<p>Ummmm...
Most bizarre campus sculpture: UF's "Alachua"...</p>
<p>Another UF prize: Dorms most resembling a Holiday Inn...</p>
<p>Oops, for some reason I can't get that last one to come up...It's supposed to be Broward Beach.</p>
<p>Organized by 5 senses:</p>
<p>SOUND: Wesleyan - the ethnomusicology gong (mallets readily available)</p>
<pre><code> Oberlin - outdoor steel drum band concert on steps of Finney Chapel,
midnight organ concert inside
NYU - tiny girl tourguide projecting her voice over construction and
traffic noise (a Profile in Courage)
</code></pre>
<p>SIGHT: Smith - girl galloping on her horse at dawn around a pond designed
by Frederick Law Olmstead</p>
<pre><code> Ithaca College - sweeping lake view from nearly every inch of the campus
including dorm windows
</code></pre>
<p>SMELL: Amherst - homecooked buffet of food produced by the International
Student association</p>
<p>TASTE: (no awards; our mistake -- as parents, we should have eaten more in town, less on campus)</p>
<p>TOUCH: ...nothing comes to mind; hey, we're the parents</p>
<p>I forgot . . . </p>
<p>Best souvenir: Cornell (our dog, which we met for the first time by an SPCA booth at the Farmers' Market in Ithaca, and adopted later in the afternoon post-tour)</p>
<p>Funniest cell-phone conversation overheard on campus: Princeton ("I know the alphabet now and I'm learning how to write in complete sentences")</p>
<p>Most surprisingly beautiful campus: Caltech (expected it to be West-Coast twin to MIT)</p>
<p>Tour guide who pushed the most right buttons: Caltech</p>
<p>Most surprising non-hit: Harvey Mudd</p>
<p>Best info session: Smith (an alum filled in spur of the moment -- she reminded me of Molly Ivins)</p>
<p>Least enthusiastic tour guide: Bryn Mawr</p>
<p>Most unsolicited helpfulness from students: Swarthmore</p>
<p>Most improvisationally comical X-country team: U. Vermont</p>
<p>Most homogeneous architecture: Colby, Colgate</p>
<p>Nicest running opportunities around campus: Middlebury, Colby, Smith</p>
<p>Nicest totem pole on campus: Stanford</p>
<p>Favorite art museum: Smith</p>
<p>Favorite inn: Middlebury (seconding someone else)</p>
<p>Most successful in being chosen sight unseen: U. Chicago</p>
<p>Best ice cream: Tie between Cornell and Penn State but you should all know why..</p>
<p>Best natural setting: UCSB. Hard to beat 2 miles of beachfront in so cal.</p>
<p>Best overnight: U. VA. But we stayed at the Collanade!</p>
<p>Least inspiring tour: Berkeley. All the guide did was tell us how great the place was. Total PR</p>
<p>Best bonus - coupon for percentage off (15%?) at Allegheny bookstore</p>
<p>Tour guide who represented his fraternity - Centre, Sewanee</p>
<p>Tour guide who seemed to wish she were still asleep - Skidmore</p>
<p>Most clueless tour guide - William & Mary</p>
<p>Tour guide who looked like Brendan Fraser - Southwestern</p>
<p>Best tattoos on a tour guide - Hamilton</p>
<p>Most beautiful campuses: Yale, Princeton, UVa</p>
<p>Least attractive campus: Hampshire (only did a drive by)</p>
<p>Favorite college town: Ann Arbor</p>
<p>Most improved: UPenn has done amazing things over the past 15 years</p>
<p>Deadest during the school year: Haverford</p>
<p>Least impressive lecture attended: Duke</p>
<p>Most uncomfortable tour: Williams guide had a groin itch which he tended to openly and constantly, so no one wanted to look at him while he was talking</p>
<p>The image of the Smith girl riding a horse (#42) is lovely!
I'm sorry we missed the ice cream at Cornell--we needed to get to the Hotel School. However, I do remember the tour guide talking about the Mars Rover feed--that must have been impressive. She was also the guide who mentioned that Bill Nye the Science Guy sometimes subbed in science classes.</p>
<p>Most Beautiful Campus (rural)-- Bard from the Blythewood House garden overlooking the Hudson in the fall---Oh My!!
Most Beautiful Campus (urban): Wellesley (if you don't consider it urban, you've not been to Bard!) I could live there!
Most Beautiful Campus (university): UVa, I do live there.
Most awe-inspiring historically: William and Mary
Most awesome surrounding area: Washington U. StL
Coolest/Funniest Tour Guides: UVa, Guilford
Worst tour guide: American U.
Congeniality (Tour Guides, Admissions Officers, random students, or faculty went out of their way to be helpful): Bard, Sarah Lawrence, Swarthmore, Washington U. StL, Wellesley
Most Responsive Admissions Officers: Bard, Sarah Lawrence, Washington U. StL, Wellesley
Worst cattle-call admission-visit circus: Elon (alums in undertaker suits), American U. (highlighting washer-drier-status-via-computer feature)
Worst attempt at being a quality university: American U.
