Nothing against wealthy people from NJ or Long Island! Just that it wasn’t seen as very diverse by geographic or socioeconomic standards. Poor wording on my part - do not want to offend 
Off the list Penn State, way too high on themselves for my son. Bucknell was to in the middle of nowhere for him.
Moved up UPITT, loved the city
Heading to Xavier Ohio and Uminn and Macalster the next few weeks to tour them.
Do virtual visits count?
In my book: right now, yes. Also a good way to judge the “virtual visit as replacement” aspect, as designed by the school. 
OK after virtual visit to Univ Delaware, it was removed from list. Admissions officer gave 20-25 minute over view and then 2 senior student ambassadors gave another 20-25 minute virtual tour. Biggest turn off was 150-200 size class in general education classes. Thought it was a mistake, asked via chat and it was confirmed.
The virtual tour did NOT capture the better side of the University. There were only a handful of photos. Questions about housing, meal plans went unanswered. Lots of time spent on Honors program. 10 minutes spent on university farm and fresh ice cream. Really??? milking cows is your selling point?
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That’s unfortunate about UDel - I don’t know anyone who hasn’t loved it there. I think large general ed 101 classes are the norm for large state universities, no? Were there a lot of people on the session that there wasn’t enough time to answer all the chat questions? That’s a missed opportunity for the school for sure.
@eb23282 I agree, missed opportunity. Having heard so many great things about UDel from prior students and families. There were 57 participants in Zoom tour, guessing 5 were from the college admissions dept. It was our first “live” virtual tour so we didn’t know what to expect. Chat was live, about 7-8 questions were asked/answered. A few were answered with links to the website. Several questions were not answered or acknowledged. First impression was a downer, maybe we circle back around for another look if things change. In fairness, UDel wasn’t high on the list to begin with. We were hoping to change that.
If that is an automatic turn off you need to concentrate only on small private LAC’s.
Not true. Both of my kids go to mid-size (6000ish) universities and neither has had more then 30-35 students in any of their classes.
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@TomSrOfBoston I have to disagree. We’ve looked at well over 15 mid size schools and none of them mentioned they had more then 30-35 students in a class. My 2 older sons graduated from mid size colleges and never had more then 30 in a class.
UDel was the first school to mention 150+ in a class. Acceptable to some, turn off to us.
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@BmacNJ None of the other schools is likely a state flagship like UDel.
Regarding virtual tours and info sessions, CWRU has scheduled some useful general info sessions with admissions and student panels, but in the two sessions I watched with my potential applicant, the Q&A was dominated by pre-med questions which was a turn off to my kid. Still might apply, though.
@TomSrOfBoston Thats correct, no state flagships. But we can’t/won’t limit our search to small private LAC’s as you advised. That’s terrible advice.
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American University was crossed off my list immediately after visiting. It was too far from the center of DC for me. The perk of being in DC is BEING in DC, not being “just a couple metro stops away” (aka like a 20 min bus ride to Tenleytown and then 8 metro stops away from actually getting in the city). Also as a science student, their academics didn’t impress me. I think it’s pretty good for public affairs, communication, international affairs, etc, so no shade about that. When someone asked our tour guide about stress, she said “Oh, there isn’t much. This school is less competitive than my high school was”. :neutral: Also, their facilities didn’t seem that nice. We went in one of the dining facilities and it felt sort of sad and unkempt. One that moved up after visiting was Pitt. I went in thinking I hated Pitt (I’m instate) and didn’t even want to visit (but my mom forced me too), but after visiting I literally loved it. I became quite obsessed. Now my #1 school.
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@BmacNJ - Too bad about UDEL virtual tour, but its ice cream is “udderly” delicious and deserving of a shout-out (UCONN’s Dairy Bar is in the running as well). UDEL’s campus is very walkable for a flagship university, and it has a LAC feel with the its old school architecture. Admissions likely touted its honors program because of dedicated housing but also smaller classes - 20-25 per class, according to their website https://sites.udel.edu/honors/frequently-asked-questions/
Can you name any public (or private for that matter) colleges with 20K undergrads that don’t have some introduction classes with 100+ students? Seems very unrealistic to expect only classes with 25-30 students at universities with such a large undergrad population.
