<p>The best - MIT (very welcome)
The words - Georgetown. Believe me</p>
<p>rice sucked… elitist</p>
<p>Another vote for MIT! I visited their admissions office a few days ago and the three people working at the time were soooo nice and helpful!!! I was smiling the whole time, haha, and it made me love the school even more. (:</p>
<p>Colgate was definitely the best in admissions, and even though the ice cream on that hot August day was great and refreshing, it was nothing compared to the admissions counselors. I was highly impressed with them when I visited the school in August, when I went to a local colgate meeting with admissions officers in September, and when I went back to the campus in October for an interview. The students who work in admissions are amazing as well. My interviewer was a senior and she was great! Really attentive and immediately sent me a postcard thanking me for my interview! Even our tour guide had such enthusiasm for the school.</p>
<p>College of the Holy Cross was not far behind Colgate in admissions either! I was also highly impressed when I visited in July. Boston College, as popular as it is, was surprisingly down-to-earth for such a large school.</p>
<p>My worst was Middlebury. I strongly dislike those people.</p>
<p>Kenyon was a weird one for me. I thought the structured, visit-day activities where horribly dull and uninformative. Then I had the BEST TOUR GUIDE EVER and a really nice conversation with a professor, and I was in favor of Kenyon again. Sigh.</p>
<p>I couldn’t really pick my best. Wesleyan U was amazing: everyone at admissions was so friendly, even though it was SO CROWDED. Bryn Mawr was definitely my favorite (but that is mostly because I am sooo in love with it; the food was really good, though). Everyone at Oberlin was wonderful, too: lots of materials available, interesting tour, and lots of questions answered at the info session.</p>
<p>UChicago was fantastic! Chicago was my first college visit and I did it in a big way… I hung around the campus for three days one of which was an organized visit day. On the visit day the different info sessions were interesting and my tour guide was dynamite (plus the refreshments were great)! The next day was my interview which was also good, I felt very unintimidated and had a good time. Plus,everyone on campus was super nice- the secretary even let me use her computer to print my boarding passes!</p>
<p>should i feel bad i haven’t visited any colleges? i applied to 11 but i haven’t been to any of them…is that bad?</p>
<p>I haven’t visited that many schools yet, but the Connecticut College admissions team made me feel extremely welcome. They emphasized why they all loved Connecticut College and they were all so open, enthusiastic, and friendly. The tour guide talked me and others in my group individually afterwards and even offered her email address in case we had more questions later on. I really do think that’s how everyone should run admissions–I’m much more on the fence about the other schools I visited.</p>
<p>The people at Brandeis were friendly, but I didn’t like how they ran their tour. I felt like they spent too much time talking about the architecture/buildings when what I wanted to know about was the environment and academics.</p>
<p>Georgetown was a mix–the tour was wonderful and very informative. I really fell in love with the school because of it. The tour guides were friendly, even while dealing with big groups, but the man at the admissions desk was incredibly standoffish, unfriendly, and unhelpful. There was also little information available in the office to look at while waiting.</p>
<p>My favorite admissions office?
University of Chicago. They show that not all top schools look down on you.=)
When I had a problem, I got an e-mail reply next day! I’ve talked to Libby Pearson in person, she came to my school and was open to any and all questions. She was still very engaging and interested even though we were the last school she visited in SoCal after a couple weeks visiting schools here! Add to that the college alum I met with was easy to schedule an interview with and a delight to converse with and you have the perfect admissions experience.</p>
<p>Second fave admissions team:
UC Riverside. The admissions counselor, besides answering all our tour groups’ questions even ran around handing water bottles! He was so friendly I couldn’t help but feel relaxed, and he set the tone for the whole tour.</p>
<p>Oh, and sparkadelic. That IS a high number of colleges to have applied to w/out visiting. But don’t worry, many people don’t visit colleges. However, I do suggest that when those acceptance letters start coming in, and you have 1 or 2 colleges you reeeeeally like, try visiting them over Spring Break.</p>
<p>I thought the Rice people were really nice!</p>
<p>My Tours - - - - </p>
<p>University of Richmond B+
