But simply the added amount of time spent at the school, attending multiple classes, eating with students, increase the chance that the “real” vibe will be uncovered.
Work hard play hard is such a cliche, I think we heard students say that at almost every college we visited. =P~
Only on page 38, but loving this thread!
I have had three kids go off to school and 2 (so far) have finished. Child 4 is a rising senior and all 4 have had different interests, so it’s been a wild ride!
Daughter 1-went to Notre Dame, loved it, majored in Pre-med and Music. Now a resident MD.
Son 1-went to St. Louis and then finished at Loyola Chicago-Education and math.
Son 2-attending Notre Dame, loves it, majoring in chemical engineering.
Son 3 is interested in Physical therapy or athletic training. We live in the mid-west, so are focusing mainly on schools not too far away…So far~
Moved up:
Dayton-loved the beautiful campus and “neighborhoods” for upper classmen. The athletic facilities are great too.
Purdue-nicer than remembered from earlier tours with older kids. Didn’t do the formal tour, but seemed nice.
Michigan State-really liked it here. Campus was really nice, students very friendly and spirited. Very large, which is a bit of a concern and programs are very limited after freshman year.
Xavier-Nice, clean and modern. Son liked it much more than he thought he would given that he is interested in a bigger school.
Neutral:
Miami O-visited during spring break, so was a virtual ghost town. Looked nice, but too empty to tell.
Moved down:
Butler-Nice tour, but seemed like it didn’t know what it wanted to be-small and special, large and well-known. Son decided it was too small for him.
Marquette-nice, but toured during the summer without a lot of students around, which seems to make a big difference to all of my kids. Will revisit since it aligns with son’s interests.
Also, have a shout out to St. Louis University, as it is a really pretty campus, all of itself, but on the edge of the city of St. Louis~very nice.
Finally, with two kids at Notre Dame, I can say that both kids moved it up on their list after visiting. Campus is just beautiful. Size is nice and spirit is hard to beat. PM me with any questions.
Addition to my original post (page 1):
Moved Up: Georgetown
Info session covered each of their four colleges, the criteria for each college, standardized testing, study abroad program, financial aid. The campus and surrounding neighborhood are very nice. The study abroad program is full immersion so you can’t go until Junior year after having complete language requirement so you are at least proficient. You are enrolling at the school in the country you are traveling and taking classes with their students in classes taught by their professors. Credits fully transfer back to Georgetown and your financial package transfers with you to the country you are studying in. There are two exceptions to this which are properties in Italy and Turkey which are owned by Georgetown and 25 students travel / take courses together and the courses are in English. The dining hall (only one formal dining hall on campus) was very large but was discussed positively by our tour guides and other students on campus. From a safety and well being perspective they highlighted their security features, have their own ambulance (could take long for an ambulance to arrive in busy DC area) and their dorm buildings seemed nice. Different options available over the four years (suites, on campus apartments, many variations (some with full baths, no baths, sinks in the room, etc) – you can look at the variations on the website if interested.
I’m a rising senior- Class of 2017!
Up:
Furman University- Oh wow. My #1 choice as of now. Beautiful campus, amazing academics and it seems like the perfect fit for me. The golf cart tour was really cool; we got to see the outskirts of campus including the Furman farm and the North Village apartments. My tour guide texted one of her friends on the mock trial team and had him come down to admissions to talk to me about the program. That left a really good impression with me, and Furman’s mock trial team is 7th in the nation. At this point I feel like Furman is “the one.” (Financial aid permitting)
WIlliam and Mary- Loved the historic feel and buildings. Not everyones cup of tea, but I can see myself there. Unfortunately, I’m out of state and with the little merit aid they give it will probably be financially unfeasible. I’ll be interviewing in July, and I’m excited!
UNC-W- Toured on a whim to be a prospective safety school. Nice campus and presentation. We were’t able to go into the freshman dorms, but they built a mock bedroom. For a UNC, it exceeded my expectations.
Stayed the Same-
Elon- I was dragged on the tour by my mom. It’s located in the middle of nowhere. The closest town is Burlington, which is far from being a booming metropolis. The academics didn’t seem to be very strong. I’m looking at LACs for a comprehensive curriculum, but I feel like I could get an Elon education at a state flagship. I wasn’t too enthusiastic about touring, and that really didn’t change. Elon isn’t on the Common App, and I don’t think it’s worth my time to do a separate application. I probably won’t apply.
