This is a fun thread. My daughter has visited a LOT of schools. Here goes ours…
Up the Charts
U of Idaho- Loved the campus, loved the tour, and a great meeting with her intended major faculty head. The town of Moscow is just an amazing college backdrop.
Northern Arizona- Pristine location, wonderful meeting with faculty head.
U of Arizona- My daughter has an IEP, so we added a meeting with the SALT program. Couldn’t have been more impressed. Too bad that it’s an added cost to the tune of $6K/year!
Cal State East Bay- TBH, we went more because it’s very close to where my daughter lives vs. a burning desire to go there. However, after the visit it’s now on the list. We loved the diversity of the student body (diversity is thrown around a lot, but it’s a true melting pot which would be a valuable part of her college experience), a beautiful view of the Bay Area and great school spirit that I wasn’t expecting from a school that’'s more known as a “commuter” school.
Off the List
Washington State- We did one of those all-day ‘explore WSU’ tours. I came away disappointed. Way too much talk about their football team (yes, I get it, the school’'s in a major sports conference) and not enough talk about the academics. Interestingly, the best parts of the day were student vs. faculty led.
Evergreen State College- It felt a bit dark and dreary in Olympia. It’s a bit too “loosey-goosey” from an academic POV.
USF and Seattle U- Visiting these two schools confirmed to my daughter that she does not want the more urban/compact school setting.
As of now, U of A and Idaho are in the lead, although financially U of Idaho is currently a much more cost-effective option.
Off
Lewis and Clark — My daughter put off by this lovely campus on a former estate, saying admissions should be “in a real building” (rather than the beautiful manor house). Couldn’t understand her visceral reaction. Later she said it felt like a boarding school rather than a college campus and that made more sense.
Duke — I thought this would tick her boxes, but the whole family walked away disappointed by the awkward and low-energy admissions presentation. Campus also seemed strangely low energy and students did not seem to be happy or having fun. Earnest tour guide, when asked If there was truth to criticism about unrealistic pressure on women said both males and females were under extreme pressure to perform. Also shared her concerns about sexual assault (but did say administration was listening to student concerns.
On the list
University of Oregon — Extremely impressed by the honors college presentation and the amazing facilities throughout campus. Went to peek at the stadium because D is a college football geek and our jaws dropped. Incredible. Eugene cute and an awesome thrift store. A surprising hit with all.
I like reading the different perspectives. My son and I really liked WSU after visiting. It was his second choice going in to the visit and ultimately he stuck with his first choice Arizona, but if Pullman had nice winters he might have gone with WSU.
The only big change we had from a visit was Arizona State - my son thought it was too urban and very ugly.
My DD’s list was pretty much flipped upside down after she visited her original list. The schools she was so adamant about got dropped and the runner ups took the lead.
In original fav order…
Harvard-dropped. She said she could feel the stress oozing off the students we met. Vibe was too intense.
Princeton-dropped. She called it a Stepford school.
UPENN-dropped. Too preprofessional and loud.
Columbia-dropped. Too loud and claustrophobic. Bad tour guide.
Brown-moved to #1. Nice size, great location. Friendly staff and students. Lots of dogs on camus and green spaces.
Wellesley-moved up to #2. Beautiful Campus and friendly atmosphere.
University of Michigan moved up to #3 from not even on the original list. Nice campus, close to home, far enough away from home. Great programs and a great tour. Newly renovated Union and dorms.
Michigan State moved to #4 from off the list. We have a niece attending and have visited often but never an official visit until this year. It always seemed too big, but she like the James Madison college within the larger university setting.
I do enjoy reading about the different impressions. We have been visiting colleges for about three years straight now.
Our current high school senior removed the following off of her list
Boston University, which she expected to be her very top choice, is in a great city, but gave us no reason to justify the high expense. Most of the buildings were literally the same as when her dad visited in 1986, and the lack of air conditioning in a pricey hideous dorm did not help.
Georgetown has a gorgeous campus, and she really wanted to love it, but the main focus of the tour was government studies and pre-law. At their price point, she was worried that it would be tough to change majors & continue to pay their tuition. We were never shown the inside of any dorm, so no opinion there.
UC San Diego remained on the list, but with mixed opinions. She liked the academics and the research opportunities, as well as the quirky architecture. She wasn’t thrilled with the suburban feel, but can deal with it.
