<p>Gosh, noimagination, my son is like you! We lived in Europe for 3 years and he was fed up of that look, he loves where we are now because its a young country and has modern buildings. He loves steel and glass! sigh!</p>
<p>Speedo: Tell us what you really think! LOL. I am cringing from you motherâs remark as member of offending group.</p>
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<p>I know itâs a great school and I know several kids there who absolutely love it, but it was crossed right off the list by my daughter for that exact reason. We drove a complete circle around the campus, looking for anything that might remotely resemble a âcollege townâ or businesses the kids could frequent etc⊠and couldnât find it. It just wasnât what she envisioned for herself in a college.</p>
<p>Iâm thinking how it all can change, especially when all the acceptances/rejections come in. My D is no where where I thought she would be at this time last year. Happy as can be. She actually chose the school that made the most sense for what she wanted and financially. It,s important to keep an open mind if you can. She was accepted to "higher " schools too but is plenty challanged where she is.
MY 80 year old MIL makes those comments too usually about gays âtheres so many and they are everywhere!â She has no attititude with them but as time goes by she is constantly amazed at the change in our world. Sometimes it can be embarrassing. The kids just cringe, or just tell another nana story.</p>
<p>At Harvard, the two students on the panel didnât seem happy. Also, before the actual session, everybody was herded into a room where a video about the greatness of Harvard was playingâand another parent shushed my son and me so they could hear this inane video about how Harvard has eleventy zillion library books. (My son still applied, but withdrew has app after getting in EA elsewhere.)</p>
<p>Speedo - </p>
<p>âI took my elderly mother on one college visit, sheâs sometimes a little off, and right in the middle of a large group presentation by the President, my mother said very loudly, âA lot of Jews here!â We left very soon after that.â</p>
<p>OMG - that is too funny, reminds me of my grandmother. Nothing would hold her back from speaking her mind. Would want to make me instantly disappear.</p>
<p>My father is hard of hearing and has no idea how loudly heâs saying things. <em>cringe</em></p>
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<p>This reminded me of something my 12 yr. old noticed when we were touring the Univ of Wisconsin with his older brother. âMom! Do you see that girl over there? She is not really a girl.â Sure enough, upon closer examination, I think it was a cross-dresser.</p>
<p>Disclaimer: This post does not imply that cross-dressers are gay or that gays are cross-dressers. It does imply that Wisconsin has a bunch of weirdos (just kidding).</p>
<p>My dad got an engineering alumni award from the University of Colorado years ago, so I flew out to attend the ceremony. The event was held in the same building as an exhibit on gay and lesbian art. Ha, it was so funny to see the two groups in the front hall - engineers and gays! About as opposite as you could get (as a rule - I realize there are probably some gay engineers out there!). I was proud of my father for keeping his mouth shut.</p>
<p>^^^So she crossed Brandeis off the list?</p>
<p>Is someone adding this to the College Visit Checklist? âDonât take Grandma.â</p>
<p>Oberlin.</p>
<p>Younger daughter did a weekend where she flew out of LGA with a whole group of kids.</p>
<p>She stayed in a dorm with some students, who told her that all the students were druggies, except âthose lesbians.â Not that she cares about either - but she isnât part of either group.</p>
<p>The kids did interviews while they were there, but during interview afternoon there were no alternate activities, so daughter was left alone - to ponder the druggies and lesbians - and decided that perhaps she might not fit in.</p>
<p>I did not cross any off their lists as their lists were just thatâŠbut they crossed off severalâŠ</p>
<p>Vassar: many smoking students, not impressed with the campus and the surrounding area is ânastyâ to quote D2</p>
<p>Sarah Lawrence: professors living in your dorm didnât work for D1. She called it âtoo intimateâ</p>
<p>Cornell - too big and too isolated, like the Emerald City popping up after the yellow brick roadâŠdidnât like the idea of needing a shuttle bus on campus</p>
