My D18 and I just finished up a tour of Rochester, Pitt, and U Toronto. D’s impressions of all three surprised me.
Rochester: D didn’t like the surrounding area, but she really liked the school for all the reasons previously mentioned. Impression went up.
Pitt: loved the city, loved the campus, really didn’t like the presentation of the school. We both found the info session and tour amateurish and sloppy. (To be fair, we’d just seen Rochester’s info session which was STELLAR.) Also too focused on sports, she felt. What D thought would be a safety came off the list.
Toronto: This was initially an also-ran, as D is a dual citizen and had already visited (and loved) McGill and UBC. Seeing U Toronto was just a formality, completing the circuit of the Canadian Big Three. In an atmosphere that is often described as intense, ultra-serious, and competitive, D found the students at Toronto mature, independent, and focused–all in a good way. She loved the diversity and residential college system. We spent three full days on campus, doing as many residential college tours as we could, chatting with as many students as possible. This one surprisingly shot to the top of her list.
I loved Pitt. I loved the area, the campus, the honors program, the presentation. It was a safety for my D who received a large scholarship and an invitation to honors. We came back to Pitt for an interview (r/b money) and after the interview she told me how impressed she was with the honors program and with the professor who interviewed her. She described him as “brilliant.” She then stated that in no way did the honors college feel like a safety- she met several very accomplished students. At the end of the day it was not for her; she did not want urban, did not love the campus, and really loved her other options.
@twogirls , reports like yours are why we were so sure that my D would love Pitt. It may have just been an off-day in our case, but that negative first impression is hard to get past. With many other options on my D’s list, we just decided to move on, although disappointed with how it played out. We may try Pitt again with my S20.
To the extent one can, I am a huge fan of visiting campuses. They are never exactly as envisioned. Have been through this experience a number of times. Some takeaways from visits with my various kids (based on curb appeal primarily & feel; not selectivity of admissions):
Impressed:
Vanderbilt – Loved campus and super-loved Nashville’s live music scene. If only it had what my son wanted to study, he’d have applied there ED no question.
UVA – Loved campus and surrounding area. Great tour guide who made the tour memorable. They all begin to sound the same, so this was no small feat. Son loved the secret society stories.
William & Mary – Daughter loved this campus and loved the neighboring Colonial Williamsburg with its shops and restaurants. Has visited a number of times and gone to overnight camp there. Upon pick-up she said she could definitely see herself going to school there.
Penn State main campus – Went for a “Visit Penn State day” where we parked in the football stadium lot. Upon seeing the stadium, my son was awestruck at seeing Beaver Stadium in person. Lots of “biggest this” “best that” on tour. They are into that. But son was interested in Landscape Architecture and we were both blown away by the facilities for that discipline. Really top notch. For the size of student body, campus had a very manageable feel too, which was an unexpected plus. Also liked the shops, restaurants so close to campus.
Amherst – Other schools were higher on this son’s list, but after visiting Amherst and its cute town square area, he said this was exactly his vision of what he wanted in his college experience. Newly-renovated sports stadium a plus.
Princeton – Beautiful campus; cute neighboring town. Obvi super-hard to get into, toured more as a tourist b/c we were in the area and wanted to see it. If I were into the Ivy League scene for my kid, I like this campus the best of all the ivies.
Pepperdine – D was a “Zoe 101” fan so enjoyed seeing this campus where scenes for that show were shot. Beautiful, if somewhat isolated, location built on the hills overlooking Pacific ocean. Driving the windy roads of Pacific Hwy with those steep drop-offs stressed me out, though. Hate to think about encountering a driver who’s had one too many.
High Point – We’d heard it was like a country club and we had to see for ourselves. OMG, it was like a combination of a resort/DisneyWorld/country club. Had to drive through town of High Point to get here. Town is industrial feeling due to furniture making; campus is a gated community with guards at each entrance. Never seen this before at a college, so that gave us pause. But then it was like we were in Disney World, with a main street called “Extraordinary Way” How Disney is that? Beautifully landscaped, tons of fountains, cool outdoor art, outdoor pools that rival resort pools, Greek complex had pools and hot tubs, out door gathering spots with fire features, electronic signs in front of reserved parking spaces for visiting students welcoming them by name, movie theatre that looked exactly like an AMC theatre in size and design, arcade that looked like a mini Dave & Busters w/neon lights except all games were FREE, escalators like you were in a mall, cool looking high-end furniture high end everywhere which might be a perk of being in this furniture town. It was probably the most surreal college visit we’ve made, and I’ve made a LOT!
Not for us:
UNC Chapel Hill – Bottom Line: TOO BIG. Son who loved Penn State was turned off by UNC-CH campus, except for old part of campus. Cranes and new construction everywhere, which is great for the campus development, but the scene didn’t resonate with son. Daughter went here for a sports camp. Thought the camp was high quality, but she stayed in a multi-story dorm the size of a hotel. Said the school is not for her.
Williams – Too remote. Some of the facilities seemed tired. Person we met with said remoteness can be a problem for some, so they very much encourage that students visit. School has excellent academic rep. which may be why many apply sight unseen.