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Our S20 crossed off Davidson after visiting. Our tour guide focused on her time in her sorority and said even though she is suppose to say that not everyone is in a sorority/faternity she felt she would be lying to us if she did and it was important to know that sorority/faternity life is big at Davidson as is the presence of D1 athletes. For a LAC with D1 sports, there would be a proportionally large amount of student athletes.
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Crossed off
BU- didn’t like “campus” and overall vibe
Georgetown- very bad tour guide, not crazy about DC vibe
Penn State -way too big, confusing campus, boring presentation
Lafayette cute campus, very small, not much going on
Bucknell - middle of nowhere
Moved up
Lehigh - loved the campus, interview, tour, and program
Cornell - always had a negative impression until I visited. Loved the campus, tour and College of Human Ecology
Iffy
Tufts -loved the campus, programs but too politically active.
Didn’t have a chance to visit…but accepted
U of R
U Miami
Case
My D is a freshman now so this is pretty late. We live in the upper Midwest and my D was looking at good schools in Engineering but offered opportunities should she change her mind. We were somewhat focused on schools within driving distance of home but then did some tours when we were visiting different parts of the country and flew in for a few tours near the end too.
Moved up:
Rice – We did not visit until an admitted student day. Perfect spring day and she loved the campus, the opportunities and the atmosphere. Kids seemed really welcoming and friendly. Just walking around campus there were a lot of kids greeting each other and talking between classes which seemed to support the collaborative vibe they talk about. She loved the residential college set-up and lack of greek system. Biggest concern was distance from home.
Illinois – I think campus to her looked like she expected a college campus to look. It probably helped that we went on a beautiful spring day and the quad and Green Street were busy.
Duke – We visited on the first day of class so the energy was great. She loved the campus and the opportunities there. Seemed like a good “work hard, play hard” atmosphere. I personally did not think it was a good fit for her though.
UNC – We did not tour here, just walked around when in the area for the Duke tour. She loved the campus and town. She ended up not applying because she didn’t like that there were too few OOS kids.
Stayed same:
Michigan – After touring she wanted to love it and ended up just liking it. I think she liked the idea of it if more than the reality if that makes sense. We went to an admitted student day there though and she liked it a lot more then.
Wash U – We toured on a really cold and rainy day so no kids were outside but packed inside. Hard to really get a feeling for the vibe. I wanted her to love it because I thought it was a good fit for her but she ended up just liking it. She thought the campus felt really small. She still applied though.
Vanderbilt – Strange visit. Our tour was not great. It was the guide’s last tour before heading home for a break and she seemed checked out. Feel like we spent more time on the med school campus than anywhere else and seemed to not see much of campus. D was disappointed after the tour but we spend the rest of the afternoon wandering and found the very pretty parts of campus and she loved the area around the school . Vandy was one of her top picks.
Wisconsin – This is our state flagship. She did not want to go here because “everyone” goes there but would have if needed. Loved the school spirit and commented that the students and alums seem to REALLY love it. Our tour guide got teary eyed talking about graduating that spring. But the info session was one of the worst we had. It was just really boring.
Minnesota – She liked it more than I expected but I think she was kind of neutral overall. She applied but it wasn’t a top choice.
Moved down:
Northwestern – Loved the info session but she just didn’t connect with the campus. Probably didn’t help that it was absolutely freezing the day we went and our tour guide was sick so there was just an overall lack of energy. She still applied and interviewed but did not connect with her interviewer either.
BU – Too urban for my kid. She loves Boston though and would consider it for grad school.
Moved off:
U Chicago – She was just turned off from the start. She felt the kids all seemed super competitive even in the info session.
One thing I noticed is the impact weather had on our tours. When the weather was nice out the tour guides and students just seemed happier. Unfortunately we had to do some trips when school was not in session which was a challenge too.
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Wasn’t impressed with Duke’s virtual image. In every forum, chat and on every Zoom, the students spoke about stress, impostor syndrome and mental health resources.
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