<p>As I pointed out previously, at lot "us people" have visited campuses for reasons other than the admissions process. Also, you have parents/guardians, siblings, and friends here who have probably visited a lot of campuses with family members and friends who were considering them.</p>
<p>Amherst College - my second favorite campus to the heaven sitting in Palo Alto :) You can tell this school is healthy financially with all the construction occuring. The school just gets better and better as you venture further intothe campus until you come to the memorial at the top of the hillside which overlook all of the fields and the arboretum.</p>
<p>Williams College - best asthetics in the New England area, this college is the town which felt like the greatest of community to me especially when the students were there. I haven't seen better dorms, save Pepperdine, but Pepperdine doesn't have ballrooms, fireplaces, and grand pianos.</p>
<p>UCBerkeley - Let start by saying, UC Berkeley has the best college district, there is no better or more ideal place for college student to shop than Telegraph. UC Berkely is huge, Strawberry Canyon, beautiful, love the views...it's just not Stanford ;)</p>
<p>STANFORD Hallelujah! and we shall reign over CAL forever and ever... Stanford is heaven, THE most beautiful campus on the continent. I was spoiled to grow up in such an extraordinary place, everything else now is second rate.</p>
<p>Rice - Point in case, I visited Rice with my dad on a business trip when I was 9, I was mad, how dare they rip off by beloved Stanford!!! Note that I was 9, but yeah, Rice felt like a modest version of Stanford to me.</p>
<p>Emory - the best campus this side of the Mississippi, Coca Cola has turned this campus into the ivory towers. You cannot beat such a beautiful campus in such a great location, as an African American, Cornell and Stanford are the only campuses I think could a better job for us.</p>
<p>American University - the campus is kind of meh, I think it's a nice campus, but it feel incomplete b/c of the dorms. Dorms are AUs main falter, some zoning regulation only allows them to have two dorm complexes, so there are two giant stone complexes, North and South, and both dorms felt run down. Other than that and the SIS Building (which is on the chopping block so no need to complain), American has a decent campus.</p>
<p>Boston University - Who said this was a campus? I always get rbbed when driving by BU, such a good school shoved in a corner, sandwiched between a highway and one of the most congested roads in the city. It's not a campus to me so it's hard to comment.</p>
<p>Suffolk University - I'm still trying to understand how such a school gets by so well when it's scattered all over Capital Hill, but Suffolk does a decent job at it. If you want a top rate law school and the state house (think State Library) at the same time, you're set.</p>
<p>Northeastern University - the epitome of urban campuses, Northeastern is exactly what all urbran campuses should be like, the Centennial Commons, the new mordern dorms, the facilities all excellent!</p>
<p>Harvard University - Um, yeah, everyone else can explain Harvard, I think everyone is underwhelmed by Harvard's campus, so it's hard to judge.</p>
<p>Other visted:
University of San Francisco
Golden Gate University
Princeton University
Brown University
Sacred Heart
Morehouse
Spelman
Morris Brown
Tufts
Wellesley
Babson
UMass Amherst
UMass Lowell</p>
<p>Harvard - crappy campus. hated this place.... thought the place was ugly and way too big and crowded..... initial tour was crappy (snobby admissions officer and tourguide) but had a better tour after getting admitted. Although I didn't really like the campus, I realized that Boston would be the best learning environment for me (over New Haven and Princeton NJ) not to mention that Harvard is strong in every single department I am interested in. Also, people say that Harvard studetns are cocky and unhappy, but all the kids I met there were modest and wouldn't want to be anywhere else. I truly thought I was headed to Yale... but New Haven was much too small for me. </p>
<p>MIT - for some reason i really liked MIT. It just felt really modest and nice. </p>
<p>Brown- Felt realllly comfortable at Brown. Loved the campus and Providence was pretty nice. </p>
<p>Yale - Gorgeous campus. Wasn't too impressed by New Haven though.....</p>
<p>Columbia - felt a bit cramped, but NYC was awesome. </p>
<p>Penn - also very beautiful. but ts surrounding neighborhood looked like crap. </p>
<p>Berkeley - beautiful campus. huge campus.... been around here all my life so i'm pretty biased towards it. The town is amazing as well. (most restaurants and libraries per capita in the united states)</p>
<p>Stanford - hated this place. felt like a huge stuffy taco bell... not to mention that Stanford/Palo Alto isn't very exciting. I still applied EA to this place because of its proximity to Berkeley (my hometown)... but realized that I probably would have hated Stanford (Diehard Cal Bears fan my whole life.)</p>
<p>irock1ce, stanford a stuffy taco bell?</p>
<p>LMAO. i like the spanish style. it's cool</p>
<p>Funny, when I lectured at Stanford, I thought the buildings were very cheesy and made out of Stucco. I was very underwhelmed.</p>
