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

Parents Forum
5690

Now that we have heard from a couple schools and done another tour it is time for an update…

MSU: J and his mom (a MSU alum) toured the campus with an admissions officer, and he was able to get into science and engineering buildings. On the plus side, J liked the engineering resources. On the down side, the admission’s officer said, “If you want to do cutting edge, go to CMU, but MSU will get you a job in the auto industry”. J has no desire to be junior engineer #14,357 at GM measuring panel gaps in a plant.

So far, J has heard from his safeties, MSU and Pitt. He was accepted by both, so that takes the pressure off. We should hear from RHIT on Wednesday, and CWRU next week.

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5691

We know two kids at Lehigh quite well, and they both described many of the kids at the school as heavy drinkers. It was a real turn off for my 2022 son (who will be going to the University of Rochester). However, one of these kids said that the engineers (my son) exist in their own social circle and probably don’t drink as much. Also, there are over 7,000 undergrads at Lehigh and it is probably a minority whose lives revolve around Greek life and partying, so I am sure most students who don’t drink much would be happy there, but it does contribute to the atmosphere/stereotype. Honestly, my son and I liked many, many other things about Lehigh and it was still among his top schools despite the focus on partying, but he ended up choosing University of Rochester ED and got in. (Lafayette was his 2nd choice, and he would have probably gone EDII there if Rochester hadn’t worked out). Also, I don’t think there is a lot of school spirit around sports at Lehigh. Football games are not well attended, I understand.

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5692

interesting to hear. Thank you for the insights.

5693

lbo1965, talking about school spirit around sports… in the 1980s at CMU the football team used to hand out blank computer disks to entice students to attend games. Two words: nerd farm.

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5694

We weren’t able to visit any colleges or universities at all for our D21. Youtube videos (both official and by student bloggers) ended up being the most helpful to get a sense of campus vibe. However, I agree with @Thorsmom66 there was somewhat less enthusiasm for applications last year and I suspect this year may be worse given the extra pandemic fatigue and longer term disruption to what our kids could have done under normal circumstances.

The good news is that if the academic fit is there, the rest will probably fall in place unless you’re dealing with small schools that have a very specific vibe that doesn’t match your kid.

We found campus “visits” online to be helpful, particularly those that were run by students or had student representation. It might be fun to create a spinoff thread about schools that went up or down based on virtual visits.

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5695

Once again I am asking people to stick to the topic of the thread – additional comments about colleges should be addressed via PMs, or threads on that college’s page.

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5698

Hi All, My son wants to do Biomedical Engineering. We visited several campuses over the summer. Here’s the synopsis:

Moved up the list:
Case Western- Impressive campus, great tour guide, good student vibe.
U Mich - Just loved the vibe in Ann Arbor

Moved down the list:
University of Virginia- Nice campus, but we got an unimpressive tour guide who did not know much about the university. We also went on a blistering hot 85 degree day, so maybe that did not help much
Duke- Too much of a bubble feel- too perfect :slight_smile:

Stayed the same:
Johns Hopkins- Great tour guide
Cornell- Wonderful campus, although the uphill climb could be daunting
U Pitt- nice, city vibe

Hope this helps…

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5699

If 85 degrees is “blistering hot” best to remove Duke and UVA from the list…that’s considered warm at the worst

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5700

Re: Uphill climb at Cornell. Many students never live on West Campus, which is at the bottom of Libe Slope, the massive hill. The walk to North where freshmen live has only a slight incline.

However, living in an off-campus apartment in Collegetown can require a hike uphill also, so not easy to escape climbing some sort of hill. The academic campus is flat, but sprawling.

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5704

Visited UC Santa Cruz. Probably not a fair visit as we self toured over winter break when almost no students were on campus so very difficult to get any vibe. The location is beyond gorgeous- you literally walk through groves of redwood trees with occasional distant views of the Pacific. On the other hand a very spread out campus - students bike or shuttle between the buildings - very different from bucolic New England campuses we have been visiting and the wear and tear also makes it clear that this isn’t a school with a gazillion dollar endowment like the New England privates. Because of its unique strength in astronomy will stay on the list as a safety and if needed we will look into it more…

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5705

It has been a few years but we sat in on an admissions session and took a guided tour of UCSC and felt the same as you. My oldest didn’t like that the colleges were so separate and that there was no real center to campus. Our tour guide was a freshman and didn’t know the answer to several of our questions so that didn’t help. Way up thread someone mentioned judging campuses by the cleanliness of the restrooms. UCSC would have been at the bottom of my list using that ranking system. :face_vomiting:

Apparently UCSC opened in 1965 while protests were happening at Berkeley and the UC Regents purposely didn’t create a central gathering area. You can read more about the design of UCSC as an alternative to Berkeley here and here.

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5706

One child took a large school off the list because the tour guide pointed out the math building and made a comment about knowing no one would want to spend time there … not a good way to win over an applied math major.

