Funny college visit stories

Parents Forum
41

<p>While on our ''school trip'' - the fast and furious 8 schools/1500 miles driven (doesn't account for the 1000 miles we also flew) in a week one - we decided to visit a school that was not really on our planned list - actually at the very bottom of the list - but as we approached the exit for the school - groggy/warm & cozy DD decided we should do a drive thru - as we approached the campus my DD perked up - liking what she was seeing - and asked if maybe would could take a tour. </p>

<p>So - out comes the cell phone - down comes the rain of a hurricane - and YES - we are certainly invited to join the next tour heading out in about an hour - oh - and please - come in and have some hot coffee and dry out. So we did!! We were offered hot coffee - umbrellas and slickers - given lunch tickets, java tickets, and shuttle passes also - and even a short interview too by an adcom!! - very unexpected to say the least!!!. Then it was off thru the hurricane - with 2 tour guides in tow - 5 families. We saw EVERYTHING!!! The guides were awesome and it was very comical to watch the gals (including mine) cozy up to the cute art major that must have had a comedy act on the side lines - cuz he really kept everybody laughing and in a great mood - AND answered many many many questions. The second guide was new at this - but she was very sweet and nice and the gals really liked her also. But you would have thought it was a warm sunny day the way this tour went off like clockwork - We were even introduced to passing students - rain and wind and all. We ended it at the D-hall - where our so gracious hosts left us to our own investigating - great meal and some nice student interactions as well. Then we were off again........................... But this school - which was originally not really even in the running - took a shot right to the 1st place slot immediately.</p>

<p>So.......The next day - on to the next school for a scheduled tour - originally her 2nd choice of 8 possibles - actually a sister school to the one above - we arrive in the downpours of the hurricane we had latched with our sky hook. Ran into a family from the previous day - which was great for all of us - and proceeded to the meeting place. There were over 30 families scheduled for this tour!!!! and 1 tour guide!!! Well - off we go - tour guide dressed for a typhoon - and us with our own useless umbrellas - felt like Mary Poppins at times. The guide would stop in the middle of an outside quad to try to tell us something - of course we could not hear a word due to the raging winds. The guide was not allowed to show us anything!!! Not even the food court - so no hot coffee here. Then when the kids asked to see the dorms - they were told absolutely NO for security reasons. Well - don't let a NO stop you lol. Being drenched and not too happy with this whole situation - we - and the other family from the previous day - decided to pan the rest of the tour and headed for our cars. The kids had another idea tho - they were determined to see the dorms - so off we went/drove to the nearest dorm. The two rain swept gals stood outside one of the dorms and waited for a gallant young man to arrive - of course he probably felt sorry for the rain drenched moppets - asked if they could see the dorm - and of course were invited in!!! Mission Accomplished.</p>

<p>Funny thing - they both ended up at the first school - and were roomy's for their first year - the school was sooooo accomadating - even with the hurricane bearing down and blowing us around. What a difference of experiences in the same university system.</p>

42

<p>More an observation: It's amazing the George Washington U tour guides can cross 23rd street walking backwards and avoid the potholes!</p>

43

<p>I have been terrified several times watching tour guides walk backwards. The best: the guy at CWRU who only paused to turn once, when crossing a major metropolitan avenue, and the guy at W & M, who never walked forward at all. BTW, we were panhandled during the brief moment our Case guide had his back to us. </p>

<p>This wasn't funny at the time, but it is in retrospect: we had an appointment for the PM info session/tour at Tufts, and were using the T to get there from our morning tour of BC. We knew we had to hustle and were nearly running around the perimeter of the Tufts campus, looking for the designated entrance nearest the admissions office (Memorial steps or something?), as the directions specifically stated NOT to take the main entrance. Got there to find the entrance gated and padlocked. Ran on to the next entrance, also gated and locked. Jogged rather dispiritedly on to the next entrance, but it was now past the info session start time and d is a little disturbingly compulsive about NEVER BEING LATE. Decided to bag Tufts when d pointed out that it's hard to miss the symbolic significance of a locked gate. On our way back to the T, we noticed a huge renovation project going on beyond the gates, which probably justified the padlocks but did little to assuage our mood.</p>

44

<p>Mine is not a funny story but about our tour guide at a small LAC near Philadelphia. He was deaf. Since a great deal of your interaction with guides is on the fly and while walking, communicating with our guide was at times difficult. It was often necessary to touch his arm to get his attention and there were several times when he misunderstood what my son and I were saying. While I applaud his desire to be in a public position at the school, I don't think it was a practical arrangement for visitors.</p>

45

<p>We were driving around the small city near a college before our visit when my daughter blurted out "I SEE A WAWA CUP ON THE SIDEWALK"!! So, we went in search of a Wawa, found one and the rest is history. </p>

<p>For anyone who doesn't know, Wawa is like a Starbucks, without the stars or the bucks.</p>

46

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<p>But with the best jalapeno cheese stuffed pretzels.</p>

47

<p>Our tours last year were interesting. At Harvard, we had a rather hauty adcom (you can apply, but you likely won't get in), and an even more so student for the info session. We bagged the tour due to rain. </p>

