College Tour and Some Coasters too.

intamin101 · #1 04-17-2004, 02:56 AM

Being a junior this year with an impressive acedemic record, I decided to travel to the east coast and look at some schools. The schools on my mini college tour included Johns Hopkins University, Georgetown University, and The College of William & Mary. We started our trip from Mitchell International Airport in Milwaukee, and we flew to Baltimore, Maryland.

Johns Hopkins University: When we got to Baltimore, it was raining, but it wasn't all that cold. We checked into a Radison out of the city, but very close to the University. We went out to dinner at very typical (but great) east coast seafood place called Bertha's Mussels. We spent the night and woke up early for my interview. A Johns Hopkins senior who worked in the admissions office conducted the interview and it lasted for about 45minutes. We mostly talked about what I like to do, and what drew me to the school. After the interview we went on a student lead tour around the campus. Though the tour was probably the shortest tour of the three I went on, it was still great at giving me a feel of the campus. I liked the campus a lot, as well as the feel that I got when I was there (even though it was wet from all the rain). A plus side to the facilities was definitely the nice athletic facilities for non-varsity athletes. However, something that really bothered me was that there was no student union... Overall it was certainly a great experience, and I will be very fortunate if I get accepted.

Georgetown University: Located in the midst of hundreds of amazing New England row houses in Washington DC, this university definitely has the atmosphere. While the most expensive of the universities on my college tour (at a modest $40,000 a year) that did not completely deter me from seriously consider this as my University of choice. The campus was great. Being a stones throw from the nations capital, there would never be any downtime or any loss of things to do. While the school is incredibly selective, after seeing the campus and finding that every student has many opportunities with many companies for internships, it is easy to see why. The only thing that I did not like about Georgetown, was that the information session seemed cold...whereas at the other Universities they let you know that they were very happy you came. Another aspect was the tour size. They only had one tour guide show up for about 50 people. This was inexcusable in my opinion. Johns Hopkins had 3 tour guides, and I believe William & Mary (read more below) had 8 or 9. While this things did bother me, I did keep in mind that I was looking at the school, and not their admissions office procedures. Overall, I still did like the school, and I will be looking into it more in the future.

The College of William & Mary: Walking on this campus definitely gives you the feeling, "this is what colleges look like." The campus had a perfect mix between historical elegance, and practical use. There were gardens and lawn, and even the dorms had ornamental pillars. There were many places around the campus that looked like they would just be fun to go to, or to hang out at. The information session was very good, and they definitely showed gratitude towards us for making the trip. There were also many tour guides so the tours were able to be faster, and more informative than the massive herd at Georgetown. The classes, the classrooms, and the oppertunities were all very attractive for what I have in mind, and I really think that I would fit in. If there is one reason for me to work hard for the rest of the school year, it is for this college.

Busch Gardens Williamsburg:First of all, I love this park. While it is smaller than I thought it would be, I still think it is great. Since I went to this park the same day I went to William & Mary, I only had 5 hours in the actual park. Who would have thought that I still got 11 roller coasters in. Immediately when we got into the park we headed towards Apollo's Chariot. When we were parking, the parking lot looked packed and we thought there would be long lines for everything, so we were very surprised to see that the line for AC started in the station. Now I have heard that this ride is hundreds of times better than Raging Bull, and I would have to disagree. While the ride is fantastic, and it may be better than RB, it only beats it out by a very little bit. The drop on RB is far better, and the end of RB is far better. The only thing AC beats RB on is the middle portion, and not even by that much. With that said, I suppose I am undecided on which ride is better... Anyway, we rode this ride 2 in the beginning, and 3 times at the end of the day (3 times in a row, because we got to stay on until the front row line was completely finished...which was very cool).

After AC was Alpengeist. This ride is in one word, great. Easily the most intense ride in the park, it ranks pretty high on my list. Everything about this ride is great, and in this case bigger is better. I really like the speed that the Cobra Roll is taken. I was also impressed that even due to the size of the inversions, there was no hang time in any rows (even though that can be fun sometimes too). The only thing not cool about this ride was that it broke down several times because there was something wrong with the restraints not unlocking. The only time this really bothered me was when I was stuck on it for 20min. Great ride though.

After Alpengeist was Big Bad Wolf. Whoever gave suspended coasters a bad rap should ride this. BBW is fantastic, and a must ride for anyone that gets the chance. While AC and Alpengeist are better rides, this one can not be completely forgotten. Suspended coasters mean one thing, perfect banking. This makes the ride incredibly comfortable, and the scenery placed all over the ride is great as well. The last drop is amazing, but I think that part could have been extended a bit.

The last ride we rode before going around again to reride other rides was Loch Ness Monster. This ride was much better than I was expecting, mostly because I did not expect the helix in the cave at all. It was a lot of fun.

Overall, I had a great time at Busch, and I had a great time at the Universities. I have a lot of work to do to ensure that I can get into one of those schools, and I am glad I had the oppertunity to try them on for size.