<p>Boston College- Beautiful architecture/campus. Weather was bad so campus was almost empty.
Harvard- Way too big, largely incoporated with Boston, architecture was not too impressive (buildings don't seem in sync....perhaps that IS the look?), Harvard Square is nothing too special, way too many older students on campus, altogeather seemed too hectic an enviroment to study and relax in. Although I'll add that Harvard's got it tough because everyone expects a lot in the first place. It's in a great location if you love the city life...it's just not gonna please every person.
NYU- No campus.
Columbia- Nothing special, too big, everyone looked about 35 years old.
Dartmouth- In perfect small town America, Hanover. Has a "Main Street" that consists of a book store, the Gap, a small cinema and a few eateries. Five minutes away from Dartmouth, there is NOTHING. Seriously take into consideration that this is a very small town. Most of the entertainment is on campus, sports and Greek life are big. People are very friendly and preppy. There is a huge lack of diversity but I did saw people of different races interact fine. Alcohol is huge in Dartmouth but at the same time people are accepting of people who wish not to drink. I went to a frat house and was invited to play beer pong. They made it clear that not drinking is fine and that I easily had the option of playing water pong (replace some cups with water). I thought this was a really nice gesture and that people were in general very friendly even though I am a HS-er. But still, the vast majority of people surrounding me were drunk and a lot of the guys were smoking. This is the social scene for a lot of Dartmouth kids because of the lack of other things to do. Personally, I think this kind of scene gets old fast. It can be fun or not fun...depends on who you are. Oh yeah and food was bad.</p>
<p>[list=0]
[<em>]UCLA (2003)
[</em>]UCB (2005)
[<em>]UCI (2002)
[</em>]Stanford (2005)
[<em>]Caltech (2004)
[</em>]USC (2004)
[/list]</p>
<p>Cornell: Really loved it. It was big, of course, but instead of finding that as a disadvantage, I realized that it's large size just meant that it's virutally impossible to generalize about the student body or feel bored with your fellow students. VERY cohesive, community atmosphere. i was worried because it seemed so cut off from society, but it was like it's own autonomous city. I seriously felt like I was in some sort of utopian experiement when I visited. As you can infer, i really really liked it.</p>
<p>University of Rochester: Sort of bland. nothing really struck me as interesting or standout, but maybe that's because it was over the summer</p>
<p>SUNY geneseo: The facilities seemed run down. Even though it's supposed to be the 'good' SUNY college, I wasn' impressed at all.</p>
<p>I'm gonna visit Tufts, BC, and Brown next week, columbia later this summer, and penn in the fall...</p>
<p>Princeton: One of the most beautiful campuses I've ever seen, in a very upscale small town. Seems more focused on undergrads and academics in general than any other Ivy I've visited. Not my ideal location though, and the place seemed very snobbish which wasn't surprising. Tour guide and info session speaker both were very good and knew their stuff.</p>
<p>Geogia Tech: boring. I live relatively close to the school, lots of diversity but not much else.</p>
<p>University of Georgia: Again its ok and some of the new dorms are really really nice. </p>
<p>Georgetown: Thought it was alright, very beautiful architecture and met a nice prof. Overall it seemed a little pretentious and my sister says that it is elitist(at a college summer internship program right now). </p>
<p>American: went when nobody was there. It was so so, I loved the location and it seemed a little less intimidating than Georgetown. </p>
<p>University of Maryland: I thought this campus was a dump. The basketball stadium is beautiful and they had a few nice buildings... other than that I was not impressed. </p>
<p>Hopefully visiting: University of Michigan(went there a long time ago), NYU, Northeastern, Boston U...</p>
<p>Ucla, Uci, Ucr</p>
<p>
[QUOTE]
Pomona- nice buildings, nice people, good atmosphere. i wish the campus looked more like caltech's, they have the money, it just makes me mad that they spend it on stupid things like charter buses, and not on making the campus look better. also, too many small buildings that reminded me of old apartments. they def need to ask caltech for some help with their building plans. NEED MORE NICE LOOKING BUILDINGS, I DONT CARE ABOUT THE OTHER CLAREMONT COLLEGES, BUILD OVER THEM AND EXPAND THE POMONA EMPIRE. sorry pitzer, cmc, hmc, scripps, its just, we all know life would be better if your schools were all demolished and replaced with more room to breathe for the pomona students.
