<p>And the less notable CC poster beginning can be quoted as saying, "I still think it looks like crap." :p Been up there enough times, like it less each visit.</p>
<p>The Big 10/11</p>
<p>1.Wisconsin/Indiana tie--UW for setting, IU for buildings/landscaping
3. Northwestern
4. MSU
5. PSU
6.Iowa
7. Michigan
8. OSU
9. Minn.
10. Illinois
11. Purdue.</p>
<p>Well, I haven't been to many, and the ones I have been to were mostly schools that I've never had intentions of applying to.</p>
<p>University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign: huge campus in a generally crappy town in the blackhole that is Central/Southern Illinois; there are way too many TA's and the professors seem almost disgruntled; lots of decent (at least for the rural Midwest) Asian restaurants around</p>
<p>University of Wisconsin - Madison: friendly students, huge, generally pretty, really hilly campus, food is more than slightly lacking though mostly edible; Madison is (outside of Chicago) the coolest city in the Midwest -funky, quirky, State St. is awesome, dorm rooms are tiny and dorms are not well located, lots of dairy products</p>
<p>Beliot College: not much to say other than it's really easy to get lost there for being such a small school</p>
<p>Brown University: the campus is gorgeous and nicely integrating into Providence, everything is based off of Thayer St. which is a really cool place just to walk around, downtown is nice but everything closes early, really great food in nearby restaurants, dorm food is tolerable, I'm apparently staying in the worst dorm on campus and I'm impressed with it, so that must say something, teachers are fantastic, the facilities aren't perfect and usually lack AC but are generally nice</p>
<p>UCSD: nice campus, open, some places are really old (i.e. John Muir/Revelle dorms) but some are nicer, like Price Center. Interesting architecture...kind of modern feel.</p>
<p>Stanford: so open. I stayed there for a week, and it took me 20 minutes to get to the cafeteria by foot. Overall, nice area...there's a whole student center that's really nice. </p>
<p>Columbia: old in some parts, but Alfred Lerner is pretty amazing...I like the "stairs" (more like a ramp up 5 levels). Nice lecture halls, love the architecture. I like the "quad" area.</p>
<p>UCLA: very open, easy to get lost because all the buildings to me look the same. Westwood's a nice neighborhood.</p>
<p>USC: Eh. interesting neighborhood it's surrounded in. That's all I have to say.</p>
<p>Funny how I'm in Ohio and I've visited more colleges in CA than in Ohio...</p>
<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>
<p>I'm a Tufts student at Tufts at the moment, and I can honestly say the campus is UGLY during the summer. Well, it's ugly early spring too after everything melts. Best time to see the campus is during the fall or after it has just snowed. Sometimes I wonder if my campus gets a makeover for like 3 weeks, and then is let to sit for 6 months with little to no pampering :) Snow is fun, you really can slide down the hill, although every year there inevitably is one student that was injured or does something stupid outdoors (I think my freshman year someone threw a mattress in the middle of the snow on the hill and lit it on fire...crazy students)</p>
<p>beginning--
i happen to think that this doesn't look like "crap," but to each their own...</p>
<p>btw--where do you go to college? just curious.</p>
<p>arcadia: Proud community college student, thanks. :)</p>
<p>I see absolutely nothing special about Middlebury. Never have. It depresses me every time I visit/drive by. It feels cold to me. There's something almost eerie about the greyness and sameness of it all.</p>
<p>barrons - could you comment on Indiana, Minnesota, and Illinois? Specifically the size and quality of the dorms?</p>
<p>I never went in the dorms. Sorry. Most kids at Big 10 schools (except NU) only live in the dorms a year.</p>
<p>If anyone's interested, I just went and made a LiveJournal community for posting reviews like this. This is such a great idea that I want it to spread. :) If you want the username, PM me (don't want to seem like a hit whore!).</p>
<p>cornell
northwestern
u of chicago
wash u
johns hopkins
georgetown
william and mary
duke
unc
davidson
ut (plan II)
rice
claremont mckenna
pomona
usc
carleton
swarthmore
university of pennsylvania
haverford
brown
wesleyan
mit
harvard
tufts
brandeis</p>
<ul>
<li>if you have questions on any, ask away. otherwise it's too much to type. some of these have been summer visits sooo can't say much for students at the schools.</li>
</ul>
<p>Shoegal - can you give us your thoughts on some of these schools please?</p>
<p>Cornell
Northwestern
Wash U
Rice
Tufts</p>
<p>(Hepcat1ofone also asked about the majority of the schools I'm interested in,too), but can you add in USC, also?.</p>
<p>For some of the below, i didn't go while school was in session soo it's hard to say but i'll try my best. </p>
<p>Cornell (summer visit): very pretty campus, kind-of isolated though. i went in the summer so, obviously, didn't endure any cold weather. Was impressive and seemed to have a somewhat jocky/ frat-sorority feel. once again, students weren't on campus soo this is just going off waht the tour guide said. This visit happened a few years ago with my older brother sooo it's kinda blurry. </p>
<p>Northwestern: this was a summer visit too but i've done two of them (one with my older brother) and probably have gone to enough info sessions, etc to say and my relatives live nearby Northwestern so I've been going to Chicago for YEARS. But, it had a very nice campus- seemed like it would be a bit of a walk from north to south campus. It had a GREAT view of Chicago and is right on the lake. Evanston is really cool with lots of great dining and cool things. Chicago is very accessible through public transportation. Lots of great science facilities but the other departments seemed strong. Medill is very impressive. I know the school is heavily Greek (like 50% almost) but at this one information session, the two alumni were greek and they did NOT seem like the typical frat boy/ sorority girl... honestly, they were pretty damn nerdy.</p>
