<p>Visits absolutely changed my mind! The first college I visited was Gonzaga University last spring. Initially, I thought it would be a great match school that I could be very happy at if nothing else worked out. However, upon seeing the teenie, tiny, incredibly homogeneous campus, I decided I probably wouldn't be happy there. And while I did apply as a safety, it was the first school I turned down (in January) because I knew I would never go there.</p>
<p>Initially, I loved Whitman College. And then when I realized that an LAC wouldn't give me the business exposure I wanted, I decided to not even apply. I went back and forth, and after meeting my regional representative at my school, I decided I might as well apply. I scheduled a phone interview with my representative to get a better feel for the school. After this, I knew I would apply. So I did, with other schools much higher on my list.</p>
<p>However, after I was accepted RD extremely early (Feb 26), I started to feel differently about Whitman. Ironically, I had a campus visit and theatre audition scheduled for the upcoming weekend, so I knew it must have been non-coincidental that I was accepted when I was. This made me feel wanted by Whitman. After seeing the campus and meeting the staff...I was basically sold. I LOVED it there. Even in February, flowers were blooming! It was an insanely active campus, with more perks than I can name right now.</p>
<p>Being on the campus made me feel at home, and I knew from that point on that I would turn down a slew of amazing schools to go to Whitman--it was for me. I truly believe when a school is right for you, you feel it.</p>
<p>Macalester - on paper it seemed perfect for D, but she was turned off when we visited. The campus was not very attractive - many of the buildings looked like high school classrooms. The info session was also off-putting, as the admissions rep kept stressing how difficult it was to get accepted, rather than welcoming the kids' interest in the school.</p>
<p>What a great thread!
In the past few months we have visitied many different colleges with our daughter. Two colleges that she expected to love were crossed off her list after her visits.
She did not like Banard - the campus was too small and she could not see any classrooms because the college was on spring break.
The tour at Wesleyan was awful. The freshman dorm we saw smelled like a locker room! And, we did not see any classrooms or labs. The tour at the University of Delaware was great but in the end she decided against a large state university.</p>
<p>Visited 26 school since Jr. year. All but maybe 3 did I even want to see my parents spend any money on. I have to pay full fare no matter where I go. And a private education looking like $30-50,ooo a year and public being a lot as well, ... I want to like where I am. I could tell the moment I walked on the campus (or drove) if I wanted to be there.</p>
<p>Great thread. Went to Wesleyan with son, daughter and friend of son. We split into 2 groups for the tour, science and math, humanities. Where do I begin? Has the craze for "name" brand schools reached such a fever pitch that there is no attention paid to the fact that parents may be taking the tour as well? I was grateful Wesleyan gave a tour on Sunday but I now know why other schools do not. The beer bottles were all over the place. Then the tour guide who was wearing a microscopic shift dress with snow boots announced that although there were core requirements at the school, the kids should not worry because there are plenty of "gut" courses to take to fulfill those requirements. And I, the paying parent, should be happy to fork over 50k per year? NOT. Did I forget "chalk talk" ? The juvenile expression of 1st amendment freedom consisting of writing F___CK all over the sidewalks and walls. This place is a joke. Great place for urban trust funders who will never have to work in the real world.</p>
<p>PS - Son (probably sensing my displeasure) applied and was rejected. His SAT's were mid 700's across the board but his GPA lowish for Wes. His ego was bruised and I felt his pain but then I felt nothing but relief.</p>
<p>After visiting Northwestern University, I could not get my son to even consider applying to other schools (although he had already applied to one other flagship state university where he eventually received a full out of state tuition scholarship and a fellowship). Eventually, I exercised my parental authority and he applied to a couple of other schools. Contrary to post #58 above, Northwestern University's campus is so spread out that we were not able to tour the whole campus even though we visited twice (and we have never visited Northwestern's Chicago campus where the law & medical schools are located). This was okay as the North Campus is primarily engineering & sciences, while the South Campus contains most of the liberal arts & communications facilities.Housing & dining facilities are plentiful on both ends of the campus. All of us absolutely fell in love with Evanston and with Chicago. My son 's class sizes, as a freshman, are 9, 15, 15, 15, 22, 28, 80, 180, 200 (the large lecture classes break out into smaller groups of 12 to 15 students) Our experience was similiar to that expressed in post #22. My son loved the three top service academies--West Point, USNA & USAFA--Harvard & Alabama. Appreciated, but did not see as a fit for himself, many schools including the beautiful campuses of Colgate University & Kenyon College. We visited about twenty colleges & universities.</p>
Where do I begin? Has the craze for "name" brand schools reached such a fever pitch that there is no attention paid to the fact that parents may be taking the tour as well? I was grateful Wesleyan gave a tour on Sunday but I now know why other schools do not. The beer bottles were all over the place. Then the tour guide who was wearing a microscopic shift dress with snow boots announced that although there were core requirements at the school, the kids should not worry because there are plenty of "gut" courses to take to fulfill those requirements. And I, the paying parent, should be happy to fork over 50k per year? NOT. Did I forget "chalk talk" ? The juvenile expression of 1st amendment freedom consisting of writing F___CK all over the sidewalks and walls. This place is a joke. Great place for urban trust funders who will never have to work in the real world.
