Crossed two schools off the list because “people on campus are walking slowly”! It was “low energy” for my kid…
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This is a funny thread! To add to the humor, we toured a “shall remain nameless” Ivy league school this past spring and my son crossed it off his list after about 15 minutes because it gave him “prison vibes”. 
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My niece went to Gettysburg and had a great experience there.
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I live in MI and most of the MI Tech alumni I know say that the reason they went there was the generous financial package. If your son is considering it, he better like snow and isolation. It would not hurt if he was really into hockey too.
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I previously posted on May 1 with descriptions of visits with my S23 to Kenyon, the College of Wooster, Pitt, Ohio Wesleyan and Denison. Since then we have visited Hobart & William Smith, Kalamazoo, and the University of Alabama. Here goes:
Stayed the same:
Hobart & William Smith – We visited the second week of May. The admissions office is right on Seneca Lake, so we started from a nice place. Most of the campus is across the street, though, so you don’t really see the lake much once you’re on the tour. Our student tour guide was rather professional and polished. She didn’t really say or do anything memorable, so after seven months it’s like trying to remember the details of a solid night at Applebee’s. I remember the Quad – it was the largest of any college quad I had seen up to that point. If you stand in the middle of it you probably have to walk through about 75 yards of grass in any direction to get to a building. We liked it. To maintain the separate heritages of the male-only Hobart and the female-only William Smith, the men’s and women’s sports teams compete under different school colors: green and white for the women, and purple and orange for the men. (Purple and orange is a statement, I know.) We ate at the dining hall after our tour – a staple of all our college visits. The atmosphere and food were both very good. They didn’t show us a dorm room, which usually means the college is not particularly proud of them. We liked H&WS, but nothing about it made it stand out from other LACs closer to home. He applied, but I doubt he will end up there.
Down slightly:
Kalamazoo – We visited in early November and got to experience the first snowflakes of winter while on our tour. The student tour guides and admissions officers were all very friendly and welcoming. The campus is small and hilly, with a mix of older and newer buildings within walking distance of the downtown area. The tour guide was refreshingly honest. She showed us a fairly small mock dorm room but then added, “I’m not gonna lie to you – this is probably twice as big as most of the rooms in this building.” That made both of us smile. Kalamazoo’s merit scholarships just aren’t competitive enough to make it worth traveling the distance from our home. There are several closer schools whose offers will match or exceed K’s. In one respect that’s too bad, because K seemed to welcome my S23’s desire to play DIII soccer. He would have looked sharp in their orange-and-black uniforms, too.
Up:
University of Alabama – S23 is already accepted. We drove thirteen hours to Tuscaloosa at the beginning of December to visit the Crimson Tide. S23 had always pictured himself at an LAC, but he applied to Pitt and Alabama, too. UA is currently his best scholarship offer by far – full tuition, plus his room expenses freshman year, plus a $1,000.00 per year credit for other expenses. That made a visit a must, and I have to say we all loved the campus, the weather, the facilities, the educational programs, the town . . . everything. The dorms were large and well-appointed, too – a suite with a common room, kitchen (full-size fridge), four single rooms, and two private bathrooms/showers. The dorms really made an impact on our S23. We ate lunch at the Lakeside dining hall that would be closest to the dorm he would likely live in. It has indoor/outdoor seating, with a patio overlooking a small lake with a fountain in the middle and pretty landscaping all around. My S23 came into it with an open mind, and by the time we were done he started to see all the potential advantages of going to a larger school. There are tons of food options, the school spirit is off the charts, and UA has many out-of-state students so there would be a lot of kids in the same boat as him socially. The academic options are extremely diverse (and even more so for Honors College students), and there are many study abroad opportunities, too. And though he wouldn’t play intercollegiate soccer there, the club teams would be extremely fun and competitive at a school that size. Best of all: it would free up a lot of money that he could use for graduate school later. They say, “Love the school that loves you back.” Well, S23 is starting to feel the love. Roll Tide!
