Recent College Tours
Finding a good college fit is where strategy meets intuition. As a college consultant, I regularly tour college campuses because there is nothing like experiencing a campus vibe in-person. From the energy in the student union to the quiet corners of the library, I look for the details that matter to your students’ daily lives. Scroll through my recent tours to get an unfiltered look at campus cultures near and far, and see where your student might find their home away from home.
I spent a beautiful spring day at Wake Forest University, and if you’re looking for “Big School Energy” (think ACC Division I sports) but want to be known by name in the classroom, WFU is a top contender.
📍 The Vibe: With ~5,600 undergraduates, you can walk across campus in 15 minutes. It’s tight-knit, high-energy, and about 60% of the social scene revolves around a relatively laid-back Greek life.
📚 The “Teacher-Scholar” Model: Professors here prioritize teaching alongside research.
Small classes: Average size is 20; the biggest you’ll see is ~60.
Hands-on: 60% of students partner with faculty on research.
Innovation: The new “Wake Downtown” hub (an old tobacco plant turned tech-mecca) is a total vibe for Biochem and Engineering.
🌍 Global Powerhouse: 81% of students study abroad (Top 5% in the US!). Wake owns buildings in London, Vienna, and Venice (literally on the Grand Canal).
🤝 Built-in Support: You start with a two-person mentor team (faculty + student) and keep them until you declare your major junior year.
💡 Admissions & The 2026 NC Gateway: Wake was a pioneer in Test-Optional admissions (50% apply without scores).
Even bigger news? For my local NC families, the new NC Gateway program is a game-changer for the 2026-2027 cycle: 💰 Income <$100k: Tuition + Housing covered. 💰 $100k - $200k: Full Tuition covered. 💰 $200k - $300k: 50% Tuition covered.
The Payoff? 97% of graduates are employed or in grad school within 6 months. 📉📈
#WFU #WakeForest #ProHumanitate #CollegeTour #NCGateway WinstonSalem CollegeConsultant ClassOf2027 DavidsonNC
Does the “College Talk” at the dinner table feel more like a guessing game? 🧩
I hear it from parents in Davidson and Lake Norman every week: “We know he’s a great student, but are we doing the right things at the right time?”
The truth is, “doing everything” isn’t a strategy. It’s a recipe for burnout.
That’s why I built the Custom College Plan Roadmap right into my website. Whether you have a Sophomore just starting to explore or a Junior staring down the barrel of application season, this tool helps you identify exactly where you are—and what needs to happen next.
No more “What-ifs.” Just clarity.
How to find your roadmap:
1️⃣ Click the link in my bio.
2️⃣ Scroll to the “Are you on track?” widget.
3️⃣ Get instant insight into your student’s journey.
Let’s trade the stress for a strategy. 🎓✨
#LakeNormanMoms #DavidsonNC #CollegeAdmissions #Classof2027 #Classof2028 CustomCollegePlan DrSoderlund
App State is one I’ve been wanting to “officially” visit for a while. Scroll through to see this beautiful campus in Boone, NC – recently listed as one of the South’s best college towns by Southern Living.
Community is the word that comes to mind most here. The motto is Esse Quam Videri — “To be, rather than to seem” — and you can truly feel that authenticity on campus. From students hammocking on the green to a high-stakes pool game in the student center on a Monday morning, this community is alive! 🎱☕️
☀️ The “Doer” Culture: If your student wants to dive into research or join a world-class solar car team on Day 1, they’ll find their people here. 🏎️
💎 Incredible Value: 1 in 4 App State students graduate with zero debt. The ROI here is a standout for a public university.
🏟️ Big School Perks, Small School Feel: You get the roar of 17+ NCAA D1 sports (Go App! 🖤💛) but an average class size of just 24.
🪄 The Honors College Advantage: This is a game-changer. Think specialized advising, guaranteed housing on the top floors of Cone Hall, and unique seminars like Harry Potter & Social Justice or Living Mindfully.
