Colleges your child crossed off the list after visiting, schools that moved up on the list. Why?

Parents Forum
4902

Here are some impressions from my two college aged kids. All the visits are pre-covid. Hope this helps!

Kid #1:

UP:
U Chicago
liked the location and loved the core curriculum. Great econ program (which is a plus for my kid)

Georgetown
location was great, very close to DC area — nearby shopping is very fancy which might be troo much? liked the dorms, you can move to apartments that they pay for that are very nice looking and right near the university. very good undergrad focus. You get the feeling the undergrad program matters a lot. liked the vibe there. College was small but also felt fairly spacious enough. loved DC.

Columbia
loved the neighborhood , then you get into the college and it’s like a safe haven. Very peaceful and quiet. loved it. Also loved the common core — you all take the same core classes so it feels like a unified class (just one of the reasons it does). really amazing dorms, good class sizes, and amazing food nearby. classes integrate into the city — you go and see plays, shows, whatever. Great vibe.

Harvard
Cool housing system, really liked Cambridge — food is very good. Amazing program in econ — also very good class sizes. Did not get the elitist feel (his words). Cambridge is very cute. Can’t live in an apartment, but the house system outweighs

STAYED THE SAME:
Berkeley
loved the town of Berkeley, great food, did not love the size of the uni but otherwise great fit

Emory:
really liked the campus but didn’t love Atlanta

DOWN:
U Penn
Philly is okay. It feels like a large bustling city (5th largest in US?) — plenty of things to do. The university is kinda large — lots of lawns, huge campus right in the middle of the city. Definite focus on graduate schools. too career oriented. 30 percent of students in frats turned him off.

NYU

  • not fair to compare to columbia, but much more atomized, less of a cohesive feel (many small separate colleges — 14 or so!), no unified student life — doesn’t feel like university so much as living in a city and taking classes. heavy emphasis on international. abu dhabi, shanghai, etc campuses to go to after year one. adds to atomized feel.

Yale

  • College sorting system is very cool. New haven — not /that/ bad but was not a fan.
    Yale is definetly the prettiest college — the gothic architecture is beautiful. That is not as important, It is far from NY/Boston — two hours + either direction means that you would spend most time in New Haven. Activities more university based. 100% feels smaller.

MIT
too STEM (wants to do econ). Great econ department but it’s tiny and felt marginalized. This area of Cambridge is more like Boston, dont like it as much. Much larger buildings — not as nice as Harvard area

STANFORD:
Too much of the manicured lawn and spread out buildings, Palo Alto was too small and SF too far.

UCLA:
Too southern california, too sunny, and big sports vibe

kid #2:

UP
Dartmouth
LOVED the campus, the size, the kids she met, loved everything despite rural location and a terrible weather we got to experience. A suprise hit

Tufts
Really liked it a lot- great size, great location, felt really good. another surprise hit

STAYED THE SAME
Georgetown
Love DC, LOVE the college- so pretty, it felt a bit too white/preppy to her but otherwise liked it a lot

UCLA
loved the size, the vibe, the sun, everything

Columbia
Felt the core was too strict and the school too intense. Loved the location, the size, NYC, everything else. Went back for an another visit and totally fell in love the second time, met a different set of kids…kids are funny like that

Brown
Also really liked the size and the kids she met. Providence was cute, but a little smaller than she liked. Realized she was not a fan of an open curriculum, felt too open to her. She inititally loved this school so a surprise

DOWN
Pomona/Claremont McKeena
Too small and quiet. Too suburban. We went on a holiday weekend, so that might be why? Did not like the CM career focused feel, prefers Pomona’s LAC model but did not like that one so much either

Williams
way too rural and ‘i will never survive here’ (whatever that means). My kid #3, on the other hand, loved it as an 8th grader so i guess it was good that we went?

Amherst
Way too small and did not like the tour guide

UMass Amherst
A little too spread out, and it was just too big- want to be able to walk around easily, etc.

NYU
a bit too middle of the city feel- yes it’s urban but realized she wants a campus.

Boston University
Same as above. a bit too middle of the city for her.

Northeastern University
Really liked the coop idea, and the school was great, but realized that it was going to be pretty difficult for her to play her sports and a coop internship.

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4903

@shishamo, I’m curious about where both of your children landed. My daughter applied to/considered/visited several schools within your children’s lists.

4904

My son wants to study aerospace and/or mechanical engineering. He visited his sister at her dorm one weekend last February and was underwhelmed. He said they were weird, stayed up all night partying, and didn’t seem to study. He wants a serious study environment.

The school is MIT. It just proves that time, place, and your experience in one short visit may not perfectly reflect the school. It’s still on his list- he applied yesterday but made it very clear that under no circumstances will he be in the same dorm as his sister!

4905

@JimQPublic : Has your son considered Georgia Tech ?

4906

@Publisher We visited Georgia Tech last winter and he really liked it. Unfortunately, based on the financial offer his sister received there it would be unaffordable unless he were to win a rare scholarship. His list is limited to “meets full need” or automatic merit scholarships.

