Interesting because I got a really fun, active impression from the NCSU campus! I drove around one night when I was in town to check it out and there were TONS of kids out on the intramural field, there was a group doing some sort of glow hoola hoop thing, and the lights inside the big new activity and student centers made them look so impressive. I tell people that I think it’s the most active campus we’ve seen. I made my daughter go back for an official tour and while she was ok with the campus but overall it just wasn’t for her. It may have just been two very different times/days that gave us such different impressions.
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Oh this bums me out. My D best friend just committed to NC State today.
My D just committed to San Diego State University for so many reasons, but one was that she said, everyone seems so happy here and people literally asked if they could help us find where we are going.
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Like I said, we really could’ve hit it on the wrong day. It was a cold dreary Tuesday morning, but even if it was livelier I still don’t think it would’ve topped her other choices. Kids talking to each other while walking on campus is one of the things I always look for on campus - more important than so many other things they want to show you on tours!
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I won’t give away the school, but one fell off the list due to the tour guide. Throughout the tour, he just talked about the various varsity sports teams. Someone on the tour asked him if there were any activities on campus that weren’t sports. He thought for a minute, and said there were lots of club sports, too.
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University of Chicago:
Same for D / Down for S
Campus, especially the main quad is simple gorgeous and impressive. Most of the buildings around campus were lovely old ivy covered buildings, with the occasional ugly and brightly colored one thrown in. We liked the house system. The college is exceptionally well resourced and it sounded like everything you could dream of was included with tuition-- travel experiences, fun in Chicago, transportation, etc. Hyde Park seemed safe and there’s plenty to do and downtown was only 20 minutes away. D loves the academics. But…the kids felt the administration manufactures fun because the student body wouldn’t otherwise know how to have any. Students seemed smart, even interesting, but definitely not chill, fun, or relaxed. Our tour guide told how he hid in his room during the annual water ballon event so his math homework wouldn’t get wet. I’m not sure he was kidding. The AO and the student guides were all polished and practiced and had exactly the same funny stories and answers like they were trained and drilled. I think they have taken their rep for quirky and have commercialized it (we get their quirky mailers seems like every week.) It was kinda disappointing because we’re the family that mulls over responses to UChicago essay prompts for dinner conversation. I thought it would be such a good fit. It was a let down for S but D says it’s still on the list.
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You can be sure that UChicago is not fun. We live in the suburbs. Know at least a dozen kids there currently. They aren’t all the same type of student but fun they are not.
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I’m pretty sure that naming the school is exactly the purpose of this thread.
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One school that I never thought kiddo would like was U of Chicago - actually visiting the campus at the last minute on a trip to another school changed the perception. Beautiful buildings, more sense of community that our kid did not expect, friendly students. If our student had not seen it, would not have applied.
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I have seen this sentiment expressed multiple times on this thread. It seems strange to me that the disposition of a random 20 year old kid, who you will never interact with again for the rest of your life, can significantly impact a decision with a value of 100s of 1000s of dollars and 4 years of someone’s life.
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Rationally speaking, yes, what you say makes sense. But a lot of factors are usually in play in big decisions like this so I completely get how a tour guide plays a huge part in forming an impression and determining the outcome.
I work in the investment industry and I have observed first hand that whether it’s picking stocks, making a real estate purchase, or any other investment - most lay people rarely decide based on hard facts alone. It’s simply the nature of human psychology.
I hope the schools recognize this and factor it in when selecting ambassadors/guides.
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Wondering if anyone else had this experience in 2021 like we did - a couple of schools were crossed off the list due to how COVID impacted the visit. We had very limited opportunities to get inside buildings or experience the campus “vibe”. This happened to us with a couple of schools early on the college tour journey….we returned to one school late in the application season because we were in town…it was totally different being able to get into buildings, see students on campus, and observe the community.
If you’re reading this and just starting the process, please know that our students had very different experiences touring schools during 2020-2021. There might be inconsistencies in our observations. Also, there was significant variability among schools and even at each school depending on the time you visited in the COVID era!
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Rutgers is probably the weirdest big college we have seen. There are basically 4 separate campuses with a small downtown city in the middle. My S and I are still not sure what to make of that place.
