hmm. but is this really an accurate reflection of the attitude and vibe on campus, or just the sales pitch to a Californian audience? I do tend to agree with you that there is an over-emphasis on diversity, especially when it comes to gender. And it’s not easy to make good character show through on an application, especially if the admissions people don’t take the time to look for it.
5 Likes
CofC seems to consistently be one of those schools, like Pitt, that is not highly ranked and not super-selective, but always gets impressed shout outs from everyone who visits and attends.
15 Likes
That’s what I thought, too—that Vanderbilt knows it’s pitching to a more stereotypical liberal audience in CA (and they may be concerned about kids who might refuse to consider their school because it’s in Tennessee, as my family certainly would have). They may have overindexed for San Diego, though. They could talk about gender identity and diversity all day up here in the Bay Area where I live. 
9 Likes
This happened to my S25 with Hendrix College. He was tagging along with D23 at a CTCL event and went to the Hendrix presentation. The guy went on and on about how they were a dark blue bubble in the middle of redneck country. It was insulting frankly and my son who is practically a 2022 version of Alex P Keaton, was unimpressed.
I can’t help but assume it’s because we’re in Portland, OR.
4 Likes
Reminder that this thread is supposed to be for impressions. If members are wanting to have further discussion, please move to the “Off-Topic Discussions from colleges crossed off list of moved up after visiting” thread.
Thank you!
14 Likes
A post was merged into an existing topic: Off-Topic Discussion from “Colleges Crossed Off List or Moved Up After Visiting”
We haven’t had a down this cycle. We didn’t have any expectations when visiting Ohio University, and they did an absolutely amazing job on their Discovery Day. It was probably one of the best-organized visits we have ever been on. Beautiful school and hilly. There is a river that runs around it with a greenway. It melts into beautiful uptown Athens Ohio, with brick streets. We ate some of the best chili dogs we ever had there. (this is the child I craved chili dogs with, when PG). It is isolated, about an hour from Columbus, but perfect for what my son is looking for, and his major for which he was accepted is housed in Scripps College of Communications, which has an incredible reputation. It moved way up on his list. Some past tours I took with my kids that knocked colleges off of their lists were Princeton, Richmond, TCU and JMU.
14 Likes
Toured colleges with D23 in the west, Midwest and southeast. I was surprised that she hated U San Diego. Like was immediately turned off by how small the campus seemed and we left after about 10 min. She also took UGA off her list after the tour. My husband and I loved Athens and loved campus but she really didn’t like “the vibe”. Surprisingly UTK went WAY up. We weren’t even going to visit but at the last minute, we were able to get on a tour so we switched our flight and drove from Athens to Knoxville. We had no expectations going in but we both absolutely loved the campus and town and the tour and the overall Vol spirit.
6 Likes
I’ve noticed that too!
Thank you for this - OU is on my D’s potential RD list.
2 Likes
Williams went off our list for the tour guide’s celebration of how few Caucasian students were admitted. Seems like some schools have narrow definitions of DEI-personally, I would prefer no one to feel excluded, but the wrong presentation can wreck that. DD had already applied and was admitted with what seemed like a great many letters afterwards encouraging her to attend, but the damage had already been done. She wasn’t interested in attending a school where she was merely tolerated.
17 Likes
This is interesting - would you mind sharing your past experience with the TCU tour? Living here in DFW, almost everything I’ve heard about TCU is positive; would be interested in another viewpoint. I have no connection to the school, just curious.
2 Likes
The below linked moderator’s note is only 16 hours old, yet users choose to ignore:
The nice moderators may move the OT posts onto the other thread. But I’m the mean moderator and that takes too much time, so I have deleted the OT posts.
10 Likes
It was more of a personal thing for my DD. The school is beautiful. Our tour guide spent the whole time talking about greek life, and how if you are not in Honor’s college it is nearly impossible to get the classes you want. It is a very Greek school, and every activity posted was sponsored by a Greek organization. We had a special tour within the department she was accepted at, and we felt very looked down upon. We didn’t feel very wanted, more like an annoyance for being there. Our FA was delayed until late March, nightmare verification, and Admissions kept hounding us about a decision, which we could not make until we visited and knew if it was affordable. After the fact, I heard they extremely over-admitted my DD’s class. Leaving the tour my DD’s statement was “I don’t want to be the poor kid at a rich kid’s school”. I know the school is a wonderful school for many kids, but it was not for mine.
4 Likes
moved up/or stayed on the list after touring:
University of Delaware
Ithaca College
App State (NC)–surprising move to #1 spot
West Chester Univ (DD23 went on tour begrudgingly. it is now sitting at #4)
moved down
JMU went from #1 to barely hanging on to being on the list. Her comment after the tour (“underwhelmed”)
Towson
off the list completely
Roanoke
Ursinus
Muhlenberh
WVU
Pitt
Eastern Univ
8 Likes
We visited Williams over the summer and my white male S absolutely loved it. Definitely didnt get that vibe at all and the fact that the school encourages diversity in admission was a big plus. It went way way up the list due to the beauty of the campus, intelligence and thoughtfulness of the tour guides, availability of tutorials and world class music program.
11 Likes
Could you please share why Muhlenberg and Pitt moved off list after the visits?
Thank you!
1 Like
Muhlenberg is too small for her. Her HS is about the same size for student body. She is looking for a bigger student body. Also, the campus is definitely smaller acreage compared to the schools that she has liked more. (I think if you/your student are looking for smaller school, it is worth taking a look. I liked what I saw on the tour.)
Pitt is “too city” for her. Probably doesn’t help that our tour day was rainy and cold. Colleges never seem appealing when the tour happens under those conditions. (Husband and I both like Pitt, for what it is worth.)
7 Likes
Very helpful, thank you!
1 Like