<p>This is one of the the things I love about college conf. "Beginning" describes Eastern Conn. U- so positively-that I immediately check the website. School looks very promising. We may add that to our list of schools to consider. So it went from a school that I never heard of 15 minutes ago (we're from NY) to a school on our list to consider. Thanks to everyone who is taking the time to write about your college tours and experiences. This really is extremely helpful.</p>
<p>Vassar anyone?</p>
<p>marny1: Glad you're considering it! They love out-of-state students, and the student body's great. They also have some really distinguished faculty members, and they bring in a lot of guest lecturers. Don't let the SAT scores fool you -- they're affected by the community college students transferring in. Plus, it's right by UConn, and you can cross-register and take courses there. Willimantic's an old mill town, so don't expect breathtaking beauty, but it's safe and there's plenty to do.</p>
<p>Hepcat1ofone, I'm touring Vassar in November, so I'll let you know then. :)</p>
<p>everyone's perspectives on the schools is actually really fascinating reading even if you aren't interested in the school in particular.</p>
<p>boston college: Campus was very picturesque. being Catholic, I enjoyed all of the Cathedral style buildings mixed in with the more traditional ones. I did feel overwhelmed by rich, white, preppy, Catholic kids who were all just like me, so that was one disadvantage.</p>
<p>tufts; I really loved tufts. The campus had a great feel to it that was laid back without being overly so. I loved the view of boston from the top of tisch library, and the opportunity to take classes from the NEw England conservatory. It was a great fit for me personally...</p>
<p>brown: i'm very glad I visited because it made me realize how much a I hated it. it seriously used to be my first choice, but I was so turned off by the campus. I felt surrounded by bricks for one thing, and the students seemed so preoccupied with being trendy and avant-guarde that it was disugusting, I don't really get who they were all trying to impress. Also, they were completely shoving the whole 'diversity' thing down my throat. I want a college with diversity, but don't you have anything else to talk about? the curriculum was WAY too touchy feely for me. i would take a regular college with MAJORS, not 'concentrations', actual grades and gpa's, and some distribution requirements. not a great fit for me at all, but to each his own...</p>
<p>After these last visits I'm really into boston. Does anyone have anything good to say about Harvard? I never thought to visit it until this last trip when i realized how great boston was, but I didn' have time to stay and check it out...</p>
<p>Wellesley - absolutely gorgeous campus with a lot of options in terms of majors and interdisciplinary studies. a 1:9 student/faculty ratio and a really informal relationship with your profs - our tour guide was saying that if you dont show up for class for a few days, your prof will call you to see what's up. there's a really large emphasis on experimental learning, so a lot of students go abroad. and, with the amazing alumni network, there are all kinds of internships and job opportunities availalbe after college. it's a really student-friendly environment, so the administration actively looks for student input and there are a lot of leadership opportunities. my only concern is that it's a little isolated as a women's school, even though it is really close to boston. the town doesn't seem all that exciting, but i remember when i saw it, i loved it. there's something about it that really trains the leaders of tomorrow. with some distance, i'm more skeptical, but it's definitely a wonderful place.
tufts - nothing about it really stuck out to me. I think if you like NW, you'll like tufts. it's a very "city on a hill" type campus. there's not much school spirit, it doesn't seem like there's much of a community. what i really liked about it was the emphasis on being a global citizen. i think you need to take 6 semesters of a foreign language or something like that. also, they really stress hands on learning. they have an intro physics class in thermodynamic cooking, where the final is figuring out the quickest way to cook a chicken or something like that. a pretty cool concept.
Brown - i was really pleasantly surprised. I really loved the campus, and there's a lot of emphasis on students running the campus. it's a place where you really learn leadership, because you're put in charge of everything. i talked to someone there who graduated from my school who said the facilities are crappy, but the people are amazing. also, the campus isn't very safe. apparently a kid was mugged in the middle of the campus green, and no one did anythign about it. on the flip side, there's always something to do. there's a lot of independence mied in with a little tradition - it's a very laid back sort of atmosphere. despite the relaxed atmosphere, everyone's really focused and serious about their academics. interdisciplinary and create-your-own majors are totally open. I got a pretty good feeling from it, but the totally open curiculum intimidates me a little.