Guilford – Ugh. Austere, unloved looking campus. Just really barren looking. Simple brick buildings with patchy grass and no other exterior enhancements. We had a really negative response to this campus.
Hamilton – Glad I saw it, but daughter did not respond to the varied architectural styles of its buildings. Does seem like it’s not sure what it wants to look like. Of all our tours, Hamilton showed us the dankest, darkest dorm of them all, which my daughter still talks about.
“did not respond to the varied architectural styles [at Hamilton] . . . [seems] like it’s not sure what it wants to look like” (#1024)
Hamilton’s architectural styles are a function of what the current school is authentically: the union of two colleges with building styles appropriate for the eras within which they were formed. The current overall architecture is not varied as the description would commonly be applied, but distinctive to the history it represents.
Some reviewers do, however, appear to understand the campus:
In future visits I’m really considering pushing D to skip the generic tours and just meet with the honors and department folks. It seems that those visits are always the key to the process for us, not the campus itself.
We find trying to fit it all into 1 day is difficult. We typically are trying to do this during spring break, summer vacation trips or long-weekends. Many times 2-3 visits in a week at disparate locations. So multiple day visits are limited.
The only exception to the visit with professors being key was Maryland, where it was location, location, location for my art history kid who wants to be near major museums (DC, New York, Chicago, Pittsburgh, etc.)
Have visited many Universities this summer for my daughter:
Moved off: Ball State, didn’t like the feel of the campus or location. Said it also felt small to her. Central Michigan, too small of a town.
Moved Up: Indiana, Michigan State and Ohio State - Likes the larger campus and each one had different things that she liked about them. Of the three felt IU was the prettiest of the three and really liked the Education Program opportunites.
Indifferent: Kentucky, while there are some things to like, felt that the school didn’t have enough green space and didn’t like that the Schoold of Education is across a busy street from the main campus.
A few others of interest on the list, Georgia, Iowa, Kansas and Minnesota. Have only visited UGA and she liked it but not sure that she wants to go that far away even though we have family in Athens and Atlanta.
I saw Indiana last month and also did think it was very nice. I was impressed. Drove through Ohio State’s campus as well and thought it was nice and thought Columbus was a nice city.
There are lots of bars and restaurants that would be within walking distance, particularly on High Street-South Campus area and Short North Arts District. It looked like a cool area.
Re Kenyon, both the student guide and the admissions rep commented that students don’t end up there by accident. When they tour the campus and check out Gambier, either it feels right or it doesn’t. Those that choose to attend don’t get bored or feel trapped because they feel that the relative isolation enhances the community building and intellectual life happening on campus.
To bring this back to the main topic, for me, this is a great example of why the campus visit can be important, even when classes are not in session. While the campus would no doubt feel differently during the academic year, my own kid learned something very important about her priorities when visiting Kenyon and other schools. She developed a good sense of what was too small, what was too large, and the importance (for her) of campuses located within walking/biking distance of basic amenities, opportunities for community engagement, etc.
@1art1science I agree with you; we’ve tried to do multi-school tours in a single day - or even over a weekend. It’s tough! Our first visit to Creighton got cut short because of a flight we had to catch, and I think our stress level added to our opinion of the school. And the generic tours are NOT personal at all.
We had a very personal tour at Creighton last week - funny how it matters who the tour guide is! Our guide and my son had similar senses of humor and a lot in common so my son really enjoyed it. Our tour guide at TCU was a bubbly, enthusiastic musical theatre major and it would have been hard to not get caught up in her energy.
@bcwmcw I agree! Our tour guide at Creighton in February was really aloof and made it clear she had better things to do than lead a tour. Our second guide, in July, at CU in the Summer, was WAY more outgoing and really listened to her group. She even spent time with D17 afterward to talk about life at the Heider College of Business as she was a finance major. That personal touch helped SO much!
1036 replies. I wonder if anyone will read this far.
Moved up: Pitt, Notre Dame, Denison, Centre, Dayton. All community based, quaint(ish), welcoming. No coincidence that all the tour guides were great.
Moved off: Bowdoin (pretentious); Oberlin (open animosity between “arts” and “sports”); RIT (too modern); Johns Hopkins (students seemed too stressed), Kenyon (too isolated, which is ironic since I would classify of some of the ones that moved up on the list as isolated as well), Miami of Ohio (too preppy / seemed like “all the cool kids” trying to outdo each other), U Chicago (didn’t like location)
Stayed same: UMich, Ohio State, Purdue (but too big overall); Kalamazoo, Xavier, Brown
@homerdog We also saw Denison on a cold, sideways sleeting, ugly day. Still loved it! It’s so true that you can’t get a good feel until you visit the school. Bowdoin seemed like such a perfect match on paper and from everyone we talked to – and she really hated it from the minute she stepped on campus. We checked out the surrounding schools just because we were in the area (Bates, etc) and while better, she just didn’t feel like it was a good fit.
If you plan on using Denison ( or any small LAC) as a safety, make sure you are definitely showing them the love. It’s interesting that Denison seems to no longer make its Common Data Set public to check on how it weighs demonstrated interest.
