We crammed in 5 college tours this Spring semester and it was exhausting. Lyndsey traveled with us to OU and TCU. We did A&M with Kylie and Baylor and Ole Miss solo. Her favorite all along was TCU but she wasn't paying for TCU…..it was double what any public University is. $55,000 to go to TCU or Baylor. A&M is about $24,000 and Ole Miss and OU can be close to that if she gets high enough on her ACT.
She did not like OU. But in all fairness it was our first college visit. The campus wasn't all that pretty and she did not like the dorm rooms. I wish I had captured her face when she saw the closet. I think it paved the way for the future very small closets she saw and the shock wasn't as big.
And of course this road trip came with snuggles
We also went with Lyndsey to tour TCU. No one really wanted to get up on that Saturday morning and take the 30 minute drive from Dallas to Ft Worth. When we left there we thought "How can this school not be a contender". If it wasn't so dang expensive!! Of course the girls loved all the flowers that are planted weekly and the very fancy cappachino machine and bottled water. They also liked the size of the campus (8000 students) and the fun things they talked about doing on campus.
NEXT UP TEXAS A&M…
Of course I had to take her on a formal tour of A&M and we drug Kylie along with us who also had an interest in it. THAT was a long day. I had lined up a campus tour, dorm tour, business school tour and a one on one consult with my friends in the Industrial Distribution department. I would overhear her teal people the weeks following that she thinks I want her to go to A&M. Well of course I would LOVE for her to experience A&M like I did 20 years ago. I would LOVE for her to fall in love with the University like I did. But to be honest I don't know that it's the right fit for her. They are up to 60,000 students and trying to get to 80,000. That's GINORMOUS! I think she might get lost. I think she might have trouble finding her way academically. I think she needs a little more attention or a way to stand out. I think it might be hard for her stand out there. She wants to cheer though which is why A&M was automatically ruled out before we even started. I had to take her there though in case she had an 'I LOVE THIS PLACE' moment. I don't think she did. And that's okay.
I took the girls up the night before so they could experience Breakaway…a huge church like service for Aggies on Tuesday nights. It got a little uncomfortable when the speaker came out after a few songs and said the Lord called him to stop his current series and do a 2 week talk on something very serious in today's world….pornography. Both girls slowly turned their head toward me and were staring straight through me. I made them sit through it because you know God's word doesn't return void and for some reason God wanted them to hear that talk. The next morning I woke up to this….maybe they should have heard a Biblical perspective on same sex marriage. I'm kidding of course!
WHO’S NEXT?? Calli had done a cheer clinic with Baylor earlier this year. Her time with that collegiate team is what made her decide she wanted to do collegiate cheer. She really liked the clinic and the athletes she met and they all talked about how fun it was. So a natural next visit was to do a formal tour of Baylor. Calli and I made a quick day trip up by ourselves. The best part of the trip was we arrived early enough to stop by the famous Magnolia Market….owned by Chip & Joanna Gaines from the HGTV show, Fixer Upper. It was a beautiful store and setting for families to play, eat, hangout and shop.
We then went on the tour of Baylor. A place her dad had on his number 1 for her until he heard the cost….gulp $58,000. That's per year. Good grief! We toured anyways just in case she fell in love. Well she didn't! We did the whole tour on a bus and got off the bus like 2 times to see something that seemed really irrelevant. One of the stops was at their football stadium. They walked us down on the field, told us their traditions and let us spend like 20 minutes taking pictures. It was cool for Calli because she wants to cheer. But I thought it was a weird focal point. Calli had already decided she didn't like it so it wasn't a wow factor to her really.
Our 5th and final place was Ole Miss. I was trying to squeeze in this tour before school was out so she could be on campus when the students were there. So we managed a quick trip up during their finals week. This was her number 1 choice all along strictly based on the cheer program. She follows the cheer program on social media and liked their program. We had been in touch with their coach earlier in the year who had invited her to a practice but she couldn't ever make it work with her Woodlands Elite practices. Ole Miss isn't a quick day trip unfortunately. They announced a new coach the week before we visited so we'll have to get plugged in with her. So we flew up on a Sunday, toured on Monday and flew back on Tuesday. She really, really liked it. I LOVED it! We had an informational session, toured the campus, toured the dorms, and met with a business school advisor. The business school advisor took us around the building and stopped and talked to several students who all talked about how they loved it there. We also stopped by the Phi Mu house to see her friend Madison Simmons. She was studying for exams and was a little stressed but she took time to come say hi. And we met some of her friends who all talked about how they loved it.
I think it's the perfect spot for her. It's far away which I think will be good for her. She's going to spread her wings and as Madison said "Calli you are going to blossom in college". It's the perfect size, 18,000. It has the #7 accounting school in the country if she wanted to do that (which she thinks she might), it has a huge greek life (which she wants to do) and a great cheer program and game day atmosphere. I saw a top 30 ranking of cheer programs recently where they gave points to each program for their game day atmosphere, competitive outcomes, academics of the school, and scholarships given. Ole Miss ranked #6. I think it's a great place for her. Her ONLY concern is that it's so far. I think she can get over that and she'll be fine.
And we stayed in this ADORABLE one bedroom cabin of our friends Tim & Marcia Parsons. It's about 10 minutes from campus on 20 acres and so perfect. I can't wait to go back and stay there when we visit again.
So the 5th and final school was the one. Now she's got to work hard to make the cheer team. It's not going to be an automatic. She'll have some tough competition. I've watched some of the videos of the kids that just tried out. The work will be worth it and if she doesn't happen to make it, she's really excited about the greek life too which will keep her busy. She wants to do both though….she's going to have to learn to not like sleep so much :)
