College Visit
Murfreesboro, TN
September 27, 2019
Like a tobacco company with a state attorney general, things in our family seem ready to settle. Last week I accepted my latest job. This week Alexander’s first university accepted him.
After he and his mother visited Auburn on Monday, Alexander joined me at Middle Tennessee State today. We made the very pleasant three-hour drive yesterday afternoon, checked into our hotel, and went straight to dinner.
The next morning we would explore classrooms, libraries, and dorms. But accessibility to clubs, bars, and restaurants is integral, perhaps essential, to any worthwhile college experience…particularly when the parents visit.
So, our priorities intact, we drove another thirty minutes, and were soon walking down Broadway, in the heart of Nashvegas.
Within minutes we realized that the confluence of crowds, noise, and intoxication of middle age adults was a bit more of the college experience than either one of us needed. So we let whatever happened in Nashvegas stay in Nashvegas, and migrated into other parts of this very appealing city.
The weather was pleasant, and a delightful breeze wafted off the Cumberland. It carried us a few blocks south, past the impressive Neo-Classical Symphony Hall, the Music City Walk of Fame, and (naturally) the Country Music Hall of Fame.
We eventually landed at Barlines tavern where, like spotting a mint julep at Churchill Downs, we somehow stumbled upon live music. By the time we returned to our hotel, I expected a live band in our room. Almost no place in Nashville is without one.
This morning we arrived at MTSU and met the delightful girl who would lead our campus tour. A junior studying pre-Law, she is a native of nearby Smyrna, TN who looked and sounded like Reese Witherspoon.
She could not have been a better ambassador for the area or her school. With sincere enthusiasm and ready answers, she guided us through or past most colleges, both student centers, the library, and essential destinations like the recreation center and the stadium. She also offered great advice.
“Get involved early. Wherever you go to school, whether MTSU or anywhere else, find clubs or activities you are interested in and join them. This school has a lot, and they will help you get plugged in.
“It may be tempting to wait till you ‘settle in’, or to decide you don’t need to participate in anything, but that is a mistake. If you wait, you’ll never do it, and others will have moved on without you. When you are just starting, other new students want to meet you too. Let them do it. You’ll be glad you did. This place will quickly become a second home, as it is for me. I love it here.”
Over 20,000 students attend MTSU, but the population on the grounds feels much smaller. It was active but not crowded, like a southern town square, and with stereotypical hospitality.
The campus is fine, but not beautiful. Most architecture is conventional, and generally unremarkable. A few nice exceptions date from the school’s founding in 1911, and bear the Greek revival influence common to that era. A couple more recent buildings are sleek, expensive, and new…like domestic versions of the cars and wives that crowd the Hamptons in August.
But what they lack in sturdy dignity and enduring charm, they compensate in practical functionality, easy comfort, and modern amenities. And coffee, like Coca-Cola in earlier generations, is always within an arm’s reach of desire.
They are surrounded and separated by open space and extensive quads, some adorned with almond groves (ostensibly from Washington’s Mt Vernon) to relax or stimulate the harried collegiate mind. The diners, shops, and cafes of Murfreesboro’s Main Street offer additional escape, and are within a ten minute walk.
A few miles away is the Murfreesboro Municipal Airport, home to the MTSU Flight School and the reason for Alexander’s interest. He wants to be a commercial airline pilot, and MTSU is one of the premier flight schools in the country. It is also one of only eight universities hosting Delta’s Propel program that Alexander wants to join.
Others include Western Michigan, where Alexander thinks the temperature is too low…and Auburn, where his parents find the cost too high. At MTSU, the porridge seems just right. The program is identical, the weather is temperate, and Alexander should qualify for at least a partial scholarship. And he could be flying as soon as his second semester.
We learned after our tour that Alexander’s earlier application had been accepted, and that the confirmation had been mailed to us that morning. The school offers the program he is looking for, provides a plethora of extra-curricular activities, is in a great location, and seems filled with nice, helpful students who will contribute to a complete college experience.
We have more evaluation to do, documents to read, people to talk to, options to consider. But one opinion matters more than most, and Alexander offered it as we strolled the main quad after our tour.
“I like this. I can see myself going to school here.”
This may have been the first of many trips.
JD
