St. Mary's was okay. Nice. Hot. Not extravagent though. Average. The campus is comfortable and air conditioned for the most part. The class sizes are really, really small. Our guide said he has had a few classes where it is just 4-5 people. I guess there is more then just one college without a football team, because they don't have one either. The dorms are fairly big. The internet situation is a little confusing though. Parts of the campus are wireless, but some parts aren't I think. It has a small theater. I didn't get a lot of info on how student life is going to be and what I can expect out of it. It's not a bad school...I'd give it a 6 out of 10, maybe a 7. It's not St. Thomas. That's a nice place. I'd give there an 8 or 9. Even my mom liked St. Thomas better, and it is more expensive. Oh, well, I guess we'll see where it all goes. My parents say I have to visit a couple more public colleges before I make any decisions, so...
6.23.2005
6.21.2005
Pick a college
Disclaimer: these are my opinions of the colleges I visited and you should probably form your own because you might look at different things then I do. Also this is going to get really long, so if you're planning to read the whole thing it will take a few minutes.
Well, I visited 3 colleges in the last 2 days and let me tell you, it is tiring and I'm still not done. By then it will be five colleges in four days. First on the list was St. Thomas. I was really impressed. I felt very welcome there. The guide mentioned several times how the strive for a family atmosphere and the dorm rooms are really nice. They have a good athletic program (not that that matters to me) and a healthy rivalry with St. John. There is a real theater. The chapel is beautiful and they have daily masses. The surrounding area is nice...I don't know if I'm a big fan of the city, but the neighborhood appeared safe and there a campus security who will walk you to your car or where ever if it is dark and you want them to. It is wireless, which is nice. Well, that's all about UST.
Now on to St. Scholastica in Duluth. Blah. That basically sums it up. They differ from St. Thomas in this: when my mom and I got to St. Thomas we listened to three people talk in from of a group of about 75 people about the admissions, education, and life at UST. They were not good public speakers. The first impression of UST was not good but it got a lot better. Well, my first impression of St. Scholastica was good and it got a lot worse. The first thing you see as you drive unto campus is a beautiful grey brick building. Well, after climbing about a million stairs to get to that nice building I signed in and my mom and I met one on one with an admissions councilor who answered all of our questions very well. But then it was time for the tour. What a waste of two hours. The girl who was the guide didn't know anything. Several questions were asked and on most of them she said "Well, I'm not sure, but I would guess....." And during the slow parts of the tour, when walking from building to building, we all walked in silence. She was unenthusiastic and rather boring. Tower Hall looked nice on the outside, but on the inside it was kind of dark and dingy. We didn't even really get a good tour because whenever we got to something worth looking at the guide would say, well, the lecture hall (cafeteria, classroom, study room, science lab, computer lab, student hall, chapel, etc. ) are locked, but you can look in the window. My mom said she got the feeling that we weren't allowed to go in anywhere. The tour guide also didn't touch on any social things like dorm life or rivalries or intramural sports. And speaking of sports, have you ever heard of a college without a football team? Well, now you have. Oh! And one (okay, two) more thing(s). The theater at St. Scholastica, it used to me a gym! And also, the library used to a chapel, but they need more room for books so they moved the chapel to a smaller, less visually appealing place. And there isn't a daily mass--heck, it's only thirty percent Catholic. Sorry, that got long and winded.
I will move on to the final college of my visits: UMD. I was impressed, I must say. Granted that didn't take much because I had just come from the disappointing St. Scholastica and I don't really hold public colleges in as high regard as private ones. I would go to UMD probably before I went to St. Scholastica. UMD is really big and it is all connected so you don't have to go outside to get to different buildings. That makes the campus feel a lot safer in my opinion. The dorms aren't impressive, but they aren't that bad and our guide made dorm life sound like tons of fun. The theater is to die for. (They have catwalks!) The library is also really cool, it is four levels and if you stand in the middle of a circle that is on the floor in there your voice sounds amplified to yourself, but no one else. Academically though, I don't think I would be pushed as much at a public college as at a private college. UMD puts out only 25% of undergrads after four years. The rest graduate after five or more years. To get accepted you need a 20 ACT. At St. Thomas the average student has a 25 ACT and a 3.6 GPA and they basically guarantee you'll graduate with a B.A. in four years.
