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<p>I know the title of the thread has ‘after visiting’ in it, but DS took the entire Ivy league off the list even ‘before visiting.’ Refused to get out of the car at Cornell (in Ithaca for another reason), declined visits to Harvard, Yale, Brown even though we were in town/driving through.</p>
<p>^ Was he dissuaded by the perceived elitism of the “Ivy League” in general? Otherwise I don’t really see a commonality between all 8 Ivy’s that would cause one to cross them all off of a potential college list without visiting.</p>
<p>Fun looking at CC now that decision made and we are done. Miami of Ohio won out after visiting. Actually, loved High Point University campus and how they cater to students, but Miami had greater choices of majors. Hated Occidental in California. Disinterested staff, didn’t seem to care about the visitors, and our tour guide was not impressive. Many colleges today make great efforts at marketing so we got spoiled. When they seemed disinterested, so were we! All but one of D’s colleges that accepted her and that she turned down wanted to know why. High POint University didn’t seem to care which was surprising since they spent lots of money marketing to her.</p>
<p>I live in the Bay Area, so I was very familiar with Stanford (my Harvard grad parents call it the “ag school”) and Berkeley. Last year, I visited a lot of schools in the East Coast. Much to my parents’ dismay, I found Harvard to be very cold. Being a part of 100+ people in a tour was really impersonal. Sure, I was impressed by the Polaroid camera aka The Science Center and the the history-dripping buildings. </p>
<p>On the other hand, I loved Dartmouth; I think I could be very happy there. I was also very impressed with Bowdoin (great food) and Amherst (nice fields). Middlebury, on the other hand, seemed a little Stepford Wives as was Colby. New Haven was dirty. Columbia was too New York.</p>
<p>I guess I only visited the “elite” schools, because we were under time constraints, but I did not feel that any of the schools seemed elitist. Every school has a different personality; reading the pamphlets and looking at the websites only give you the impression that the schools want you to have.</p>
<p>Jersey13: The only reason he gave was ‘snobby.’ Not sure where he got that as his grandpa was a prof at an Ivy and we have members of extended family, including his favorite uncle, who have attended Ivy institutions. We live in a flyover state and no one he knows from school goes to one. </p>
<p>Probably not a great fit for him, so I didn’t push the issue.</p>
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Completely understandable lol. There will always a stigma of elitism associated with the Ivy League regardless of whether it is true or not.</p>
<p>My daughter crossed Columbia off the list after attending the prospective students weekend. There was alot she loved about the school, but was leary about the lack of organization and poor judgement in choosing hosts. Her first host was a mistake–they had arranged for her to stay with a boy. Her replacement host was a girl who talked alot about being hung over from the night before and assured her that local bars would take her fake ID if she had one. I’m not sure this would have mattered if she’d hadn’t already had a choice she liked better, but it certainly gave her pause for thought!</p>
<p>For my S:</p>
<p>Oberlin went off the list because “too many busy streets running campus” LOL—how does Oberlin, OH have busy streets for a kid who’s grown up in Buffalo, NY?</p>
<p>Kalamazoo College and Macalester both went off the list because of “bad pianos” in the practice rooms available for non-music majors.</p>
<p>Cal Poly SLO</p>
<p>I think that if I told my mom I didn’t even want to get out of the car to look at the college - after she had driven multiple hours to get us there - I think I wouldn’t be alive right now. 
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<p>But seriously, while a campus can sort of make or break your decision, I think it’s best to at least try to explore the campus and not solely judge it on your first impression.</p>
<p>Brown. Unbelievably ditzy tour guide who talked about Saturday field trips to the mall.
