Completely agree about the short visits sometimes not accurately reflecting the true campus feeling. So much to chance regarding a kid’s impression - a smile and hello in passing from an existing student, a great tour guide, immediate bonding with a coach, a sunny day vs raining, etc. And fit in general isn’t an easy thing to define - different strokes for different folks!
Agree about adult vs. child feeling from visits . Vibe to the kid is important. This is where they will live for 4 years. I liked William and Mary, instate, nice campus, historic. Neither son had any interest. Oldest, years ago, humored us by taking a tour, but made it clear as he came off the tour that it was just not for him. Younger son said he didn’t even want to take the time to tour. He had been in Williamsburg before and just was not interested in William & Mary. No harm, no foul. Many people probably didn’t like the tours or schools my kids ended up at. No problem. There are lots of colleges out there.
1 Like
Indeed. For my daughter, that was first and foremost Emory; everyone else seems to love it, she hated it! And she loved the schools many others here hate (NYU and BU). Horses for courses!
2 Likes
I agree that every school has a certain vibe. However, I don’t understand how a student, upon entering a campus dining hall, would go about surmising that a clique was formed based on socioeconomic background.
Crazy right?? Sometimes kiddo’s impressions and the things she says make absolutely zero sense! Buuut, she’s the one going to the school, not you are me, hmm?
2 Likes
*Or me (sp)
Checked up on this website for the first time in a couple years, and I still think it’s a candidate for the most toxic website out there. So congrats on that…but this forum is a breath of fresh air. Here’s my picks…also note I didn’t go on formal tours for any of these except Umich
Up
UCLA: My favorite campus I’ve ever been on. Got a laid back SoCal vibe with really cool students.
Umich (where I go to school, in case you didn’t peep the username): We have terrible construction everywhere, but I really love how it feels like a campus placed down within a beautiful town. For a school with so many students, everything is so walkable. My longest walk to class has been 15 minutes. The exception to this is if you wind up on North Campus, then you’re just f*d. It feels like a completely different college up there, and you’ll have to take a bus to get to Central Campus. I just hope they stop building these huge apartment complexes that take away from the unique town feel, where all the rich people get their as scratched by professional masseuses and look down upon us common folk in the fields. Seriously, we have the highest average family income of any public school, and it’s not looking like that’s gonna change.
Bowdoin: Really cool small town in the middle of nowhere. Kind of an odd mix of preppy and granola-y students but still interesting.
Brown: Beautiful campus and surrounding area. Type of school where you wouldn’t be surprised to see a guy cheefing on the quad and strumming a guitar.
Down
Miami (Ohio): Pretty sure they just cloned three girls and four guys a bunch of times and spread them across the campus. I heard a lot of hype about the campus and town before I went, but I don’t know what they were talking about. Also, extremely boring surrounding area. Saw a bunch of confederate flags in the mile leading up to the campus. Would not recommend.
Boston U: I’m still looking for the campus to this day. Plus, they falsely claim to have a beach.
MSU: Visited a couple friends here and it literally took 30 minutes to walk from the center of campus to the edge. And so much of that is just empty space with nothing interesting. I’ve got a bunch of friends here, so I can’t say anything bad about the students. Good school if you want to see cows at the south edge of campus.
2 Likes
Ha, my kid loved the BU campus. I did, too! It wasn’t a good fit for other reasons, but we both thought it was gorgeous. Also the weather was perfect the day we visited.
1 Like
DS18 interested in LAC studying Economics and participating in sports
Lehigh - Off the list after campus visit - No connection to campus tour or info session
Bowdoin - Off list - info session gave DS a bad vibe as to social life on campus- also poor meeting with coach was a turnoff - However, I thought it was terrific
Haverford - Very impressed on first visit, Off list after 2nd visit - overnight visit with team - no connection with team members but great coach. Ultimately, too small
Bates - Moved way up list- He really liked initial visit - info session clearly explained why Bates (required senior thesis, short term in April, small class sizes, really friendly atmosphere, great meeting with coach with strong athletics, etc), 2nd visit was overnight with team members, attended class and interviewed - He came back and was sure this was the school for him. He applied ED1, he was accepted, and he is now thriving at school
2 Likes
I think a lot of the tech schools give this impression. If you visit on a Friday or Saturday, it’s lively and there are lots of activities and parties. If you visit Sunday noon through Friday noon? NOTHING going on. Study study study during the week. I don’t think they are unfriendly but focused. And that’s not for everyone.
My daughter went to a school like that. If you went on a Saturday there might be an international festival or a robotics competition (either for students or for high school students), fraternity games, intramurals. My daughter wasn’t all that interested in those things so she’d just go to the beach. She loved the rest of the time at school, just didn’t want to spend her leisure time on campus.
1 Like
I’ve aid it before, but: If colleges practicing “holistic admissions” get to come up with pretty much impromptu reasons for rejecting applicants, then potential applicants should be allowed to come up with pretty much impromptu reasons for rejecting the schools!
1 Like
I bet the feeling that the kids bring with them to the first day of school has a huge impact on their college experience. If they love it going in, even for wacky reasons none of us understand, they are much more likely to have a great four years.
For me as a parent of five, it’s pretty simple math. There are 3000 schools out there, so any reason to eliminate one of them is ok by me!
1 Like
After Summer 2019 Visit
CROSSED OFF
MIT
Penn
Yale
MOVED UP
Dartmouth
Johns Hopkins
Harvard
NO CHANGE
Princeton (but decided against applying)
Why?
Mostly, didn’t like the campus. I like trees.
Not all that different many other land grant school that has a large Ag school, like UIUC, OSU, UConn, or Cornell, for that matter. Having farms has a few benefits, though, including fresh produce…
2 Likes
And great dairy bars!
Penn State and NC State have excellent ice cream.
2 Likes
Aaaaaaaand now I have a new life goal: Take an ice cream tour of land-grant universities.??
3 Likes
I can say with authority that Cornell Dairy Bar ice cream beats Michigan State’s.
However I’ve been told that Penn State is the real competition here…
I actually don’t know where the cows are at Cornell. But in general, the outer reaches of the ag quad are the outer reaches of campus, you will not be walking through there to get to anyplace else. If you are not an ag student you may never, or only rarely, have to go up to the ag quad at all. This shrinks the effective campus size quite a bit.
2 Likes