[/QUOTE]
</p>
<p>ROTFLMAO!!!</p>
<p>William&Mary, Williams, Skidmore, Hamilton, Allegheny, Centre, Sewanee, Rhodes, Southwestern, Tulane, Macalester, Carleton, Davidson, UTexas</p>
<p>great thread...</p>
<p>Berkeley: Campus was decent with a variety of buildings. Mix of modern and contemporary buildings. Library is huge with many many many rooms. the town was not to my taste though. it had some nice quaint shops but the streets/sidewalks were dirty. there were a couple homeless people around here and there too. </p>
<p>UCLA: i've been to this campus countless times. all i can say that it is huge and open. it's usually always sunny and the air is pretty good (contrary LA's smog). very modern (recently built) facilities such as the ackerman union and the fitness center. a lot more roads through the campus in comparison to UCB. the city is more moder nthan UCB's. there is best buy and inandout as opposed to the quaint shops near UCB.</p>
<p>UCI: looked somwhere inbetween the lines of UCLA and berkeley. more like LA in the sense that the buildings are modern and more like berkeley in the sense that it's not as big as LA. I like the park in the middle of campus. </p>
<p>Stanford: wow. it looked looks like a secluded castle/spanishmission. very beautiful. however, some may get bored of the same styled buildings everywhere on this campus. oh yes...HUGE CAMPUS. 2nd largest in the world to moscow university (i think). </p>
<p>conclusion: all are great campuses. ucla,uci,ucb are similar and stanford is definitely the odd one in this list!</p>
<p>What about Northwestern or WUSTL?</p>
<p>UMich-Ann Arbor</p>
<p>I've lived here my whole life, so the city aspect of the tour or the athletic aspect was nothing new to me. You're going to have a great atmosphere with lots of school spirit. Never been to dorms before, and thought that they were the smallest i've ever seen. No A/C either. Heard the food was poor. You have to stay there your freshman year, as well. The environment is liberal and diverse. There are people making political statements on campus, when you walk in a lecture hall, you won't believe how many different types of people there are. Nice blend of old/new in architecture. No major sports teams nearby, unless you want to travel 40 minutes east to see the Lions, Pistons, Tigers, or Red Wings. The town is centered around the university. Wealthy town. Great hospital, engineering program. They offer TONS of majors, whatever you want, they will have, and it will likely be a top 10 program. Public university as well.</p>
<p>Visited the following:
Carnegie Mellon, Penn State, Johns Hopkins, Michigan</p>
<p>Carnegie Mellon: This was the first of my college visits. I really liked the location of this school and Pitt is a nice city. Campus was pretty small and aesthetically it was nice. Not too much to say here...simple layout, dorms are across the street and the campus buildings were centered around the flagpole in the center</p>
<p>Penn State: Really wasn't impressed. The campus was too big for my tastes, and to make matters worse, the buildings were too scrunched together. Ice cream is good but really fatty... Aesthetically, there was nothing that stood out. Very urban-like campus. I probably would have liked it more if it wasn't raining on the day I visited. </p>
<p>Johns Hopkins: Very impressive campus layout and the most aesthetically pleasing of the campuses that I visited. The entire campus was green with big trees. Visited once over the summer and again in spring for accepted students day. Hopkins during the spring is absolutely breathtaking especially around the lower/upper quad. The architecture is uniformed Georgian style. The atmosphere has a very at-home feel.</p>
<p>Michigan: For a big university, I was impressed. Aesthetically, it isn't comparable to CMU or JHU but the layout is nice (much better than PSU). North campus was a lot prettier than central campus, but the idea of two campuses didn't work for me. The fact that some people get stuck with housing @ North was a big turnoff.</p>
<p>LOL @ asdfTT123 commenting on the ice cream!</p>
<p>Sounds like you want to go to Johns Hopkins!</p>
<p>Boston University: I would have loved this school if I liked the idea of being in the city... The students seemed pretty cool and stylish, but the lack of a campus and ugly buildings turned me off completely. The tour guide was incredible do and did a fantastic job highlighting the best aspects of the school. </p>
