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

Parents Forum
41

The biggest “movers” on our daughter’s list so far happened on back to back visits this spring.

Moved down and off the “short list” - Brown. The early leader in the clubhouse after a visit with her brother a few years ago, she really was primed to like the school but just didn’t feel it. Thought the open curriculum was a bit too free flowing (although at first that was a big draw), did not get a good vibe from the tour guide. Not a real fan of the freshman housing unit system either. School is a little bigger than she is really looking for at this point.

Moving on to the “short list” from only agreeing to visit because Dad was being annoying and it was kind of in between Brown and Princeton - Wesleyan. Loved the baseball field in the middle of campus, loved her tour guide (didn’t hurt that the guide was rehearsing a part my daughter played last summer). Big fan of the combined MA/BA program. Liked the special interest housing. Liked the size of the school, bigger than most LACs she likes (Swat and Vassar being the others on the current short list) but smaller than some of the other schools on her list. Thought the blend of science and fine arts unique among the LACs, which was good since she seems to be gravitating to the LAC model. Thought the distributional requirements would be good but not overly limiting. Saw some kids pull a prank in the cafeteria, which she found hilarious

42

@WhereIsMyKindle - when I attended GW I was accepted into a freshman honors program called Politics and Values (there was another one called Roots of Western Civilization.) The TOP benefit of the program was not living in the HUGE freshman dorm but in a much cozier upperclass dorm with the rest of the kids in the honors program. You might want to look and see if they still offer something like this.

Also, my brother also attended GW, lived in the freshman dorm and loved it.

43

Crossed off Lafayette. Admissions counselor was a narcissistic jerk and tour guide was low energy and misinformed. D crossed it off immediately. Wished we had seen it on a different day though, b/c I think it does have a lot to offer.

Moved up. William & Mary - loved the sense of history and tradition at the school and impressed with the research papers current students were working on,
College of the Holy Cross - impressed with the personable and articulate students, sense of community and depth of coursework

44

Crossed off - Ohio University. Too liberal, football stadium too small.
Wheeling Jesuit University - too small, boring town, no football team.
Moved up - University of Kentucky. “Insane” sports school, unbelievable library, rifle team.
Moved down - Marshall University - too close to home, although this was S1’s only real beef with it. But it was the best fit program and FA wise, so he went there and loved every minute of it.

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45

Crossed off- VMI. DS knew about the rigors of attending and was excited the day before when we walked to the campus from our hotel, but something about his admissions interview turned him way off. We also didn’t care for the tour which we dubbed the “10 foot tour” We left one building, kind of peeked into the barrack area, and basically turned and pointed at the other buildings.

Moved up: Southeast Missouri State University. We took a look because the price was so reasonable with the Midwest Tuition Exchange and guaranteed scholarships, and they had Air Force ROTC. Once we got there though, DS was very impressed. Everyone there was so friendly and helpful and the campus is nice as well. It moved up to #2 on his list.

46

Of the schools visited…
Crossed off (very early not serious trips) -
Harvard. I know this isn’t fair, but the students at the info session gave off a very stereotypical snooty vibe. The whole trip made us feel like we should feel lucky we could just be there. No application made.
RPI, MIT. MIT was great, D1 just didn’t want to go for an engineering school.
Davidson. Beautiful, but the town felt too small.
FIT, Pratt. Great schools, but D2 felt she didn’t want to live in NY right away.

Moved down -
Kenyon. D1 thought everyone was very nice and friendly, but she felt like it was summer camp.
RISD. On the first visit, we loved it. On the accepted students visit, there were so many warning flags. I know this also isn’t fair, but the parade of administrators who spoke expressed no enthusiasm about anything. The students were great, but the one student in my D2’s area of interest said very few in her program in the senior class had a job lined up after graduation. She did, but it was in a separate field than what she studied. During our appointment, the woman in the financial aid office was rude.

Moved up -
Princeton. They put on a really great accepted student weekend. Everyone kept telling us how much they wanted D1 to go there (not just her, every student there). Very organized, very friendly.
NYU/NYU Abu Dhabi. To say this went from not being a serious choice to going to the top of the list is not an exaggeration. They really made a huge effort to not only make sure the student felt welcomed, but that the student was a good fit for the program. The same for the parents.
SAIC. Again, this school went from not really even being in consideration to shooting to the top of the list. Very enthusiastic admin, teachers, and tour guide students. Very responsive teachers. Great facilities.

No movement -
Northwestern, UChicago.

47

I agree with apple23 about visiting Hamilton.

Up: Hamilton College. From the moment the info session began to the follow-up visit for the interview, we loved everything about the campus. In four years of visiting our son we always enjoyed ourselves.

No Movement: Univ. of Rochester, Cornell, and SUNY Geneseo. Big schools and the tours all seemed very similar. No standouts.

Down: Colgate. I could care less that the Dali Lama visited the year before yet the tour guide brought it up every time we stopped. Walking up steep hills didn’t make a good impression on us.
SUNY Binghamton. At the info session they catered to families from Downstate NY. Bland campus.
RIT. The tour focused on research projects, experiments, and engineering. My son wasn’t too excited.

