<p>In surveys of tourists from all over the world New York ranked friendliest and most polite.</p>
<p>It’s true. We have our style. I’ll say abbreviated. But I <em>do</em> think we Yankees here are nice.</p>
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<p>Our appointment at University of Tulsa was at 9 am, so I thought we’d get breakfast somewhere close to the school. We drove several miles in each direction and it was bleak…almost totally used car lots and pawn shops. Not a Starbucks or a donut shop to be found. We finally ate breakfast at a Burger King, which was the only thing open in about a two mile radius. Great way to start a visit (not)! D came away with the idea that the entire city of Tulsa is a dump which, of course, is not true.</p>
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<p>A friend of D’s who has a high enough class rank to be an auto-admit visited. She hated it so much that they snuck away mid-tour. (But of course, we know lots of people who go there and love it.)</p>
<p>Reading these posts confirms I’m right to have the nerves I get whenever I give a tour. At Xavier, we have volunteer tour guides along with the admissions office guides who are paid to give tours and do other admissions work. Every time I give a tour, I get really nervous that I’m going to forget to mention something or that people will end up hating such a wonderful school because I didn’t do a good enough job!!! Please, don’t be too tough on the tour guides. Many of them really are trying, and understand the pressures they’re under. Look at more than just the guide you have, but at the school itself, academics, retention, graduation rates, safety on and around campus, opportunities (number of clubs, service projects/trips, sports, and activities available, as well as employment), resources, and atmosphere (though if it’s 10AM on a Saturday like most of the tours I give, remember that most students are in bed and will not be out on the lawn/quad/greenspace!!! I try to mention this in my tours, and truly there are students always out on our greenspace when it’s nice and people are awake!). Also don’t write a school off for being of a certain religious affiliation. At XU, I think it’s only about 60-70% of students are Catholic.</p>
<p>For a small-to-medium college, XU has a lot to offer. And actually, my top schools at the beginning of my search 7 years ago were Bellarmine University, Hiram College, and University of Dayton. Bellarmine was crossed off because, even though it was lovely despite the rainy day I visited on, there seemed to be very few activities and clubs available, and though I’m not wildly social or a partier, I still felt I would get bored on campus and want to go home on the weekend. That is a very important question to ask on tours, by the way, whether most students stick around or go home for the weekend and what kind of activities are available on the weekends. Hiram was a cute school but I never actually went to visit it because it wasn’t a well known school and I had gone into college intending to apply for medical school, and wanted a school with more of a well known science program. Dayton was tougher. My heart was actually set on Dayton until I took a last minute tour of Xavier before early decision applications were due. At that point I had already sent in my Dayton application, and had toured the UD campus and loved it. However, when I toured XU, I loved the atmosphere more, and it felt more like home; especially when I did the overnight program and got the feel of a day in the life of a student.</p>
<p>If your child has the opportunity to stay the night on campus with a current student, take that opportunity! Check with the admission’s office to see if they offer this kind of program, or something in which the student can take a mock-class with an actual professor (both of these are offered at Xavier University, Cincinnati)</p>
<p>I know I talked up XU a lot here, but I LOVE my school, and hopefully some of the tips I gave will help you and your sons/daughters in choosing a school they will love just as much, even if it does not end up being XU! Good luck!!!</p>
<p>it isant true if you are looking at IVIEs you would not look at GWU. GWu is not a traditional campus, but I was suprised how the streets were quiet, and it seemed more cohesive than I expected. Catholic is more restrictive than other catholic colleges, this is from kids I know that go to school in DC. I would stick with Georgetown, GWU and American.</p>
<p>Missypie, we had a similar experience breakfastwise at U.Connecticut. We asked a few ppl where to get a good breakfast just off campus, and the only place was a local chain which shall remain nameless. We had the worst breakfast experience ever - dingy icky run down place, the greasiest food you can imagine, bad taste that extended to the school, unfortunately. Crossed it off! Listen up colleges: must have funky warm breakfast joint within walking distance of campus!!!</p>
<p>Got the axe:
Bates. New dorms look like a mental hospital. Hmm…
Colby. The town is SO depressing. A college should bring prosperity, not kill it.