<p>Northeastern University: Beautiful campus. The perfect mix of in the city and a true campus environment. The facilities seemed to be pretty top notch. I didn't get a good vibe from the student body. They were all extremely good looking, but they felt rather cliquish and "high school". Our tour guide didn't appear to be too "with it", to put it nicely. The co-op program was also a major turnoff. </p>
<p>Brandeis University: The ugliest campus I have seen. The student center was stunning, but everything else just made my skin crawl (I may be being a bit harsher than necessary). Cool and friendly student body however. The surrounding area seemed to be lacking especially if you don't have a car! </p>
<p>Tufts University: I loved tufts! The information session seemed very sleazy and the admissions officer felt way too much like a salesperson. The campus was beautiful and the facilities seemed to be good. I visited in the summer so there were no students. </p>
<p>Whitman College: I loved this school! Beautiful, small campus. Amazing facilities (except for the humanities buildings... They were kind of ugly) and dorms, and the tour guide was exceptional. The surrounding area scares me (its in the middle of a desert!) but there is a Macy's and a very beautiful mainstreet. One of my top choices. No student interactions due to the fact that I visited during the summer. </p>
<p>Lewis & Clark: Spectacular campus. I felt as if I was in a nature preserve. The buildings are all top notch and the surrounding area is great. Its a lovely suburb with close proximity to downtown Portland. The tour guide was cool. She seemed to be hip and bohemian. No students. </p>
<p>Reed: All of these pacific northwest schools have great campus's and Reed was no exception. It seemed to have more of a traditional east coast vibe than Lewis & Clark and Reed, but it was still "west coast sheek". The canyon seemed more like a swamp than a nature preserve. Our tour guide was great! Funny, smart, and knowledgeable. Science facilities appeared to be top notch (but what do I know? I'm only a high school student). I think students are a bit more outdoorsy/liberal than I'm used to, so I'm not sure if its the best fit for me. </p>
<p>Uwas: Beautiful and massive. Thats how I felt leaving it! </p>
<p>University of British Columbia: Beautiful and massive. </p>
<p>I also visited Conn Coll and Trinity (CT) but I don't really feel like writing out descriptions...</p>
<p>Washington University - I live next to it so I can add on this one.... The Hilltop campus is a decent size rectangle (All the buildings are close together in one big rectangle it seems like). The architecture is wonderful, the buildings look great. Has a very old fasion look inside and very much so looks like a college from 1900. The surrounding area has huge million doller homes, but if you go up north a block or two your in the ghetto. Greek life looks like its pretty big and there is major alcohol/drugs(but I think most colleges have this, even bigger at state schools). Plus your right next to Forest Park.</p>
<p>Also, they just built more dorms and improved them and they are like palaces.</p>
<p>I have visited:
RIT
RISD
Pratt Institute
CMU</p>
<p>For each school visited, I did an indepth review that is found in the alphabetical forum as a "sticky post" at the top of the forum.</p>
<p>(In order)</p>
<p>Princeton - Really, really beautiful campus...too bad i visited it on a cold, rainy day. The chapel is absolutely BREATHTAKING. Just really awesome buildings in general, and what can i say, it's great for physics so i loved it.</p>
<p>Columbia - In the middle of NYC, and having grown up in suburbia, i found it overwhelming and noisy. It has great buildings tho and and "grand" feel. Not as much my thing, but it's a great place.</p>
<p>Yale - Really, really nice town, awesome buildings, and who can beat the "houses" they have there...i liked a lot.</p>
<p>Brown - Differents in some way i can't describe. Lots of brick. Nice place. Didn't exactly stand out from other ivies though.</p>
<p>MIT - Came in thinking i would hate it, and ended up loving it. It has its ugly parts, but it also has its nice parts. For example, the dome, and if you like modern architecture... Cool place, not necessarily my thing though.</p>