College of Charleston- My mom’s alma mater. Most of my family lives in Charleston so I don’t think I would like being so close to home. The campus is sprawled throughout the city and isn’t contained,and that’s not the “feel” I am looking for. Academics also leave something to be desired. My mom recalls when CoC was $3000 a semester back in the early 90’s. Needless to say, the price tag has skyrocketed. A girl that graduated from my high school is a student at CoC and she was robbed and beaten during her freshman year. As a girl, that really scares me. I love Charleston, but I’ll stick to being a visitor.
Down-
Wofford College- More like waaaaaayyyyy down. Too small and too much of an emphasis on partying. Our tour guide was a typical sorority girl that talked a lot about the AMAZING parties that happen every weekend. I also felt like I was in the Truman Show- everything about our time there seemed orchestrated and fake. Weird vibes. I won’t be applying. Also, everyone we spoke to was weirdly a religion major…
UNC-CH- I’m applying for the sake of my parents. It’s too big and too many kids from my school go there. Our tour guide was very lukewarm and had no problem telling us that UNC was not his first choice. I feel like UNC already knows that they will attract qualified applicants so they just take you to the water fountain for your Kodak moment.
When reading this thread from the beginning all I can say is if the tour guide or the admissions staff is not friendly or worse arrogant, don’t cross off that college or put it lower down on your list. These are not reasons to judge a college. Friendly students on the whole - yes! Beautiful campus - yes - I get that. The location and setting of the school - yes. Academics - of course! The tour guide is just one person, the admissions staff - well you’re never going to need them once you’ve matriculated. So don’t judge any school by these two factors.
Our tour guides were all students except for one. But even then, it’s just one or two. In one case the student guide was so honest that the school went down a notch.
@tigermommy I somewhat disagree. The Admissions Office is the face of the college. I think the interactions one has with the AO are indicative of the culture of the school’s administration. If one’s interaction with the AO is poor, just imagine what one’s interaction with any number of other administrative offices will be like. I realize this is a broad assumption. However, when there are so many colleges to choose from, why put up with that? There would have to be something super-special about a college for us to overlook our interactions with the AO.
I thought I’d love Middlebury, but it disappeared from my list after I visited. The info session focused too much on sports for my liking, and there was something just unappealing about the campus. It probably didn’t help that I visited on a cold, drizzly day in early spring, when the trees on the mountains were still bare – it just didn’t set a nice feel for the school.
@1518mom - Some schools are just more polished and put more effort into “selling” the schools. There are a couple of schools that are notorious for bad and/or unfriendly admissions staff, but are otherwise fine institutions.
Would you not buy the perfect house in a great neighborhood just because you didn’t like the realtor?
I think @tigermommy has it just right - the admissions staff are bureaucrats and/or salespeople, and who your student tour guides are is simply luck of the draw and rather subjective; what may appeal to one prospective student might be a huge turnoff to another.
@tigermomy, @LoveTheBard: I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again—the purpose of touring schools isn’t to fall in love with them, it’s to strike them off the list. Therefore, no matter how irrational a reason to take a school of the list might appear to someone looking at the process from the outside, it’s actually completely a reasonable reason. It is necessary to thin the list, and to do so by any means necessary.
@LoveTheBard I was only stating my own personal opinion/philosophy that offers others a different point of view than @tigermommy 's. People can think about it however they want and can come up with even more ways to think about the issue.
I don’t really understand your realtor analogy, though. Which realtor are we talking about? The buyer’s or the seller’s? If I’m buying and I don’t like my realtor, then I’ll choose a different one. If I don’t like the seller’s realtor, I may very well walk away even if it’s the “perfect” house. No house is “perfect” and there are others out there that might be equally “perfect” in different ways. I’ve heard of too many nightmarish real estate transactions dealing with sellers and their agents to know that sometimes it is just better to walk away.
@1518mom -
I was talking about a realtor that you’d meet if you were to walk into an open house. Obviously, if I had to deal with a realtor and/or a seller that was impossible to work with, I’d walk away. Likewise, if the administration at the school my kid was applying to proved to be impossible to deal with, that would be another matter altogether. But a tour guide or a receptionist? That I can look beyond.