Huh, I'm tiered. I have been typing this for 31 minutes. Again, I remind you to form your own opinions of the colleges because you are the one who has to go there. Tune in next time for the my overview of St. Marys and WSU.
Well, I visited 3 colleges in the last 2 days and let me tell you, it is tiring and I'm still not done. By then it will be five colleges in four days. First on the list was St. Thomas. I was really impressed. I felt very welcome there. The guide mentioned several times how the strive for a family atmosphere and the dorm rooms are really nice. They have a good athletic program (not that that matters to me) and a healthy rivalry with St. John. There is a real theater. The chapel is beautiful and they have daily masses. The surrounding area is nice...I don't know if I'm a big fan of the city, but the neighborhood appeared safe and there a campus security who will walk you to your car or where ever if it is dark and you want them to. It is wireless, which is nice. Well, that's all about UST.
Now on to St. Scholastica in Duluth. Blah. That basically sums it up. They differ from St. Thomas in this: when my mom and I got to St. Thomas we listened to three people talk in from of a group of about 75 people about the admissions, education, and life at UST. They were not good public speakers. The first impression of UST was not good but it got a lot better. Well, my first impression of St. Scholastica was good and it got a lot worse. The first thing you see as you drive unto campus is a beautiful grey brick building. Well, after climbing about a million stairs to get to that nice building I signed in and my mom and I met one on one with an admissions councilor who answered all of our questions very well. But then it was time for the tour. What a waste of two hours. The girl who was the guide didn't know anything. Several questions were asked and on most of them she said "Well, I'm not sure, but I would guess....." And during the slow parts of the tour, when walking from building to building, we all walked in silence. She was unenthusiastic and rather boring. Tower Hall looked nice on the outside, but on the inside it was kind of dark and dingy. We didn't even really get a good tour because whenever we got to something worth looking at the guide would say, well, the lecture hall (cafeteria, classroom, study room, science lab, computer lab, student hall, chapel, etc. ) are locked, but you can look in the window. My mom said she got the feeling that we weren't allowed to go in anywhere. The tour guide also didn't touch on any social things like dorm life or rivalries or intramural sports. And speaking of sports, have you ever heard of a college without a football team? Well, now you have. Oh! And one (okay, two) more thing(s). The theater at St. Scholastica, it used to me a gym! And also, the library used to a chapel, but they need more room for books so they moved the chapel to a smaller, less visually appealing place. And there isn't a daily mass--heck, it's only thirty percent Catholic. Sorry, that got long and winded.
I will move on to the final college of my visits: UMD. I was impressed, I must say. Granted that didn't take much because I had just come from the disappointing St. Scholastica and I don't really hold public colleges in as high regard as private ones. I would go to UMD probably before I went to St. Scholastica. UMD is really big and it is all connected so you don't have to go outside to get to different buildings. That makes the campus feel a lot safer in my opinion. The dorms aren't impressive, but they aren't that bad and our guide made dorm life sound like tons of fun. The theater is to die for. (They have catwalks!) The library is also really cool, it is four levels and if you stand in the middle of a circle that is on the floor in there your voice sounds amplified to yourself, but no one else. Academically though, I don't think I would be pushed as much at a public college as at a private college. UMD puts out only 25% of undergrads after four years. The rest graduate after five or more years. To get accepted you need a 20 ACT. At St. Thomas the average student has a 25 ACT and a 3.6 GPA and they basically guarantee you'll graduate with a B.A. in four years.
Huh, I'm tiered. I have been typing this for 31 minutes. Again, I remind you to form your own opinions of the colleges because you are the one who has to go there. Tune in next time for the my overview of St. Marys and WSU.