<p>Harvard - Blah. WAY too overrated. The info session was all about "how to get in" instead of actually talking ABOUT the school. Kind of pretty, but quite honestly, i hated it.</p>
<p>Northwestern - This wasn't really a "visit" for me, considering i spent 3 summers there in the past at CTD. It's a great place, and i really love Evanston. Dorms are kind of gothic-looking, but the tech building is kind of far away. I'd recommend, though.</p>
<p>U of Chicago - I went in wondering why i was there, but when i left i knew it was where i wanted to go. AWESOME gothic architecture. A smaller feel, but still in a huge city. Nice neighborhood... Certainly for "nerds", but hey, i don't mind. I loved it. And i'm from michigan, so i don't mind the weather.</p>
<p>Washington U in St. Louis - didn't help that it was like 100 degrees and sunny. SO hot. But it was nice...lots of brick and not-so-awesome looking dorms. Good food. When it's cooler it might be nice.</p>
<p>Johns Hopkins - VERY pretty campus. Nice buildings and lots of green. Physics building very impressive inside. Great place.</p>
<p>Carnegie Mellon - NOT good architecture, unless you like cream-colored brick. But i loved the hills of Pittsburgh and the general area, so it might be nice.</p>
<p>Sorry i got a bit lacking toward the end there.</p>
<p>A lot of these are colleges I've visited for graduations, visiting friends, and other reasons, so I can't say these opinions will be representative of the typical prospective student. I'm also just reviewing the campuses and surrounding areas, not the social settings.</p>
<p>Wheaton (MA): They don't make them a whole lot worse than this. The dorms are disgusting and run-down, and the educational facilities aren't much better. The library's layout is terrible and not at all user-friendly. My father, a former fire captain, was very concerned that the buildings didn't even seem up to code in many respects. The big pond was dirty and full of garbage. Some of the houses could use serious paint jobs. The town had nothing to speak of. Even the dining hall I visited was sub-par by dining hall standards, and that's saying a lot. I hated it all around.</p>
<p>Smith: Everything you imagine it is. The buildings are beautiful, though the campus did feel a little cluttered to me. The houses are gorgeous; I can see why people love living in them. Not only is it located in Northampton, but it is quite literally in the middle of downtown. There's really no need for a car there, which I love as a non-driver. The alumnae hall where the breakfast reception was held had an absolutely amazing view over the water. Unfortunately, I was there on a muddy, rainy day and therefore didn't get a proper tour, but even the small bits I did see were amazing. I'll be heading back in spring.</p>
<p>UConn: It has to be one of the most beautiful public universities around. The $2B in renovations and construction are very obvious, and the new buildings are gorgeous. (If you are interested in the sciences at all, especially research, wait until you see your new facilities.) The dorms are great, especially at Hilltop, and it's easy to see why UConn has the largest percentage of on-campus students of any public university in the country. (Or so I've read; I admit I could be wrong.) It manages to combine New England charm and major research facilities very well. I love it out there in fall. The campus is spacious without being too spread out, and most majors will find that all of their courses will be in the same buildings or clusters in order to prevent the need to haul your stuff all over during the day. It is /not/ as rural as people think -- it's only 30 minutes from Hartford and Providence, and Manchester/Vernon, the major commercial area for the northeastern corner of the state, is about 15 minutes away. It's easily accesible off I-84. If you're an athlete or love sports, it's hard to beat. It's also a very clean, well-kept campus for those looking for that. (And hey, since we're rating ice creams, nothing beats the Dairy Bar. They even sell their ice cream in New York, now!)</p>