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Interested in where had better merit.
Thanks
DD accepted with Presidential Elite at Bama but won’t consider it because she doesn’t want to go to school in the South. I keep forwarding all the emails I am getting about honors colleges and invitations for visits etc. no reply.
Pitt- moved up a slight bit, but too close to home and too urban.
Liked Vassar tour but it was about 98 degrees and everything on campus was dry and dead (August tour), so thought it was too dry. Drove through Haverford the day before and it was all shady and green and she loved the campus had the vibe of her boarding school and she just mentioned it again, but is not applying because the aid is only need based and would be too expensive. Bryn Mawr, just down the street had a completely different feel, just driving through. Not her vibe. She thinks she would like Syracuse but we haven’t visited yet. Has applied only to 3 of 10 on the list waiting for REA next week and all of the acceptances here and on Facebook are stressing me out when she still has many essays to write. Can’t wait for this to be over!
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He already has equal to slightly better merit offers from Ohio Wesleyan and Allegheny, and I suspect he will get at least an equal offer from Wooster. All three are closer to home.
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Just wanted to share thoughts on college tours with my 2 sons over the past 3 years. We visited a TON of schools in very diverse areas. Here are the highlights:
Son #1 - recruited D3 athlete in football and track.
Loved and moved up:
Williams because the environment mixed very strong academics with a culture filled with athletics. Campus is terrific and he enjoyed the students, coaches and faculty.
Wash U. There is something very magical about this campus. It is large but not giant. The academics are very strong but not intimidating. The people are all approachable.
Claremont McKenna was incredible. The campus is stunning and the campus vibe is loose and relaxed for a school filled with high performing, smart students.
Moved down:
Middlebury has great people, amazing curriculum and programs. But, it’s really far from anything else.
Washington & Lee has a great reputation but felt to son very closed off.
Son #2 - heavy science focus with PhD plans
Moved up:
Penn State - he loved the campus and was particularly impressed with the science facilities, faculty engagement and incredible research opportunities both during the academic year and throughout the summers. And, in state tuition was a giant bonus too.
Carnegie Mellon - he appreciated the intensity and focus on the students and faculty. He thrives in that type of environment but I know it’s not for everyone. Great resources and research opportunities here too.
University of Rochester - the faculty and staff here bent over backward to welcome him for visits including lab tours, class visits and faculty one on one meetings. He left very impressed with the science curriculum and availability of research for undergrads.
Moved down -
Carleton - great opportunities for faculty engagement but the environment seemed cold and sterile and not fun. In fact, the faculty seemed to brag about the intensity.
Grinnell - great visit but it is very isolated, pretty small and did not seem to have the same resources available for research, facilities, equipment, etc.
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those are great. seems like something my daughter would say.
WVU came off her list. Her reason/description… “too engineer-y”
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Refer to my earlier post
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I am so glad to hear you all love it. My daughter loved it so much, and we felt like it was such a good fit for her, she EDd. We are thrilled that she’s going to be Elon 2027.
Honestly, she didn’t want to look at any more schools after our Elon visit. She can’t wait to go back for admitted student day!
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Congratulations! Happy to answer any Elon questions if I can!
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I’m really working hard to figure out which one it was 
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Thank you for sharing this info, ww are looking at a few of these schools now.
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Coming back to list a few more schools not in the northeast that I toured with my DD23. These tours were all done between summer 2021- fall 2022, mostly over the long weekends. We are in PNW so these schools are all ‘relatively’ close to us.
Whitman: stayed the same. Drop dead gorgeous day with great admission staff and a tour guide. Very remote. DD thought it’s a bit like Williams except town is bigger and had better pastries and coffee (she’s right)
Reed: went up. The info session/tour here was incredible. I have toured probably 20-30 schools total including most of the Ivy+( DD23 is my third)- and this was by far the best one I attended. Surprisingly… DD23 agreed with me(!)
She did think the school was a bit small.
