That is a shame you werent allowed in the Chicago dining hall. We have been allowed to pay and eat at all the colleges (except one) we have visited. Food was exceptional at uconn and maryland, Mount Holyoke and Muhlenberg. It is enough to sway our kids in those directions.
Kids spend a lot of time in their dorms- to not see at least one example is disappointing. Dorms were a make or break for our D18- major wise all schools she looked at were good, but she went to the school that had the best dorms- and surprisingly, the cheapest.
@ErinsDad Totally agree about Lewis & Clark – it’s such a perk to have such easy, free access to the city but go to school/live in a setting as pristine and quiet as L&C.
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As for people traipsing through dorm rooms we were told on our tour last week that the residents that agree to have their rooms be available for tours get special perks and they’re only on the schedule for one day a week for a couple hours. So the room we went through was the Friday room, but they use a different one for Wednesday tours (they only offer tours two days a week). The other school had a mock room that nobody actually lived in.
Dorms are pretty low on DS’s list of what he cares about and we didn’t even have time to look at them at his number 2 choice school, but there was some pretty big differences between the ones we saw at other schools. Some were really roomy and bright with lots of closet space and others were the old jail cell cinder block dorms.
I think we all weight various characteristics differently, because we’re all different as our children. What might not be important to some, may be very important to others. Tour guides, food, dorms, weather, city/town, academic programs, athletics, recreation, money, campus, transportation, proximity to home or future jobs, etc.
If I had toured my future dorm room , I would have re thought that school. The cafeteria food would have been another deal breaker. But I didn’t see the room and didn’t taste the food - so I ended up going to I school I absolutely LOVED.
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When we were visiting Harvey Mudd, the tour guide took us through her room complex. The dorms had wide exterior corridors with multiple stairways, so we weren’t stomping down through a hallways. I found the dorm’s liberal use of sheer concrete off putting, but D19 actually liked them (but HMC was off the list, since they don’t have the major she wanted).
Crossed off UChicago: Rejected ED1
Moved back up: UChicago applying through Questbridge NCM…hehe…
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Do recall feeling HMC was a great school but the buildings and dorms were UUUUgly.
We had a couple tours where we saw actual dorm rooms, one where we saw a model, a couple that didn’t show, and a couple that didn’t show on tour but would be able to access on admitted students day/weekend if made an offer (helpful for RD but not ED). None of the ones we saw on tour were particularly nice as I recall, and none near as nice as the one D19 has actually ended up living in - which she never actually toured but toured “virtually” after her offer.
I don’t recall any of our tours taking us through sporting facilities, but only a few of the schools we visited were big on sport - it is something that has no interest for D. I think all the ones we saw took us through dining halls.
Especially if you visit Pomona first…
Despite the similar size I find dorm rooms to be very different and have different feels. If I’ve traveled to see a school, I expect to see a dorm room. Most of the schools we toured had students who worked in admissions who were “on call” to allow visitors. Two schools had empty rooms that they use just to show tour groups. Perspective students want to see where they might be living.
Dining halls - absolutely important. I wouldn’t want to eat every meal in a cafeteria. But dining halls can be lovely.
I think generally schools show what they are most proud of during tours. So if you don’t see a dorm room or dining hall, it may be because it is not among that school’s best attributes at that time. But if you were to go back after that school opened a new dining hall, you can bet that it will have been added to the tour.
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Dorms are super-telling about the school culture, and I’d be reluctant to consider a school that didn’t include one on a tour.
I’m less interested the actual room itself, but I’d like to see what’s going on inside the building. Are most rooms open and kids are talking to each other, or is everyone holed up in their room watching netflix on their phone? Are there kids working or playing in a common area, or is it dead space? Is there a kitchen area? Is it clean? Are there events being promoted on campus, off-campus, in the dorm? Etc.
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@eb23282 I don’t know how you are going to see that type of activity on a dorm tour. Most tours take place midday on weekdays. The dorms are empty because everyone is at class. I have been on several dorm tours and the most I’ve ever seen is a random student or two walking by. I’ve never seen groups of people gathered doing anything in a dorm. You see that at the student union or caf or other public buildings, but not in the dorms.
We saw dorms rooms on a couple of the tours we took. I don’t think it was that helpful, frankly - they all pretty much looked the same. We saw the dining halls on almost every tour - overall, that wasn’t so important either, although my son did end up going to the school with the most beautiful dining hall. We had read the advice on here about hanging out in the dining hall to get a sense of the student body, but he wasn’t up for that at all. In the end, I think the two things he focused most on at each of the schools we visited were the library and the athletic facilities - I hope that means he is well-balanced!
Unless a school has a living/learning community culture and then there is all kinds of tech and work spaces built into every floor. My D lived in a living/learning community in honors her freshman year and there were multiple lounges on each floor where students would work together on projects. They had smart boards, could connect laptops to the big screen monitors, move around the modular furniture to best accommodate the group/project, etc… I never walked onto her floor without seeing the lounges in use for projects. Her new building this year is the oldest on campus but the students use the date rooms (where back in the day you had to say “goodbye” to your boyfriend because they weren’t allowed upstairs), for workgroups.
I also agree that you’ll see the new and shiny on the tour. We saw a few schools that had just opened new rec centers and both were on the tours.
It is hard when you are doing back to back college road trips and you have a fabulous tour and then the next day, a lack luster. I often wonder if the “lack luster” schools that came off the list would have stayed on if they had been an individual visit over a weekend instead of part of a week long trip. On the other hand, there has to be a way to trim down the list.
I think size of campus has a lot to do with what you get to see on official tour. That’s why it’s important to do things in addition to the info session / tour, even if it’s just walking around by yourself with a campus map. Ideally, your kid would get some time with a prof or Dean in their proposed major. Spend some time in the student union building to get a feel for activities. Some schools have dedicated housing for freshmen in a dedicated part of campus. Others freshmen are thrown in with everyone else. Go see where the freshmen live with or without the tour. Seeing the room isn’t all that important (IMO) but getting a sense of overall freshmen housing, proximity to campus center, library would be nice.
@me29034 We must be touring different schools. Most of the dorms I’ve seen have been occupied. In many, we were shown an actual room, with actual students, and I could see actual students interacting with floormates. The latest tour we were on took us to a sample room, but we walked through halls to get in/out and we could see how the halls were decorated, what the RAs were promoting, etc. Very valuable insights.
Totally as an aside - we learned a lot from what was posted on the inside of the women’s bathroom stalls!
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