I mostly posted in this thread because I thought it hilarious that he came home from his MIT visit calling it a slacker party school!

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4907

I am only jesting in the spirt of this thread, but I’m reminded of the t-shirt:

“MIT, because not everyone can get into CalTech.”

4908

@Dave_N I couldn’t convince either kid to apply to CalTech, though there’s still time for the current applicant.

We live in southern LA County. Our daughter wanted to “go away” for college and it worked out for her (until Covid of course). It was hard convincing her to even consider the UC’s and Cal Poly SLO. Everything else was east of the Mississippi. Son is less geographically constrained- I’m sure he’d be happy to come home for free laundry.

4909

That’s funny.

We live in the Portland metro and my daughter has no real interest in leaving the Pacific Northwest. She likes UW-Seattle partly because she can take the subway from campus to downtown Seattle, hop the Amtrak Cascades with free wifi and espresso service, and be home to Camas in 3-4 hours. I talked her into taking a CA road trip to see the private options in California but our late August road trip happened to overlap with your first round of fires and we spent half our time dodging fires and breathing smoke. Which didn’t do much for her interest in moving to CA. Of all the CA privates we visited, Occidental was the only one she ended up applying to, and I don’t think it is really in her top 5.

I couldn’t even get her to think about any east coast schools.

4910

JimQPublic, As the parent of a Caltech & MIT graduate, it’s hard to imagine them partying every night.

4911

Have a 3rd year biochem at NEU. I love it and she is thriving there. Nothing but great things. Had some issues w NUin program her freshman year however. But seriously the academics and coops. I hope my 2021 HS son gets accepted.

4912

If you had a chance to do that tour, I would love to hear your impressions of those schools. We are hoping to do similar visits next summer.

4913

Word from my D is it is fine to wear swag from other schools, but a little on the nose nerdy to wear swag from her school unless it is for an event. Wearing rival school’s ironically happens.

4914

We actually crossed CalTech off the list after our visit. They started the presentation very late and basically let the students run it. About 90% of the discussion was about problem sets and how many hours they took. Nothing about EC’s, campus life, etc. The tour guide was a bit better.

Also crossed off Berkeley. The campus wasn’t well maintained and we just didn’t get a great feeling there.

My son crossed Pomona off the list. My husband and I loved it- son said he just wasn’t feeling it. I still think it would have been a great fit.

USC was a school we hadn’t given much thought to until our visit other than their merit aid and marching band. Campus was lovely and well maintained and their tour and presentations were very thoughtful. Son was just accepted there.

We liked Brown much better than anticipated although that was just a self tour since everything was canceled after Covid. Really homey and a nice feel.

Love the area around Cornell and lots of natural beauty on the campus. Glad we got to see it in person. I would go back to the area just to do more hiking!

Princeton is probably the most beautiful campus we visited.

There are other schools he applied to that we haven’t been able to visit since we don’t want to fly. If he gets into one and is interested in attending we will have to find a way there…I really want him seeing the campus in person if at all possible before committing.

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4915

Congratulations on the USC early acceptance!

Was the CalTech visit in person or virtual? I thought they discourage tours. Maybe your experience is an example of why. :laughing:

What did you see at UCB that you didn’t feel was well maintained? Was it campus or the surrounding area? Was this pre-covid where you were able to go inside the buildings?

4916

It was in person last Feb before the pandemic hit. Their website definitely said before you even schedule a tour look at your scores and grades and compare them to our averages…yikes!

UCB just looked a bit unkempt in places. The town was fine, it looked as I would expect a college town to look, but the campus was pretty in parts and run-down in others. Our tour guide and speakers were not very dynamic which didn’t help. We wanted to like it- I know it’s an EXCELLENT school - but all walked away with the same impression.

I had to remind my son that the days we toured campuses made a difference. Like we went to Stanford on a holiday and Pomona on a Friday and they were sleepy. USC we saw on a regular weekday and the spirit was high.

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4917

I love this thread, and it’s unfortunate that so many tours and visits have been cancelled this year. I have enjoyed re-reading impressions from past years. We were lucky to have visited a few schools before the pandemic, and here’s what we thought:hu
We are from a mountain west state, and we have family in Massachusetts. My son had just finished his sophomore year when we took a quick summer tour of the Maine schools. The colleges were not in session when we visited.

Bates- This was a college that had already surfaced as a favorite for my son. As we drove into Lewiston, he was pretty taken aback by the environment. This was not the beautiful Maine environment that he had envisioned! He was skeptical. After the tour and information session, he was reassured. The info session was all about community and investment in the Lewiston area, very appealing to him. A maintenance person made a point of helping us find the admissions building- very welcoming. Loved the club/ intramural ice hockey programs. Loved the Spring term. The area still seemed foreign/ remote, but after processing this for a while in the following months, it didn’t seem to be an issue. Bates still a top consideration, possibly even an ED choice.

Colby- The information session talk given by a person who seemed to be spouting a long list of awards and accolades of the school and its applicants. Felt like a contrast to the community-oriented philosophy at Bates. Felt too remote to him. Did not go on the list.

