Today was Stacey's Birthday, so we celebrated by getting up early in the morning and driving up to Greeley for our first official college tour at UNC.
On paper UNC has looked like the best overall option for Julia and her pursuit of a Bachelor of Science in Nursing, so we were excited to see it in person. Overall we have been very impressed with the communication and organization at UNC, but you can't get the overall vibe and details of a place without seeing it in person.
We arrived a little bit early even though we had to take the toll road around Denver to get there in time. There was a presentation given, then a campus tour of the dorms, classrooms, and dining facilities. We saw a lot and learned a lot, all of which were pleasant surprises on the living and dining situations.
The campus isn't huge, so we then took a short walk over to the Nursing School building for our specialty tour and Q&A of that building. Again, we were really impressed and learned a lot about their program, how it works, and being able to see the actual classrooms, labs, and simulation rooms they had on site for Nursing. We ended the trip with a quick drive by my grandparents old house, seeing a little bit of the town, and then a stop at a cute coffee shop.
We all had the same impression and got the same vibe that UNC seems like it would be a great fit for Julia. We really liked a lot about it...the size, the community, the cost and Julia's small academic scholarship and the overall vibe of the place. Not to mention the Nursing School itself and how qualified the staff seems to be and the good facilities. UNC is also far enough away to be "at college" but only 2 hours drive from home for when we want to make the trip back and forth. The other limited options in Colorado have some pretty big drawbacks one way or another, and we really didn't see any major negatives at UNC. It just sort of felt like the right place for Julia, so we'll see where we go from here!