Very nice experience overall. I had recieved TONS of mail from them a few weeks before the actual trip. Campus blew me away, especially being my first college tour. The admissions talk was very professional, yet warm (not distant). I felt like I learned a boatload of information about the school just from the ad. speech. The tour itself was very nice, giving a good overview of the campus buildings, both inside and out. They showed us the buildings we would actually use as freshman- science, English, DORMS, haha. Once again, I can’t tell how impressed I was with the campus. Tour guide was very truthful about her experience, that some things (like the construction) were minor annoyances, but the academics and professor interaction more than made up for it. I felt very comfortable on this tour. Not to mention, I got a free water and meal ticket :)</p>
<p>UVA C-
I was excited to visit, considering it was my first pick at the time (jr. yr.) Unfortuantely, the whole “UVA experience” completely turned me off to the school. We couldn’t even find the site of the ad. talk, it was in some unmarked Chemistry building. We weren’t sent maps beforehand. The building was locked when we arrived, and had to be opened to let the crowd of people enter. We sat in an auditorium for about an hour before an admissions counselor arrived. I wasn’t a big fan of his attitude- very snobby and superioristic, as though UVA was the ONLY good school in America. Some of his advice was helpful, especially with essays, but overall, he was boring and condescending. The tour itself was the worst part of the trip. The guide was obviously instructed to be charming- perhaps too much so. She seemed “fakey” in every way. She bragged about the conditions of the dorms while drunk kids hung there heads out of the windows, screaming and spitting onto the grass below. Overall, lots of talk and “fluff” but not much substance- UVA is great because of Jefferson and Jefferson alone. A Thomas Jefferson cult perhaps? XD Bobble head Jesus on sale in the bookstore was tasteless as well.</p>
<p>Wake Forest A
Well, I may be a bit biased, considering it’s been my dream school since I was a kid, but honestly, the tour was first-class. The guide was a bit nervous, but she was informative and genuine. Ad. talk was lengthy and a bit rushed, but helpful. The campus was incredible, especially since we visited in April with all of the flowering trees in full bloom. Weather was mid 70s and sunny as well 
Great experience overall</p>
<p>TCU A-
Nice tour, they put my name on a greeting board for all touring students!! Once again, informative tour led by a student. The end was the best- we talked to the head of admissions in a small classroom. He basically did his thing then asked us if we had ANYTHING to ask. He even stayed around to chat with us after the official session was over. Very very well done, even if the campus was a bit underwhelming. We got free pens and water to take along XD</p>
<p>SMU A+
BY FAR THE BEST ADMISSIONS CREW I’ve dealt with. Tour was similar to Wake’s, very informative and well-run. Our tour was given by an admissions counselor/newly-grad student. It was a nice combination, as he could talk about student life, academics, and admissions the whole way through. Campus was drop-dead gorgeous. Tasteful architecture and landscaping, not a blade of grass out-of-place. Later, we had a dorm tour run by a student. WHAT A GREAT IDEA! We saw several rooms in several buildings. The student was friendly, and not too “cheerleader-ish” about her school. She portrayed the typical SMU student (not according to stereotype) by taoking about her meal plan, dorm life, social preferences, etc. Lots of time for questions. Overall, just a terrific tour. I’ve recieved tons of postcards, viewbooks, letters, and even Christmas cards from them since, very nice touch. My interview went very well, very friendly and relaxed. I can’t say enough good things about SMU, and I encourage anyone interested to apply.</p>
<p>Sorry for the length!!!</p>
<p>good and worst were the same college for us…Cal Poly SLO…I (mom) went with the GFather to reminisce in late spring and did tour with about 20 other people, mainly HS students and parents. Since GFather is an alumnus, we also scheduled to meet with admissions, fundraisers, department heads and got a personal tour of his dept. Plus parking validated. </p>
<p>Went with S Thanksgiving week & joined over 200 other people on the tours. A little bit crowded.</p>
<p>Same students conducted tours both times and they were perky, eloquent, knowledgeable and happy to be there. </p>
<p>Something we’ll consider going forward…try to avoid “high season” for more personal attention (or bring along an alumnus?)</p>
<p>The people at Kenyon, besides having a wonderful homey campus and beautiful cozy admissions building, were extra warm. I got a card from my tour guide, Jake, in a month. I even went for a run on campus!</p>
<p>CMU, though the info session was the least interesting of the ones I saw on my road trip (U Chi, Oberlin, Kenyon, etc.), had a nice tour of maybe 10 families and THREE tour guides – all girls, too, which was pretty cool at a relatively male-dominated school. There was a liberal arts major, an engineering major, and an architecture major, which made it feel a lot more well rounded.</p>
