<p>D refused to put a school on her list judging from the tour she was on when her brother was looking. This was 4 years ago.</p>
<p>Schools my kids wouldnât get out of the car for: Wesleyan and Trinity (bad areas surrounding them)
Both sons didnât like Amherst either. Youngest son thought it reminded him of a private high school. I liked the tour guides but the actual admissions department didnât seem pleasant or welcoming.</p>
<p>Iâll give some love to Northwestern. S2 and I visited a month ago and found the tour guide excited and most of all honest, (no mindless âthis is the best place in the worldâ blather). Downside, the Admissions Office presentation was just awful.</p>
<p>S1 hated URochester. Tour guide spent the entire hour telling everyone how she was planning to transfer.</p>
<p>Pleasant surprise: Iowa. Nice college town with some great programs.</p>
<p>Notre Dame was disappointing. Very white, very catholic, very sheltered.</p>
<p>Visits that for whatever (or no) reason resulted in the school falling off my Sâs list:</p>
<p>George Washington (too urban)</p>
<p>Georgetown (too jesuit)</p>
<p>Reed (this is a puzzler, since I thought it would be a good fit since S loves academics and takes pleasure in studying for ridiculous amounts of time; he loved the campus and the tour guide, but became disenchanted with how, in his view, Reed oversold its intellectualism)</p>
<p>Dartmouth (way to fratty)</p>
<p>Colby (way too likely, if unable to get off that hill in the winter, to turn into Jack N in The Shining)</p>
<p>Tufts (the downsides of urban Boston, without the advantages)</p>
<p>Macalester (no idea; he came, he saw, he never mentioned the word âMacalesterâ again).</p>
<p>There you have it. Whether the reasons are legitimate or not (or whether they really are the true reasons), I do think, upon reflection, that he clued into something and that these schools would not be a good fit for him. Though they clearly would be the perfect fit for someone else.</p>
<p>âNotre Dame was disappointing. Very white, very catholic, very sheltered.â</p>
<p>I really liked ND. The campus was beautiful and âcohesive.â I thought I wouldnât like it because I had a bias against Catholic or religious institutions in general before visiting. To my surprise, the bias disappeared after the visit. I also acquired a lot of respect for ND when they admitted my son even if he stated on his application that he was an âatheistâ-I was kind of hoping he would go there just so their First Year of Studies might force him to contemplate the possibility of the existence of God. It might be silly, but it occurred to me afterwards that perhaps someone in admissions might have thought the same thing.</p>
<p>OMG = being driven out of Amherst by stuffed animals - too, too funny!</p>
<p>VP: thanks about clarifying Gâtownâs requirements. Senior year was incredibly stressful, and S2 wasnât mentally prepared to take more tests. He had very demanding teachers, and all his high-achieving friends seemed much farther along.</p>
<p>Hereâs an example of how different people prefer different things. S3 really loved the architecture of Princeton, especially the dining halls. He hated Wesleyan. The tour was too focused on their new gym.</p>
1 Like
<p>DD visited all these schools as a sophomore or junior- her verdicts:</p>
<p>Dartmouth- off. Too Greek.
Cornell- off. Waaaaay too big.
F &M- off. Too fratty.
Ursinus- off. School is impressive, but dining hall looks like high school cafeteria
Swarthmore- off. Dining hall is impressive, but didnât gel.
Sarah Lawrence- initially off- too liberal, unstructured and hippie. Over the summer, she got in touch with her inner hippie, and itâs back on.
Wesleyan- after the tour it was on, but tepid. After her summer program where kids told her she would fit perfectly there, it is at the top of the list.
Vassar- worst tour guide ever, but it is on.
Bowdoin- tour guides way too preppy, but the town is great, she liked it and itâs on.
