@3sonsmom I love college tours too and will miss them now that my 3rd and final heads off in the fall. I found them interesting and fun to observe so much about each school. My S19 also crossed one off his list b/c of the very strong liberal political vibe which is not his cup of tea and honestly, not really what the particular college is known for. All colleges embrace the opportunity to teach students to think critically and act respectfully but throwing certain policies at the forefront didn’t represent his “vibe”. (Please don’t take this as an affront to anyone’s political or social beliefs. Some kids are just more comfortable in some environments than others although all should be cognizant of different schools of thought and respectful of all students)
Just throwing in some quick responses - don’t mean to throw the thread off track.
@collegemomjam - she will love Hamilton! Great place, great school, great people!
@abbeany - Maybe we’ll see you there next Fall! My ex husband and I are a little concerned about fit (socially and size) at HWS, but I think it’s the top contender right now. He’s still holding on to a wait-list hope and we’ll be visiting St. Lawrence soon because the financial aid offer was amazing. (But I think I’m secretly rooting for HWS.)
@taverngirl - I could see why the friend who liked Colgate ended up at HWS - they seem to have similar approaches to career counseling and providing opportunities for students to form social bonds. They also both have invested in entrepreneurship programs. My sense is Hamilton students are a little bit more “on their own” with those things.
Regarding visit - completely agree that the bigger schools are more hopping in the summer. I tried really hard to get S on campuses while they were in session, it just never worked out. We did get back to the Hamilton/Colgate area in January for an interview at H, but it was 20-30 below with the wind chill and we had the dog with us, so we weren’t able to hang out and get a sense of campus.
Oh, and Cornell - when we visited in August, it seemed like S was really into it. And, since my grandmother and great-grandfather were alums, I was kind of excited about the prospect of him going “Big Red!” Then I had to go and open my mouth about the suicides, and how another mom was concerned about the weather being too dreary. He never applied. After he came back from HWS accepted students day, he made the comment he’s glad he didn’t apply to Cornell because the weather in Ithaca was really awful.
@Trixy34 – Cornell was the school my D initially loved but where we also noticed a lot of stressed out students. Met with one (D of my college friend) and she was pretty stressed. Also very spread out campus. Little bit of snow on the ground in late March and that didn’t help either.
Has a couple of really cool programs my D was interested in and she ended up applying but by the time decisions came in she’d decided it’d be a better fit for grad school and took it off her list. Good thing b/c she ended up WL anyway, lol!
My favorite Cornell story is on May 1 of my freshman year, it was 65 degrees, and everyone was out playing frisbee. On May 2, I awoke to 18 inches of snow. My daughter gave Cornell a pass. 
The year I graduated from Cornell it was in the 80s the entire week. I moved all my stuff out to my new apartment and came back for graduation with an overnight bag with a nice summer dress. It was 35 and pouring rain graduation day. I haven’t been that cold or wet in my life (and graduation was still held outside in the stadium).
My California kids love winter (or think they do) and hate hot weather, especially hot humid weather. My current junior D20 and I were just looking at schools mostly in NY and it was 33F and raining and dreary in Rochester and she thought it was great. I was trying to explain how not great this gets after several months in a row (I grew up in the midwest). By the time we got to Cleveland for our last tour the rain had cleared up and it was sunny and 50F and I thought it was gorgeous. I think D20 preferred the rain in Rochester. Crazy kid. Nice school but I think I would need a sunlamp and regular vacations to Florida if I lived there.
When my older kid was looking at schools this could mean something about student willingness to break the law or an overall countercultural vibe, maybe.
By the time younger kid was applying, Colorado had happened and there were lots of jokes about going to college there, Rocky Mountain High and all that.
Now the list of colleges in fully legal recreational pot states is pretty long. Brandeis is in one, of course, as of this school year (I think the first rec dispensary opened in the fall). Massachusetts added more than a hundred colleges to the list just by itself 
I loved doing college tours with D17 and we visited (either officially or unofficially) over 15 colleges during her college search process. S19 on the other hand is not interested in college tours and he was dragged to a few before putting a halt to the whole thing. However, after over a year of no college visits, we finally got to do an accepted student visit at Vanderbilt and it went UP in my mind (thinking in his mind too). Nashville was great, we liked the campus, and were particularly impressed with the presentation on the curriculum re: the College of Arts and Science. In line with the above comments, we noticed lots of student interaction and a friendly vibe in the common areas of campus. It may be the one!
@washugrad I grew up in Rochester and needed regular Florida vacations and could have used a sunlamp! All kidding aside, we do have our months of dreary, but the snow is peaceful and beautiful (when your don’t have to drive in it far distances) and the late summer and fall can’t be beat. We don’t have hurricanes, large alligators, tornadoes or earthquakes so the could be appealing as well. I wish I could have gotten my Buffalo kid to look at U of R but it was “too close”. Ugh. So now we make a very last minute to an accepted students day at Purdue…but HWS in Geneva, NY (as close to us as Rochester, I might add)is still his first choice.