<p>CMU was the only tour where I actually kind of got along with the students on the tour. We went in one of the new freshman dorms, and walked by a playground in the backyard of another dorm. This one kid, didn’t know his name, wanted to know if the playground was open for students. (It’s not, sadly.) But at no other school I went to did anyone show his or her personality like that while on a tour. That made a big difference to me, just that one kid. I feel more comfortable talking about CMU than any other school, really, even though the academics for what I intend to do seem marginalized.</p>
<p>I went to Oberlin skeptically. I only went because it was between Kenyon and Pittsburgh and we were going to drive by it anyway. We spent the night there, and I was surprised by how much I liked it! I had a fabulous hippie tour guide chick, with a crazy hat and a long flowing skirt. On the course of the tour she sang 2 songs-- AT LEAST-- and seemed really comfortable at Oberlin. I asked her some questions about my concerns with PC-ness, and she answered honestly. </p>
<p>The Oberlin info session was lead by a former professor (in an actual lecture hall, which was really small compared to the CMU lecture hall)— awesome, right? He even taught economics (my field of fascination) at other schools, quite prestigious LACs, and did a great job comparing Oberlin students to what you might find elsewhere.</p>
<p>I was really impressed.</p>
<p>Oh, and U of Chicago. Mannn… my tour guide was a frat brother who takes his frat to the opera; he wore Crocs and was studying History and Theatre or something, and contributes to the lit. mag. He was basically a total nut and even tripped over a stone. The info session later was equally informative and charming.</p>
<p>I was pretty impressed by all of these schools; can’t wait to get some bad experiences under my belt.</p>
<p>From this DePaul grad…all U of Chicago’s have trouble tripping over stones.</p>
<p>[Best]</p>
<p>Allegheny – 2
American – 2
Amherst – 2
Bates – 1
Binghamton – 1
Boise S – 1
Bowdoin – 1
Boston C – 1
Boston U – 2
Brandeis – 2
Brown – 3
Bryn Mar – 1
Caltech – 1
Carleton – 1
Chapman – 1
Claremont McKenna – 1
Colgate – 5
Columbia – 5
Connecticut C – 1
Cornell – 6
Dartmouth – 1
Dickinson – 1
Drew – 1
Drexel – 1
Duke – 5
Emory – 4
Fordham – 1
GA Tech – 1
Hamilton – 1
Hampden-Sydney – 1
Harvard – 6
Holy Cross – 2
Indiana U – 1
Ithaca – 1
John Hopkins – 2
Kenyon – 3
Lafayette – 3
Lehigh – 1
Marquette – 1
McGill – 1
Michigan – 1
MIT – 10
Mount Holyoke – 2
Notre Dame – 1
Northwestern – 1
NYU – 2
Oberlin – 1
Ohio S – 2
Penn S – 1
Rice – 4
Ripon – 1
Saint Josephs – 1
Salem S – 1
Scripps – 6
Stanford – 2
Swarthmore – 1
Tufts –5
UCLA – 1
Ursinus – 1
U of Chicago – 7
UMass Amherst – 1
U of Nebraska – 1
UNC Chapel Hill – 2
UPenn – 2
USC – 5
U of Wash – 1
Vanderbilt – 3
Vassar – 1
Virginia Tech – 1
Wagner – 1
Wash & Lee – 1
WashU – 6
Williams – 4
William and Mary – 3
Wisconsin – 1
Wellesley – 3
Wesleyan – 2
Yale – 9</p>
<p>[Worst]</p>
<p>Bard
Barnard – 4
Berkeley – 1
Boston – 1
Boston U – 3
Brown – 7
Carnegie Mellon – 3
Claremont McKenna – 1
Colby – 1
College of William and Mary – 2
Columbia – 3
Cornell – 1
Georgetown – 2
George Wash – 1
Hampshire – 1
Harvard – 6
Howard – 2
Indiana U B –1
Loyola Marymount – 1
McGill – 1
Middlebury – 2
NC State – 2
Northwestern – 3
Notre Dame – 2
NYU – 2
Princeton – 2
Purdue – 1
Rochester Institute of Tech – 1
Sacred Heart – 1
Smith – 1
Stanford – 1
Texas Tech – 1
Trinity – 1
Tufts – 4
Tulane – 1
UCLA – 1
UConn – 1
U of Michigan – 1
UPenn – 7
UVA – 3
Vassar – 2
Villanova – 1
Wellesley – 2
Wesleyan – 1
William and Mary – 4
Williams – 1
Yale – 6</p>
<p>Maybe I should have organized it differently, but oh well. This took longer then expected. I think I messed up on Tufts, so if somebody wants to fix that, go ahead. Ignore the sporadic alphabetic organization that I am not even sure I did correctly.</p>
<p>So it looks like MIT is leading for the best, while UPenn for the worst!</p>
<p>Wow, that’s quite the post, sushicat!!
Nice job!</p>
<p>Thanks. It took longer than I thought! ^^;</p>
<p>Best: Carleton and Grinnell, kindest, most generous. Hand written notes, always helpful. I sat down with an adcom at Carleton for a long talk. It was amazing how helpful they are. They are so Midwest nice its insane. </p>
<p>Okay: BU was good considering how many people were there (spring break) and it tried.</p>
<p>Borderline Bad: Macalester, it had its good moments to help me out but it never responds back at you. Bureaucracy at its finest. Wisconsin was good on the phone but they were apathetic (almost didnt let us attend tour) when we blew our tire and came to the later meeting.</p>
<p>Worst: William and Mary sucked balls. “What? You can’t do the IB diploma in a year? Ugh, why not? Don’t even consider to apply.” Brown was so hard to get a reach of, I gave up.</p>
<p>That’s funny, all the admissions offices were closed over winter break, so when I called Brown I got a voice message…so on a whim, I decided to email them and I got a really friendly email from them within a few hours. Whereas from Columbia, I got an auto-reply… :(</p>
<p>WashU was the best for me (though I’ll be attending Vandy…). The admission ladies there were so nice. I’m a small asian girl (5’2) in a big group but I received as much attention as everyone else. It made me feel very welcome.</p>
<p>Yale and Rice..um, very elitist.</p>