Which one?
Posters wishing to share photos are welcome to start a new thread but let’s keep this thread focused. Thank you.
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You just saved us a trip to Rice! I read your follow-up comment as well. Thank you.
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I don’t know very much about Rice, but I think it would be only fair to tell you that if you didn’t already know, the post you are referring to is from 2016.
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Yep. Poster here and it was a long time ago. I wouldn’t use that to judge the school now. Though we still have personal terrible feelings about Rice. We literally spent over 1000$ to get there for an info session and tour and the lack of any concern for us and the error they made definitely meant that we would never have sent our kid there. But who knows it’s probably a very different administration now. However it’s still upsetting to remember the entire incident.
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Can we please keep this long thread dedicated to summaries of school visits?
There is a separate thread for chatter back and forth about someone’s impression of a particular school
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When I lived in Seattle, I remember the descriptions of the University of Washington including something like, “Gothic, Brutalist, and Prison-inspired Architecture.”
(This might not meet with the mods approval.)
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Reminder that this thread is one of the ‘no response’ threads. Posters should list their schools that got nixed or they loved, and the reasons why. Many of these posts are humorous. More serious discussions about individual schools can be found in the college sub forums.
There is also a separate thread, linked in the instructions in the original post, to have conversations that stem from posts here.
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A few weeks ago I convinced my son to visit the University of Virginia. We are in state for UVA so it would likely be the best bang for the buck and it is a pretty good school to boot. My son has fought for a while going to see it as he claims he doesn’t want to run into kids from high school every day. I get that and tell him just to check it out. A beautiful place that seemed to check all the boxes. The grounds are amazing, they seem to have anything you could want. The sports scene is a must have for my son and they are relevant in most sports except maybe football. The two tour guides we had that day had the best tour I have been on. We didn’t see all the buildings or see even most but they gave us a great feel of life there. On the way home he said he could see himself there. On our tour, we were grouped with someone on my son’s former soccer team who lives near us so he was sort of correct but it is nice for him to consider a great in state option.
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University of Illinois - Urbana Champaign fell off the list after a summer visit for us. We are looking at engineering, and they are such a highly rated school that I really had high hopes for it. But my son came away very unimpressed by the campus. Weeds and bare patches everywhere and so much goose crap you literally couldn’t walk around much! Maybe they let these things slip over summer, but based on our visits to many other Big Ten schools, this one was the most disappointing one and to the point he couldn’t see himself spending 4 years there.
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University of Utah – We just returned from a visit to Salt Lake City. S 23 liked the campus up on the hill and the idea of being surrounded by mountains. I say “idea” because I had no idea that the smog would be so bad and that you can’t really see the mountains this time of year. Thought the dorms were newer and cool, impressed with business school and engineering. Seems like rigorous programs and serious students who prefer outdoors fun to partying. This all jived with S 23. Took a tour led by 3 male students which was fantastic. Info session was informative. Everyone we met was friendly and helpful. S 23 got WUE and some merit so would be a good fit all around. He feels that the air quality is a deal breaker, unfortunately, but wants to visit again in a better AQI time of year to make sure. Glad we visited!
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George Washington University - We went to DC and toured GW, American and GTown. S24 loves GTown and was ok with American. However, he felt GW was a little too urban and disorganized.
At the beginning of the tour our group stood outside the Welcome Center. Maybe it was because it was warm, there were armies of flies. It was very comical as we all tried to keep the flies away while listening to the guides.
We did noticed the streets weren’t as clean and there were lot sof construction going on.
The worst part of the tour was when the guides led us to see one of the resident hall. The building was old and had a musky smell. It almost triggered my wife’s asthma after standing around the dorm room for just a few minutes. She had to use her rescue inhaler on the spot. S24 was also started to cough. We had to wait outside just to keep them safe.
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RIT-My son was sooo excited for this school and the program. I was hoping it would bump WPI down the list because the merit from WPI puts it wayy out of reach for us.
I made the mistake of scheduling our tour in January, in the middle of unseasonably cold (for Rochester!!) weather. It was freezing!! We had hats, gloves, earmuffs and did the two mile around campus tour. He asked the tour guide to show us the tunnels so we could see what the experience would be.
After we got home, he decided to apply to Florida tech. He said that he did not want to be a mole person and have to be underground 5 months out of the year.
We both liked the campus and were really impressed by all of the technology and evidence of the investments being made on campus but visiting when the temperature was below freezing was a huge mistake.
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I could argue that it is better he saw the frigid weather early on in the process and decided it wasn’t for him as opposed to going there and being unhappy.
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No argument from me on that point. I was just surprised because he always insisted that he loved the cold and preferred a colder climate to warm. We are in Maryland and all of the schools he applied to are in the Northeast. Granted 7 degrees is quite a shock to the system.