48

crossed off:

Princeton: D didn’t like the vibe. 10 steps into the Quad then turned around. The high end preppy stores on the shopping street set a negative tone for her.

moved up:

Wellesley: did not expect to like a women’s college but was impressed
Barnard: D didn’t want to go visit at the end of a long college trip. Ended up loving the setup.
Harvey Mudd: giant Rube Goldberg contraption across several buildings reeled her in.

49

Moved down: University of Alabama. Town too small. Too much emphasis on greek life.
Moved up: Georgia Tech: visited twice and great tour guides both times. Admissions office very friendly and amazing facilities.
Moved up (and winner): Pitt. Just big enough. Urban campus. Good sports vibes and great tour guides.

50

For my older boy, Colgate, Hamilton, Bucknell, Lehigh and Lafayette all met expectations that were genuinely high. They stayed in place. No surprises

Schools that dropped off completely were Wesleyan, Colby, Holy Cross and Dickinson. Not a word was spoken about them after visits.

Schools that moved up were 1) Bates to first choice from “ho hum I hear lots of artsy kids go there” when the reality is its more jockey than artsy and we flew there door to door in two hours and fifteen minutes. Friendly, low key, excellent food and 2) University of Scranton, safety school, from being dragged into the car to " yeah this works." He is a freshman at Bates.

Younger son. Whole different kettle of fish. Scranton he liked and that was #1 going in but fell from there because it was intown. Ursinus hated, that was near the top, but it’s so dated and rundown he said no way and never spoken about it again.

St. Michael’s and Siena were as expected.

The school I had to bribe him to see was St. Bonaventure. He brought his clubs since the school has an on-campus 9 hole course with club house. Once there he loved it. He also plays rugby and school has a great team he can join, play on is another matter. Moved to the top. His only school with a D1 ranked basketball team, #27 in the country. He will be going for just a few thousand more than room and board, :slight_smile:

51

@TonyK Down: Colgate. I could care less that the Dali Lama visited the year before yet the tour guide brought it up
Walking up steep hills didn’t make a good impression on us.

I think many colleges is small towns tell their tour guides to tout events that happen on campus as a way of saying that even though we are not in a city we still have access to great things going on.

As for the hills -it seemed like so many colleges we visited were situated on hills - must have gotten the land cheap when they founded the school!!

52

I love the tour reports in #49: “Having visited this school, let us never speak of this thing again.” :slight_smile:

53

Re: Dalai Lama – I’m guessing he doesn’t get mentioned on many tours at our local UC (UCSB), even though he has visited 4 times (with sold out crowds in the basketball arena) and there is a Religious Studies chair endowed in his name. (I’ve never taken the tour, however.)

54

Moved Down:

Tufts - boring info session and tour, hills, hot, just meh. They kept referring to their proximity to Boston, yet our guide said he went in only 2-3x a year. We joked about being shown a rooftop garden with a view of, in the distance, Boston. I was all in favor of dropping it but D kept it on the list until she got an early acceptance to a school she preferred.

Clark - neighborhood was so depressing. No official tour, which is too bad because the campus was pretty, we self-toured it.

Miami (the one founded in 1809) - too preppy, white, bland, remote, kids seemed like upper middle class clones to her. She hated it, I thought it was quite nice. She used it as a sort of guaranteed merit safety but would have actually attended a different guaranteed merit safety in the end.

Moved Up:

Oberlin - for a kid dead-set against staying in state, this was a mom strong suggestion to visit, she reluctantly agreed. But she fell in love with the science and environment centers, the co-op houses, thought the students we saw and met were really interesting and from all over. It became one of her top choices but WL’ed her then accepted but with not great FA.

Temple - she did a week long summer program there which was very chaperoned/restricted so she didn’t get to see much of the campus and had a general “trapped” feeling about it. But their accepted student weekend made up for it and more. They’re really excited about their honors program students and it shows really well.

Northeastern - she was MUCH more enthusiastic about it after our tour/session. They’re very click there with customized passes on lanyards and such, and the guide was very enthusiastic about both co-op and classes. It was a top choice for her until the end when their FA was less than awesome.

Amherst - info session was so-so but tour was great, private tour with a young female science major who was very engaging. Loved campus and could really “see herself there” in a way she did not feel she could before we visited. She nearly didn’t apply because she was sure she wouldn’t get in, but I’m sure glad she did (she is a very happy first year now).

55

Lehigh takes the prize for hills!

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56

What’s with all the hate for hills? They build character! (and provide views)

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57

And Holy Cross for steps.

58

IMO many, many colleges are on hills but Tufts seemed much worse than the others. Maybe because it was super hot the day we toured.

59

Moved Down: Syracuse- too much Greek life/partying. Northwestern (this one SHOCKED me as it was my #1 pick for her) seemed too competitive

Moved Up: Brown. D did not want to apply for an Ivy originally, I convinced her she should at least look (JMHO, but I think if you have the stats you might as well throw one in the mix) she loved the vibe.

Of course- in the way things work - she was admitted to Syracuse and Northwestern - denied at Brown. Ended up choosing NYU- which had been HER #1 school from the beginning. Ah well :slight_smile:

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60

Americans don’t walk they drive everywhere. When we have relatives or friends from the burbs visit sometimes I forget when we go to places in town that most people don’t walk like city dwellers do especially us “don’t own a car” types that walk all the time.

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