Williams- whatâs not to like? Itâs beautiful, great academics, itâs way on.</p>
<p>Visited Penn with S way back - he disliked the large, urban feel. It didnât help that we were staying in hotel right by the hospital and were treated to medivac helicopter landings throughout the night - had an overall feeling of doom.</p>
<p>D objected to the color of the asphalt on the road to Tuftsâ campus. (This is the same kid who said she couldnât have a certain 1st grade teacher because she couldnât âlook at that hairdo all day longâ. At least she knows her limits.)</p>
<p>Post #168:
âshe got in touch with her inner hippie, and itâs back on.â Hilarious.</p>
<p>Our family is way past all this now, but in reply to the last line of a post above</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>MY (city) kidâs response was âFOUR years? HERE!!! Are you INSANE!!!â</p>
<p>Different strokes for different folks! :)</p>
<p>I forget who mentioned it, but S1 found large numbers of geeky guys with pony tails to be a very positive sign. (He has grown a ponytail and beard since heading to college.)</p>
<p>I am glad to read all the answers. Exactly what I hoped for! </p>
<p>Even if son and I went together, is there any surety that we would both have the exact same response?</p>
<p>On this read I got to read many viewpoints and some of the names I had already crossed off the long-long list! Made me feel better that the overall vibe I got from my 6 month long research was accurate. This keeping son in mind.</p>
<p>Now, with the list we have, I am looking to avoid visiting them all. We are planning to visit either in Dec (before the acceptances) or the spring break (after the acceptances).</p>
<p>Son is laid back. He would not like to be in extreme environments (like too liberal or too conservative, too much partying, too competitive,too cold) He loves learning and is happy with a stress-free B mostly. He is into Technology - good at Math/Physics/Writing but hates history.</p>
<p>My kids too, jonri. They are familiar with Williams because their grandparents lived nearby for years, and we would visit it from time to time when we were up there, and of course they were familiar with the phenomenon of looking for something to do in the Berkshires in December when we were all stir-crazy and needed to get out of Gramâs house. Williams was the standard by which other colleges were judged: any degree of resemblance to Williams was fatal.</p>
<p>To my utter dismay Occidental: the reason âI already have enough cool little colleges on my list momâ</p>
<p>also Loyola Marymount U⊠ââŠtoo much constructionâ can you believe that one? Find me a college campus WITHOUT consruction in the summertime!</p>
<p>pixeljigâŠI have already wieghed in on one specific campus on your Sâs list and the reason my D did not choose it was</p>
<p>âItâs not in Californiaâ can you believe that? It wasnât EVER in California but that didnât stop her from researching, applying and loving it second most until the final hours of April of last year. (most loved was a WL)</p>
<p>Pomona --out, Didnât like anything about it
Claremont McKenna --in, liked everything about it
USC --was out, too much school spirit, now back in, visiting again
Harvard --out, ugly, didnât like the campus
UCLA --out, felt it was unwelcoming
UChicago, was in, loves the academics, now out, too much winter
Columbia, maybe in, cold, but in NY
UCSB in, âwhat a safetyâ is all he could say
Other Ivyâs out, pretentious and too cold (beginning to see a trend here)
Tulane in, academics, weather ok, jazz, and NO</p>
<p>My son and daughter both were turned off by Penn. Too pre-professional and urban, though less urban than what they were used to. Neither liked Columbia either. Reminded them both of the University of Chicago, where they both grew up, and for which school they have contempt. Familiarity and much more.
My son was not taken with Williams, for reasons which I cannot understand- too small? He ended up at Williams doubled- Dartmouth.
My daughter loved Swarthmore and hated Haverford. The admissions building at Haverford looked like a ski lodge and the tour guide had painfully low self esteem. At Swarthmore the campus was empty and seemed designed for a student population triple the size. The tour guide reminded her of her beloved older brother- a hipster, and a nerd not far below the surface. She chose Princeton, but might have picked Swarthmore if Princeton were not Princeton. As an academic AND social dynamo, Princeton has proven to be the place for her.</p>
<p>For theater major:
- Ithaca â Too small and rural
- Syracuse â A little better, but in trying to find the theater, NO ONE knew where it was. Asked maybe a half dozen groups of kids. No one knew. Became obvious that athletics was king and drama was way down on the totem pole.
- CMU â didnât like it at first, but did once we found âherâ side of the campus. (Weâd come in through the techie side, finally reached the artsy side.)
- NYU â Approaching NYC, D started to sit up, become animated; by the time we reached NYU, she was just glowing. All through the info session and tour, you could see it in her eyes, her body language. No question this was the place. And this is a 100% suburban girl from a small city far far away.
- Northwestern â Loved it. Great theater facilities and program. Beautiful campus close to large city. Would have sent in application if NYUâs ED admit hadnât come through.</p>
<p>One of my very favorite reasons for rejecting a college, from a thread some months back: âD didnât like the tour guideâs shoes.â That is priceless.</p>
<p>Vanilla-ova â Everyone we spoke to was slightly arrogant, too homogeneous<br>
Miami U of Ohio â Frat row too overwhelming; too many popped collars
Kent State - too Ohio (what does that mean anyway?)
Case Western â too scary (visited via Tom Tom and drove through area that looked like a bomb had hitâŠleft using schoolâs directions which made Cleveland look a lot better)
U-Rhode Island â visited during summer and school looked very run down (peeling paint, weeds growing in side walk)
SUNY Binghamton â A person in admissions said that their school was so selective that students should get admitted before asking questions. Kid rolled eyes and moved on.
U-Kentucky â We were there when classes were changing. Kid saw a sea of blue t-shirts and said the school had âtoo much school spirit.â (Parent engaged in active internal debate about stopping all college visits at that pointâŠ)</p>
<p>last year in April( after she got accepted) we visited Emory in Atlanta ,GW and American in DC also FSU, UF, AND UCF in Florida⊠when my D came back she was very disappointed with Emory ( too big and she hated Atlanta) GW ( there is no campus!!) FSU, UF (too big/ cities too small) UCF(did not like the atmosphere)!! she felt in love with American!! perfect campus, perfect city, perfect fit!!! now she is a Freshman at AU and she said to me itâs my second family!!! we made the perfect choice!!</p>