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SAME:
Duke - High expectations met.
Brandeis - Impressive school.
Bates - Loved the school. Did not like the surrounding area. Felt remote to my So Cal raised son.
Colby - Loved the school. Did not like the surrounding area. Felt remote to my So Cal raised son.
UP:
Pitzer & Pomona - Both beautiful and seemingly amazing schools. Great tours. DS loved them but ultimately decided not to apply to Pomona as it seems so tiny.
Davidson - Wow! We had heard good things but were absolutely blown away. DS loved the tour, the campus and lunch with a current student. This school is just laser focused on the student experience.
Tufts - Amazing school. DS loved the tour, the vibe and the location.
Haverford - Fantastic tour. Incredible information session led by the Director of Admissions. DS did not like Philly but loved this campus.
Connecticut College - Did not know what to expect. DS loved the campus, the tour and the information session. Felt like a great “safety” option.
DOWN:
Claremont McKenna - Loved the campus but felt the “bro” culture was too strong. Lots of beer bottles lined up in the door rooms plus we received not-too-positive feedback from a friend that is a department chair at Scripps. Dropped this one right off the list.
Wake Forest - Meh campus and tour. It reminded DS of his high school. Dropped this one.
University of Richmond - Lovely campus. Felt like a back-up school. Spoke of difficulties in integrating non-binary students. DS decided to pass.
Wesleyan - I loved the campus and the tour was great. The Director of Admissions spoke at the information session and really made a great impression on me. My DS was not impressed and couldn’t really remember the school. Unfortunately, I think he was just burnt out on tours. Still made it to his apply list, though.
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We only visited three schools out of state (I am the child in question). But we ended up crossing off one, loving another and thinking the other was eh.
Wesleyan-This is where I ended up applying ED and where I’ll eventually go. I fell in love with the campus on first glance. It felt like an old school castle ground with random architecture slapped around sometimes. It just looked and felt fun. An admission officer talked at the end of the tour and compared to the other colleges he sold it way more. They had us sing happy birthday to somebody on the tour guide just to find out it wasn’t actually their birthday. It was an overall amazing fun time. Most importantly I could imagine myself on campus. The tour guide answered all my questions happily.
Amherst- This visit I absolutely hated. The campus itself was alright it had kind of similar architecture to Wesleyan but I liked it slightly less. The main point of annoyance was the tour guide. For lack of better words she seemed kind of pretentious and rude. She didn’t answer my questions as well as the other tour guides especially about things like POC. The campus also didn’t feel as friendly which may just be a day to day thing. In Wesleyan people were smiling and chatting some even interacted with us or the tour guide. At Amherst everything seemed quiet and focused.
Smith- It was eh. The campus may have been the prettiest out of the three but I didn’t feel a real connection there. This was my only tour guide that was a POC and while she was nice she still wasn’t as good as Wesleyans tour guide. I loved the housing system and honestly everything points that I should have wanted to go there but I didn’t feel a connection. My mom was shocked but she ultimately liked Wesleyan the best as well.
In State
Michigan State University: I’m a legacy on all sides from this school. By the time I got into Wesleyan I already had an honors college offer from Michigan State. My cousin goes here as well and were practically attached at the hip so I may be biased towards liking it. I love the general atmosphere and the liveliness of the campus at all hours. I’ve never had any official tours but I’ve spent weekends in the dorms and have sat in on classes. I even watched some med students present different projects. Overall I believe it’s an amazing choice for a State School even though I won’t end up attending. My aunts were part of a multicultural sorority and it seems like they have a booming Greek life. Students will crowd into the cold to watch football games even if the teams having a terrible season. So if school spirit is important to you Michigan state would be a great pick. Tons of different groups to make you fit in. However I absolutely did not want to go to a huge school and spending weeks at MSU and witnessing hundreds of students in a lecture hall only solidified that fact.
Grand Valley State University- My dads alma matter. I went on a tour with my school and had visited multiple times with my father. The Greek life seems very strong although I don’t necessarily like the fraternity members I met. Though fair warning the food is better at Michigan State.
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U Mich - place felt too big and impersonal to DS. It would have been a super reach anyway so it’s probably off his list.
Syracuse - great tour, loved the tour guide, DS ran into a friend who is there and is happy. Only thing DS disliked is the town. Will stay on the list.
U Miami - son had a goofy grin on his face as we walked around. He loved the vibe. Since it was a self tour, I wish I could hear more about the academics. High on the list.
Wake Forest will be next, followed by Bucknell and Lehigh in March.,
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Where did you end up? Those are three of our top 6 for next year
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