tamryn, My son continues to say that his time at BU were the "best four years of my life".

Best of luck to your daughter!

Thanks again for all the words of encouragement! Second time around with college hunting is a bit more relaxing, but its always wonderful when your child has that "lightbulb" moment. Next April will be a time of final decisions, but at least for now we have a game plan. Not to say that I will do ANY complaining about "having" to visit my DD in Boston! My friends and I always say though that this whole thing is wasted on 18 year olds-why can't we do it again;))

Tamryn: Your comment " Not that I will do ANY complaining about "having" to visit my DD in Boston! "

made me laugh ! My husband wanted one of our kids to go to Skimore just because he loved
the area and wanted to be able to spend some long weekends there !! Of course, none of them took him up on that, lovely as the school is, they made other choices NOT based on where their father wanted to visit. ;)

Those darn kids, they have a way of doing that, don't they?! :-d

tamryn, even though I posted on this thread earlier, I confess to skimming through the other posts.

I just skimmed through it again and noticed your mention of being from Chicago. We live in the western suburbs.

As I mentioned in my post recommending T.Anthony's, one of my daughter's best friends from h.s. went to BU her first year. Her decision to transfer closer to home (Judson in Elgin) had much more to do with the fact that she had a boyfriend at home than with either BU or Boston. I think she actually liked both very much.

Our daughter goes to school in Amherst, MA, about 2 hours west of Boston. Yes, it's hard on both her and us to have her so far away. But she loves her school and there is absolutely no doubt in my mind that it's exactly where she needs to be at this point in her life. But, far more importantly, there's no doubt in <b>her</b> mind that that's where she needs (and wants) to be!

Best of luck to you and your daughter. We too are doing the college visit thing with our second (and youngest) child. I agree with you that it's easier in some ways. But it's harder in others!

CAPH52-I guess its alright to &quot;hijack&quot; my own post with my personal info! We are in the western suburbs as well. Couldn't agree more about the school fit issue with our kids. I also know that it is a mystical process that all seems much clearer in retrospect than during the process. I would have bet money against the choice my oldest daughter made, but there she is happy as can be at ND! Thanks again for the help from all.