Colleges you/child crossed off the list after visiting

Parents Forum
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<p>Drew: Too small, campus seemed dead even though school was in session, guide didn’t seem too bright.</p>

<p>Skidmore: I thought (and still think) this would be the perfect school for my D, who wants a mid-small liberal arts college with good (but not BFA conservatory) theater, but she found it too remote and just wasn’t interested. But she wasn’t feeling well and was influenced by her friend, who didn’t want to like it because “the moms liked it.” Lesson learned: don’t tour colleges with friends.</p>

<p>Boston University: Cancelled tour when she saw how big/urban the campus was.</p>

<p>Brandeis: Liked the people but took it off the list because its campus is too modern.</p>

<p>Boston College: This was her big disappointment. She thought this would be her dream school, but 15 minutes into the talk (to a jammed hall) by the admissions director, she leaned over and whispered, “Can we leave?” She was very put off by the seeming arrogance of the AD, who basically said that even if you’re the ASB president and got perfect SAT scores, you might not get in to BC. Plus she found the woman sexist (she made some kind of put-down comments about dads). And she thought the four students on the panel were too boring and conservative.</p>

<p>Stayed on the list:
– Clark: she liked the campus, the vibe, and the many happy kids on the quad, and has no issue with the tougher setting, but she goes to high school in Hollywood, so that’s normal for her. Only concern is if theater program is too small.
– Trinity: I thought she’d find it too preppy, because that’s what everyone says, but she was dazzled by the campus and by the fabulous info-session host, a non-preppy, non-white pre-med senior who was so warm and welcoming and smart.
– Emerson: She forgot all about her dream of a traditional, Trinity-like campus within 10 seconds of the Emerson tour. Totally fell in love, with the kids, the facilities, the program, the location. I was surprised by the many students we met-- tour guides, panelists, kids in the dorm elevator. None fit the stereotype (alienated, pierced smokers)-- all were vibrant, friendly, very impressive young people. It seems like the perfect fit, except she’s worried that as a BA theater major (she’s not BFA material) she’d never get a part, which is apparently a realistic concern.</p>

<p>One more tour this year, probably Wagner, Muhlenberg, Ursinus, Dickinson and American. I’m sure we’ll have surprises along the way.</p>

<p>It’s amazing the influence, positive or negative, of one tour guide or one speaker. Smart schools would put a huge emphasis on this. It impressed her (and me) that Trinity and Emerson chose such great people.</p>

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<p>Visited Bowdoin last summer… AD treated the Info. Session like an audition for a comedy club… very arrogant, very uninfomative. Gal who gave campus tour was completely charming and well-prepared. But H and I couldn’t forgive ADCOM for fronting such a buffoon-didn’t speak well for Admin. generally so we strongly advised our S against B.</p>

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<p>^^researchingforemb: Your D’s concern about perhaps not getting a part in a college production is realistic. One of my girls wanted a theatre major (I privately didn’t think she had the talent anyway but she was always cast in the lead role in H.S. which gave her an inflated opinion of her abilities.) She started at a college noted for it’s theatre department but she never got a role. She worked with the lighting a lot…she was a gymnast so she could get into tight corners and had no fear of the high ceilings. Not getting cast though made her realize the theatre was not in her future and she transferred.</p>

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<p>Thinking back a couple of years on this one:</p>

<p>S started out with a pretty big list, and visits really helped to decide. He crossed these off after visiting:</p>

<p>UVA: Did not feel he would fit in with the “preppiness” of students he saw while he was there and didn’t care for all parts of the campus in and around Charlottesville.</p>

<p>George Mason: Too spread out and lacked a campus feel.</p>

<p>College of Charleston: Too small and lacked a true campus feel.</p>

<p>JMU: Didn’t care for the campus with HWY 81 running through.</p>

<p>Loved these after visiting and applied to all of them:</p>

<p>University of Georgia
William and Mary
University of South Carolina
Virginia Tech- was accepted and is happy as a clam as a sophomore</p>

<p>Good luck to you!</p>

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<p>I crossed off Swarthmore. The tour guide complained a lot about the big steep hill you had to climb to get to the dining hall- it was a very gentle, easily walkable slope. Also, she said how much fun it was on the first day when students were given the Latin name of a plant, and they had to search the campus ( a national arboretum) to find it. We got right back in the car before the info session.</p>

<p>For my brother, Drew U. The dorm room on the tour smelled just like dirty socks.</p>

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<p>LOL.</p>

<p>I’m having trouble getting enthused about schools that produced some of the people I worked with. One school seemed to produce people with inflated opinions of their technical abilities. Another ‘suitcase school’ didn’t satisfy a relative at all and he dropped out. These should be options for my kid, but I feel I have to work up some enthusiasm for them myself!</p>