<p>Trinity (CT): Trinity has been my illicit academic lover since I was little. If it had a reproductive organ, I would gladly have its babies. I order the Gothic and Victorian buildings, the layout, the small feel, and the location. It's also a lot bigger than it seems at first glance, so be sure to do a walking tour and not just drive around. Hartford has so, so much to offer, especially for people interested in business/economics and the arts, and I can assure you as a local that the campus is /not/ the "Fallujah" people make it out to be. (I still cannot believe someone made that comparison on one thread.) You're within walking distance of Little Italy, downtown, the financial district, the many museums (including the Wadsworth), several theatres (including the Bushell and Real Art Ways), and lots of other great places to spend time. I really, really, really want to get accepted there. It's probably my dream campus, if I had to name one. I love going there. You can see a "tour" of the campus here (iffy on dial-up): <a href="http://www.trincoll.edu/pub/about/tour/press/%5B/url%5D">http://www.trincoll.edu/pub/about/tour/press/</a></p>
<p>Quinnipiac: No one ever has anything bad to say about Quinnipiac, and I will continue that trend. Not only do you have the absolutely beautiful Sleeping Giant literally towering over campus, but most of the facilities are new. It's one of the few schools strong in business, communications, and nursing that still manages to feel like the typical New England LAC. It's only a few minutes from New Haven and all it has to offer, and I think they offer free shuttle service to various spots. Hamden is a generally quiet town, but it offers all of the amenities any suburb of a major city would. I like it a lot there, and I'd probably apply if they had my majors.</p>
<p>UMass: UMass is the type of school where you wonder if the designers really were /trying/ to make it as ugly, cold, and unwelcoming as possible. First of all, the housing towers shooting up over the rest of the campus look completely out of place and ridiculous. The buildings are crummy and in need of some serious upgrades, which won't be happening any time soon due to all of the budget cuts up there. Every time I have been there, I've seen litter and other unsightly things all over the place. It's located in Northampton's "twin city," but it feels a lot more isolated than you would imagine. I absolutely hate the UMass campus.</p>
<p>SCAD: What campus? It's a collection of buildings the administration bought up cheaply, and they're scattered all over the place. If you go here, you better like walking. They'll show you pictures of historic Savannah in the view books, but that's not the part of the city the school is located in. The astonishing transfer rate for sophomore year is easy to see.</p>
<p>Southern Connecticut State University: Oy. SCSU is actually a pretty good school academically, but the campus badly needs improvements. They are working on it, though, so it's unfair for me to really judge them when they're undergoing so many renovations right now. It's on the skirts of New Haven, right along the Hamden line, so a car is necessary.</p>
<p>ECSU: I love it! It bills itself as New England's top public LAC, and the campus shows that. Most of the facilities are new, the campus is in a beautiful setting, the library's great, and it manages to be small and comfortable and spacious and breathable all at once. If you're touring UConn, drive another five minutes and check out Eastern.</p>
<p>WCSU: Arguably the worst campus arrangement around. There are "two" campuses at Western, and you need shuttle service to go back and forth. Danbury's decent but not at all a college town, and there's no campus feel there whatsoever. I don't like it, but good academics.</p>
<p>CCSU: Impersonal and lacking any special "feeling" to it. Central has no character. It's a big commuter campus, and if you see the campus, you'll know why. I didn't stay very long.</p>
<p>University of Hartford: A nice campus just over the line in West Hartford. The dorms could use a little renovation, but otherwise it's fine. Nice sports facilities, beautiful paths along the Hog/Park River, seemingly seconds away from both West Hartford Center and downtown Hartford, and a nice community feel. Nestled among the giant yet homey (is that even a word?) mansions of the Albany Avenue area.</p>
