<p>^ The relevant part was the irony of Williams hosting the same kind of info session that turned you off at Amherst.</p>
<p>I’ve heard lots about the alcohol/sports influence at Williams, from alums and current students on both sides (yes, there are other students at Williams right now/in the immediate past who find the alcohol/sports influence unsettling… fancy that). Your S has had an excellent experience as a moderate drinker, IIRC; I have heard from someone else about her S’s disastrous entry experience because all of his entrymates were athletes and soaked themselves in alcohol every weekend. IMHO, both are minority experiences. </p>
<p>Another person, without knowing this, recommended that I choose hallway-style housing over entry-style if I attended because it was less isolating if one didn’t get along with one’s entrymates. I don’t consider substance-free housing to be a segregationalist theme, but a necessity. It was the big drawback, for me, that canceled out the big plus of tutorials.</p>
<p>In our family, exclusion reasons for:
Yale- horrible Gothic buildings
Lafayette- info session and tour guide main focus was sports complex
JMU- I-81 runs through it
UVA- continually ran into someone I know
Guilford- too small and diverse; not sure I’ll find anyone like me here
Wake Forest- ‘workforest’ nickname may be accurate
Pepperdine- not much nearby, too religious
Trinity in San Antonio- speechless hostess (and friends) when asked where to go for fun; and if you drive 3 hours you are still in Texas!</p>
<p>^Colby is indeed known for significant alcohol issues. I am not surprised it made the year book but really, that is pretty bad press. I live 30 min away and they make the paper all too often.</p>
<p>when we visited Amherst we had a lovely time. My son decided to apply ED, was accepted and is now a sophomore there. He couldn’t be happier.</p>
<p>I found all the people we spoke to on campus to be very nice. Interesting about the information session rooms. When we were at Amherst we met in a … don’t know what to call it exactly… kind of like a small lecture hall, would be a good place to watch a movie or something. It was quite pleasant, but not remarkable in any way. They did switch to that room because the tour groups were large that day. I believe they originally thought to hold it in a room in admissions that would have been more intimate… maybe that’s the room that others here did not like. Anyway, might be making a bit too much of a deal out of a room.</p>
<p>Anyway, we mostly saw small LACs as my son quickly identified that as his preference. I think every one we saw was quite beautiful in its own way. I tried to remind him not to make a big deal out of weather, tour guides, etc. Those things are so incidental to the particular visit… but maybe if it’s just a matter of winnowing down a list, one thing is as good as another. He kept an open mind and would have been happy to attend a number of schools he visited. His top three were Amherst, Williams, and Tufts. There were practical as well as subjective reasons why Amherst was best for us.</p>
<p>mominva – actually, from San Antonio (Trinity U) if you drive 5 hours you’re still in Texas. This part of the country is a little different from the eastern seaboard.</p>
<p>This thread is too funny. The perspective of a 17 year old! Here’s what DD crossed off after visiting:</p>
<p>BU - too city
UMass - “dirty” (really? I didn’t notice)
SUNY Oneonta - no cell phone service on the way to campus (OMG - a major catastrophe!) and we had to stop for deer</p>
<ul>
<li>not applying to any of these -</li>
</ul>
<p>On the other hand, she got out of the car at the University of Delaware and said “this is what college is supposed to look like.”</p>
<p>Also of interest… we drove through Univ of Maryland and she said, “no way, too big.” Another time we took the tour and it soared to the top of her list. Loved it.</p>
<p>Same at UConn. Campus seemed big, but once we took the tour and the layout was explained, it seemed really manageable.</p>
<p>The tour guides do make a huge difference. We had a great tour guide at Delaware (an engineering major who was in the marching band) and at Brandeis (an unbelievable over-achiever with an amazing personality).</p>
<ul>
<li>Delaware is a top choice; Brandeis is not on her list (out of her reach) -</li>
</ul>
<p>Son visited many colleges. But…once he got to Grinnell’s campus, the decision was made. He is now a freshman and says Grinnell was 100 % right choice. He loves the folks, the teachers, and everything about it. He always sounds so happy when I speak with him. Considering he’s half way across the country, I’m glad his instincts proved on target!</p>
<p>To make my own position clear: I like Amherst and would have been thrilled to attend. I thought we were reporting the silly biases of youngsters. I am sure S would have been happy there, too.</p>
<p>Of course, now that he goes to Williams he vehemently denies that – calls it the bowels of hell (but of course is just joking.)</p>
<p>And worse that outright objections is that withdrawn silence that only teenaged boys can really manage. </p>
<p>Oh, and Conn College he got nauseated and threw up before we got there, so we turned around, just before the Orient Point Ferry. He wasn’t sick. </p>
<p>So that was the fastest no.</p>
<p>See what I mean? Silly and inconsequential. I am so sorry if I offended Amherst folks. It’s a progressive, wonderful school.</p>
<p>Northwestern – Just not feeling it. Thought it was depressing. On paper, it had everything she wanted in a college. We were surprised.</p>