Rutgers NB. Tooooo BIG.</p>
<p>Loved:
Goucher. I can’t explain it, it was a great vibe. Awesome auditorium.
Bryn Athyn. They have a museum with all kinds of artifacts on the campus!
Penn State. I think I understand why there is such school spirit, it feels like a community and even though you don’t go there you feel like you belong.</p>
<p>Tufts-Students were nice but didn’t like the college
Amherst- really wanted to like it but was dissapointed with the college and the tour.
Brandeis- did not like anything about it.
Columbia - very nice
NYU - Impressed by the tour but disappointed about the lack of campus
Pitzer- whole different vibe to that school, scary
Scripps- really nice but all women
CMC- too full of themselves, conservative
Pomona - very nice</p>
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<p>When we visited DePaul, we went to a local coffee/bagel/sandwich place close to the school visitor’s center for breakfast. The lady behind the counter asked if we were visiting and D said yes. She said, “well, if you go there, this will be your coffee house.” DePaul should pay that lady for starting the day off with such good vibes!</p>
<p>“I just didn’t like [BC] the campus-it was deserted…”
“We went [to BC] during the summer…”</p>
<p>Rootbeer tours the U of Michigan football stadium on a Sunday afternoon in February: “They say it seats 110,000, but I didn’t see anybody there.”</p>
<p>Thanks, mdcissp (post #1620)! I’m glad to hear that. We’ll be sure to check out the USC forum as well as visit the school. On paper (and website), it appears to be a great match for all of my son’s interests and tastes. But I fly back and forth from LA a lot (on business), and whenever I ask people who live there what they know about USC, they always come back with, “It’s in a REALLY bad neighborhood!” So, that’s pretty much all I ever hear about it. It’s had me questioning whether or not it was worth a visit.</p>
<p>I started this thread and am so glad to add a bit more here about USC. Son is going to be a freshman this fall.</p>
<p>We drove all around the vicinity and since it was daytime things looked very normal and very college like. People walking on the side roads on a nice sunny day. Did not feel odd even for a moment.</p>
<p>We went at least 1-2 mile radius all around and know friends who have bought condos near Staples. Again, felt very normal. </p>
<p>USC campus is just awesome. I think even the surrounding areas are going to get better and better.</p>
<p>At Goucher’s open house, they had amazing pastries and other assorted breakfast goods. It turns out it’s their own caterer, Bon Appetit, and this is the food you get <em>every day.</em> Plus they also have a veg and a vegan caf…on top of the others.</p>
<p>Bowdoin has the best coffeeshop a few blocks away, the Little Dog, and they have good breakfast sandwiches and quiche…OMG</p>
<p>Kept NYU but crossed off Columbia, UofI, & DePaul after visiting.</p>
<p>** COLUMBIA:** Let me start by describing how horrible and pretentious the tour guide was. At the beginning of the tour, the first words that came out of his mouth were, “I went to one of the best prep boarding schools in the United States.” After that I knew everything was just going to go downhill. He talked about how his parents wanted him to look into Yale but he wanted to take hold of his life so he applied to Columbia…and guess what, his parents still paid for his college tuition anyways. Oh, and they also bought him a car (big surprise). Then, as we were going through John Jay’s (it looked so dark, gloomy, and just not comfortable) he talked about the sub par cafeteria food. But he ended his statement by stating: we live in NYC, we can eat wherever we want. Not that that was bad or anything…but not everyone has the money or the luxury to eat out every day. Now…the worst part of the tour. He started to tell us about his freshman year here. He stated that in his dorm, he had a neighbor who was an extra on Desperate Housewives and another neighbor whose father owned a major corporation and his roommate was the son of some famous author. He then stated, “those are the kind of people who attend Columbia [rich and pretentious people who have money overflowing from their pockets]”. Now, the dorms were also unwelcoming - dark and gloomy. I just couldn’t imagine myself living there. Almost at the end of the tour, the guide went on and stated how several movies (Spiderman mainly) and shows (Gossip Girl) were filmed on