@washugrad - Hamilton is just inside the snow belt - not quite as affected as Rochester, but still - the big thing that I finally learned was just not to bother buying nice shoes because, between the rain and the snow, they were going to get ruined. You just need a good pair of boots and maybe a pair of sneakers or galoshes. Lol.
We are winding down our college tours as well; ds is our youngest, and we finish up the ones on his list next Monday. I had such a blast traveling with each kid to visit the colleges (embarrassed to admit how many visits we did). Lots of quality time before they went/go away, though, and no regrets whatsoever. I enjoyed seeing the different schools. Favorite out of all the visits: Hamilton. Least favorite: Wesleyan. Most surprising (in that I was surprised how much I liked): tie between UNH and Quinnipiac.
@taverngirl what did you like about Quinnipiac? I would like to get up there to visit, but haven’t had a chance yet.
@collegemomjam I live in CT, in fact actually lived in Hamden post-college years but had never been to Quinnipiac. So first off, it’s a beautiful campus, a little oasis in the large town/small city that is Hamden. Lots and lots of green spaces, beautiful buildings and grounds. The upper campus is like a resort. Facilities are great. Sleeping Giant State Park is across the street. It also had/has a rep for not being a great school (though the health sciences are respected) and for having a certain type of student, but I did not find that to be true. We were impressed with the department presentation we went to. The professors seemed very responsive and dedicated. The students we met were very friendly, smart, and down to earth, went out of their way to help us (took us to additional areas and answered lots of questions). It was just a very positive visit. Son loved it too. One negative seems to be that they really stuff the dorms, so there are a lot of triples and quads, especially freshman year. I also hear they’re stingy with FA. Son will still likely apply though.
Just a little warning about touring the large universities in the summer and observing students. The schools are bustling but it is likely not the typical student body and often not college students at all. We toured several large schools during the summer and found they were packed with summer campers - STEM camps, soccer, cheer, LAX, field hockey, basketball, robotics, Boys State, etc… The schools rent out their dorms and facilities during the summer. These were high school students and not enrolled students. There was little supervision and in many cases little regard for the facilities or basic manners. In addition, many of the schools have early college type programs for high school age students as well as summer start for some freshmen. While the campuses seemed bustling and busy, we found that they were not with actual students and the schools had a completely different feel during the academic year.
As to the general feel of the students who attend a school, we have become really skilled at people watching. On one tour with my DD a few years ago, we observed so many students around but not one conversation happening. Every person we passed was walking alone or with face in phone. People sitting around individually all over the common spaces but no interactions. Head phones on. Sitting in corners. Sitting at table with others in dining halls and dorm lounges but not interacting at all. They didn’t look up to make eye contact with people entering or leaving. They didn’t hold doors or move slightly aside to accommodate our small group. People would be unaware and walk right between our guide and the 5 prospective students on the tour he was talking to at the time - even when there was a large area behind the group where these students could have walked around. On the 45 minute tour, our guide didn’t see anyone that he recognized, no one waved or called out his name or said hi. It was odd and very different from every other tour before or after. We were on campus for hours and except for our tour guide and the boys that cat called my daughter, there was no other peer/peer interactions. It was not dead week or mid terms time.
@bamamom2021 I think you need to tell us what that school was!
I echo @taverngirl about Quinnipiac on both the positives and negatives. My D14 had a very enjoyable transformative 4 years there. Beautiful campus, faculty/staff are knowledgeable and helpful for the most part, always stuff going on. What I liked is that it was a great interim experience from HS to adulthood for D (and 1st child parent): safe campus but shuttle to New Haven to do city stuff (plenty to do on campus too). Enough food choices, enough people, etc. Hockey was really fun. Sports are there and really exciting but not the only thing to do. Greek life present but not left out if dont want to participate. Business and communications are very popular at QU as well as the health sciences.
Agree with the negative aspect of them stuffing. This started about 3-4 years ago. When D looked at school, the # students was around 7K, now it’s ~10K I believe. The school keeps growing. They used to guarantee housing all four years but no more. D14 became a tour guide and in her second year they started the “stuffing” which ended up resolving back then but not sure what they do now. Also I remember being afraid of some of the reviews on the type of person that went there and SO glad we didnt listen to them because our experience/research (way too much being the 1st kid too LOL) was completely the opposite. So took a chance and glad! She/We met all kinds of people from all kinds of walks in life. Good students/people.
Edit to say QU was in top 2 choices for S19 for 3+1 Biochem/pre-med focus so we toured again this year. Still found it just as friendly and all mentioned above. S19 decided to go to his other pick, College of Charleston, because he wanted to live in the South and experience a new environment (and loved everything about that campus as well). Going back again for D20. Pretty sure she will love it as well.
Welcome to 2019!
@TomSrOfBoston I made that observation in the public garden yesterday. As you know it was 74 and sunny, unusual for the week. So TONS of people were out. And most looking at their phones. Once I noticed I couldn’t stop noticing. And I assume it was mostly tourists, presumably here to see, IDK…Boston?
Yesterday 3-6pm was a big Pokemon Go event so that might have been what you were observing @OHMomof2. Lots of people out in parks … staring at their phones catching imaginary dragons… ;-).
People still play that game? @washugrad I am glad to hear that could have been why!!