Yale - after I saw Brown, Yale absolutely blew me away. It's an absolutely awesome community, where everyone's happy to be. there's so much spirit. The residential college system builds an amazing community along with a great advising system. Our tour guide was saying that most classes are pretty small, and even the lecture classes break out into small discussion groups. Even though academics are taken very seriously, there's still a great social life around school and lots of quirky traditions and waky history. It's just, great.
NYU - when I visited, I didn't like it that much. I spent my summer in new york and realized what NYU is really about. It's not a college for people who want a campus and a community, it's for people who want to skip it and just start living. It's about living in the city, having a job, experiencing the city, and getting a degree from a pretty strong institution. the area it's in is very fun and young, and you have the whole city there for you.
The dorms are big - all of them have private bathrooms, and the classrooms are pretty nice too. but, this definitely isn't where you'll get any hint of a small liberal arts school.
Columbia - I liked it when I was there, but with some distance, I'm really not sure how I feel about it. THe campus will just put you in awe - it's not like any other campus I've seen before. We talked to someone who used to go to my high school that goes there now who told us that there's a pretty strong community. She has to make the effort to go into the city because she's just so attached to the campus. But, because it's in the city, there's a lot of opportunity for individualization and putting theory into practice. ie, engineering students completely rewired the apollo theatre for a project. it seemed like a campus full of pretty people while I was there, and retrospectively, seems a little cramped, but it's definitely a cool place to check out.
Princeton - the campus is great, but for some reason, I never have gotten a good feeling from princeton. maybe someone here can tell me if my thoughts are actually true. for me, the eating-club centered social system seems very yuppy-ish. i've heard that you spend your first 2 years trying to get into the best eating clubs and then your next 2 in a social class because of what you're eating club is. it just feels like it's very elite place that just doesn't have a fun, laid-back social life. our tour guide absolutely loves it and dispelled all these rumors, and she seemed like she genuinely is having a good time. but, i'm just not feeling it. someone told me that people grow the most at princeton and yale- has anyone heard the same thing?
Penn - it's a very chill, social atmosphere. students are really active. at some point, it felt like the campus was full of over achievers, that people get degrees to get degrees and that the love of learning is less existent - did anyone get the same idea? unlike other places i saw, it's very geared toward getting a pragmatic education - very preprofessional. the campus is pretty cool, but I don't think it comes close to beating out places like brown or princeton. our tour guide said everyone drinks and that it's pretty superficial in the sense that everyone works for the grade. at the same time, it's a lot of fun and there's a lot of flexibility in terms of ec's. our guide was part of an IM soccer team that never practiced and lost every game - and I love the fact that you can just do things for fun without the pressure of doing well. that's the kind of laid-back atmosphere I'd love in terms of my ec's.</p>
<p>aGiantOreo, I'm visiting Barnard in spring. Should I tour Columbia just for the heck of it? Aren't they right across the street from each other?</p>
<p>i would. i wish i had visited barnard, but i didn't have time. but, i've talked to barnard students who tell me that the campus takes all of 2 minutes to walk across, so i don't see why you wouldnt check out columbia too. they're right next to each other. they see their campuses as almost the same.</p>
<ul>
<li><p>princeton- STUNNING dorms, almost all of them have fireplaces, spacious living rooms, etc. the scenery is so pretty, it was definately the most visually stimulating campuses i've been on... people went out of their way to prove the snotty reputation wrong...my tour guide didn't really know what he was talking about though...</p></li>
<li><p>dartmouth- I've been in love with this school since age 10, so this might be a little biased, but the people were some of the most self-motivated i have ever seen, the campus is gorgeous, and the library is right out of harry potter</p></li>
<li><p>tufts- the campus, though not incredible, was pretty near it, the campus was empty (i visited in the summer), but my tour guide was witty and open minded... the surrounding town is my ideal, location is great</p></li>
<li><p>BC- nothing special, easy to forget, the dorms were horrendous and i found that the focus seemed to be on grads a lot more than undergrads</p></li>