<p>We got to Yale and it was just the opposite. The info session was staffed by a senior intern that was funny and personable (you won't know if you don't apply, and if your going to apply, apply early). The tour was by a VERY outgoing sophmore girl that told us about everything. The only downer was no dorm tours, though we did see the courtyards. </p>

<p>This year, after acceptances, we did the Harvard info session again and got a very nice adcom and student. The student was our tour guide. As D was the only accepted student on the tour, she got all of her questions answered. Harvard is now in contention.</p>

<p>At Yale, admissions was once again over the top in welcoming us. D's admissions officer, the receptionist (who gave us her resturant guide book), and everyone else we met were wonderful. We met two students for lunch and a brief tour (internet connection) then roamed on our own. D walked into every college and roamed while I hung out and tried to look innocent. </p>

<p>At Rice, D was 'my little admitted baby' to the receptionist all day (D is barely 5' tall). Our lunch host was again wonderful. </p>

<p>Yes, we toured every Starbucks we could walk to at each campus (high priority), and the libraries at each campus (also high priority), along with dorms. </p>

<p>Junior year best sessions and tours in order:
1) Yale (lots of competition for tour guide jobs, we heard)
2) Amherst
3) Smith, Mt Holyoke, Wellesley
4) Wesleyan, Tufts
5) Harvard (pouring rain sideways, poor info session)</p>

<p>Personalities play a strong part of how a school is perceived.</p>

48

<p>My D is very interested in study abroad, so she asked about the study abroad offerings at every info. session. At most places, she got the standard answer: "We have a great study abroad program in many countries. Study abroad increases your awareness of other cultures etc etc." However, the answer from the MIT admissions officer was NOT standard. He said, "Why would you want to study abroad when as a student at MIT you will be getting the best engineering education in the world?" You can imagine what that answer did to MIT's position on my D's list of colleges! Now when I look back on it, I wish that one of us had asked him about the effect of outsourcing on engineers' jobs in the US. Maybe MIT needs to include some study abroad options for their engineering students!</p>

49

<p>Oh yea, Amherst won the Starbucks wars. Lots of cushy couches and study nooks. Yale was next wiith a large study area, but no couches or soft chairs. There are also other options there. Harvard has two, both are small and fairly crowded, but there are other options as well.</p>

50

<p>While touring Yale with our D, the tour guide asked if someone would push the button for the crosswalk. A helpful parent at the back of the group by mistake pushed the button on the "Blue Light" emergency phone. It was the only campus tour that we went on that we actually found out how quickly a response came to an emergency phone. (campus security responded right away)</p>

51

<p>the tour guide at Harvard who told our group "You don't come to Harvard for the academics."</p>

52

<p>A bad visit can certainly color the impression of a school. My son's visit to hell was Syracuse. It was pouring down rain, he stepped into some mud that sucked up his shoe, a student who was supposed to meet him stood him up, there was a misunderstanding on meeting with the department and the theatre tour, and he had lunch at a lousy place. He could not wait to get out of there, and the school went waaay down on his list.</p>

<p>He returned on a beautiful fall day to audition, and everything clicked. He did a total turn around on his opinion of the school. But, to get the full picture, he probably should have visited during one of their snowy, gray days in winter as that is a definite issue in going to some of these northern schools. And which is the "real" Syracuse. All of them and more. Like snap shots you are only getting a very brief feel for the school.</p>

<p>One thing that did make me shake my head at a college visit was at the W&M info session where the adcoms adamently assured everyone that there is no cut off gpa or SAT score. It was one of the last things they said, as it was the last question asked. Right after the tour, S went to visit the coach who took one look at his profile and told him that he easily made the cut off gpa and SAT core for out of staters. When I mentioned what the adcoms had said, he just shrugged and said these were guidlelines given to him in writing.</p>

53

<p>SUNY Binghamton, 1975:</p>

<p>The day started with a talk from someone from the admissions office who told us what SAT scores and class rank were generally required for admission. There was a collective sigh from everyone in the room except my friend and I, who had the numbers for admission. "Is anyone here from the area?" My friend and I raised our hands; we had ridden our bicycles to the session. "The cut-off is much lower for students from the area." Several people glared at us; a few hissed. "Hey, that's only because this is the only four-year school in the area," said the admissions officer. I immediately knew that if I went to school there, most of my classmates would assume that I had only gotten in because I was a "local."</p>

54

<p>My funniest college visit moment was at Harvard. I liked the ad com, but didn't believe him one whit when he answered a question by saying, "No, we wouldn't give any special attention to an application from Belgian Royalty."</p>

55

<p>(Pardon me if I go OT for a moment...)
[quote]
Maybe MIT needs to include some study abroad options for their engineering students!

