<p>I am just wondering because my parents told me they both knew where they wanted to go from the time they steped on campus.</p>
<p>I have already been on a few college visits and likes the colleges very much but I didn't get any special feeling?</p>
<p>Am i sopposed to?</p>
<p>I know this sounds like a weird question so please don't be mean, just respond if you know what I am talking about.</p>
<p>Yes, this happened to me. It was a week before the deadline to decide, and I went to the admitted student day. I knew when I stepped out of the car that I was going to that college. It’s not really a feeling, it’s more a realization. But yes, I know what you’re talking about.</p>
<p>but did you arleady visit the college before, or was teh students day your frist time</p>
<p>It was actually my second time visiting. The first time I visited was in the summer, so I didn’t get the right feel.</p>
<p>oh I see. I wish i could find a college like that :-(</p>
<p>I never felt that way about any of my schools either. it’s a different feeling for different people. for me it wasn’t so much “omg i love this place!” but more of a comfortable feeling.</p>
<p>I went to visit NYU, which has no campus…</p>
<p>…and decided that is where I wanted to spend four year of my undergraduate education.</p>
<p>did u know like right when u got there</p>
<p>When I got to the university that I ultimately ended up attending I got a feeling of “This is what college is supposed to feel like”. I don’t know if it was the architecture, or just awesome campus, but I just had the feeling. This was also my first time visiting. </p>
<p>I had visited some beautiful campuses before this mind you, UCSB, Cal etc., but something about the campus (UW Madison) just grabbed me.</p>
<p>I concur with the “This is what college is supposed to feel like” sentiment, but my current top choice was decided only after several visits and much deliberation. It grew on me slowly.</p>
<p>The only college I ever felt that way about was Swarthmore College. As soon as I stepped on campus, I felt that magical feeling I think you’re talking about. It must have been induced by a combination of great weather, beautiful buildings, and lush greenery. It was that feeling of “wow…this is where I belong.” </p>
<p>Unfortunately, I ended up getting waitlisted. This forced me to look at my remaining options (Wesleyan University and Middlebury College) and make a decision that would be best for me. I realized then that what I needed was comfort and it turned out Middlebury was it! </p>
<p>Looking back, I don’t think I would have been happy at Swarthmore. I was mesmerized by my visit but, when truly thinking about what I wanted, Middlebury fit the bill to an utmost tee. </p>
<p>Moral of the story? Strong feelings are awesome, amazing, and wonderful. Do they mean happiness? Not necessarily.</p>
<p>I actually had expected I would just go to SMU or TCU…I also considered a few Ivies up north and Tulane. Which are all great, urban, beautiful, gorgeous environments. Then I saw me some college towns and fell in love. I had that magical feeling at big revered state flagships with tons of campus pride, tradition, and school spirit everywhere you go. I fell in love in Ann Arbor (Michigan), Lawrence (KU), and Stillwater (OSU). </p>
<p>Ended up going with OSU since they are pretty much a Texas school and it was the right size. Big, but not the biggest. So it would mean something if I could stand out, and it was possible. The people there were so good to me, they made the admissions process really enjoyable. Plus the college town environment in Stillwater was awesome, with multiple trendy areas. I liked the Greek community a lot. It felt like it combined certain things of SMU or TCU since such a huge number of students at OSU come from the Dallas area, but it was still a major state flagship with tons of school pride, 200,000 living alumni around the world, the campus consisted of either beautiful historic buildings or brand-new facilities (and nothing in between), and all the amenities of a campus with 25,000 students.</p>
<p>Yeah I had that feeling too. Didn’t get in!</p>
<p>Yep. The second I stepped onto UNC’s campus, I knew that it was the perfect school for me. Unfortunately, several months later I ended choosing Syracuse, realized my mistake, and got into UNC again as a transfer. Only a $45,000 mistake ;)</p>
<p>Yes. I found out on a campus computer that I was accepted and enrolled the same day.</p>
<p>I suppose that a number of people get that “love at first sight” feeling, but I can’t believe that that’s a good thing. Think for a moment about what would cause that phenomenon. It’s probably architecture and landscaping, though it could also be the attractiveness (physical or otherwise) of the first cluster of students a prospective applicant sees. There’s no way that such a feeling could be based on any objective, reasoned assessment of the real pros and cons of attending the campus.</p>
<p>I’m a bit skeptical of this idea, but I can see it, sort of.</p>
<p>I didn’t feel anything special when I first stepped onto my undergrad campus during the admitted students’ weekend. I felt something special as I actually got to <em>know</em> the campus, meet the people, over the course of the weekend. I think that expecting a school to feel like home when you don’t actually know anything about it is unreasonable.</p>
<p>On the other hand, the vibes that you get when you step on campus can be indicative of something. </p>
<p>My undergrad school was a tech-oriented research university. After I graduated, I took some classes at a small local university with a very “traditional college” feel, and while it had fine classes and great professors, I just never got used to the campus and the culture. It felt like I was in a village of gingerbread houses instead of at a research university, my department was in an ugly, remote little building that felt tacked on to the rest of the campus, and I had trouble relating to the campus culture of mostly liberal arts students. For my MS degree, I applied to that school, and to a local tech-heavy research university, and got in to both. When I walked onto the campus of the local tech-heavy university to check it out, and walked through the building for my department, I smiled and felt at home. It felt like what <em>I</em> associate with a university, and the quality of the building and facilities suggested that this university valued my department.</p>
<p>I think there is a difference between getting that special feeling (or not) and whether it means anything (or not). </p>
<p>First blush love is not bad, just nothing to write home about. Kind of like seeing someone that to your eye seems like poetry in motion and then getting the chance to spend find time with them and realize that 10 minutes of that poetry was 10 minutes too long.</p>
<p>Is anybody familiar with the Malcolm Gladwell book “Blink”? <a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blink_(book[/url])”>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blink_(book)</a></p>
<p>He makes a case for sometimes immediate, non-methodical decisions being better than ones that are reasoned out with pros and cons…he says the immediate decisions can often filter out unnecessary info and cut right to the crux of the matter.</p>
<p>More on “Blink”:
<a href=“http://www.gladwell.com/blink/index.html[/url]”>http://www.gladwell.com/blink/index.html</a></p>
<p>One characteristic of colleges that is seldom mentioned on collegeconfidential is how compact or spread out the campus is. Since most of the school year is in months known for snow, cold, and rain, having to walk a long way to go to class or to eat could definitely be more than a minor irritant…especially in schools where there is one central cafeteria. I’d imagine some of the instances of instant dislike are due to size, even if that isn’t part of the conscious reasoning.</p>
<p>Yes. It happens. But it happens for different reasons for different people. It happened to us, quite by surprise I might add. My d is in college in NYC and we never expected to be there. But she is thriving and loving her experience.</p>
<p>For some its the architecture, for others the warm and fuzzy feeling inside the cafeteria with kids cajoling,eating and goofing around. For others its sports phenomena. For others still the dorms and all the crazies who live there! LOL. Or the library. Or really friendly and open professors. </p>
<p>On the other hand, you can get a cold chill up your spine from other schools for various reasons. It happened to us at one college, something to do with the hyper competitive spirit on campus, the frenetic people, fast talking and all looking like they were on the verge of nervous breakdown. Eeeeeeewwwwww! Not our idea of fun.</p>
<p>And some people are just not wired one way or another and its all about the books and being focused and getting into graduate school. </p>
<p>Just know thyself and follow your gut feelings. It is often NOT a reach school. Its most often where you will be most comfortable socially, economically and maybe politically. Its very often a match and sometimes a safety school.</p>