These top schools simply don’t need to invest much in tours; they get two or three times the number of qualified applicants needed to fill an incoming class.
Hi All,
My daughter is a rising Senior who wants to stay in California.
Moved up: UC Berkeley - My daughter loved it! Loved the urban feel, loved the number of people, loved the history, loved the college of chemistry. Went back the next day to sit in on classes - loved that too. Big lectures appear to not be a problem for her. Tour guide was great.
Moved up: UC San Diego - Loved that too. Liked the feel of the campus, interested in the different colleges, liked the research opportunities and biological science programs, liked the ocean breeze and the interesting architecture and art installations. Students were very friendly and helpful.
Stayed the same: UC Santa Barbara - This was a top choice going in and it is still a top choice. She is interested in CCS for Biochem, great campus - ocean views, new library addition, bike friendly. Attended some lectures, she liked those - other kids seemed attentive and focused. Tour guide mentioned UCSB students volunteering in the local community, and she could see herself getting involved with that.
Moved off the list: Santa Clara. Seemed too much like high school to her, too small. Tour guide mentioned that food is not available until 10am on Sat morning, that really bothered her. Also, in the cafeteria, kids seemed pretty segregated. I think it just felt too small to her. Last thing she didn’t like was that they were watering their lawns in the middle of a drought. I thought it seemed like a great school. They showed a sample dorm room, which looked pretty nice to me. I think the tour guide was a little bit full of himself, and that put her off the school. Oh well.
We have more a few more to visit, so we will see if she likes any of the smaller schools.
I am pretty surprised by her reaction to the schools. I thought she would love Santa Clara, and it would be a great option for our family, but no deal.
Son and I visited Notre Dame in 2007. It was February and bitterly cold and snowy, and he forgot to pack a coat. Didn’t matter one bit. Notre Dame became the only option from that point on. (He had already been admitted.)
So I’m a recently graduate and I visited 4 colleges. Here were my impressions: Community College 1: hated. It felt very dirty and impersonal. All the students we saw seemed very tired and un motivatied. OFF LIST Community College 2: Liked it. More suburban, very well kept. Everyone was very nice and the event was well organized. I was able to sit in on 2 classes, one of which was absolutely fascinating (Child Development). SAFTEY SUNY Potsdam: It’s a really nice campus with super friendly people but it ended up being too large and too far from home for me. OFF LIST Russell Sage College: It was absolutely love at first site. I love everything about it, small size, close to home, incredibly welcoming and enthusiastic people. It’s the only place I applied to and where I am attending ATTENDING
@HelpingMyKid we noticed the same thing at Santa Clara. They showed us their award winning solar powered house and spoke about how environmentally conscious they were yet the sprinklers were watering their lawns at 11:30 am!
Looks like Santa Clara University uses recycled water for the lawn. I live in San Mateo County and recycled water is becoming a big thing in the Bay Area.
http://santaclaraca.gov/government/departments/water-sewer-utilities/recycled-water-utility
I know lots of people who went there and they all liked it, but I can understand why some prospective students would think it was too small and quiet.
1 Like
SCU is ranked 19 of 353 in Princeton’s Review “Top Green Colleges”
http://www.princetonreview.com/college-rankings/green-guide
Approx 90% of SCU’s 104 acre campus is irrigated with recycled water, they are also into sustainability big time.
Yes, they told us about the recycled water but recycled or not, there is no need to water their lawns in the middle of a hot summer day. It is recommended that watering be done before 9 am and after 8 pm even with recycled water.
1 Like
That SCU campus is one of the most beautiful campuses in the country, they apparently know what they are doing and are a socially conscious bunch. I doubt the entire campus has sprinklers going all day, watering a lawn here or there at 11:30am isn’t a big deal, that’s still quite early heat wise. Thankfully they maintain it so well, it is a landmark for the area and the drought will pass as it has done many times over last few decades.
Back to thread, Cal Poly moved down after touring it then leaving the area at night - student noticed how pitch black highway 101 was around the school because there is nothing else there. They thought area was ok for retirees, but way too quiet and would get old fast for anyone under 30.
USD presented way too religious (even for a Catholic school) and being on top of that hill made it too hard to walk anywhere off campus, seemed to isolating.
^^ USD is very religious so that may keep it off your list, but my niece attended and used Zip cars all the time her freshman year, then had a car at school. Freshmen live in dorms on campus, sophomores mostly live in dorm/apt buildings just off campus (or on campus but at the edge? It was far from the classrooms). After that she lived by the beach, had a car but also took other public/school transportation.
@HelpingMyKid You mentioned volunteering at UCSB - the Honors program there has a requirement for a small amount of time each year of service in the community. It’s only 10 hours a year, but helps get them involved in IV or the surrounding community.
I didn’t mean to start a thing about Santa Clara. I am sure they are using water within the parameters they are allowed. I thought part of this thread was about how kids see things in the schools that turn them on or off, whether it makes sense or not. I did not mean to spread misinformation, just my kid’s impressions. Thank you to those who posted corrections about the water use.
