Are the UC schools sufficiently different such that disliking one wouldn’t necessarily mean disliking all of them? I would think so. But not sure.
For us, yes. The differences were distinct. The negative experience at UCB was counter balanced by positive experiences at UCSD, UCLA, and UCSB.
UCs are different. They attract different students based on location and specialization. 20% from by D16 class got into both UCB and UCLA. More then half of them will be attending UCLA.
2 kids who toured over the course of the past 2 years. Some we toured before and some after as we did not want to cross the country unless we knew they could go.
Moved Down:
Davidson - Too small in every sense for my kids. I adored it. (But I loved most of the schools. I am easy.) They could could not get past the one street town. Also the guide was a little on the flat side. The best part was touching the Rodin.
Eckerd - Very dated feel to the buildings. Although being able to have pets in the dorms and scuba every day was a draw. They also met with a professor who was doing research that one of my kids loved. The barefoot thing was not for me and I am barefoot all of the time AT HOME.
New College - Both of my kids found it too quirky. The setting is very pretty but the school is smaller than either of my kids’ high schools. Also the sort of free range education was not their cup of tea.
UCLA - Just felt impersonal. The libraries were beautiful. Played the “how many kids can you count sleeping?” game with the guide. I was shocked to see how far the freshman dorms were from the classroom buildings. My kids did like the outdoor fruit market in the center of campus.
Pomona - We found it oddly quiet. And had coffee with a student who told us they all work very hard all of the time. My kid just couldn’t wrap her head around the silence. She also noted that all of the kids she saw walking were by themselves with headphones in. Just her observation. I know kids who love it there. But for mine, it was a no.
ASU - She loved the environmental and sustainability focus and the Honors program is impressive. However, they sent her a congratulatory sign to print out with someone else’s name on it. There were a couple of other snafus like that which made her feel their attention to detail was off. Plus we live in Florida and in the end, the schools were too similar in what they offered to go so far.
Brown - Beautiful campus - we went in the summer. It was way up for a bit but when we got home the reality of how cold it would be there and how dreary really hit them. Simply a weather issue.
Vanderbilt - Too preppy. (For my hippy kids.) They just never really got a good vibe for whatever reason.
UC - Berkeley - My kid had dinner with a current student there who told her that it is a constant competition. Again, I know this is one kid’s opinion but it was enough to ward her off. My kids are looking for collaboration in college. High school has been cut throat enough.
Moved Up:
UNC - CH - My avatar says it all but my kid fell in love more and more with each visit. She loves a college town, loves Carrboro, loves the idea of the big Halloween festival they have. Our guide was fabulous and his name came up over and over again for months after. He told us all of the amazing opportunities he had as a student there. Yes, we saw the well. The weather is basically perfect for her and she wants a place with a spirited sports base.
Lewis and Clark - My kid spent a few days there, including an overnight. I didn’t see it but she said the surroundings were stunning. She thought the buildings were a tad dated but she enjoyed it enough to apply.
UM - FL - This one is practically in our backyard and I didn’t want my kids to like it. But they did. They feel a little up and coming to me. Small, beautiful campus set off from Miami proper. They have an interesting dual admit program for either law or med that shortens your stay. And the kids we know who attend UM are all happy.
USC - This was my one kid’s top choice all along. We were super hesitant but when we visited, it was terrific. Professors spent a lot of time with her, the kids were all very welcoming, on her overnight my hippy kid was selling cookies on frat row with her hosts. This one came in thisclose in the end. Even the neighborhood seemed to not be as big of a deal as everyone says.
Loyola Marymount - Another one that I feel is really up and coming. They were amazing to my kid. The campus is gorgeous, the scholarship kids are treated like gold, the programs are relevant. All of the students we met were very nice. It was a tad homogeneous, the kids we saw, but the ones there for the visit were more diverse.
Stayed the Same:
Stanford - Beautiful campus, strong programs, LOVED the band. But college poor is college poor and my kids didn’t want to be college poor.
UF - Okay, so this was my one kid’s OTHER top choice. In the beginning, this was the only school she planned to apply to and we swayed her to add some more options. In the end, the offer was too good to pass up. Her biggest concerns were the size and the fact that it could be like 4 more years of high school, since many kids stay in state. But UF is attracting some amazing kids and the program she is interested in is strong here. Top that off with a lot of merit money and paid summer travel and it just beat out USC and Stanford. We took the Honors tour here and the students were very engaging. The director and the assistant director of the program met with the students to outline the requirements. UF has a great social media presence which makes them very accessible in terms of getting questions asked, and solving any problems you might have once you are admitted.
