<p>My youngest D will be a senior next fall and has been working on her list of colleges that she will apply to. When we began discussing how she should choose what colleges to put on her list, she started laughing and said that a college would have to meet three criteria. All of the following would have to be close by:</p>
<li>a Scheetz station/deli</li>
<li>a Panera Bread bakery/deli</li>
<li>a Long John Silver’s restaurant</li>
</ol>
<p>Of course she was joking (or was she??), but the joke was on me when we found two of the three close to Clemson University, the first college that sha has visited! LOL</p>
<p>Anyone else have any funny stories to share?</p>
<p>One of my unofficial criteria has been at least one Chinese take-out restaurant within walking distance (or very easy public transportation) of the campus. That actually does require some research because I'm not a city person and am looking at rural places like Grinnell, Carleton, Williams. (By the way, Williams does NOT meet the above criteria... Williamstown has one Asian restaurant, a Japanese-Thai fusion place that I tried and didn't like much.)</p>
<p>A friend of mine crossed off NC State because "the campus had no trees."</p>
<p>My son applied to many places for inexplicable reasons. When I would ask why, he would have no good answer. When he then got INTO these schools he would shrug and say he wasn't planning to accept (he already had two EA acceptances that he preferred even BEFORE he applied to the other schools).</p>
<p>He also applied somewhere because they offered him free application, etc. Ultimately he is going there, but never would have applied if they hadn't offered him a free application!</p>
<p>Well I don't think it is a silly reason- but one reason why she even decided to look at her school, was because it has a cat dorm.
Also good coffee ( more my criteria)
A swingset on campus ( not for child care- there isn't any)
also could be a silly reason-</p>
<p>A cat dorm? As in you can bring your own cat? Or they provide one for you? That might be a selling point for my DD as she is going to miss her pets when she goes off to college ;)</p>
<p>Also not necessarily so silly - some students are attracted to a campus in close proximity to a surfable and nice beach. For many the 'look' of the campus is important - i.e. the traditional college brick look and some modern look. I know from CC here that some have wanted a place where they can bring their horse - also not necessarily silly.</p>
<p>Actually, the swingset reason DID figure into our search, as DS needs the sensory stimulation that swinging provides. Was always interesting to see the reaction of the adcom when we'd ask if there was a park with a swingset nearby.</p>
<p>With 10 year hind-sight, silliest reason S applied to a second school was because Mom insisted. He knew where he wanted to go - he got in and was happy - I worried that he might change his mind and want another choice come May. He found a school that didn't require any essays and sent in his application with no intention of ever setting foot there.</p>
<p>Because S listened to mom and mom's then b/f. The b/f suggested a local school (for him)that he thinks is great, but it lacked science classes at S's level. Mom suggested a college where a dozen family members had attended, going back to grandparents, but S not accepted. In reality, only the tech schools seriously considered a junior applying at absolute deadline.</p>
<p>My daughter applied to Reed in part because they allow cats in some dorms. My daughter took her cat with her, all four years. The cat loved it, and I believe it helped my daughter to succeed. (Note: yep, same school EK4's daughter went to.)</p>
<p>MIT also has some limited cat dorms. My son chose NOT to take his cat, though.</p>
<p>Well, I chose my schools mostly based on proximity to skiing: original list was Dartmouth, University of Colorado at Boulder, and Lake Tahoe Community College at Incline Village.
My mother found the latter two offensive ("You cannot base your future on snow!") and I eventually ended up planning a list of ivies/lacs/UCs, but I still ended up going to Dartmouth ED </p>
<p>Also, I am not a competitive/high level skiier by any means, only really started going a lot when my friend was driving up to tahoe with the boy I liked.</p>
<p>Choosing a school based on quirky criteria makes more sense to me than NOT choosing a school based on certain criteria (see the other thread). Most of the schools on a kid's list will be within a certain academic range, allowing for safeties, both academic and financial. Kids already know how to go to school and do school-related things. They need to learn to negotiate their real lives, the time they spend outside of class. So, having criteria of lifestyle are sensible. I think. My D grew up in NYC and her HS is in an ugly neighborhood. She is an art major, so her main criteria, outside of academics, was that the campus had to be beautiful. It made sense to me!</p>
<p>D applied to Bowdoin because she met some cute guys from Maine Maritime. S applied to Missouri S&T because, among other things, he liked their Stonehenge replica.</p>