Santa Clara is a great school. I used to be a hiring manager at a high tech firm in Silicon Valley, some of my best computer science interns were from Santa Clara. I am disappointed it didn’t work for my kid.
Deleted virtually all the most recent posts as they are wildly off topic. Let’s stick to anecdotes as to why a school was passed on due to a visit, and take those at face value. Even if the child/parent was factually wrong in their conclusion based on the visit, it is still the reason they passed and that is all that counts. Analysis of that anecdote is not needed, and arguing about it certainly isn’t.
Moved down - student thought UCB campus too run down and neighborhood too sketch, too windy and cold on an otherwise hot day.
Moved up - wants to attend any school in Seattle, loved the city, which is ironic given the thought about Berkeley weather.
btw, I think saying a college is too much like high school can be a really insulting and misleading comment made for those shopping schools - and it makes no sense when it is said about schools that have thousands of students. Does that mean every school under say, 5K population is like high school? Or are people saying this about schools that are in the area they live in, thus it is actually too close to home so it feels like high school to them? Then it would be better to say it is too close to home. I heard that comment by a parent on our last tour in WA when a parent said they had toured Chapman for the theater program. The other parent replied, “My son thought Chapman felt too much like high school.” Very odd they don’t realize how bad that sounds and in front of the student!
Certainly there has been a thread about worst parent behavior on tours.
Regarding the “like high school” comment, it might mean one of several things. I can think of these three–
- The school population resembles the population of that child's HS too much and the child is trying to find something different.
- "High school" often means the cliquey in-group, out-group posturing that some HSs have. Maybe the social dynamic felt that way to the touring student
- The facilities of the college may be too similar or not as good as the high school the child is coming from. In NYC the facilities at the large high schools are often better or at least larger than those of colleges. This is at least true in regard to the theaters. We were told about this by a parent gone before us, that her child toured college after college looking for facilities that were better than that of her NYC public high school for theater tech. They were shocked to discover how few schools there were, one being U of Indiana, another being the school they ended up at. Besides high school students of theater tech in the City already often intern on Broadway, just because it's a local industry. It's hard for a college to compete! But you don't realize this until you see it. Knowing this when we toured Sarah Lawrence, I still wasn't prepared for the shock. The tour guide opened the theater with bursting pride and it was a nice theater, but you could have put two of them just one of the theaters--the smallest theater no less--at my child's NYC public high school.
@Dustyfeathers So, since it can be interpreted in so many ways, I think @scotlandcalling just feels it would be nice if people clarified, because it can seem off-putting. YMMV.
After a second visit to Creighton (at hubby’s and my urging), DD moved it back up on the list, tied with #1 Drake. She also has changed her mind and is looking at a Finance major instead of Chemistry (she did well in AP Chem, but she doesn’t feel she really has the passion to pursue it as a career.) Both Creighton and Drake have excellent business schools (for the Midwest…I realize neither are Ivies. Sorry, her ACT score just isn’t high enough for consideration and we aren’t pushing her to take it again.)
So what was different this time? The admissions counselor was still MIA (though, I keep hearing about how his door is always open…) But, we had an excellent tour guide who spent time with us after the tour to talk about life as a Finance major, and that made a huge difference to DD. Also, the campus was less crowded and the weather was great, so DD felt okay exploring and talking to people.
It’s interesting that second looks at a school can make one see things in a different light, and interesting to consider the effect that weather might or might not play in coloring one’s impressions. Would Berkeley have seemed so run down on a bright, sunny day?
As for the high school comment, perhaps it’s best left at “it reminds S/D too much of HIS/HER high school.” That’s exactly how D17 felt about the level of discourse at an LAC we visited. She sat in on an underwhelming discussion section for a required freshman seminar (I am encouraging her to sit in on an upper level class before passing judgment). In contrast, she LOVES the summer program that she is doing, because the population is so very different than what she encounters at her HS and the level of discourse so much higher.
Having toured Chapman, I can see where the HS comment came from. It might be the tour guide (ours was still a freshman). It might have been the small campus.
The first thing my kids said after the Chapman tour was “It is really white here!” We live an hour away in a very ethnically diverse community so the lack of diversity at a school so close to home stood out to my kids.
After visiting UC Merced, they commented that there wasn’t much of a college town around the campus (pizza, coffee, movies, etc).
Because those were things my kids noticed, when visiting campuses, we often talk about how other schools we tour are more diverse or have more of a college town. It is on a scale relative to the schools we have toured. I suppose that could be perceived the wrong way by someone else. Then again, we wouldn’t announce our feelings in a group setting (other than on CC) but it is more of a discussion between family members.
1 Like
Too much like high school may also mean there is a lot of students from that child’s particular high school and they may not like that. I think it’s good to realize that everyone views things through a different lens and a thread like this shows different experiences.
1 Like