On the other hand I ran into a friend of mine with her DD after the info session and she was totally not sold (along with her DD). Clearly it was just a perfect pitch for us.
Lewis and Clark: we didn’t tour here because DD23 said there is no place to get food/coffee within a walking distance from college which is an auto dealbreaker
University of Washington: went down. Campus is too spread out, too big. We couldn’t do the official tour and it was spring break.
Berkeley: stayed the same. another big campus. But she liked the social justice vibe and the tour guide was great. Also she loved Berkeley, the town.
UCLA: went down. Too big and too many people and too SoCal.
Pomona/Claremont McKeena: went down. I loved the cute town and the campus. She thought it was suburban and boring.
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We did a couple re-visits with D23 as she did interviews this Fall.
Juniata - way up. This was an “Eagle for a day” visit where she sat in on a class, met with a professor from the environmental science program, had lunch with a couple students who were bio/ES majors (one of them currently doing the semester at their field station). She loved it. Just feels like it’s the community for her. And it has a pep band which is important to her. Accepted with their top merit award so is likely to end up there, but still waiting on a couple more.
Washington College - still likes it but I was surprised that it moved down a bit. She said she just liked the vibe better at Juniata (not a completely fair comparison since she didn’t get such an extensive visit). Washington’s facilities are definitely nicer, including AC in all dorms. A big strike against it was the lack of a pep band. Music generally seems to have a bigger presence at Juniata even though they don’t have a music major.
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D is HS senior. We’re in midwest, but she wants to go elsewhere for college. Broadly speaking, the academics at all these places seemed like a good fit, so that made us feel like she’d made a good list. But I won’t go into them a lot below. Obviously CC is different because of block schedule.
Bard - D liked the school and had a great meeting with a professor. Campus is beautiful. But comparing with other schools on her trip D realized that she wanted to go to a school where the campus is in a town/city of some form or another, which Bard definitely is not. So crossed off her list.
Bates - D was neutral, though I really liked. Gorgeous campus, especially at the height of fall color. Due to timing of our trip, we were there over their fall break, which meant the campus was quiet. Nice interaction with admissions office staff – we didn’t get a tour, but one of the admissions officers took 30 minutes to stroll around campus with D as sort of an informal half-interview/half-tour. We ate in dining hall and D’s initial reaction was that a huge proportion of students were in athletics, until I pointed out that students in fall sports were disproportionately likely to stay on campus over break. She’ll still apply, but I doubt she will go there unless financial aid is extraordinarily better than elsewhere.
Bowdoin - D loved, loved, loved. Classic example of how much difference a single tour guide can make. Thirty seconds into the tour, I realized that tour guide was a perfect match to D’s wavelength and this was going to be a top school for her. She smiled ear-to-ear for the entire tour. Conversely, a close HS friend of D visited two weeks later and had the reverse experience, with the school falling from top two to off her list entirely. I liked it well enough, but not loads more than anywhere else.
Brandeis - Worn out from trip by time we got here, plus we didn’t visit on a day admissions office open or tour available, so just walked around campus on our own. So it had strikes against it already. Felt really big in comparison to other schools on trip and helped to confirm D’s inclination that she wanted to go to a smaller school – and thus she’s correct not to apply to Brandeis, Tufts, UChicago etc. But not sure we really gave it a fair shake.
Bryn Mawr - D liked. Was impressed that there were no tours scheduled the day we were there, but they set one up just for us after D contacted admissions office. Dunno if that’s something they extend to everyone or we were just lucky with timing/availability. Really liked the feel of the campus, and noted that the close interaction with Haverford made the environment seem a little less of a purely women’s school. We were amused that the Bryn Mawr guide insisted that they had much better food than Haverford but that Haverford had a better library – and that the Haverford tour guide that afternoon agreed on both counts! Felt smaller and more intimate than Haverford, though schools have same size student body. Leftist sociopolitical awareness of student body/institution very evident.
