@happy1 My D thought Trinity and Fairfield were both way too preppie for her tastes
funny b/c my D was getting a hipster vibe at Trinity, and I had to convince her that Trinity is one of the preppiest colleges on the planet, with an awfully high % of boarding school kids and that she was getting the hipster thing from fellow tour goers not actual students!
Kid didn’t like Tufts location, while I thought it was OK. Access is somewhat odd, through narrow residential streets.
UC San Diego was deemed too big and impersonal. I think it’s a beautiful campus.
Decided on Dartmouth, for the small size and strong academics, especially for undergraduate education.
Plus, the cafeteria food was quite impressive.
Location wasn’t a favorite, although I think it’s top notch.
Hipster preppies!! 
(Or preppy hipsters. Or maybe even prepster hippies. Whichever.)
@TomSrOfBoston UCLA was pretty unique. Felt like a commuter college. My D was worried that many students would disappear on weekends…something the tour guide confirmed.
@dfbdfb My D thought it was very pretty but got a preppie/party vibe. She contrasted this with Georgetown, which she said had a “preppie/hard work” vibe.
@Guanabana I liked Dartmouth. My D thought that it felt even smaller that Exeter. Her comment was that she didn’t want to go to a college that was smaller than her high school (slight exaggeration on her part, but Dartmouth did feel more isolated than Exeter). That said, I loved Dartmouth but I wasn’t the one going to college.
@TheAtlantic – our visit to New Orleans was so boring compared to yours, lol. But after reading about your experiences, I’m a little less sad that D chose not to go to school in NOLA. @-)
You can spot these kids easily. They wear Vineyard Vintage.
Up:
Cal Poly - Much nicer campus than we anticipated. Excellent engineering tour that took us through some of the facilities.
UCSD - Campus is much more lively than it was back in the day. Fun farmers market on Tuesdays.
UCSB - Had driven by there on the highway many times but never realized the campus was so far off the highway and right on the water. Great views everywhere, some of the buildings frame awesome views like a picture. Relaxed, friendly, beach vibe. Islands off the coast (when they’re not enshrouded in fog and can see them) give a Hawaii-like feel. Engineering buildings are very close to the water. Had no idea this was such a bike-oriented campus like Davis.
UCLA - Went way up. We really knew little about the campus; did not know how beautiful it was. Appreciated how easy it was to park there. Edged out Stanford on our ranking of beautiful campuses. Really liked the resort-like on campus housing area.
Stanford - Beautiful campus with lots of new facilities that weren’t there 40 years ago. Grudgingly admitted I liked it.
Down:
Cal - Despite my excellent personal tour, my kids just did not feel comfortable there. Not a reason it went down, but parking is and always has been awful at Cal - they could use better facilities like UCLA. Basically parking ends up being at a BART station in a different city.
Stayed about the same:
Davis - Kids liked it more than me, but everyone that goes there seems to really like it.
Irvine - Pretty quiet, even on a school day. Son realized afterwards it didn’t seem to have the same vitality/energy as some other schools after touring additional schools that week.
Air Force Academy. They had the most awful video and the students we saw looked miserable. UT. Great school but a homeless man jumped out and we almost ran him over because the city is right up against the school so its hard to know where the school begins and where the downtown ends.
@dfbdfb , @2muchquan , I love the word “Prepster”!! I think it was Dickinson College’s description that said "many boys are wearing “Nantucket red pants.” Wow, Nantucket red…
Had same experience at Geneseo (at least parent opinion, child a bit less so due to remote location).
Got in, did not attend.
Funny, NU tour lowered the school on our list. Cornell tour increased on our list.
RPI increased on our list.
@dfbdfb Or preppy hipsters. Or maybe even prepster hippies. Whichever.)
Then there’s urban prep - much different than suburban prep!
I have to admit after all the comments on Vineyard Vines, I had to look and see what the brand even sold and what the clothes looked like. Not a brand I even knew existed. Not that it seems much different than the popular preppy brands of my day.
My S17 would totally wear red pants, we’ve looked at them before. Except they’d be likely to be skinny red manpri’s, maybe with a flannel or a flannel over a hoody. Or a cardigan. Gotta love Seattle hipster.
I did the same thing @eandesmom. VV is preppy attire from the 80s, a decade I don’t remember fondly for fashion.
@Agentninetynine seems quite interchangeable with Ralph Lauren, Lacoste and Lilly Pulitzer.
I do admit to sketchers, bass weejuns, madras shorts, polos, cuffed crops and my share of RL rugby shirts back in the day. Early 80’s was quite a bit different from late 80’s. I was very glad to miss all of that although my professional attire from then was…interesting.
LOL @eandesmom! I know, right? And the hair. Oh my, the hair.
And just to stay on topic, when ds is touring colleges, he always rates the potential dating pool of women. So far, USC, Chapman and Oxy are on his “approved” list.
@Agentninetynine the earrings! My ears have not recovered. Shoulder pads still make me shudder.
@eandesmom Another word I never heard of … manpris. That’s so funny!