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+1 for Swarthmore–that sounds like SO much fun. :D</p>

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<p>I know- that was the day I decided to head for a big city school, which shows that every college visit can be constructive, even if it just helps you to see what you like, and what you don’t.</p>

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<p>I"m with you, Treetop. When you’re out in the working world and meet dweebs from a particular school you think, “When I have kids they’ll NEVER go there!”.</p>

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<p>^^^ We worked with an older engineer who could always point out the problems, but never think of any solutions. He was an MIT grad, so we all thought it was funny! He got let go eventually.</p>

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<p>William and Mary:</p>

<p>I just felt it was took “historical” or “colonial”. It seems like a nice place to visit for a few days and absorb the history, but it seemed like it would get boring after that. The city is shut down at like ten o’clock. The campus is beautiful, but some of how it was set up didn’t appeal to me for some reason, I think it may have been that you can really tell that they added on to the campus. One part is old, and it is kind of divided from the newer part and then the newest part.</p>

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<p>Princeton: too isolated</p>

<p>Bryn Mawr: pushed her to apply ED</p>

<p>Smith: Northampton too small-city</p>

<p>Reed: people can bring their pets to live with them???</p>

<p>Wellesley: too small, far from Boston</p>

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<p>S2 crossed off Connecticut College after the tour - too preppy for him.
He clicked with all the other colleges we visited, even though some of them were like night and day, compared to each other (9 total) - still trying to narrow down the list.</p>

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<p>Texas A&M. Too conservative. S also thought he might fall into the “2 percenter” group, which didn’t sound appealing.</p>

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<p>Reed: people can bring their pets to live with them???</p>

<p>In our case, that was what intriqued D enough to take a closer look. ( and it is one student one pet for one themed dorm)</p>

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<p>Swarthmore-- I don’t even know what it was but she couldn’t stand it! </p>

<p>UVA-- too southern</p>

<p>Emerson-- too one-dimensional</p>

<p>Villanova-- too Catholic</p>

<p>Mt. Holyoke-- looked like a prison</p>

<p>Amazingly, Vassar stayed on the list even though we witnessed an attempted carjacking on the drive there. (I almost didn’t visit the school after that and after seeing Poughkeepsie but we did and absolutely loved the place.)</p>

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<p>Other schools that didn’t even make the short list:
Pomona/ USC-- too far
Barnard-- it’s for girls who don’t get into Columbia (nevermind that one of my sisters attended Barnard, loved the place and has had a wonderful career)
Columbia-- “they won’t want me”
Dartmouth-- too much drinking
UNC-- “southern”
Dickinson-- all the kids from my school who I don’t like go there (Huh? a handful of kids go each year)
Tulane-- too many kids from my school
UPenn and Northwestern-- too big (but Tufts was on the list)
Williams-- no GOOD reason, to this day I think kiddo could have gone there
Middlebury-- too remote (but Hamilton stayed on the list)</p>

<p>The thing is, different strokes for different kids. One of my kids attends a major urban university. Another is at a small, liberal arts college where teachers are comletely accessible. The first time UrbanChick visited BigFish sibling, she looked at the Small Pond that is fancy lac and said, “I would rather die than spend the night here.” Ah, the drama of daughters! </p>

<p>By the way, those campus tour guides have much power. Many years ago, when I was a college senior, I visited GW with my mom. The tour guide asked his buddy to let the tour group into his room to see a dorm. He obliged and we walked in to see that the boys had hung a mobile of women’s bras and underwear from the middle of the room. Even though I had already paid my application fee, I called to cancel my application.</p>

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<p>2college: ^^^^^ Your post was very entertaining. Yes, the drama of daughters. Where did this daughter go? You have my interest piqued, unless you’d rather not say.</p>

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<p>For D1:
U of Michigan–way too big, and she couldn’t imagine living in a place where people drank “pop”.
Brandeis–hated the campus; she thought it looked like an apartment complex, the tour guide was awful and it was in a boring suburb
GW–too urban and no real campus
(D1 graduated from Tufts–which isn’t that far from Brandeis and is in a boring suburb)</p>

<p>D2’s rejects:
Conn College and Trinity College–thought students she met were too much like everyone with whom she went to high school
Bowdoin–no real reason; it just didn’t feel right.
Grinnell–“OMG, I can’t go here–there is nothing.” She was surprised that she liked the students and liked the class she attended, but couldn’t get over the fact that the college was in Iowa.</p>

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<p>…I guess. Then again, I’ve never been one of those people who cares about how the “customer service” is. I’m pretty self-sufficient so it doesn’t matter to me.</p>