🚨 Pro-Tip for the Class of 2027/2028: While App has rolling admissions, the priority deadline for the Honors College and scholarships is moving to November 1st this year! They really want to know who you are outside the classroom, so start thinking about those personal statements early. 📝
Are you a Boone fan? 🏔️ Drop a 🖤💛 if App State is on your student’s list!
#AppState #BooneNC #CollegeTour #ClassOf2027 #CollegeAdmissions SoderlundCollegeConsulting HighCountry CollegeBound
Duke University is a beautiful campus with 6,523 undergraduates across 8,693 acres, which includes the Duke Gardens and Duke Research Forest.🌳 🪴
Student Profile and Vibe👩🎓🧐:
Admissions seeks students who demonstrate intellectual curiosity, imagination, a drive to
impact their community, and an interest in being personally and intellectually challenged.
With 85% of students living on campus, the university fosters a vibrant, intentional living-learning ethos.
Academics & Faculty 📚📖📓:
Class Size: 70% of classes have fewer than 15 students.
Faculty Ratio: The faculty-to-student ratio is 6:1.
Mentorship: Students receive a stipend each semester to facilitate faculty-student interaction, such as taking a professor to lunch.
Curriculum: A new curriculum, adopted last year after 30 years, emphasizes the values of Connections, Curiosity, and Humility.
Majors: 80% of students pursue more than one major.
Outcomes & Global Engagement 📥🌍:
Internships: 90% of students complete an internship, often through the Duke Summer Experience Program, which has opportunities locally, domestically (e.g., Duke in DC, Duke in Silicon Valley), and internationally.
Graduation Rate: 95% graduate in 4 years.
Post-Grad Employment: 99% of students with a graduate degree are employed, across 602 unique employers and 205,000 alumni.
Study Abroad: 56% of students study abroad.
Sustainability: Duke achieved climate neutrality in 2024.
NC State is a large and impressive R1 institution. Their motto, “Think and Do” reflects their history as a land-grant university, which is more focused on agriculture, engineering, and science, and less on the humanities or the liberal arts.
These days, there is less difference between a land-grant “people’s college” and a liberal arts college. Liberal Arts colleges now have robust science programs, and universities like NC State have colleges dedicated to the Humanities.
The one difference that remains is that when you apply, you are admitted to a major within a particular college; there is no “General Admission” at NC State. It is possible to apply to “exploratory studies,” which allows students time to decide on a major (however, they must apply to the major and be accepted into it). Students in exploratory studies have their own dormitory and advising.
With 28K undergraduates, first-year classes are large with 100-200 per class in general education requirements. As you get into your major courses, class size drops to an average of 36.
NC State is a sprawling two-campus University of over 2000 acres, and that’s not counting research forests and land. Students spend most of their time on Main Campus, which has a variety of residence halls, dining halls, and classroom buildings. The newer Centennial Campus is a research park and houses the engineering and biomedical sciences classrooms and labs. There is a free bus system that shuttles students between campuses and other stops around Raleigh.
Students at NC State will be doing research throughout their college career, and they will also have access to one of the largest co-op (cooperative learning) programs in the State. Co-op programs are paid jobs that help students get hands-on learning in their field while pursuing a degree.
NC State is highly competitive, especially for out-of-state students (capped at 18%), and is consistently ranked in the Top 10 for Return on Investment (ROI). Competitive applicants typically have mostly A’s, strong AP/Honors, and clear demonstrated interest in their chosen major.
#NCState #ThinkAndDo #R1University
#CollegeAdmissions #GoPack
Visited UNC-Chapel Hill on a 🩵Carolina Blue🩵 day! 🐏
🔬🧬🥼 I was a postdoc at UNC and worked with students from UNC, Duke, and UNCG. True to form, as an R1 research institution located in the Research Triangle, *all* undergraduates participate in faculty-led research. And believe it or not, UNC and Duke are academically collaborative and friendly – basketball is another story. 🏀 (Go Heels!)
One of the things I love about UNC is the vibe 😎– there are students everywhere: in the libraries, on the greens, in the pit. Students hang out on campus, and there is a strong sense of the close-knit “Carolina Community.”