Mt. Holyoke moved up list. Very impressed. Bryn Mawr crossed off list. Not welcoming. The interviewer kept us waiting 25 minutes past our scheduled time. Furman crossed off list. Tour guide was an airhead.
CT Cape : If you are looking at U of Maryland, google Mold in Dorms and Olivia Paregol’s story - a freshman who died there in November of her freshman year. Stories in the U of Maryland newspapers, Baltimore Sun and the Washington Post investigative story. Especially if you have a son or daughter with any allergies or underlying health conditions.
A perhaps fun sidebar to go alongside all the campus tour stories, as a bit of a counterpoint to the idea that one must tour all the possible places one might attend: My D19 toured a lot of colleges. And I do mean a lot, even before adjusting expectations for the fact that she resides outside the contiguous United States.
She ended up going to Mississippi State, which holds the distinction of being the college she applied to that she had never gotten a chance to visit. Never set foot on it, in fact, before orientation.
Same with my kid. She toured a large number of colleges, and is attending one which she saw for the first time when we came to drop her off. Luckily for her we arrived a cuple of days early so she could see the college before the craziness of orientation began.
Given the existence of Google maps and especially their Street View it is possible to do a virtual tour not only of a campus but the surrounding neighborhood. Not as good as actually visiting but it can give you a feel for the area.
Someone asked here on CC about NYU. He had heard that it had no real campus and wanted to know if that was true. If only Google were free and available to evreyone!
We have definitely used virtual tours to help us decide if a school might fit the bill. Recently, I watched a video of “the day in the life of a Villanova student” and she walked to class past all of this ugly construction and a big main road that almost looked like a highway. And there was garbage on the ground. Did not make me feel like we want to visit even though I’ve heard people describe the campus as beautiful.
Off:
Williams - expected this to be D’s top choice, as hubby’s alma mater. overnite visit was critical. D found the environment claustrophobic, and described overall campus vibe as a bit “strange”, with seemingly stratified cliques in the dining area seemingly driven by sports or socioeconomic background. and felt she detected an underlying arrogance from most “jockey” students. Said she could probably handle one year, but 4 years would be intolerable. Broke hubby’s heart.
Bowdoin - another “strange” vibe detected by D, although she loved location. She said felt like students were all just trying waaay too hard to project a certain image.
BYU - classes felt a bit too large for D, and student body too homogenous. Very nice kids though - less affected than east coast liberal arts schools.
CCSU - lacked energy, somewhat offset by diverse and interesting student body.
Colorado School of Mines - expected more from the campus, very bland and lacked energy.
Moved Up:
Sacred Heart - absolutely her fave- nice campus, perfect size, and zero attitude or obnoxious feel from student body. Kids seemed interested in learning for learning sake, and no arrogance.
Wesleyan - nice town (that we loved), but interestingly D said these were her favorite kids - she described it as a school full of the cool nice kids from high school who could transcend and fit in all groups. Although there are usually only one or two kids from each hs like that, D said everyone here seemed like that. Architecture not the greatest in her opinion.
@Largemarge867 well I think our reviews just show that short visits to campus don’t always reveal the true campus feeling. I don’t know about the other schools but our S is at Bowdoin and he doesn’t know anyone “trying” to project a certain image. At all. He’s a public school midwestern kid with friends from all over the US from all kinds of backgrounds. We’ve met at least a dozen of his friends and spent time with them and they are the most normal (albeit smart) kids - friendly and warm and fun to be around.
It’s laughable that those kids would try to project any image. They aren’t about anything like that. Certainly not “affected”.
Maybe your D also misread the scene at Williams and, if you’re disappointed, you may want to give it another visit to see if these first impressions were correct.
^^ I think it’s possible that a kid could pick up on something an adult might not. I also think it’s possible that a tour guide who has been instructed to be/say xyz could come off to another kid as less than genuine. That doesn’t mean that a different interaction wouldn’t have left a different impression or than a second visit wouldn’t change the first impression. I know DS had a school that he really didn’t gel with (and neither did the parents) that in retrospect, was probably just the result of a bad confluence of factors. But off the list it came (probably wrongly!)
The point of the thread is to report on the outcomes of visits.
Plenty of schools that my D hated that get a lot of love here on CC. Everyone has their own experiences and impressions. We are lucky we have so many great schools to choose from. Something for everyone.