<p>Tufts – The guy from admissions who gave the presentation was just painfully awful. He must have repeated, with this goofy yet reverential look of bemused wonder, that Students At Tufts Love To Learn at least 25 times during the presentation. Then the faculty member in D’s area of EC love conveyed pretty directly that there was nothing going on campus and never would be and what was going on wasn’t very exciting and she could just forget about it. So much for that. </p>
<p>Penn – It somehow felt too much like her high school (which she liked a lot) but not in a good way. It didn’t feel like college. Huh?</p>
<p>UCBerkeley: Drove down Telegraph Ave. and didn’t even want to get out and explore the campus. Thought it was grungy and depressing and too big and just all around …well…not Palo Alto.</p>
<p>College we dragged her to see over vociferous protests that she loved: Barnard. </p>
<p>College we didn’t expect her to go for that turned out to be a gem in her areas of interest and that she felt good about: JHU</p>
<p>Colleges we thought would be a very good fit that she refused to consider on the grounds that she would sooner die: All colleges in small New England towns. </p>
<p>Moment when we ground the enamel off our teeth trying to keep ourselves from saying anything: Years later, while happily attending college elsewhere, D says, “Why didn’t we look at Dartmouth? It’s a really great school.”</p>
<p>Rhodes didn’t get crossed off the list until she made her final decision and the grounds are lovely but I think the fact that all the buildings are made from the same stone would get boring after a while. They have their own quarry and somehow are mandated to stick to that facade. I know a former student whose car was crushed by a falling tree on campus but that also happened to D’s car parked at home.</p>
<p>We drove around the neighborhood looking for cafes, bookstores, etc. but there was nothing within walking distance. We couldn’t find even a coffee shop, only private residences and some student housing. It was just a weird vibe to see no off campus life. The adcoms were very nice though.</p>
<p>CCSurfer, we had the strangest experience at Tufts! The young man from admissions who was doing the info session was in the midst of his well-rehearsed, but nonetheless amusing, rapid fire spiel when he suddenly lost track of where he was, grabbed onto the podium and mumbled something about feeling dizzy. It was sort of unclear what was going on… he said something about not having eaten, having drunk too much coffee. A parent made his way down to the stage and gave the guy a banana and a granola bar, which he proceeded to eat while he finished his presentation. A little wobbly, but he got through it.</p>
<p>Afterwards we grouped up with out student tour guides. It was POURING rain. Just dumping. Our tour guide was brilliantly charming, funny, drenched. Both my kid and I came away quite enthused about Tufts… in spite of the extremity of the whole day.</p>
<p>We saw Tufts in pouring rain too- D thought the tour guide was one of the best she has had anywhere- and yet she came away not wanting to apply.</p>
<p>S turned down Case western because he had to cross a 4 lane busy road (I think 2 were turning lanes) to go from his dorm to his classes. We also took a shuttle from dorms to classes so it felt like a long way away. I liked the school myself.</p>
<p>Visited PSU on a beautiful fall day and he was driving down college ave. There were so many people (he was a new driver) he was afraid he was going to hit some one! Told his dad “there is no way I could go here!” Turned out if was football/alumni weekend. We never checked.</p>
<p>Lucily he went back to visit on a weekday and decided it was fine after all. He will graduate this year and told me this weekend that he felt the school was pretty “small”. Good thing he had turned down Swarthmore which was the other end of the spectrum on size.</p>
<p>If my fact need to be corrected as far as the dorm is concerned, then I thank you. This is what we understood from the tour. I will say that we never did see the dorm from which the kids have to take the bus from (we asked, but really did not have that much time to investigate-they said it was too far to walk), but they definetly spoke of it in the tour. </p>
<p>And Yes, the other comment was made. It was meant as a light hearted, amusing comment(ie Greeks are not big on campus etc…). It is just that nothing gets past my brother.</p>
<p>Agree with Mythmom that these are the silly biases of youngsters. All of these schools are great. My son wound up at Vassar which has had Poughkeepsie bashed several times on this thread. I’m sure he would have been happy at Wesleyan too (tiny road and all.) As my dad used to say, “That’s what makes horse racing!”</p>
<p>That is funny about Tufts. When we visited with D (many years ago) the tour guide got sick in the middle of the tour, disappeared into a rest room, finally came out looking green and apologized for not being able to continue! We felt sorry for her- it was a hot, summer day. </p>
<p>ParentofIvyHope- I certainly would not describe Penn or Yale that way. Yes, the surrounding areas aren’t the Colorado Rockies, but both campuses are lovely.</p>
<p>My daughter didn’t want to attend any school that had coed bathrooms. That left Wesleyan off the list. So D chose a large state school with single-gender floors alternating. Wouldn’t you know, late at night, she would often run into a guy sneaking in or out of the women’s room because he was too lazy to go down to the guys’ floor.</p>
<p>D crossed off BU – too much in the city and Tufts – not sure why, loved the elephant, but it just didn’t feel right.</p>
<p>Had no interest in BC, but since we were in Boston, figured we’d go tour. Vibrant campus with kids playing frisbee and football, great tour guide. Turned out to be one of her favorites.</p>