<p>Wash U: summer visit. Very pretty and nice facilities. Can't say much about it though. From waht I've heard and based off of the people I know going there next year, it seems like a very friendly campus. It's known for being VERY science oriented but I think the other programs are very strong too.</p>
<p>Rice: Went during the school year. The campus was very nice and in a very nice neighborhood. The school seemed like it would be fun but we toured on a Saturday morning and I guess everyone was sleeping in because NO ONE was on campus. There were some really cool buildings and the architecture seemed like a mix of Wash U and Stanford (more or less). The school is divided up into residential colleges and it's very Harry Potter-esque. Seems like there is quite the party scene on campus- came to this assumption after walking by a room that was left with a large collection of beverages from the night before.</p>
<p>Tufts: summer visit. Nice campus, really pretty with lots of hills. The school really emphasized the global community and I liked that. It's somewhat Greek (15%) which seemed like a good number. If you're into internationalism and study abroad, it's probably a good school for you to look into. The area it was in was nice and like Northwestern is with Chicago, it is very easy to get to Boston and they have shuttles going into the city and into Cambridge.</p>
<p>USC: went during teh summer and during teh school year a few years ago. During the school year, there was SO much going on in the campus. Students hanging out on the lawns, clubs with posters, a LOT. But the school seemed very "ra-ra," sporty, and preppy. The campus is beautiful and very enclosed (for good reasons). The surrounding area is sketchy. Housing is only guaranteed one year and the off-campus housing options did not look too good. But the school also seemed like a fun place to be.</p>
<p>... I hope I'm somewhat helpful! It's hard to say for a few of those schools because I only went during the summer. If you have any more questions, I'll try and answer!</p>
<p>thank you so much for the reply...it really helped, because I know that I would not be able to afford visiting the colleges, unless they decided to fly me out with all expenses paid (very unlikely I think,though)</p>
<p>Hi Shoegal, if you don't mind, could you tell me about your visits to U of Chicago, Pomona, Swarthmore, and Penn?</p>
<p>UChicago(a week ago)-I visited hoping to dull my affection to a manageable level of moderate obsession. Instead I found myself daydreaming of falling asleep cramming in the library, strolling through the Gothic campus, and discussing the latest ten-pound book assignment in the dorm hallways. Needless to say, I fell in love all over again. The tour guides were witty and intellectual beyond their years, while my interviewer was pleasantly chatty but slightly intimidating. The information session was very useful, and most students on campus weren't opposed to answering questions in detail.</p>
<p>Wellesley(a month ago)- Initially I booked the Wellesley tour and interview knowing it was a middle contender that I liked but not necessarily loved. After the experience I can easily say the school is possibly one of my favorite colleges. The emerald lawns, arching gray buildings under shady tree canopies and glittering waters of the lake were picture-perfect, even though the dorms weren't. No AC, slightly cramped quarters, and communal bathrooms/kitchens made the dorms unimpressive. The students seemed so openly warm and diverse, even though few were on campus. And then there is the fact that its park-like setting is a reasonable drive from Boston... All in all, Wellesley was amazing.</p>
<p>Harvard(a month ago)- I expected affection or at least lukewarm like for Harvard, but driving into Cambridge itself seemed to violate something in me. The town seemed so busy and large (though admittedly hip), and Harvard followed suit with many buildings and even more people milling about. The tour groups were divided amongst guides who seemed warm and intelligent, which was a complete contrast with the students and parents stalking about and eyeing one another with unmasked suspicion; my tour guide was sweet and peppy, but despite her enthusiasm I didn't get a sense of what the student body or academics were like. There was too much action, too many people, and not enough cohesion in what seemed like an impossibly large campus. Tourists ran around, adding to the confusion. In the end, as in the beginning, the institution just seemed too expansive and impersonal to possibly appeal to me.</p>
<p>Georgetown- I walked onto campus during my winter break last year and found the place utterly deserted. Buildings were graceful in their own right, but situated very close to one another with a lack of greenery and space in comparison to other colleges. I only looked around, but the construction and lonely campus seemed very bleak. Of course this can't offset the great academics, and I didn't actually tour or visit officially at a more representative time.</p>
<p>hopefully will visit rice, wustl soon, but on the long-term list are emory, duke, tufts, jhu?, brown?, gwu, bc, oberlin?, upenn?, swarthmore, pomona?, ucberk?... maybe touring will eliminate some applications...</p>
<p>shoegal...william and mary please. thx</p>
1 Like
<p>Yikes...we've been to:
U of Richmond
College of Charleston
U of South Carolina
Elon
UNC-Greensboro
Wake Forest
Davidson
Southern Methodist University
Chapman
Claremont McKenna
Pepperdine
Santa Clara University
U of San Diego
Stanford (sightseeing only...very pretty)</p>
<p>Still left...
Drew (tomorrow)
Lafayette (sometime)</p>
<p>We've also been to with DS...</p>
<p>Boston University
Peabody Conservatory
New England Conservatory
Hartt School
U of North Texas
Duquesne
U of Maryland</p>
<p>And we've been (for other reasons...not for college choices for either kiddo in our family) to:
UConn
UMass
Tufts
Dartmouth
Wellesley
Harvard
Yale</p>
<p>Thanks shoegal!</p>
<p>Has anyone visited Oberlin?</p>