<p>We found it useful at the outset to just pick a handful of schools within a relatively easy drive to help DS start to develop a sense of, "This is an urban campus." " This is a large Big 10 university." "This is a small LAC." because he was lacking points of reference. After that, he started to develop a list.</p>
<p>This is an exercise that could be useful for those who know they will not be able to visit the likely-to-apply-to list of schools.</p>
<p>Son's affection for the school he now attends was reinforced by his visits. The only problem was that he kept resisting the allure because it is a Reach for just about everyone and without great FA he would not be able to attend. I think he was protecting himself and us from disappointment</p>
<p>We went to UFlorida over spring break, as it was on way to son's state senate page gig. It's his safety (financial & academic), so we all kind of had the feel going in that we weren't going to be bowled over, esp since son has expressed interest in small LACs. To our surprise, we loved it. Beautiful campus, awesome college town, new Honor College dorms. The tour guide was even an anthropology major (son's intended), and was able to give us details on class size (small) and study abroad opportunities (many and reasonably priced). As the school's also known for its anthro program, within driving distance, and has great weather, he feels he couldn't have a better safety - a very good thing in this time of diminishing acceptances - although even UF reported they had only a 38% acceptance rate this year!</p>
<p>My son thought he would love George Washington University, but when we visited he decided the urban environment was not for him. He was also sick that day, which I think influenced his feelings about the place.</p>
<p>GWU had been D1's original dream school, but once we visited it, the issues mentioned in Post #3, (as well as the substantial difference in tuition between GWU and AU, where D was also looking) turned her off.</p>
<p>Although she wasn't initially interested in either Penn State or Ohio State, visits to both of these campuses (esp. tOSU) really impressed her and she ended up applying to both schools.</p>
<p>Goucher sounded like it would be a perfect fit (on paper, anyway) really turned her off upon visiting. The campus just seemed to be dead(nobody really walking around, not signs of any activity) and the tour was pretty lackluster.</p>
<p>deuxchevaux: I'm sorry you had a bad experience on your tour at Wes, and I certainly don't think you have to like it, but unilaterally declaring that</p>
<p>
[quote]
This place is a joke. Great place for urban trust funders who will never have to work in the real world.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>based on one tour is really insulting to all of the people who want to or do attend the school. </p>
<p>I mean, in the sprit of this thread, I visited Columbia thinking I would love it, but decided I hated the core, and the adcom who gave the info session was really pretensions, and I just generally got a bad vibe and decided not to apply--but this doesn’t mean I think the entire school is pretentious!</p>
<p>S and I visited 2 west coast schools his soph year, one huge state school and one medium private. It was on the way back home from a trip, or I would have REALLY wasted the money. </p>
<p>The visits did not seem to do more than make him realize that he could function in either size environment and that it was other factors, course offerings, climate/location, etc. that were important to him.</p>
<p>Page forward to his senior year in HS. He had created a spread sheet listing all the ratings of the schools he was considering. Then he did computer research on other items of importance to him (nearness to major air port, etc). For the narrowed group of schools, he used his HS's email list of currently enrolled former students to contact students he knew at these different schools to get their take.</p>
<p>My offer to provide visits (w or w/o parents) to the list he had applied to, prior to acceptance, was declined. When he had his acceptance from one school EA, and they invited him out on their nickel for a merit scholarship function on campus, he went (sans parents). He didn't commit until after all RD letters had been received, but never wanted to visit any other school.</p>
<p>Not every student needs (or wants) the on the ground experience, at least after he and one school "clicks."</p>
<p>I expected to like Pomona when I visited based on the pictures I had seen. But when I got to campus I realized that it was WAY MORE AMAZING than pictures could capture. </p>
<p>There's no real way to get a grasp of the merits of having perfect weather all the time until you've been in the environment, and I personally believe that it is the reason why everyone here is so damn happy.</p>
<p>Kevster- DD had a full ride (includes room and board, full tuition all 4 years) to our big state u. and a very generous scholarship from Boston U. We had never visited BU prior to applying. On good advice, we went to Boston the third week of April and fell in love with the campus, the city and the entire prospect of going away. The campus felt quite safe (which surprised us). The kids seemed friendly and they all looked kind of like DD. DD is very happy at BU. Public transportation is such a plus. She can take a bus into NY for next to nothing and one of her friends subscribes to ZipCar and they can pick up a car and cruise to the cape when they have time.</p>