💡UNC’s new IDEAs in Action curriculum is a flexible framework designed to develop critical thinking and allows students to personalize their education and explore majors until Sophomore year (though pre-professional programs like Business, Journalism, and Computer Science require an application).
📚Three of the four students on the panel at the information session I attended came to UNC thinking they wanted to study business. Through advising and the first-year foundations, they all ended up in different majors, such as Management Science, Public Policy, and Human and Organization Leadership. The fourth student on the panel came to UNC for political science and loved Econ 101 so much that he began taking other business prerequisites, and then applied and was accepted into the pre-professional business administration major.
Admissions focus on Learning, Leadership, and Service, looking for academic rigor, meaningful time outside of academics, and contribution to community. It’s important that your application shows admissions who you are in addition to academic rigor.
🌲🏫 “You won’t just learn it, you’ll do it.” Every student at Warren Wilson works and earns credit towards tuition.
As one of the eight work-learning-service colleges in the US, students at Warren Wilson feel that they are prepared for their career paths.
797 students on 1000 acres and 50 programs of study, Warren Wilson is a small liberal arts and science college with a strong focus on hands-on and community-engaged learning.
🦉There are over 70 work crews at Warren Wilson with something for everyone – from a full working farm, library, to working in the campus’s own vegetarian restaurant, Cowpie or the student coffee house, the Owl’s Nest. Students work 10 to 16 hours per week and earn $ 3,000 toward tuition.
Students who are enthusiastic about nature and the outdoors, are artistic, creative, and open-minded will thrive at Warren Wilson. While small, it is a vibrant community with something going on every weekend, whether it’s one of many craft fairs, rock climbing, contra dancing, or outdoor adventures.
Faculty-student collaboration is a key component of education, with an 11:1 student-faculty ratio. Service-learning is well integrated into the coursework, as are life skills and career development.
Stand Out Features:
🌲🔭🎹⛰️Ecological Forestry, Outdoor Business, Environmental Science, Animal Science, Traditional Music, and Appalachian Studies are some of the unique programs offered.
📚Student -support services: With a focus on inclusivity and neurocomplexity support, students with all kinds of learning styles will be supported.
🐖Working-Farm and Farm Store
🌍Faculty led Study Abroad opportunities
15 minutes from Asheville on 1000 acres of land, Warren Wilson is a beautiful nature-filled campus characterized by Craftsman-style architecture. There is housing for all students and something for everyone, including a dorm with extended “quiet hours” or the very cool ecodorm. You can even bring a pet to college with you!
⛰️📚As the only liberal arts and science college in the UNC system, UNC Asheville is a hidden gem in the beautiful mountain town of Asheville, NC. Things like small class sizes, experiential learning, and research opportunities for undergraduates are factors usually found at much pricier private colleges. This is one reason why UNCA was included as an example of Jeff Selingo’s “Dream Schools.”
Why it stands out:
🏛️Small class sizes (average 16!): Get personalized attention and build strong relationships with professors.
👏Experiential learning & research: 65% of undergrads get involved in research, and faculty-student collaborations are the norm here.
📖Flexible curriculum: A well-rounded education that emphasizes community-engaged and experiential learning.
🔭🌱🎶Strong Programs: Atmospheric Science (the only school in the UNC system to offer a B.S. rather than a B.A.in Astronomy), Biology, Environmental Studies, Health Sciences, Music, Psychology, and Visual Arts are strong programs at UNCA. Plus, they have a joint Mechatronics Engineering program with NC State, where you can earn diplomas from both institutions.
🌏Global experiences: Fantastic study abroad programs, including faculty-led trips to China, Ghana, Greece, Italy, England, and Spain, as well as exchange programs worldwide.
If you’re looking for a collaborative, engaging, and unique college experience, put UNC Asheville on your list!
#UNCAsheville #CollegeCounselor #HigherEd #LiberalArts #STEM #StudyAbroad #CollegeSearch #HiddenGem #AshevilleNC #CollegeLife
