We started the morning off with donuts. The maple long Johns disappeared fast. We then made our way over to campus around 9am. We did some walking around before our tour at 10am which lasted 2 hours. After the official tour, we walked over to the honors college quad area to check it out since it was not included in the tour.
Here is the large mall around which most of the major campus buildings are arranged.
Cool mural statue in front of one of the five different chemistry buildings. Their science facilities are impressive- especially for chemistry and space science.
Why does everything around campus say “Bear Down” when the mascot is a wildcat?
Answer:
Wildcat family statue on the mall.
Ashton really liked the feel of UofA!
There were all sorts of different cacti and other desert plants artistically arranged around campus in addition to the famous Saguaro. We liked this one the best. It looks like a ribbon prickly pear.
Cool palm tree with multiple trunks.
Top 10 things we liked: (in no particular order)
1) The strong science reputation of the school.
2) If you placed all of the Mexican restaurants in Tucson in a row, they would be over 23 miles long!
3) The large campus mall and desert plant arrangements.
4) The honors college community.
5) The traditional feel of the campus (for Derek, Ashton, and I. Zach says he prefers the more modern feel of ASU).
6) Therapy dogs with the Dean on the mall every week on Thursdays!
7) Tuition awards based on high school performance (Z received one of these).
8) Undergraduate research opportunities as early as freshman year.
9) The campus is fairly contained, most within a 1 mile x 1 mile square area. Most of the important buildings are centered around the large campus mall.
10) Tucson has better scenery than Tempe.
Things that we were not so keen on:
1) The heat!!!
2) Students must pay for laundry, dorm housekeeping, and all tickets for sporting events.
3) No free t-shirt. But we got one for $10 with an offered tour discount.
4) Unfortunately the tour was not specific to students interests and major choice.
5) The only dormitory with its own cafeteria is the honors college.
6) The wildcat mascots, Wilbur and Wilma, are a bit creepy.
7) The honor college is fairly isolated geographically from the rest of the main campus. Not bad, per se, just weird.
All in all, not much to complain about. UofA is an excellent university. However, ASU in Tempe really resonated with Zach, especially with his interest in Engineering. So looks like we will have a Sun Devil in the family next year. We will keep an eye on Ashton though. He really liked the UofA campus.
After a long morning with lots of walking, information overload, and tons of sun, we went to the Guadalajara Grill for a midday dinner. It did not disappoint. The food was outstanding!!! Derek and I split a grapefruit margarita. Very tasty!
Salsa was prepared tableside!
Sorry no additional pictures of food because we were ravenous. Plates were licked clean!
We went back to the hotel for a 3pm cool off in the pool. The boys were being rowdy.
After some R&R, we headed out to explore the desert and mountain scenery at sunset. Beautiful! A stop for ice cream also happened.
Me wearing our $10 UofA shirt. We actually got it for Ashton, but I borrowed it since I needed an extra shirt after swimming. (Also how we initially knew that Z was not going to choose UofA when he said that Ash could have the shirt.)
Silly boys!
We will all sleep well tonight I think after our big day. Tomorrow we will explore Karchner Caverns State Park before driving home. Stay tuned!
Maybe UofA should change their mascot to the Bears! Dixie
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