Bowdoin- We were not booked for a formal tour, and we didn’t think that son had a chance of admittance. We stopped through, and I thought the campus was lovely. Again, a very friendly maintenance person stopped his work and offered to help us and answer questions. For some reason, son was put off my the “high-rise” dorm on campus. School never made the list, but again, it was too high a reach.

Eckerd College- Since a grandmother lived in the area, we made a trip to visit Eckerd during Thanksgiving Break of son’s junior year. He was not very excited about the school since it didn’t offer any recreational hockey. From what I had read, I thought it could be a great place to spend four years. The tour was lovely. Beautiful campus, and the beachfront activities are unique and attractive. We saw some pelicans which had just been brought in for treatment by the student animal rescue team. Son had an interview/ conversation with an international relations and language professor, which he really enjoyed. Lunch was nice, and students seemed happy. We passed a cafe where students were eating outside and enjoying the sunshine. We all left feeling that Eckerd was an interesting and appealing place.

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4918

Continued from above…

University of Denver- In February before the start of the pandemic, we went up to DU for a prospective students day. This was a large-scale presentation, and it looked like it was attracting families from all across Denver and the state. This was the point where son decided he wasn’t interested in any larger schools- only LAC’s. He thought DU felt like an education factory. Panelists spoke about balancing multiple majors and trying to finish credits quickly and graduate early. Son didn’t feel that this was in line with the “college experience” he was looking for. Semester abroad options felt canned. Lunch food was very bland. Campus was beautiful though! Son felt that Eckerd was a much preferred “likely” school for him, and DU was off the list.

Planned March break college trips to Minnesota and Washington were cancelled due to Covid. Online college visits became the new norm. By Fall, son’s focus had changed. He realized that hockey was no longer a necessity for him. This took the focus away from New England schools which generally offered rinks on campus, and opened up other opportunities. He now had plans to visit Hamilton College and had been involved in multiple conversations with students/ administrators from the college. Open curriculum and abundant opportunities there had much appeal. The Hamilton website and virtual tour were really well done. We had planned a September weekend trip to upstate New York, but Covid numbers began to rise. New York restrictions made visiting impossible.

Instead, while Covid numbers were still relatively low, he was able to make a trip up to Washington.

Whitman College- This was love at first sight. There were no students on campus, but he had a personal tour with an admissions officer. He loved the easy access to the small walkable town, the size and beauty of the campus, the friendly admissions, the outdoor programs, the idea of a highly engaged student body and close relationships to professors. Loved being in a new part of the country that still had a western vibe. Liked the climate- a winter, but not too long and frigid. Loved everything. Thought he would be challenged academically and still have opportunities for fun and exploration. Ultimately applied ED, was accepted, and will attend next Fall.

University of Puget Sound- Got a personal tour by a friend who is currently attending. Found the campus to be beautiful, and the students that he met were friendly and outdoorsy. The campus felt more urban than Whitman. It’s up on a hill by the bay. He didn’t have a chance to speak to anyone in admissions while he was visiting. Another interesting and beautiful college, but son was already hooked on Whitman.

In the end, he was most intrigued by four colleges: Whitman, Hamilton, St. Olaf (never got to visit, but students and admissions people from the school reached out to him, and he liked the overall feel he got from them) and Eckerd, which resurfaced as another favorite once hockey became a nonissue.

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4919

My S wanted a school in or near a big-gish city. Here’s what moved off and up on his list.

Crossed off:
Tufts: A little too quirky for my S, who was not thrilled by the hill, either.
Boston College: Pretty campus but too “vanilla.”

Moved up:
Pitt: Our expectations were low but the vibrant campus and city were impressive
Northeastern: I was expecting a dreary commuter school. Instead, modern, light-filled buildings, a green campus, kids who seemed engaged and engaging. For my S, it was love at first sight. He applied ED and got in. Only downside is the price tag. :frowning:

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4920

St. Olaf. We’d visited on a whim after an open house at Macalester since we were in the area anyway. We were subtly but persistently impressed by every aspect of the visit from the warm but down to earth friendliness of the people we met, the amazing beauty and function of the interior spaces which all seemed designed with the needs of groups and individuals. There was a quiet focus, a generous nerdiness, creative confidence to the students, staff, faculty and spaces on campus. We all left impressed back in November 2019 but didn’t expect that at the end of a long thorough search for LAC’s coast to coast, that for this Jewish kid from NJ (who does, granted look exactly like a viking) St. Olaf would be the one that stood out at the end. He just accepted their offer yesterday.

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4921

Visited University of Vermont (just a walk around) a few weeks ago with DS21. Going in we thought it would be the perfect fit - very outdoorsy, great environmental programs, a mid-size school but with the LAC vibe of small classes taught mostly by professors. What we didn’t expect was how urban it felt - lots of pavement, buildings close together, etc. It’s no NYU or anything but it was not an oasis of fields and forest (at least without getting in a car first) so my nature loving DS crossed it off the list. We visited Saint Lawrence the next day, and that one checked all the boxes:).

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