campus. He also went on and said that a movie was being filmed on campus this weekend (the crowd went crazy). I don’t think I’d want to go to a school where half of the campus is used every weekend as a filming location. From the entire tour, the only useful thing he said was how the Core Curriculum helped unify his class (everyone studying for the same midterm, etc). Now, after the tour, we were taken to a room for the info session. The tour guide left (THANK GOD!) and we were introduced to a really kind senior. All in all, the info session was pretty helpful…I think. She basically just read off the Columbia College profile from College Board. She gave us a ton of useless statistics. The only good thing of Columbia was the delicious Asian grocery store/restaurant across the street, and the calmness of Morningside Heights. But, after Columbia’s tour, we practically ran off to NYU.</p>
<p>** NYU: ** Since the Columbia tour and info session took so long, we missed the NYU info session. But we were able to make the tour. Now, let me state that NYU’s campus (or lack of) looks…DISGUSTING during the winter. The park was under some sort of construction, and all the streets were basically empty. Although, I did like the neighborhood, I wasn’t sure how I felt about how spread out the campus was. Anyways, I kept NYU on the list, since I’m planning on visiting again (hopefully during the spring or summer) and we’ll see how it goes. </p>
<p>** University of Illinois - Champaign Urbana: ** Although I did tour UofI two years ago, I’ve got to say…even saying UofI brings chills to my back today. From what I remember, the tour was horrible. Now, the worst thing was the size of UofI. We walked throughout the ENTIRE school. That’s the one thing that turned me off - the size of UofI. I think it was way too big and just way too spread out. Also…the tour guide was kind of…hillbilly-ish/gangster, which was also a turn off. He talked like this “If yous come to UofI, yous gonna have a ILLIN time.” That, with the frat party at 9:30 in the morning had us leaving almost immidiately. </p>
<p>** DePaul:** Now, the only reason I visited DePaul was for school-related reasons. Let me just say this: the tour of DePaul left me speechless. The only thing the tour guide talked about were parties. She talked about how amazing living in Chicago was…and how awesome the parties are. Now, what I disliked most was the campus. It was like NYU x3. I think I only saw one square yard of grass throughout the entire campus…and I like grass (mostly to study and chill…and I’m the president of the Earth Club at my school, so that was also a turn off :D) Even though I wasn’t considering applying to DePaul, after my experience I can now tell people about the horrors of DePaul.</p>
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<p>Gosh, how can you hate both of them? If you’re looking for green, doesn’t U of I still have that cornfield in the middle of campus? (DePaul does have a small grassy quad, BTW.)</p>
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<p>From my perspective, UofI had WAY too much green (and the school was way TOO big for me). And, I was being sarcastic when I remarked that DePaul only had one square yard of grass :)</p>
<p>Um…how can you have too much green?</p>
<p>At UofI, it felt like I was in this huge patch of grass in the middle of nowhere (even though the city was right there)…having too much green is possible.</p>
<p>The real unpleasant part is in the winter, when the icy wind comes off the prarie, with nothing to stop it.</p>
<p>Poor Josh- what would he have done on the UW-Madison campus? They add hills to the size- have to go up and down (or around) to get anywhere. Good exercise, though. And it makes for scenic vistas of the lake. Too bad he didn’t look beyond the prairie landscape or average (?) student to the excellent academics in many areas.</p>
<p>We went to the Western Illinois University a couple of weeks back. We were pretty much ready to leave when we got there. The 1st issue we had was just finding admissions. 20 minutes of driving around and “guessing” which building we needed to be at was tiring enough. On our walk up to the door from the parking lot we got a couple of the “What are you looking at?” glares. We shouldn’t have even gone in but I felt we should see it through. The school is inexpensive and was thinking “safety school” but I think my S would rather go to our local community college before he goes back to WIU.</p>