6.19.2005
Random Stuff
Well I will warn you know that this will be nothing profound. I am too tired to think thoughtful thoughts.
I am going to look at St. Thomas tomorrow in the Cities and then I'm heading up to Duluth to check out St. Scholastica and possibly UMD. Then on Thursday it's off to Winona to take a look at St. Marys.
I think my Internet was messed up, at least at one particular site. I have Mugglenet bookmarked in my Favorites category and I go to that site through the bookmark. Well, for the last week all I have seen at the top of the sight is the stupid "Rupert Goes to Batman premiere" news article. For the first couple days it was no big deal. "Slow news day," I'd say to myself, but as the days turned into a week, I would have thought that Emerson or someone would have said something about there being no news. So I checked it out. I goggled 'Harry Potter.' Mugglenet was the fourth or fifth site. I clicked and here popped up a refreshed Mugglenet site with at least 20 news items I had not seen. I don't know what was wrong, but it is safe to say that there was (or is) definitely a problem.
I decided I am going to be a coin collector. I picked up around 10 wheat pennies at the Larkspur the other day so I checked how much they were worth online. The highest one is only worth about 50 cents, but then I looked up all the other coins I have. I have a buffalo head nickel worth about 10 dollars (It would be worth more (like 80 dollars) except that it is pretty worn down). I have a 1932 Georgivs V Canadian One Cent that is worth some money too. I have some other coins that I pick up here and there, a bunch of foreign money, something from Japan I think, Germany, a half penny with Elizabeth II on it...If you come across some coins that look cool but you don't want them, let me know I'll add them to my collection.
I have to go finish packing.
6.12.2005
Fears
Alright, here is a big secret: I'm not really fearless. I know, I claim I am, but it isn't true. I'm a little afraid of heights and spiders. And one more thing. I'm afraid someone I'm close to will die. That someone isn't specific, it could be my mom, my brother, my grandma. But when I don't know where someone is I worry. Or like last night, I spent the night at my grandma's house. I think she has sleep apnea (which if you don't know is when you stop breathing when you sleep). I was listening to her breath while I was in bed one room away, I could hear her because she snores a little becaue of the apnea, except it wasn't a constant snore, in, out, in, out. No. It was more like in...o..ut......................i...n....ou..t. I would hold my breath until I heard her breath again. I'm afraid she will just stop breathing. Or if my mom or dad are out with some friends and it is getting kind of late I worry they will get in an accident or something. It is dumb that I worry and I know that I should stop. This is the first time I have ever said anything about it.
6.09.2005
One
For those of you who know me and read this, you can expect an email about this in a day or so, but for those random people out there who happen to stumble across this, I want to tell everyone about this site called One: Campaign to Make Poverty History. As the title states, it is a campaign to make extreme poverty (and AIDs and Starvation) history. If you go to www.one.org you can "sign" a declaration committing yourself to making the world better and safer for everyone. On the site you can buy wirst bands and watch the clip that has a bunch of famous people talking on it. I encourage everyone to go to this site because the cause is good. They don't ask for money, just your voice.
6.04.2005
I don't know
Well, I now have 6 people signed up for my club and the deadline was yesterday. Hopefully I can get a couple more to sign up. If you are looking for something profound here, sorry, this is deffinatly not it. The only reason I actually started trying this was because I was thinking about how no blogs (at least the ones I read) have been updated in almost a week, or in drastic cases a month (Kaia!). Since I have nothing of importance to say, I will tell you about a couple blogs i came across as I was 'Next Blog'ing it. One was this: a guy wrote about four paragraphs of a short story and then passed it on and someone at a different blog wrote the next few paragraphs and so one. It was kind of cool and I would try it, but I'd almost be afraid of where it went. I don't know, maybe I will. Another blog I came across directed me to a site where you can play 20 questions against the computer. I thought it was kinda cool, so I played a few games. If you want to play it is at this site:
I have to go do something constructive before I head off to Graduation parties.
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