today. Old Man Winter must have been annoyed at being mocked, because he decided to show up today with a brief snow shower.

During the women’s retreat last month, we were allotted 6 hours of free time. (Yippee!) I love free time. Amanda and I played the tourist in Colonial Williamsburg. Amanda, unlike me, could have played the tour guide instead of the tourist. I feared during our time wandering about that the tour guides might snatch Amanda, put a white bonnet on her head, and have her lead people through one historic house or the next.  Amanda has long hair and wears long skirts and we tease her that she belongs in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. She readily admits she was born during the wrong century.

I found Williamsburg quite interesting. Anyone can wander the streets and look through the windows of the shops for free. However, if you want to go in and see how to bind a book, weave on a loom, make shoes, and cook a pudding, you have to pay for a ticket. Amanda and I purchased tickets and learned all kinds of historical facts. I remember only a few.

1. Most colonists preferred to pay a fine rather than be whipped.

2. A powder room was named a powder room because men would enter the room for the purpose of powdering their wigs.

3. The walls were not painted, but covered with colorful paper.

4. The kitchen was outside the house so if it burned down, it wouldn’t take the house with it.

5. You displayed all the weapons you owned on your walls to both intimidate your enemies and for the ease of grabbing one quickly in the event of an attack.