<p>@mathmom, if you want to talk about the bad visits, this thread would be the place to do it: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/790906-colleges-you-child-crossed-off-list-after-visiting.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/790906-colleges-you-child-crossed-off-list-after-visiting.html</a></p>
<p>Also good to hear about Carnegie Mellon! I’ll be a freshman there next year :)</p>
<p>Another vote for South Carolina… that tour guide was our favorite (genuinely nice young man who clearly loves his school and enjoys giving tours), and it helped that he was also a native New Englander, so dd got to chat with him about the adjustment. </p>
<p>My dh took dd to Marist College, so I can’t really comment, but they both came home liking it very much. </p>
<p>East Carolina University-- hate to use the cliche, but it really was a big school that felt small. Just got great vibes from every person we encountered and since this was the first southern public school we visited, we were so impressed with how nice the campus is compared to publics we’ve toured up here in the northeast.</p>
<p>We had lots of great college visits. A few that stood out were</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Case (didn’t expect to like it so much) - loved having 3 tourguides for the big group </p></li>
<li><p>Northeastern … urban school opportunities, but campus-y at the core parts, awesome co-op program</p></li>
<li><p>Harvey Mudd - it became DS’s “gold standard” for the next year </p></li>
</ul>
<p>Interestingly he now adores his school Olin (which is like Mudd in many ways), but at his first Olin the summer before his junior year it didn’t impress him as much we parents. At that point he just didn’t know as much about what he wanted in a school. Also, in summer w/o students it is not as interesting for visitors. It was the Olin Candidate Weekend Feb of senior year got him hooked.</p>
<p>We visited Oberlin in July and my S and I both loved it. The tour guide was like a long lost twin of my son, which helped a lot. My S was hanging on his every word. Their environmental science building was really impressive and I doubt all the dorm rooms are as big as the one they showed us, but I’d never seen a dorm room so big before.</p>
<p>D visited Notre Dame under protest (H wanted to see it and they were driving thru the area in the summer). There was NO WAY she was going to school in Hooterville, away from the ocean, blah, blah blah.
Told her to humor her Dad.
Got the call that night: OMG! I LOVE it here! I Gotta Go here! And she did.</p>
<p>Yayitsme, I posted about the bad stuff on that thread long ago. Just amused that someone upthread had liked Bard, since my son hated everything about it. I liked lots of things about it, but it does not look its best in February. I went in knowing it was too small and too rural for my son, but I wanted him to get a good picture of what he was nixing when he declared no small schools.</p>
<p>Caltech was wonderful. Tour guide in CS, just us walking around. Son was given a list of classes to observe that day, and other classes the next day. In contrast, tour guide at CMU’s SCS was in business school, large group, a poor overnight, etc. Son suppose to meet for an hour with prof in NS, and on schedule said 11 A.M., so son and 6 others showed up. The prof kept insisting they had made a time change, and come back later.Her rigidity to adjust was a real turn-off. CMU is far closer to where I live, but they just did not compare.</p>
<p>Williams was a “maybe” on my son’s list, but when he was disappointed by Amherst – nobody seemed to know anything about the art department, it was the weekend of the teddy bear festival, for heavensake! – we decided to drive over the mountain to Williamstown. </p>
<p>We arrived in the midst of a crashing thunder storm, were welcomed warmly in the rain by the director of admission, and toured with a group of “what weather?” hearty souls, led by a charismatic student who oozed aspirational self confidence. The information session format allowed visiting prospectives and their parents to ask about “Williams stereotypes” which a panel of students enthusiastically debunked.</p>
<p>We stayed in Amherst that night but actually went back to Williamstown the next day for a dry weather follow up. I think if my son could have signed up that day, he would have been happy if we’d left them there.</p>
<p>D loved CMC, UCLA, MICHIGAN and Georgetown</p>
<p>honeybees,
My D and I visited Kenyon 3 years ago and loved Kenyon. The students were so nice–they held doors for one another. Not something you experience at many campuses! We loved the feeling of safety and community; outside the dining hall, backpacks were stacked up while students dined. Clearly, theft was not a concern. D ended up at Bucknell which also had a great tour with warm, friendly students. </p>
<p>We did not tour Grinnell or Carleton but have a good friend at Grinnell who has been very happy (will graduate in May). D3’s good friend toured Carleton and was so thrilled with it she decided to apply ED (was accepted and will start in the fall).</p>
