@mamadtb - We need to visit UMN again. We were there last week during MEA week and our visit was pretty lousy. I think they were overwhelmed with all the MN kids there those days. We were there for a CSE visit and weren’t even taken into any science or engineering buildings (besides the library) and our tour guide was an Early Education major. They just didn’t seem to cater to us too much. Told us where we could buy lunch, charged us for parking, gave us an expired coupon to the bookstore…LOL
In contrast we went to Iowa State the next day and they did an amazing job and the campus was so beautiful. The one thing that really turned DS off about UMN is the lack of green space.
S19 was doing some accepted student visits to make his final decision. While he had been accepted to GT and a few other OOS schools for engineering, he really wanted to give VT a good look before making his decision as it was in-state. The tour was going well until we got to the engineering fair where each major had a booth. We were talking to a Material Science professor and having a pretty good conversation when she asked my son where else he was considering and he told her GT, as we were heading there next. She immediately started talking about rankings and how they were really meaningless, which was fine except that many of the other booths were displaying their different rankings. Then she says she has heard bad things about GT and that the students were very cutthroat. This is stuff we had heard before, but it seemed very odd and inappropriate coming from a college professor. Needless to say that soured the vist somewhat. We went and visited GT next and my son loved it and is now attending. Things may have turned out the same either way but VT didn’t help themselves.
@racereer - that was very unfortunate. Way back in the day, I was a tour guide for my college’s admissions office and I never put down other schools the students were considering. Seemed like trashing other schools didn’t make mine look better!
Came off the list entirely or moved down as a result of visit/tour:
Georgetown - mish-mash of architectural styles was troubling, campus seemed difficult to navigate, access to DC seemed lacking despite proximity to DC.
Drexel - charmless buildings. Seemed to exist in the shadow of its literal neighbor, U Penn. One edge of the campus area seemed kind of dicey.
Hamilton & Colgate - pretty campuses but both were too remote.
Union - totally unimpressed. Campus looked small and in a seedy part of town. That one turned us off so much we didn’t even take the tour. Just drove away.
RPI - toured twice, once with a pretty bad tour guide (male) who couldn’t answer basic questions and seemed unmotivated. Campus seemed ugly and depressing and small.
Northeastern - stayed on the list but only because of its reputation & offerings. Tour guide was the worst one we’ve ever had. She made clear she was weeks away from graduation and had one foot out the door. Did not seem like a nice person and was clearly uninterested in leading the tour or answering questions. Rushed the tour like crazy because she had somewhere to be. Kept reminding us she was in the honors program. Campus buildings were not attractive.
Tufts - tour guide was just ok. She tried but seemed unable to convey enthusiasm. Campus was like a wind tunnel.
Stony Brook - drive-by was so depressing that we didn’t bother with tour. Big ugly block buildings spaced far apart, situated in a suburban area with nothing to do.
These visits/tours were fantastic & in some cases caused us to apply to the school:
Johns Hopkins - incredibly lively, witty, energetic, super smart, knowledgeable male tour guide who would've sold us on the school even if it wasn't one of the best.
UVA - another male tour guide. We agreed he was the best ever. So charming and charismatic and genuinely passionate about UVA. Smart kid from Long Island. Took so much extra time with everybody who had questions or concerns. They should pay this kid!
Virginia Tech - hadn't even been on the list, but the campus and facilities and friendliness of every single person we interacted with presented a great vibe.
Brown - yet another fantastic male tour guide! He too was so charming and humble (despite his obvious intelligence and talents) and passionate and knowledgeable about the school.
Georgia Tech - female tour guide told a lot about herself and why the school personally was so special to her. She knew tons of stats and was energetic, and spent extra time with us. Campus impressed more at every turn. The buildings and grounds are very nice. So many amazing offerings that we were scrambling to take notes on everything.
Emory - this campus is so beautiful that it can practically sell itself on appearance alone. Our tour guide (female) was focused on the tour and made sure questions were answered.
In a similar vein, on our Duke tour we saw a prospective student wearing a Wake Forest t-shirt, presumably from a tour she attended the day before at Wake. IMO, very inappropriate and disrespectful. Not sure how the parents allowed this?
@socaldad2002 , I think the prospective students can wear whatever they want. Obviously they are looking at multiple schools. On one tour, my S had on a t shirt from his older sister’s school…he had packed it cause it’s one of his favorites. I noticed it at the tour and joked that wherever we were at now knows the competition (even though it wasn’t true in this case). That’s how I allowed it, and I don’t see it as inappropriate or disrespectful at all. SHirts with profanity, sure, or rivalry shirts (“xxx sucks”), absolutely, but just another school? Fine.
@TS0104 I guess we will agree to disagree with this one. Is it so hard to dress appropriately and act like you want to go to college X especially when they are opening their doors to their campus for you without having to wear a cross town rivals swag?
Crossed off: Bryn Mawr (hated the “town” and also Philly), nothing wrong with the school itself. Also crossed off Lewis & Clark (too isolated in the woods, nowhere to walk to).
Moved up: Whitman, and hopefully more to ‘move up’ this Spring.
S19 counted how many U Del students were wearing some type of U Del apparel on his tour. He wasn’t impressed, so it moved down on his list. He has since joined a cult called Penn State where students, faculty, and staff are required to wear at least two PSU apparel items at all times.
@Techno13 I’m surprised at L&C being crossed off for those reasons. There is a bus from the school that takes students downtown daily. And my D used the public bus system to get around very well.
@Publisher Our tour guide at Kenyon didn’t have the “wrong” sweatshirt on but multiple Kenyon students were walking around in sweatshirts from other schools. That seemed odd. We visited maybe twelve schools and didn’t see that anywhere else. Now that S19 is in college, I can’t imagine him wearing any other college’s sweatshirt on campus or anywhere else.
And kids represent for sibs, significant others, even parents. Or the TIP or CTY programs they did in h.s. I have a hard time seeing it as odd, and a really hard time seeing it as a reason to cross a school off a list. But we’ve all got our own reasons.
As for whether it’s disrespectful to wear another school’s swag on any given campus, I’d agree that it’s inappropriate for an interview, but otherwise, not a problem. It’s a conversation starter, even if you bump into the president on your tour.
