<p>Alaskanian- I don’t see that you listed anything that couldn’t have been easily determined BEFORE visiting. I sure hope you didn’t waste money on all those trips!</p>
<p>Middlebury College - In the middle of no where. Campus on on a high plateau with virtually no trees - a bit freaky. Centered on languages (D is not planning to be a language major)</p>
<p>Bowdoin - Nice campus but tour guide and admissions officer very arrogant and thought too higly of themselves and the school.</p>
<p>Franklyn & Marshall - tour guides were sorrority blondies, like, fer sure. Too fratty, sororityish.</p>
<p>Wesleyan - Tour guide thought too much of himself. Admissions officer seemed exhausted and not interested in selling the school (to be fair, we visited in late March when they were doing their final review of applications).</p>
<p>Wellesley - too hilly</p>
<p>Williams - in the middle of no where. Students seemd like book worms. In the library, there were double decker desks. (Dad comment - admissions officer was wonderful, sweet and engaging) Didn’t like that firsties were segregated from sops, jrs and srs.</p>
<p>(For me, the dad, I thought they were all great. But we were not shopping for me, so my opinion was irrelevant.)</p>
<p>By the way, I would ignore any comments by passing students when on the tour. When I was in college with friends passing a tour of prospies, we routinely said and did goofy things, especially if we knew the tour guide.</p>
<p>Re tour guides: I heard that at Penn State, just recently, one tour guide proposed to another, in front of the whole tour group. Video was taken and it was posted on You Tube. Spread like wildfire. Tuns out it was a hoax. The guide wanted to bring back some old tradition of a memorable senior hoax. He felt bad that it got SOOO much attention. </p>
<p>Now, back to our regularly scheduled programming…</p>
<p>Alaskanian, I hate to break it to you, but all the top UC campuses have a large amount of Asian students (most of course are Americans, not international students.)</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.”</p>
<p>Yeah, this behavior absolutely baffles me. Both the kid trying to pull this stunt and the parents who acquiesce.</p>
<p>GuidedbyWire: my D did exactly that. We were doing two-a-days on the east coast (13 colleges in 6 days) and frankly I was pleased she didn’t waste my time.</p>
<p>D1
hated F&M, no reason.
Bucknell"didn’t like the color of the brick"
Cornell “don’t feel like i will fit in”</p>
<p>S1
didn’t like Colgate(inexplicably found it" too dark", despite the fact that we were there on a beautiful day!)
Villanova:too Catholic
Cornell:once again, i won’t fit in and have any friends
Emory:no spirit</p>
<p>When we visited Georgetown, I saw a mom quietly flip out about a crucifix in the classroom. The daughter said, “SHUT up, mother. I’m going here, not you.” Thought the daughter was rude, thought the mother was unreasonable…G’town <em>is</em> Catholic but it’s about as diverse and ecumenical as you could wish for.</p>
I can understand how a kid might consider a Catholic college and then, upon visiting, decide that the school’s religious character was more pronounced than they had expected and too much so for their comfort. I suspect this is especially likely to happen with schools that are nationally prominent for reasons that have nothing to do with their sectarian affiliation, like sports.</p>
<p>I understand the “too catholic” comment. My son goes to a religious high school. The primary reason he is attending the school is because of the great academic track record. When we visited we spent a lot of time trying to gauge “how religious” the school was. Because although we didn’t mind some religion in his high school requirements, we did not want an environment that made religion the focus of his time at the school.</p>
<p>As a parent, even if a school is affiliated with a religion, my priority for selecting a school was still non-religious education.</p>
<p>“I saw a mom quietly flip out about a crucifix in the classroom.”…
while that may have been inappropriate reaction at the time, and yes, the daughter was “rude” to her mother…</p>
<p>the “crucifix in the classrooms” issue has actually kept a number of people I know away from Georgetown…</p>
<p>In addition, there was a huge controversy over “crucifix in the classrooms” at Boston College last year…</p>
<p>It is interesting that often the kids turn down a school when visiting for characteristics that could be identified online–such as </p>
<p>Core
% of OOS
% of ORM
% of Greek Life
Geography (google earth helps with this too)
Majors etc</p>
<p>Makes me wonder whether the kids do any research before touring…
Certainly at many info sessions we have attened the last 2 spring tour rounds…the kids who ask the questions about AP credit, core etc --was the red flag to everyone in the room know the kid didn’t do enough research to know something about the school they are visiting…</p>
<p>fogfog…yes some of what you list are objective characteristics that SHOULD be researched to avoid wasting everyone’s time. But it’s really hard to get a handle on things like impact of Greek life. Although the percentage of greeks may be small, their influence on campus may be big. You only get a sense of that by visiting.</p>
<p>DS visited Lehigh and liked everything about the academics and facilities but was turned off bythe hills and the surrounding town of Bethlehem. Again loved Villanova for the school spirit, academics etc but thought the campus facilities were subpar. Fell in love with University of Miami presentations at local college fair,but visit again disappointed. Apart from palm trees,felt many of the buildings old and run down-sat on gum on one of the tacky plastic chairs by the lake and that was that- All subjective but bottom line advice to parents of rising juniors/seniors is visit schools if you can. One student’s dream school is another’s nightmare. Also, some schools market themselves well and you need to evaluate the “product” with your son or daughter. Finally, de gustabus non disputandum est! To each his or her own!</p>
Just as well. It’s a very good school and competitive enough as it is. And I would feel the same way were I Jewish or Baptist.</p>
<p>It’s not as if G’town is the Catholic equivalent of Liberty University. Or Wheaton (IL) or Patrick Henry. Or Our Lady of Perpetual Hysteria high school. “Intellectually and culturally cosmopolitan” is how I would describe it.</p>