<p>I wasn’t with one of my other D’s when she visited Villanova but she said everyone was so friendly that the school might actually be “too touchy - feely” for her! (D did end up applying.) Also toured Case Western and D thought she wouldn’t like it but really did – really nice students, warm atmosphere, prettier campus than she expected, etc. Elon was another tour that really impressed – warm staff that went above and beyond to help, answer questions, etc.</p>
<p>We really loved Willamette University in Oregon. It has a cozy, lived in feel about it. All the kids we met were bright and enthusiastic. Just a good vibe.</p>
<p>Surprising likes?</p>
<p>U Rochester for middle son. He wasn’t going to apply due to their weather, but then decided (last minute) to apply, got accepted, and we visited it in Feb - while it was snowing. He loved it and is now a very happy sophomore there calling his application the “best decision he almost never made.”</p>
<p>Nova Southeastern and U Miami for youngest son - though I’m not positive U Miami was a “surprising” like. Nova Southeastern definitely is. Youngest didn’t end up applying to either as their Marine Bio/Science research buildings as a few miles from their main campus and he wanted to be at a place where he could roll out of bed and head to the water. Eckerd won for that, so it’s a like too, but like Miami, not a “surprising” like. Any other major and he’d have also applied to Nova Southeastern (great merit aid for his stats - and we liked the school a bit). I’m not sure about UM as it would have been a reach. He still liked it though.</p>
<p>I was ready to see if Georgetown would accept my 1982 acceptance letter after touring there. I kept saying - why did I turn this place down? I loved everything about it and your guide was exceptional. I wrote a note to the admissions dept complimenting him.</p>
<p>^Ooh, thanks for the tip on Nova Southeastern! My family is all in that area and we are visiting soon. I don’t think my daughter has the stats for UM but I looked at the NSU site and they have some programs that would interest her.</p>
<p>I toured a total of perhaps 20 colleges with 3 different kids. There was only one that left a negative impression, but the two that surprised us by how much we liked them after the tour were University of Pittsburgh and Muhlenberg. They couldn’t be more different, of course, but we were impressed at each by the facilities, the student enthusiasm, and the responsiveness of the admissions staff.</p>
<p>I always think of Muhlenberg as a little gem. There were only 2 families on one of our tours there, so the guide tuned the tour to our specific interests. The guide herself needed certain academic accommodations and also spent a good deal of time covering the possibilities for students with disabilities at the school. Though my d didn’t require accommodations, it impressed us that the school was so on top of meeting student needs.</p>
<p>Tisch at NYU. We almost didn’t go because I know how frugal they are with aid but the presentation was brilliant. Staff was there to answer questions and there was food all day long. No traditional tour but lots of enthusiasm from students placed in each department to guide you and answer questions.
Northeastern and Ithaca College were also pretty nice.</p>
<p>William and Mary. I fell in love and wished that this school had been on my radar screen when I was an applicant.</p>
<p>My kid was less enthused.</p>
<p>D loved U Rochester’s campus and student vibe (accepted here.) The underground tunnels used in the winter were fun; a graduate education building should be up by now. The layout reminded us of Emory (where D is now), except that Eastman School of Music is across the river.</p>
<p>Connecticut College has a beautiful campus and arboretum. The tour guide was excellent (a male dancer from France.) Easy access to Amtrak as well.</p>
<p>Univ. South Carolina-Columbia’s historic campus was lovely and well maintained; it was hard to believe it was a public school. The Honors College building was fairly new and impressive, decent cafeteria.</p>
<p>Worth a mention although D didn’t apply:</p>
<p>Bowdoin College has a beautiful campus; Brunswick is one of my favorite towns in Maine (charming, affordable restaurants and shops.) </p>
<p>Northeastern’s been adding new facilities; being in the same neighborhood as Museum of Fine Arts, Gardner Museum, N.E. Conservatory and Symphony Hall is a plus.</p>
<p>My D and I spent quite a bit of time this past year visiting schools. While we usually had really positive experiences at our visits, three stood out. All very different - William & Mary (the student tour guide was awesome), Franklin & Marshall (everything about the visit was wonderful), and Sweet Briar - VA (the best information session and round table discussions with teachers from different departments).</p>
<p>Two visits we made just because “we were in the area” were Tulane and Johns Hopkins. Pleasantly surprised by both.</p>