[/quote]
They already have a year-abroad program. I've talked with several students who've taken the option and they found it invaluable. MIT has worked to synch it up with full-year programs at the overseas schools, so that there doesn't have to be any impact to graduation requirements/time for most students. (The adcom was probably trying to be humorous but <em>should</em> have followed up with a serious answer about their study abroad program. <a href="http://web.mit.edu/career/www/students/studyabroad.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://web.mit.edu/career/www/students/studyabroad.html&lt;/a> ) </p>

<p>/soapbox</p>

56

<p>I have to admit, I can be easily swayed little things in the admissions office. While we've toured many schools that didn't even have a water cooler for visitors in the admissions office, several schools have just swamped us with hospitality. The Earlham admissions office, for example, had a huge table set up with coffee, tea, bottled water, and carraffs of orange juice. And real china and glasses too. In fact, we felt that the midwestern college admissions offices were the most attentive to us overall. They all bent over backwards to make sure that daughter and I were happy and satisfied with our experiences, during one of the busiest visit periods of the year.</p>

<p>The University of Portland admissions rep earned favor with my daughter and her friend by giving them nice quality university of Portland tee shirts during the visit.</p>

<p>The U of Portland also wins hands down for best follow up contact. The admissions rep and the two tour guides that showed us around all wrote hand-written and very personalized notes to my daughter. It really made an impression.</p>

<p>Then, there's the opposite. Daughter bowed out of an interview at one school after the tour. She just didn't think it was a fit. We did stop back in the admissions office and let the admissions rep know. But, a week later she sent a nice little form letter thanking my daughter for the "enjoyable interview."</p>

57

<p>My funny story would be all about the way that some information sessions are led by officials who, right off the bat, talk about how nearly impossible it is to get into their school. First, they are turning off kids who might actually meet their incredibly "high standards", but second, what is the point of the info session? to attract applicants or have them leave after the information session carrying home tales of why other students should not even apply there?</p>

<p>I always shake my head at these speeches. Where do they find these people?</p>

58

<p>I have soo many funny stories about college visits, because my daughter and I had fun on all of them. Here are my top two, I hope that they are as funny as when they happened.</p>

<ol>
<li> My daughter was in Nantucket with another family and I picked her up from the first ferry in the morning at the crack of dawn. As she is coming off of the ferry I was glad that she was wearing a sun dress that looked clean. As she got closer it looked like she had on a lot of blush (makeup). She doesn't typically where that much makeup.</li>
</ol>

<p>I soon realized that the she had scraped a lot of skin off of her face, shoulders and arms. Her arms were covered in bruises. It seems that she had a bad boogie board, rock incident the day before and was bruised, had a large bandage on her arm and her face had several disgusting scrape marks. Her hair was in a pony tail, dirty because she couldn't wash it. She also had blisters on her lips from being sunburned.
She was also complaining of an ear ache and runny nose.</p>

<p>We drive to Boston to look at BU and BC. </p>

<p>At BC, we ducked into the bathroom right before the tour and I noticed that her right ear was oozing brown sludge. Ugggh. Luckily there was a bookstore near the bathroom where I purchased some bobby pins to pin back her hair, a bandage to re-apply to her shoulder, some q tips to clean out the sludge and some lip balm to put on her lips.</p>

<p>We are laughing at how bad she looks and in walks someone, who we later run in to at the admissions office.</p>

<ol>
<li> At UVA, she was in a q and a session. A girl was there with her dad and asked someone from the admissions office, "how much homework does the average student have a day." </li>
</ol>

<p>The person replied that it depended on the student and their course of study, but said it could be anywhere from 3-4 hours a day.</p>

<p>The girl then announced, "I'm not coming here, after high school I really don't want to spend that much time doing homework."</p>

<p>Her father tried to keep her quiet. But she then asked another question about why freshman couldn't bring their cars to school.</p>

<p>For those of you who haven't gone on visits yet, have fun. I know that we did.</p>

59

<p>I'm enjoying these stories! However, I can't emphasize enough how little admissions and academics have to do with each other. Admissions offices are marketing programs. when they put out refreshments, treat you nice, and in general, lay out the royal carpet, they are saying absolutely nothing about any other experience you will have with that school--you will never deal with admissions again. I say that on the basis of being a college administrator, attending two schools undergrad and one grad, and having sent my kids to three undergraduate schools. There is no direct correlation between admissions experiences and academic experiences. One being bad or good does not tell you anything about the other.</p>

<p>The first school my D went to was by far the most inviting admissions experience. royal carpet from her first visit to the admitted student day. Her college experience there was totally the opposite. She was miserable her entire freshman year. The school she transfered to, and the one her brother is at, had ordinary, bare bones admissions routines. But the schools were/are excellent for them.</p>

<p>So, enjoy the stories, but I really caution against making your mind up because someone is good at marketing.</p>

60

<p>On our Brandeis tour, one of the girls (an admitted student, no less) stepped on a poor little mouse - it exploded. She was wearing platform shoes - didn't notice what the bump was until she looked down and saw the mess. The tour guide commented, "I hope you don't hold this against Brandeis." My son didn't, and applied. I doubt the girl martriculated there. </p>

<p>At Allegheny, the tour guild warned us that we might see rats. It seems that some of the biology students released their experiments, rather than euthanizing them...</p>