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Highly selective colleges make semi-random decisions all the time in admission decisions (oh, we already have a couple oboists, so we’ll reject them but this person plays the bassoon so we’ll take that one)—so hey, why not let the teenagers winnow their lists for similarly semi-random reasons?
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It’s not strange at all when you think that the college selected this person to be representative of the student body.
Our son was turned off by a couple of tour guides who focused on sports, sports, and more sports. I’m sure other students could have been turned on. The schools involved (Alabama and Pitt) had big name sports as part of their culture, so it matches. My guy preferred schools with equal academics and less focus on sports. There’s nothing at all wrong with that.
A kid can only attend one college. If they have two equal choices and pick one because it has more/less squirrels than another, it’s truly ok.
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A friend of mine and I, both alums of Wesleyan, took a walk around the perimeter of the old campus back when it was technically “off-limits” to visitors due to Covid-19 restrictions. And, while doing so, we discovered that nearly all the buildings face the street rather than each other. And, that there’s almost no part of campus that isn’t lined by Victorian or Colonial era architecture. We’d never noticed that before and it left a completely different impression of the college than that of the “regular” tour.
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Let’s get back on topic please
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Northwestern
Up for D, S didn’t care about it before or after the tour
The weather was foggy, cold, and windy. But nonetheless it is currently the top of Ds list and a strong ED contender. There are some beautiful buildings and lovely parts of campus, but definitely a strange layout, lack of central quad that we saw, and a weird mix of architectural styles. I liked all the trees and I’m sure the lake is nice when you can see it without fog. So, D didn’t really love the campus, but she liked Evanston well enough and really likes Chicago. The academics are the big draw: the quarter system, the ease of double majoring across schools, the amazing College of Communications. We actually had two Comm tour guides, which was a refreshing change to always having a premed track tour guide. The students all seemed smart, but normal and chill, and having fun. The school has a lot of resources to throw around and students benefit from this. It checked all D’s boxes, but I feel it’s more of a rational choice than a school she has fallen in love with. Just as well since they have an ultra low acceptance rate.
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At the risk of getting reprimanded for straying off topic…
We did a second tour of American University two days ago for an admitted student type event. Like your experience with Northwestern, it checks all of my S’s boxes but he didn’t fall in love (either time we visited). He does love DC, feels AU’s academic programs in his area are well-developed and highly-regarded, and is excited by AU’s internship opportunities in government. As you said: a rational choice rather than an emotional one. He’s prepared to commit, but I’m a little worried given his lack of emotional connection. I guess it raises the questions: How important is “connection” at a school tour? And how much can you really learn from a few hours on campus?
Now back to the visit. It was a long and somewhat boring day with lots of talk about admitted student details (dates, housing portal, first year advising, etc.). Informative but not necessarily inspiring. I was pretty impressed by the first year advising program though. The tour itself was pretty short (shorter than the “regular” tour we’d been on last fall) without much time spent inside the buildings. The campus seemed a little sleepy (it was sunny but chilly). The bulk of the kids we observed seemed relaxed, casual and maybe a little quirky (this is a plus for us).
One thing we did this time, that we failed to do during the first visit, was explore the surrounding area. We stayed near the mall just off the Metro line, so we could take the subway to campus, check out the commercial strip (Tenleytown) near AU, and time the walk to campus. It was a great way to explore the area, and definitely helped us get better feel for how easy it is to get around town. There is a ton within walking distance of the campus (food, Target, bank, Whole Foods, etc.) and the area seems extremely safe.
Since my S is prepared to commit, I guess you could say that American “moved up” as a result of our second visit??
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My husband took my daughter to a tour of a school that the tour guide was obviously high…it ruined it for a lot of people…thank god it was only a couple hours drive for us…there was an international student and people from the opposite coast and midwest that had flown in to see this school…on an admitted student day no less.
They also brag about their beautiful campus and it could be, but a lot of it seemed rundown, unkempt, or in general disrepair.
Conversely, she visited other schools where a great tour guide helped her see there was more to a school than she originally gave it credit for and some that were once safeties moved up to the top of her list. Same can be said for major/program presentations…some hooked her and some drove her away…but the one school with the high tour guide and unkempt campus…even their fabulous program, professors and large amount of merit scholarships awarded to her couldn’t change her impression and off the list it came.
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What school?
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