<p>Skidmore - too modern - I loved it but kept my little mouth shut</p>
<p>Lehigh - too much Greek life (tour guide said "not too many are in Frats and sororities - its 42%). D decided she couldnât do math very well and was turned off the by greek life being quite important.</p>
<p>Wellesley - applied (both) but turned it down. too much of an elitist attitude according to both.</p>
<p>Carnegie Mellon - D1 went then transferred, D2 wouldnât look after visiting her sister. Said the campus was ugly. I rather liked itâŠ</p>
<p>To each his/her ownâŠ</p>
<p>I love this thread. Fun reading!</p>
<p>In no particular order âŠ</p>
<p>Vanderbilt: not welcoming, in general; rude and very unfriendly office lady in music dept (we pretended we didnât notice); kids too preppy and rich during our summer visit</p>
<p>Carnegie Mellon: I LOVED it. Wanted to go there myself! Son was unimpressed. Didnât have the âlived inâ cozy feel he was looking for.</p>
<p>Johns Hopkins/Peabody: the Peabody/JHU double major thing did NOT look practical, or really even possible, despite what they said before our visit</p>
<p>Southwestern U: no Italian language classes</p>
<p>Austin College: too âlived in;â somewhat âseedyâ son thought; awful town</p>
<p>St. Olafâs: We both LOVED the school! Everything about it! But son thought itâs emphasis on choral music vs. opera performance made it not the best choice for him.</p>
<p>He LOVED:
Oberlin (nothing could compare for him!); Lawrence U; Rice; SMU; TCU; Gettysburg</p>
<p>When we visited Wesleyan we parked in the visitorsâ lot and then walked up Foss Hill. As we reached the top we looked down on the campus, expecting to see an academic quad. Instead, we saw a baseball field. The sight was sufficiently incongruous that it colored the rest of the visit, even after learning that a condition of a gift was that no permanent structure may be built on that part of campus so it is used for baseball and football games (with stands trucked in). </p>
<p>DD became enamored of the U. of Chicago because of the various brochures they sent. One had a picture of the Chicago River, so I casually mentioned that the river is dyed green each St. Patrickâs Day. Her response was along the lines of âThat is just wrong.â It took a terrific teacher, who is an alum, to get the U. of C. back in her good graces.</p>
<p>We ruled out Bowdoin-tour guide and admissions talk focussed too much about the civil war, and MIT was too geeky for my boys, left the tour at Amherst it was so bad.We went back to Amherst and gave it another try but still were struck by stuck-up people.</p>
<p>Columbia: âSounds like a $200k 4 year vacation.â</p>
<p>I have heard so many people (including several of my sonâs friends from different visits) say that Amherst seemed stuck up after a tour. I think they need to work on that !</p>
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<p>researching4emb: funny your daughter likes both Clark and Emerson. My sister HATED Clark, transferred to Emerson, and loved it. She makes them sound like two very different schools.</p>
<p>With the question of whether schools are similar or very different, I think people categorize things differently, so for one person Williams, Middlebury and Dartmouth would be similar; for another Dartmouth would be very different because it has the quarter system and Greek life.</p>
<p>So Clark and Emerson may both meet the needs of one person, whereas only one of them might meet the needs of another.</p>
<p>My Sâs list raised eyebrows but it perfectly represented the facets of HIS personality.</p>
<p>He also thought Amherst stuck up. He definitely felt uncomfortable there. I liked it and didnât find it stuck up.</p>
<p>Although Brown is charming, D and I could barely contain ourselves from laughing when one admissions person called the Brown student body âthe cream of the crop.â</p>
<p>And D was beside herself when the folks at Vassar kept listing Poughkeepsie as Vassarâs major asset, asserting, âLiberal arts colleges are bucolic. We have the availability of internships.â Ah what about Barnard, Macalester, Occidental, Emerson, Rhodes, Reed, Simmons, Trinity and Trinity? </p>
<p>And there were so many things to like about Vassar that we kept going back but the students at the info sessions were never very impressive. Since I respect many of the students that attend, we could never figure that out.</p>