UCSC - I didn’t go but my kid loved the vibe here. I don’t think she thought it was super academic but she liked the RVs and the hippy feel. It didn’t have enough to sway her to really consider attending though.
My caveat is to spread a wide net. Where my kids thought they would go changed, a lot, and even changed back again in one case. You probably won’t know your options until the very end. For my kids, money was a very big deal. We make enough to get to pay almost full freight at places like Stanford and Vandy. And we don’t even begrudge that fact. That is lucky. But we don’t make enough to pay for school AND summer trips and a new roof and shore up our retirement all at the same time. Something was going to give. Thankfully, my kids were drawn, in the end, to places that offered them excellent merit and summer travel. Hope this helps.
^My wife bugs me almost daily to set up a trip to visit U Miami. Starting to wonder if she has an ulterior motive. :-w
@STEM2017 - NOT in the summer. I mean, I love it here year round but many people find it stifling in the summer. And rainy. Your wife must know that the humidity is great for the skin…
@saillakeerie Yes, the schools all have a different feel and vibe. Sure there are commonalities such as class sizes and such, but the campuses themselves are quite different. Berkeley is either a love it or hate it experience, regardless of the tour impressions. I loved it, but from reading the negative comments above about the administration/bureaucracy, it seems not a lot has changed in that regard in 30-40 years. UCLA has the most students, but the most compact campus. You can sense a good school spirit there. The buildings match which is very different from the hodge podge at most UCs. Davis and UCSB both have flat, grid-like campuses that are easy to navigate (watch out for bikes!), but they seem totally different because one is land-locked in middle of farm land and the other is on the beach. Both schools seem to have happy students (especially UCSB) and the UCSB administration has been very good in our interactions (never took an official tour though). UCSD is very spread out and has a more serious feel, but the Price Center is a pretty good hub. Irvine is built around a circle, an odd layout that you may or may not like. Definitely seemed the least lively to us.
Just did 3 unplanned (well unplanned by kids, secretly on Mom’s agenda) college visits this the past few days, 2 today. Visiting Austin, TX the past few days for other than college visit reasons with D16 and D18. I surprised attacked D18 with a visit today (Never fall asleep in the car with mom driving, you are likely to wake up on a college campus and forced to endure a campus visit even though you would rather keep your head in the sand that college is looming on your horizon).
OFF: University of Texas-Austin. Even though D18 liked the urban enviroment and Austin in general and would love to consider our state’s flagship university… as a non-minority, non auto admit which I think is about top 7% for UT-A these days(75/615, top 12%, 4.89 GPA), UMC, suburban kid, she has a snowballs chance of being accepted to UT-A. In an attempt to console herself she found these negatives…who wants to be 1 of 51,000 students, it’s too big, it’s too hilly, why is it hotter here than in Huston? it’s too hot, it’s too hipster and a bit “fake”. Really the only valid excuse here is the 40,000 undergrad students, that really is too big IMO
OFF: Southwestern University (Georgetown, TX) the campus appeared unkempt and in need of updating and it seemed isolated, although it is maybe 5 minutes from the Round Rock/Austin I-35 corridor which is very built up, so lets talk about that traffic!
STAYED THE SAME: Texas State University, not really a serious contender to begin with but it as nicer than we expected. May keep it as a safety.
I am a sophomore, but Columbia and NYU are crossed off. I extremely dislike NYC. Also, UCSB is too laid back for my taste. But Stanford has moved up. I did a Latin convention there, and I loved it. The students were great. I also like the vibe at MIT.
@madredos a large number of students from our high school go to Berkeley. Many echo what you heard about it being a cut throat, competitive environment. We also hear the same thing about UCSD - especially in the sciences.
@lkg4answers, My impression of Santa Clara as a Mech E student a long time ago was the vast majority of undergrads lived on campus or within a few blocks of campus. Most people were on campus for two years. I knew many undergrads who had parents living within 20 minutes drive who did not live at home. I did know a few commuters though. It is a relatively small school, and I felt like I never went very far on campus without running into someone I knew. The atmosphere was very collaborative, if you had a question any classmate would stop their work to help you. Grad school was different as most of the students were working full time and only part time at school.