<li><p>UNC- sooo pretty, if not a little big, the people are very preppy</p></li>
<li><p>harvard- didn't live up to the hype- the buildings were all crowded inside the walls seperating the campus from cambridge, the people were the snottiest students i've ever come across, although you have to admit the town and location is pretty darn cool...</p></li>
<li><p>UCLA- way too big, maybe I'm just a die-hard east coaster and it was a hot day, but the buildings were to tacky, the people too fake, and the weather too hot</p></li>
<li><p>The college of New Jersey- all the buildings are beautiful, the athletic facility is flawless, but its all relatively spaced out and the people are pretty boring</p></li>
<li><p>Rutgers- ew... need i say more... just a bunch of cement</p></li>
<li><p>Wellesley- GEORGEOUS i definately found the all-girls atmosphere a little too difficult to live with... but the campus is stunning, the classrooms not too big, and the location is perfect</p></li>
<li><p>BU- just like NYU- all spread around, the people seem very impersonal, as if they just want to go about their own lives without any interaction</p></li>
</ul>
<p>oops i forgot georgetown- the surrounding city is the ideal spot for a campus, D.C is so cool, but i found the architecture and overall look of the campus too intimidating, the people weren't memorable, but the class i attended was fascinating</p>
<p>Glad to hear that about Wellesley. Seemingly no one has anything bad to say about it. I'm trying to head up in a few weeks to do a tour with a friend who's heading into her junior year there as a returning adult student. I keep having that "I should be considering them, even though I'm not" feeling, so I think a visit is in order. Maybe it will help clear up my ambivalence.</p>
<p>Oh what a fun thread! </p>
<p>Carleton- This was the first campus I'd ever visited because it's only an hour away from where I live. I liked it when I was there but after seeing other schools it's dropped pretty far down on my list. The campus is nice and the student body is endearingly quirky, but too close to home for my taste. And the food was bad...(very important to me haha)</p>
<p>WUSTL- Very pretty and I came away with the feeling that they will really take care of you. The students were very friendly and seemed to really like it there. Too big for me but I wouldnt complain if I had to go there for 4 years.</p>
<p>Bowdoin- Preppy and athletic. My student guide was blindingly attractive (as were most of the other students) and the focus on the outdoors made me think that it might be hard to fit in if your wardrobe has more sweatpants than polo shirts and you freak out at eight-legged friends. But the food was good, the dorms sounded nice(although we never saw one) and the campus was pretty.</p>
<p>Colby- This struck me as very generic. Nothing really stood out. In fact, I dont really remember any thing good or bad to report because it just didnt really make an impression.</p>
<p>Middlebury- It felt more like a resort than a college- uniform gray stone buildings nestled in a snowcapped mountain range. It was my parents' favorite. The people there seemed a bit stuck up and I cant see myself living there.</p>
<p>Williams- Not as impressive as I thought it would be. A little stuffy but the town was nice and I felt like people that go there really love it. </p>
<p>Brandeis- It seemed really dirty... While we were standing outside a dorm waiting to be let in I noticed the ground was completely littered with cigarettes. It just grossed me out after visiting the beautiful campuses of the above colleges. </p>
<p>Wellesley- I LOVE THIS SCHOOL! We just visited it because we had an open morning in Boston before we had to go to the airport and we didnt decide until that morning which school we would visit- boston college or wellesley. I expected to mildly dislike it due to high levels of estrogen on the campus, but my opinion started to change even as we were driving through the town of wellesley. The town is quaint and cute and the campus is absolutely gorgeous. My tour guide was really nice and everyone on the tour talked to eachother instead of just sticking to their parents. I could actually see myself here and I really hope they let me in!</p>
<p>Macalester- This school is so underrated, which is good for people like me who want to get in. The student body seems really energetic and friendly, the campus is cute and its location offers a lot of opportunity for its students. I feel like if it were another couple hundred miles away from home it would be higher on my list.</p>
<p>Princeton
Harvard
Yale
MIT
Brown
Columbia
Cornell</p>
<p>Uniform! That's the word I've always been looking for to describe Middlebury's campus. Thanks.</p>
<p>The noted architect Robert Venturi, upon setting foot on Middlebury's campus, was quoted as saying, "If anyone had told me that gray stone boxes set in lawns could be so beautiful, I would have said they were crazy. Middlebury looks like what everyone thinks an American campus should be but seldom is..."</p>