<p>@modestmelody’s #22 - Ironically, I am always annoyed when tours DON’T take me into the library.</p>
<p>So much is based on taste. I loved Swarthmore on both of my previous visits, for instance, while I found Cornell’s campus an immediate turn-off; it took us 20 minutes just to get from admissions parking to tour start point. Students may have to walk a mile of hills from dorm to class.</p>
<p>The flip side to my feeling like cattle at Cornell was the tour at Mt Holyoke when the tour guide said “Wow, I’ll try to speak up–we’ve got a big group today!” </p>
<p>There were exactly EIGHT of us.</p>
<p>@Keilexandra</p>
<p>Just for my own interest, I totally understand people have different tastes, but what do you gain out of walking into a library? Why is a library an important stop on a tour? Not only are they all relatively similar (have similar kinds of spaces, even if some look nice than others), but what can a tour guide say to you while in a library to make your time there more valuable than walking in and taking a peak by yourself?</p>
<p>The tour at Claremont McKenna was really nice… i didn’t like the buildings themselves, but the tour guides were ULTRA friendly and their friends would join in and tell people to come to CMC haha. They also found a really sweet old prof in his room who came out and talked to us for a bit. The tour guides stayed behind and answered a ton of questions; all very friendly and helpful. </p>
<p>The Pomona tour sucked, not gonna lie. The girls who lead the tours all seemed pretty aloof from us, and we actually got kicked out of a building cuz we weren’t supposed to be in there or something like that. Gorgeous campus though.</p>
<p>^^ I have a semi-irrational soft spot for libraries. It doesn’t have to be architecturally beautiful, although that helps–the important thing is that I’m comfortable and can imagine myself studying there for four years. I think the main library is an integral part of any college and should therefore be part of any tour that attempts to survey the campus. It annoys me when I have to poke around and find my own way to a stop that should have been on any basic tour.</p>
<p>I disagree that all libraries are relatively similar. I’ve visited over 20 schools and seen at least the outside of 20+ libraries, inside of 90% of them. Vassar/Yale/Rochester go for the marble-Gothic look, but all have these great cozy reading rooms. Haverford’s library is just cozy, period. Bryn Mawr’s main library is terrible–one of the two obvious entrances involves walking down a rectangular metal stair frame. <–That’s a really bad description, but it felt like a “modern” NYC loft kind of staircase. And the rest of the library felt cold, sterile, not comfy at all. Contrast with Oberlin’s library, which is really ugly from the outside (plain concrete slabs) but intentionally bright and colorful (and has womb chairs!). I knew Cornell was too big for me when I saw the library–there was this huge study room filled with rows and rows of desk carrels under fluorescent lighting. Um, no thanks.</p>
<p>That’s what I get out of libraries.</p>
<p>Main libraries are only half of it. Penn has Van Melt (60s meh) and the Fisher Fine Arts library (one of the most architecturally innovative and beautiful libraries in America, a masterpiece of Furness). I made liberal use of both…</p>
<p>I’ll agree with ilovebagels that it’s very important to go beyond main libraries… I never go into the Rock (our main library), but I love the John Hay and the SciLi. That being said, libraries are also far from the only study spaces on campus, and my favorite nooks are non-library locations. ::shrugs:: To me, seeing a reading room and spaces with desks and chairs and books was a waste of ten minutes, so long as we walked by and I knew where to go if I wanted to look on my own that was plenty for me. Even then, I would have never look on my own. I guess I still don’t get it other than to agree to disagree. </p>
<p>It does seem to me like there’s nothing about having a guide with you while in a library that’s special, so I guess my theory of the purpose of the tour is different as well. In my opinion, if there’s nothing added by having a student with you there then you shouldn’t be looking at that spot. I also don’t think you should walk to places that break the flow of the tour-- no doubling back.</p>
<p>Columbia was beautiful. The campus is small, but what’s there is impressive, at least to me; it was very open and aesthetically pleasing. Tour was personal and informative; Morningside Heights, the area surrounding Columbia’s campus, is definitely more urban than the others on your list.</p>
<p>BC is absolutely gorgeous, the quintessential collegiate gothic look. It’s less urban than Columbia, but minutes away from inner Boston, so the surrounding area is pretty calm. I can’t really remember too many specifics, but I do remember the tour being pretty good.</p>
<p>George Washington was so-so, tour was alright. I’m not particularly into the urban campus atmosphere, so it didn’t really do it for me. If you’re really enthusiastic about the city you might like it more.</p>
<p>Georgetown was fantastic, it definitely takes the cake for surrounding area. The neighborhoods were beautiful and incredibly historic, with Kennedys, Rockefellers, and many others still living there. Lots of great shopping and restaurants but still semi-secluded from the city. Campus was beautiful, not as stunning as BC, but still extremely pretty.</p>
<p>I guess I’ll throw in my two cents since I visited quite a few, and my decision was basically made by how well I liked the campus…</p>
<p>TCNJ - Terrible tour guide, I was not a fan of the campus at all, barely felt like one.
Rutgers - Great tour guide, campus is really nice, just way too big for me.
Brown - Pretty good tour guide, campus just wasn’t really my style, but still pretty good overall.
UPenn - Terrible tour guide (historical stuff), campus also did not seem that great to me, did not like the area it was in.
Holy Cross - Extremely small campus, library is awesome, tour guide was great, small is not my type though.
Boston College - Probably my second favorite in terms of looks, huge, gothic architecture = I love, tour guide was decent too, the student body was ehh though
Tufts - Seemed like the coolest group of students, probably 3rd favorite in terms of looks, AWESOME tour guide
Georgetown - Pretty compact, but overall really cool looking campus and decent tour guide. Once again, student body was ehh.
Lehigh - Campus was not really my style and way too many hills. Tour guide was good though.
Lafayette - Too small for me, but still pretty cool campus and great tour guide.
Boston University - Had a blast walking through the campus, but again, it was not my style, but tour guide was awesome.
Cornell - Obviously my favorite, loved the wide variety of styles and such, and I actually loved how it was big. Walking over beautiful gorges everyday for class is like beyond awesome, and it’s like a perfect blend of nature and education in my opinion. The second I visited, I knew it was my number one choice because of how it looked. I also know two people that turned down Yale/Princeton to go to Cornell because they loved the campus so much. Tour guide was also by far the best. Someone mentioned earlier about lack of crowd control; yes, we had like 20 people in tour group, but I was in the back and heard every word and was thoroughly entertained the entire time. Also, the library is like Hogwarts!</p>
<p>Sorry about Cornell rant, but I wanted to emphasize how I chose it over all the others lol.</p>
<p>BC had some beautiful buildings- inside and out. The campus is nicely compact and in a suburban setting. It is in a league of its own.</p>
<p>My next favorite was Swarthmore. The setting was really lovely. An Arboretum with plants and trees . An outdoor amphitheater. The buildings were well maintained and are carefully thought out.</p>
<p>Yale’s cathedral-library seduced me, but Swarthmore’s amphitheatre was so tranquil and peaceful and perfect.</p>