Colorado College - D went without parent - she and her older brother went to a daylong fall open house as a sibling bonding road trip. She was interested that at one point a fellow prospective student asked about a very specific academic interest and was told, “if that’s really what you want to do, you shouldn’t come here because we don’t have that.” She appreciated the honesty. She came back impressed, but it felt to me like it dropped slightly in her ranking. I think it went from being potentially first choice to being in a larger grouping with Bowdoin/Bryn Mawr/Mt Holyoke.
Haverford - Had not really been a top interest of D, but went because were at Bryn Mawr anyway. D wasn’t really impressed by anything except the student art house, which she loved. (It’s a small building that used to be something else - maintenance building or something? - that has been converted into a place full of art supplies where students can just go and do art whenever they want.) D decided that wasn’t enough of a reason to apply, but it made Bryn Mawr more attractive, because she would have access. Caught site of a flyer on a wall related to complaints about a particular dorm and asked the tour guide about it. Guide agreed that the dorm has a history of troubles (ie. physically, not socially) and many students avoid living there, which seemed concerning. Tour guide emphasized student input into school governance and honor system.
Mt. Holyoke - D really liked; loved the feel of the town/neighborhood it’s set in. Beautiful library and good independent bookstore near campus. Tour guide emphasized a bunch of the silly student traditions like everyone watching Dirty Dancing together (because Baby goes to MH); D found them mostly charming. Had great interview with admissions officer.
Pomona - D went without parent; Pomona alum friend of mom in S California offered to host and take her. She had HS friends in the year ahead of her who are now first years at Scripps and Pitzer, so she basically did the Pomona tour and then hung out with them. Although she had a great time, she realized after the fact that she learned most clearly that she did not want to apply to Scripps or Pitzer but that she didn’t form a really strong impression of Pomona one way or another. Really liked the physical campuses (except thought Harvey Mudd was less attractive) and the town. But not sure she wants to go somewhere without four-season weather. Also, went during first week of school when all first-years are meeting each other, which was an odd vibe. Like Bates, still planning to apply, but IMHO she is unlikely to go unless financial aid package is much better.
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Moved up:
Arizona State – the little food delivery robots all over campus were cool. Loved the palm trees and outdoorsy study areas. Desert warmth in February felt wonderful. Had a good vibe and my student was ready to enroll. Kids seemed content. Campus compact and walkable. S23 not as impressed with Barrett vibe (kids looked miserable he thought – it was raining day we toured, did not like the “jail” look) but did like style of Tooker House.
Colorado School of Mines – More of an old-Colorado vibe to cute mountain valley town with a river that runs through it. Campus is a mix of old and new somewhat spread out. Visited on a rainy Saturday so hard to get a vibe but did not get an overwhelmingly geeky vibe from the students we did see. S23 liked the facilities we saw. Top pick.
Cal Poly – Students are beautiful and smiling. Almost like they are on a movie set. It’s weird that way. But seems legitimate. It’s a happy place – who wouldn’t be? San Luis Obispo is about as perfect a place as any. Campus is mix of old 70s ish and older buildings and newer modern architecture. Farmer’s market was wild. Everyone, including the marching band and cheer squad, is there. Lots of energy! S23 would love to go here but it’s an OOS reach.
Moved down:
CU Boulder – lived up to it’s party rep when we visited on a Thursday night. But I also saw other kids making it to 8 am classes the next morning. Surprising amount of homeless people on the creek trail through campus. Engineering school is impressive and full of busy students. Picturesque mountains surround campus. S 23 just meh.
Colo State – Loved Fort Collins renovated downtown area. Lots of great shops and restaurants. Campus is huge and my student felt overwhelmed to see it all. Great engineering school tour and new biomed engineering building was cool. Seems very hands on. Students seemed to really like it. It was cold and rainy and S23 liked the town more than the school.
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I keep hearing the exact opposite. That ASU is HUGE, way to spread out to walk anywhere, etc, etc. Glad to hear you experienced a different campus vibe as S24 is really interested but we keep thinking it will feel way too spread out.
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