My point of using the realtor analogy - flawed as it may perhaps be - is that if I went to an open house for a home that met absolutely all of my criteria (e.g., perfect location, great school district, can age in place, needs no work, we can easily afford it), and I had I been on the market long enough to know that it was exactly what I was looking for and that this type of house was a rarity, I would not walk away simply because I didn’t like the cookies they were serving or if I thought that the realtor that happened to be at the open house was not someone I’d like to go out for a beer with (e.g., to much of a jock, too artsy).
That said, @dfbdfb is correct in that if one’s list is too long and needs to be cut by hook or by crook, then all bets are off.
@LoveTheBard When I originally wrote #707, I said “I somewhat disagree” because, in my mind, I was excluding tour guides and receptionists. After all, they are only doing what the higher ups are asking them to do…which reflects more on the higher ups than them. When I talked about the AO being the face of the college, I was referring to the staff that run the place. The way the AO is run tells me something about the culture of the college’s administration and how they view prospective students (e.g., a unique individual or just a number as one example). Hope this clarifies that our opinions are not so different after all.
@1518mom - Yes, I’d say we’re probably not that far apart; I just wanted to clarify the realtor analogy, which I admit, was far from bulletproof.
I actually was thinking of one school in particular that we haven’t visited yet that is pretty high on D’s list. I’ve read numerous posts in which people who have visited concur that the reception they received when they arrived (not sure if it’s particular staff member or if it’s more than one …it’s a small LAC) was less than welcoming, but the the school itself is quite wonderful. People who have visited have urged prospective families to look past the less-than-ideal reception(ist). Certainly if/when we do visit, we will get a good feel for the students and faculty.
Anyone else out there who toured schools and has opinions?
Re #29…yes Michigan has its share of Ivy wannabes, but when students who attend elite privates visit friends in Ann Arbor they often drool over the lively social scene, the great college town, & 107k people at the football games.
Dusty,…thanks for attempting to re-focus this thread. As a parent who is just beginning the college search
process, I find the CC community an invaluable resource; however, I must say that watching relevant threads like this one constantly devolve into personal opinion skirmishes is really unfortunate.
Interim report (with miles to go…literally and figuratively…before we sleep):
DS is one who isn’t great about articulating why he does/doesn’t like a school so this may not be terribly helpful
Moved Up:
Hamilton - DS loved everything about it…even though we were there in February with snow on the ground. Not even the dreary (my perception) Dark Side of the campus swayed his positive assessment.
Colby - Another February trip with snow on the ground, a cold wind blowing and very low temperatures. He liked the students, the food, the tour, the Cotter Union. It all worked for him.
Kenyon - I was underwhelmed sitting in their dreary/worn down admissions waiting area (In my head I kept comparing it to Hamilton’s lovely waiting area) but it didn’t phase DS one bit. He loved the Kenyon traditions like signing the matriculation book, the first year sing, etc.
Moved Down:
Bucknell - Was fine with the visit overall but the heavy Greek influence caused it to slip down his list
Lafayette - Didn’t like the vibe he got there…felt “low energy” to him
Haverford - Another school where the vibe/fit didn’t feel right
Bowdoin - Admissions personnel seemed a bit aloof, tour guide was very sporty which didn’t click with DS.
In each case where the school moved up, I observed that my son “clicked” with the tour guide. Schools that fell down the list lacked the same tour guide halo.
We did lots of research before the several college road trips, and both kids were interested in pretty standard majors that any decent college will teach well. So we didnt do any official visits…we knew those would waste precious time only to learn that each school had caring faculty, state-of-the-art facilities, impressive diversity, quaint traditions, and everybody involved was one big happy family.
Places that went up after visiting:
Purdue.vandy, northwestern, Georgetown…clean, well organized, compact, but lack of an actual business district in West Lafayette was noted.
Wellesley, Richmond, Miami-Ohio…each “looked how a college should look.”
Colgate, BC, Lehigh…pretty and charming even in a drizzle, though Lehigh’s hills looked painful.
Mississippi, Auburn, Florida Atlantic, UMiami, Pitt, Indiana, Iowa, Nebraska, Lafayette… looked like wonderful places to spend a few years.
Went down or off list: Syracuse ( town & campus both un-appealing); Tufts (nothing special); Maryland & Trinity-Connecticut…both bordered neighborhoods that didnt look very nice; UConn…nothing around it…kinda surprised to see the farm right across the street;UNC-CH…Franklin Street underwhelmed, & most of campus lacked the character of the old part; Alabama…lots of wonderful things there, but just too big and spread out for low-energy kiddo; Princeton & NDame…adjacent town ridiculously small.