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5707

I visited a number of schools over the past year with my parents and here are what I got from each of them

Lehigh: MOVED DOWN. Was originally very excited to visit but it dropped off of my list after visiting. I talked to my brother’s friend while I was there who was having a tough time dealing with an intense frat life and big party scene. Also ran into someone I knew who I hate which probably hurt my views on it a lot. The campus was excessively hilly and kind of depressing.

Lafayette: MOVED UP. Loved it so much on the first visit that I ended up revisiting a few months later. Fell in love with the campus and the amazing main quad, as well as what seemed like a very supportive and chill academic and social environment, although the presence of greek life was a big minus. Although it spent a lot of time at the top spot on my list, it moved down a little bit after I realized that I wanted somewhere more remote.

Boston College: Originally liked my visit, but fell off of my list after I got obsessed with the idea of going to a LAC. Also did not like how it seems to replicate all of the negative aspects of my preppy suburban Jesuit high school, which tends to be somewhat of a feeder to BC due to their tight relationship.

Holy Cross: MOVED DOWN → MOVED UP. My mom really pushed me to visit, and the first time I went it fell off my list, probably due to a bad visit day that made the campus look very dreary. However, she made me visit again in the fall, and I ended up liking it a lot, so it made it on to my list in a fairly high place, even though I was not in love with the location in Worcester.

Villanova: MOVED DOWN. Seemed extremely boring on my tour and just did not click with the school. Also not a liberal arts college and similar to BC in that it was too similar to my high school environment. Dropped off of my list.

Hamilton: MOVED UP. Was hesitant to visit for a while, as I was convinced that I wanted to do engineering, but ended up going and it moved way up and changed my perspective entirely. The campus was amazing and I enjoyed the more remote location, although the location ended up being the reason I did not apply ED because of its complete isolation in the middle of desolate upstate new york. Really got me to begin to love the NESCACs.

Colgate: MOVED DOWN. Mom and I did not love it. Campus seemed extremely monotone with what seemed like the same building copied over and over again. Did not like party culture and it seemed very cookie-cutter and not special, especially with a meh tour that immediately followed a fantastic tour from Hamilton. Fell off of my list entirely.

Union: MOVED DOWN. We were in the area as we were on our way to drop my brother off at Middlebury so my Mom and I decided to walk around. We thought it was probably the weirdest-looking campus with some strange and ugly architecture. However, this was probably because there were not yet students on campus. I was never really considering applying due to frat culture, but this ensured that it stayed off of my list.

Middlebury: MOVED UP. Visited Middlebury to drop my brother off for his first year there and fell in love with the campus, as well as the friend group that he created there within a day. Mom also went there so grew up hearing constantly about how great it is. I ended up going back for parents’ weekend and spent some time hanging out and drinking with some of his friends and thought it was a great environment. Amazing athletics center as well. Went straight to the top of my list

Colby: MOVED UP. Was not sure at first if I wanted to visit, but I ended up planning a trip to see it after how much I loved Hamilton. We spent a night in Portland with my Dad’s friend from college, which I thought was an amazing city, and then went up to Waterville to tour Colby the next morning. Instantly fell in love with the amazingly beautiful campus and incredible facilities, especially the new athletics center and Miller Library. Also saw that everyone on campus was wearing Colby apparel, which struck me to mean that there was a lot of school pride. Seemed a little bit more laid-back than Middlebury, which tends to be pretty intense and competitive academically and socially from what I have heard. I ended up deciding between Middlebury and Colby for ED and ended up choosing to apply to Colby because I got the impression from my brother, who is an athlete, that Middlebury could end up being a tough social environment if you are not an athlete, while Colby seemed much more open socially and I also liked the environment of small dorms with a mix of boys and girls, as well as freshman and upperclassmen. I also liked the location in Maine more than Vermont as Maine is extremely beautiful, closer to the water, and attracts people year-round, while Vermont tends to be more of only a winter place. Ended up getting in early decision so I will be attending in fall 2022!

Bates: Stayed the same: I ended up enjoying my tour at Bates, but I just liked it a lot less than I had liked Colby, and I visited just a few hours later, which definitely hurt the way I viewed it. Definitely still would have applied regular decision and I liked the school, it just didn’t hit me the way Colby did.

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5708

Interesting observations–especially regarding Villanova (“similar to my high school environment”) & Lehigh (“intense frat life & big party scene”).

Thank you for sharing your thoughts.

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5709

Excellent write-up! Thanks so much for sharing! Congrats on your ED acceptance!

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5710

This is why my daughter wrote off Bryn Mawr. She felt like it was one co-ed school on two campuses a mile apart. She felt like to like one of the schools, you had to like both of them. The concept of majoring at the other school especially weirded her out. Even though there was never an official merger between Bryn Mawr and Haverford, BMC didn’t feel like a women’s college in the same way others did.
For context she attended an all girls high school without a brother school, and wound up EDing to Mount Holyoke.

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