@1518mom we didn’t have lunch either, thought we were the only ones! I made him walk around the food court (I mean, we were THERE) and he just didn’t want to. haha.
@taliecharley As we live about 35 miles from USC, we ended up eating at home…at about 2:30 pm. That was how much he didn’t want to be there!
My daughter did not like USC for similar reasons “Ugh, mom, it’s all gold and look at us we’re the best!!”
S18 goes to a preppy private school but is politically active (and liberal) and really into the fine arts. Maybe this gives some context? Anyway…On our southern tour, S18 visited Davidson, W&L, Emory, Vanderbilt, Rhodes.
Vandy: Liked Vandy the best, but it was a perfect fall day and the campus was hopping. Nashville is all right there. It’s a real reach for him, so he may not ultimately apply.
Emory: Liked the fact that Emory was in ATL and the campus is pretty but big, if a little inconsistent. It was drizzly and the students were on a break, so he didn’t really get to feel the vibe much. Hard to judge this one.
Rhodes: beautiful and very Hogwarts-ish. Like really really beautiful. It’s small, but Memphis is reasonably big and has a lot of good food and music. Nothing turned him off but I’m not sure he’ll apply for other reasons.
Davidson: he did not like. Said it was too much grass-fed beef bs (I need that roll my eyes emoji here). I thought he’d love Davidson, so that was a surprise.
W&L: absolutely loved it. I found this odd b/c he is very conscious of diversity and likes city life. But for some inexplicable reason, he seemed to bond with the campus. And the students/people seemed earnest and openminded, he said.
I’ve found the recent spate of comments about USC interesting. I had to practically drag our son there, I grew up disliking the school, and we had initial concerns about the neighborhood, but we all really liked it there when we visited. But I do understand where you’re coming from in your opinions.
My brother was an economics and finance student at Georgetown. He had an amazing experience there and I highly recommend their business school. He was involved in many business clubs in fact he was able to contribute a good amount towards his tuition costs with the money he earned over the summer with the internships he had. His friends represented a very diverse group and he never felt discriminated against. Because of his positive experience two of our neighbors sent both their children there to study business too. (four other students) I also have a sister that graduated from their law school and she has had a successful career.
DC has a very diverse culture and students embrace it here.
Another school good for business for MD residents is UMCP. Know many graduates that had job offers at the start of their senior year.
“Said it was too much grass-fed beef bs”
Can you explain what that means? Thanks.
@londondad It might be because they have their own farm and try to have lots of farm fresh food in dining halls?
^ Thanks, could be. I don’t remember anything about the farm when I was there last year, but they did mention the lakeside campus a lot. I will check with DD on this one - she inherited the perfect memory that I used to have!
@contdes my D also did not like Davidson and her comment was it was “too green”(!) I thought it was perfectly beautiful, but she wound up choosing a true urban campus (Pitt).
Crossed off:
Brandeis. We had the worst tour and information session there. Our tour guide couldn’t answer our questions.
UofR: Just got a weird vibe from it. Our tour guides were not very welcoming. Also, the information session was bizarre. The admissions officer spent 30 minutes explaining how we could rearrange our courses to double major or minor. It was so self explanatory and very drawn out.
MIT: Our tour guide was kind of confusing to listen to and didn’t have the answers to some questions. We also visited on a cold day, so the atmosphere was a little bit stiff and unwelcoming.
Moved up:
Swarthmore: didn’t know much about it, but ended up absolutely loving it. Our tour guide was warm, friendly, and receptive. She could answer our questions and showed us why Swarthmore is so great.
Haverford; similarly to Swarthmore, we went in a bit blind. The town was great, our tour guide was sweet, and the information session was informative. Really good vibes
@citymama9 Thanks. My DD did remember the talk of the Davidson farm. We saw 4 NC schools in 2 days and those tours are just a blur now!
@taliecharley Oxy has a preppy reputation? I"m really surprised at that. In what sphere?
I did not get a preppy vibe at Oxy. My D17 there now. Finding her groove.
My husband and I just visited Johns Hopkins, but for an athletic event, not a college visit - so I don’t know if my opinion is valid here. Since it was not a visit guided by any well rehearsed representative, I thought I’d share it anyway, as what I witnessed is probably more close to reality than a canned performance.
JHU is Div III and the female athletic event was attended by, at best, a hundred people. There was a group of young male students from JHU cheering loudly for their team, but also shouting loud rude remarks about the opposing team - who were losing by a wide margin. The loud remarks were directed at specific players at times.
Now, I know that the behavior of sports fans probably isn’t the best indicator of the character of the student body, but I was so disgusted by it that I went over and politely asked the group to tone it down and “be nice”. I mean, it wasn’t a huge Div I football rivalry or anything - it was just a low key event with a minuscule number of people in the stands, probably half were the athletes’ family and friends. One young man kept arguing vigorously that they were only cheering for their team, “so what’s wrong with that?”. I said there was nothing wrong with that, but again just asked them to “just be nice please”. I didn’t refer to the exact remarks, or counter that they really weren’t “just cheering for their team” because I didn’t want to engage in an argument. I wrongly assumed (because this was JHU - that the young men would have the character to humor an old(er) lady) and just stop being so rude. They didn’t. Of course I just made it worse, and their loud comments started including a lot of rude sarcasm. To be clear, there wasn’t any profanity involved (that I heard anyway) - it was just unnecessary digs at a team that was already being embarrassed.
I just don’t think it’s good sportsmanship to behave that way in the first place, and especially not when the other team is losing badly, and specific players were being singled out for ridicule. Maybe it was the male on female aspect of it that hit me the wrong way. Maybe I was expecting too much from the students of such a prestigious college - who are supposed to be the “best of the best”.
However, on a positive note, when we were leaving, we were just sort of lingering at the entrance to the field, and an older man came up and asked us if we needed directions. We said, no, and the man explained that he was a faculty representative (he was a statistics professor) and that he usually walked a few laps around the field while he was “representing”. And then we had a very nice conversation about a local Indian restaurant, which evolved into world travel, and then my daughter’s statistics homework, which had kept her from attending the game. He then told us about an ice cream social that was being held a block away.
So we had a bad experience and a very enjoyable one. I hope those young men grow up to be as friendly and kind as the professor was.
Telling college kids how to behave is never likely to go over too well, particularly at a sporting event. Even in DIII, college athletes are quite use to verbal exchanges that aren’t always pretty, it is part of it. I certainly wouldn’t let the viewing of one athletic event cloud your judgement. A friend told the exact same story you did about Cornell. I have heard the most crass and vulgar exchanges at Stanford athletic events. It happens everywhere.
@LeastComplicated As an alum of multiple “best of the best” type colleges, I would urge you to rethink your assumption that students of such places are any more likely to conduct themselves appropriately than students at other institutions.
I would suggest that various leaders of government and industry have proven that point already.
@LeastComplicated said: As an alum of multiple “best of the best” type colleges, I would urge you to rethink your assumption that students of such places are any more likely to conduct themselves appropriately than students at other institutions.
I would suggest that various leaders of government and industry have proven that point already.
My 89 year old father has repeatedly told me that the Princeton students are studying at night and don’t drink or act wild like the Rutgers students. Insert eyeroll emoji here.
When i read that, I was just impressed the guys were going to watch and cheer on D3 women’s teams!