I totally forgot Georgetown which fell completely off of the list after we toured. No one applied. The guide was nice but the tour was rather slow paced and crowded. My kids love DC but ultimately decided they didn’t want to live there. Also the 3 SAT subject area test requirement slowed their roll a bit too. And the weather.
Santa Clara was a school that one of mine was very interested in. She was even invited to their scholar weekend. But she passed it up because by the time it happened she simply couldn’t miss any more school. And it didn’t seem likely. And their scholar weekend seemed a tad intense. She loved their ideals and mission though.
Thanks @nordicdad, that’s really helpful to know.
@citicas That sums it up accurately. Basically said she wasn’t well-spoken enough to be an English major, which she mentioned was a possibility.
@usualhopeful Yikes. That’s just awful.
My daughter also got caught up in the RAH RAH factor at schools for a bit even though we are not really football fans.
While I loved many aspects of UMich, I found it to be too huge, and the football experience was frankly way over the top for my liking. When they played a Mich video (narrated by James Earl Jones) on a huge screen at the football game vs Rutgers, it was crazy intense. Some people love this, but I did not. (My daughter did like it) In addition, a student made a very insensitive and pompous remark which left a bad impression on me. I guess that you cannot help that:
“I chose Michigan over a full ride at that s–t school.” Nice 
Other schools that did not fit our needs:
Mainly due to location and perception of safety>JMU, Rutgers, Fordham Rose Hill, Syracuse, Lehigh, Maryland (all with other great features, no doubt!!)
Our family liked the idea of a contained campus , down to earth kids with varied backgrounds, school spirit (not TEAM spirit), solid academics and specialized programs, and varied activities in a good geographic setting. These are a few impressions:
We really liked:
University of Delaware - After visiting Villanova’s accepted student day we were so happy to see kids lining the roadways welcoming us. We thought this was unique, but we were wrong. UD’s accepted student day rivaled this. Kids were so nice and spirited, they were genuine. We loved the restaurants in the downtown area and nothing felt OVER THE TOP–it felt real, in a really good way. In addition, the campus is very southern in style, traditional, beautifully maintained, etc…For a large school, people and locations were very accessible. Flat campus for biking 
Vanderbilt- daughter was denied here but if you are in the running…We loved the city of Nashville, the campus feel, the emphasis on BASEBALL, not football, the location on the outskirts of the city, yet contained.
We were “on the fence” about GW due to location and we couldn’t really get a sense of the school. It didn’t seem cohesive. Nothing homelike about it. Impressed by presentation, mainly the emphasis on great speakers, politicians, internships, but not entirely “believable”. They seemed to sell their school mainly on location. No central campus feel.
American-nicely located by embassies but did not feel comfortable on campus-design and organization of buildings were unappealing. We could not really get a sense of campus life. Not much school spirit that we could witness. We did visit in the summer so perhaps this was a factor.
Daughter is a rising junior so we have just begun our search. Baylor moved to the top of the list. She loves the campus, everyone was friendly and they are a good match for her Christian conservative values. UA Birmingham and Huntsville got taken off the list. UAB was too urban and UAH was too centered on engineering for her taste plus the showers in the honors suites were so small she said she probably would never use them. Onward and upward! Hoping we have more than one school by end of junior year!
Northwestern was taken off the list because of the condescending person at the tour checkin. It really was only that. Notre dame is moved to the top of her list now after a tour last week. After we got home I rented the movie Rudy. She loved it!! Lol
So her choices so far are (in order) ND, UChicago, & Vandy. I told her she needs some safeties in there!
I’m not sure my child crossed any schools off the list because of this but as I general comment I didn’t like a number of schools that didn’t have the resources to have a good campus tour - basically there were too many people in the group and it made it too difficult for the guide to effective. Just last week we visited Duke and there were only 3 guides for about 100 people. Either pay for more guides or restrict the number of people that can sign up for the slot. If you can’t find students during the summer then use your staff. The AO giving the info session was a recent grad and I’m sure could have gave a great tour.
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^^ Yes! If you aren’t organized enough to manage tour groups, how are you going to manage class schedules?