<p>Marist: Very small, at least for my tastes, but nice new facilities. Only two or three minutes from Vassar. It's /right/ along the Hudson, but you have to walk over the train tracks to get to the riverside. (For what it's worth, I've never heard anyone complain about train noise, and I have had several friends go there.) The library's gorgeous. I like it a lot.</p>
<p>UVM: Did absolutely nothing for me. No real character, spread out too much, but it's got Burlington to make up for that.</p>
<p>Middlebury: I don't understand what all the fuss is about. The buildings seemed to lack character, and they all looked too much alike. The athletic complex is nice, but otherwise, I wasn't impressed, and I've been through several times. (Disclaimer: Haven't seen the new science building completed.) Middlebury's a nice town, but you need to like rural in order to be happy there.</p>
<p>Yale: It's Yale -- of course it's beautiful! I love the buildings, even though they always make me feel tiny. (I think it's more "Wow, this is Yale" than "Wow, these are big," since they really aren't.) It's in a great walking area, and New Haven's a classic college town. I could live in Beinecke and the Peabody.</p>
<p>Gettysburg: Very nice campus in a nice little town. Gettysburg is obviously dominated by the battlefield, but there's plenty else around. You're not going to find a whole lot of excitement there, but I liked the small shops and easily accessible shopping areas. You'll probably want a car here, but even though it's rural, it's definitely not a hard place to live, I don't think. Lots of tourism means you'll never feel isolated from the rest of the world. If you're a history fan wanting to focus on the Civl War period, you have no excuse if you don't apply.</p>
<p>Those are the big ones coming to mind right now, but there are more.</p>
<p>Upcoming visits: Bates, Bowdoin, and possibly (but I doubt it) Colby in September; Cornell, Wells, Geneseo, Binghamton, and Rochester in October; Vassar in November; Wesleyan (been through, never inside), Connecticut College (same as Wesleyan), Mount Holyoke, Barnard, Drew, and possibly Douglass College at Rutgers in spring; and Wellesley next summer, when I visit a good friend who's attending and living in Cambridge.</p>
<p>"Columbia- Nothing special, too big, everyone looked about 35 years old."</p>
<p>How in the world was Columbia too big? It's 36 acres! For comparison, Harvard is 380 acres (more than 10x the size), UCLA (the smallest UC) is 417 acres, and Stanford is more than 8,000 acres.</p>
<p>It's one block wide by six blocks long.</p>
<p>You people who visit 20 schools are just insane!!!</p>
<p>BC - loved the beautiful campus (visited in summer), students went out of their way to be very nice - buildings were beautiful, but can't do the Catholic thing, too bad i'm not going to major in business anymore</p>
<p>Georgetown - what was I thinking? I'm Unitarian!! Anyways the campus was under major construction when I visited but I still liked the school. it felt cramped and such but some buildings were beautiful and i loved the surrounding area. ditto about BC</p>
<p>UPenn - beautiful buildings in what doesn't feel like an urban campus when you are in the middle of it. didn't like the area (felt VERY unsafe to me) and I didn't like the "security gate dorm" thing at all. too many asian nerds in the summer</p>
<p>USC - absolutely loved it. don't really care that the surrounding area is bad because the campus is so self-contained it's not even funny. NEED a car. great buildings, love the palm trees, great Comm school for me!!</p>
<p>SMU - lived in Dallas my whole life - beautiful campus, pretty well respected in Texas but also has the "rich snobby kids" thing that doesn't float well with me</p>
<p>UT-Austin - i fell in love with the Longhorn spirit the moment I stepped on campus and even bought UT gym shorts! The campus really isn't all that big, which is good to get to class quickly. Austin is FANTASTIC and the perfect college city to live in the midst of, right by the awesome Sixth Street. Tons of opportunities and everyone is generally friendly and glad to be there.</p>
<p>WUSTL - didn't really visit but I did a 5 week program there. beautiful campus/buildings, great facilities. kids are generally friendly but all have a different quirk about them. great surrounding area.</p>
<p>Let me know if you have any questions!!</p>