Too many arrogant hipster kids aware of the preciousness of their situation. One, trying for a little shock value with the parents I guess, spoke loudly while passing our too large tour group huddled around our tour guide, “Go to BROWN. Best year of my life. I lost my virginity here!” to which i shot back, " Late bloomer, eh?"</p>
<p>Penn State–University Park was overwhelming but not in a positive way. Both Ds thought the football stadium was a total turnoff. I thought it was great, but I’m a dad. I mean, 109,000. What’s not to like?</p>
<p>Kids thought the campus was just too doggone big. On tour, we encountered an overdose of school spirit from current students. Another turnoff for both Ds was the tour guide admitting some freshmen classes would have 600+ students. They thought it felt like high school magnified 20 times.</p>
<p>One D also thought Cornell U was too big and Ithaca too drab. </p>
<p>Oberlin was the most impressive. Small without being too small (almost twice as many students as Swarthmore). A world-class classical music conservatory, a Jazz Conservatory, and intellectual liberal arts college with small classes, all part of one school. Liberal politics, no frats or sororities was bonus appeal, and sort of anti-Penn State. All that music, combined with academics, then Tappan Square and the albino squirrels kind of sealed the deal. </p>
<p>D2 applied to and was accepted to both Penn State and Cornell anyway (just in case) but picked Oberlin.</p>
<p>“^ Was he dissuaded by the perceived elitism of the “Ivy League” in general? Otherwise I don’t really see a commonality between all 8 Ivy’s that would cause one to cross them all off of a potential college list without visiting.”</p>
<p>Mine took them off the list too. She wanted a small LAC. She felt that a campus that focused on undergraduate education would give her opportunities normally given to grad students. She did agree to see Dartmouth as it’s the smallest. She didn’t like it.</p>
<p>NYU - pre-visit my D was convinced she would apply. Post-visit, she doesn’t know what she was thinking. She hated it. No real campus. Too busy. Too spread out.
Columbia - Loved it. In the city, but still a real campus environment.
Yale - Beautiful school, but the neighborhood frightened her a bit.
Princeton - Loved it. Beautiful school and nice location (1 hour from NYC and Philly).
University of Pennsylvania - Thought it was fantastic. Surprised me, but it’s her favorite thus far.</p>
<p>Not that I mind the synopsis of other college visits, but I think the intent of this thread is to just talk about colleges that were taken off the list after visiting. I’ve probably visited two dozen colleges with my three kids, I’m sure you don’t want to hear about ALL of them! ;)</p>
<p>UPenn - D was nervous just getting out of the car. To be fair, it was a dark rainy evening.
Princeton - The “every student, regardless of their major, has to submit a 100 page thesis to graduate” completely turned my D off.
Dartmouth - The sophmore summer was enough to tip the scales to not apply.
BU - was eliminated prior to starting the college search since we had accidentally gone 1 floor to far in the parking garage after a red sox game and ended up in the lobby of a dorm.</p>
<p>Tufts - although a lot of students love the campus and location, we were very turned off by it. It didn’t give us the normal campus feeling.</p>
<p>St. Michael’s College - we were thinking about this school as one of the safeties to apply to. The campus could have been very beautiful, however, it just seemed like they built parking lots into every free piece of property that took away from the look and feel of the campus.</p>
<p>UMiami - It is funny, you will see and hear a wide range of opinions on this school. Many people will comment on the party atmosphere, the location, etc… Then you will get people who defend it and say how great it is. We weren’t impressed at all.</p>
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<p>It’s ALWAYS a dark, rainy evening- well, except when it’s a dark, rainy day. (well, almost)</p>
<p>RPI - Seemed like a good fit for an aspiring engineering student who loves hockey, but S took an immediate dislike to Albany . . .</p>
<p>I’m curious. Why? Was it the mish-mash of buildings? I think the surrounding hills are gorgeous, though. And I hear the student population and hands-on teaching make up for the lack of “traditional college campus look”. My daughter had initially crossed it off her list, as well. But, in the end, out of the 7 colleges she had to choose from, it was the one that satisfied most of her criteria. No, it still doesn’t have that “look” she envisioned. But, there’s always grad school! And, if she ends up going across the country for that, I’m sure she’ll see more traditional campuses.</p>
<p>**afc10ns wrote:</p>
<p>Cal Poly SLO**</p>