Best food: Washington U. STL, James Madison, Mary Washington
Most expensive food: Wesleyan
Nicest to Parents: Bard, Wellesley, Sarah Lawrence
'Save-The-World' School: Bard (I only hope they can!), Wellesley (but only if you vote for Hillary)
'Big School' feeling: UVA, James Madison
Most high-school feeling: American U., James Madison, Elon, Wellesley
Pastoral setting: Wellesley, Bard
Parents' "I Want To Go Here" school: Bard
Parents' "Get me outa here" school: Elon, Washinton and Lee
Most artificial environment: Elon (feels like a shopping mall)
Biggest disappointment: Guilford (I knew what to expect from Elon!)
Most Preppy: Elon, Wellesley (and you thought I was gonna say UVA? No way!)
Saddest my child didn't choose: UVA (but I understand)
Most beautiful, unusual building or architecture: Bard (Fisher Center), Wellesley (Science Center)
You call this an Art Department?: Washington and Lee, UVa, Swarthmore
Only schools to include Art Department on guided tour: Bard, (Sarah Lawrence was under construction)
Only schools to include Theater on guided tour: Sarah Lawrence (Bard pointed us in the direction, and JMU was locked-up even on Arts Open House day!)</p>
<p>Forgot to add:</p>
<p>Best Dorms: Georgetown (and at that price, they certainly should be....)</p>
<p>Most overrated campus: UVa. Outside the oldest part of the campus it's pretty typical late 20th century campus modern. Town is cute, but no better than Ann Arbor, Ithaca or tons of others.</p>
<p>Most helpful random students: Tufts. Several stopped to ask if we'd like help or directions, and I don't think we even looked lost. I also appreciated that my unzipped purse was still sitting where I forgotten it in the cafeteria... </p>
<p>Most bucolic setting: Williams</p>
<p>Most deserted campus: Conn College (where WAS everybody that day??)</p>
<p>Students who look like they just walked out of the Abercrombie store at the mall: Boston College</p>
<p>Best side trip: The Lab of Ornithology at Cornell</p>
<p>Most arrogant information session person: Williams (the woman had a smugness to her that S and I couldn't stand)</p>
<p>Best Atmosphere on arrival: The cozy little old admissions building at Bowdoin. Fireplace going with the snow outside - probably left us with a better impression than we would have gotten on a different day</p>
<p>Most serious-looking students: Yale. I know this probably isn't true all the time, but there were so many walking alone with grim expressions. I wondered if it was Finals time.</p>
<p>Nicest students doing their job: The friendly, engaging kids who manned the little pre-tour area at Cornell -- a nice touch for such a big school.</p>
<p>Schools we never made it to, but should have: Middlebury, Wesleyan, Grinnell</p>
<p>Too Quirky: Vassar (For son. I really liked it, though)</p>
<p>Best food: tie between Wash U and Cornell</p>
<p>Most likely to get a parking ticket: Brown (we did)</p>
<p>Most confusing to drive to: Tufts</p>
<p>Most beautiful campus: Stanford</p>
<p>Most worthless tour: Penn Engineering tour (with a tour guide that whispered even when the small group repeatedly asked her to speak up)</p>
<p>Greatest distance between dorms and classrooms: Cornell, with Stanford a close second</p>
<p>Friendliest vibe: tie between Rice and Wash U</p>
<p>Coldest vibe: tie between Cornell and Penn</p>
<p>Nicest dorms: tie between Wash U and Trinity (San Antonio)</p>
<p>Most bicycles on campus: Stanford</p>
<p>Most active in the summer: USC</p>
<p>Most animated tour guide: Johns Hopkins</p>
<p>Most "I don't care if you're here" vibe: tie between Stanford and Princeton</p>
<p>Most welcoming: Vanderbilt</p>
<p>Campus with most shops/restaurants to walk to in surrounding area: tie between Rice and Vanderbilt</p>
<p>Campus with silliest sculpture: Wash U (skinny bunny), with Tufts (elephant) a close second</p>
<p>Preppiest: Vanderbilt</p>
<p>Best backward-walker tour guide (in flip-flops): Brown</p>
<p>Worst backward-walker tour guide (in flip-flops): Stanford</p>
<p>Nicest overall feel - architecture/students/admissions/neighborhood/academics/student life: tie between Rice and Wash U</p>
<p>Four year school that most looks like a community college with budget problems: Hampshire
Strangest comment made by admissions during an information session: Hampshire (Me: What's your graduation rate? Admissions officer: I don't know. But when I graduated from here there were lots of other people up on the stage with me so it must be pretty good.)
Strangest admissions tour: Hampshire College (tour guide spent more time talking about what was wrong with Bard and Reed than she did telling us about Hampshire)
Nicest small town settings: Whitman, Smith, and Princeton
Most impressive mansions surrounding campus: Lake Forest College
Best (and most) dogs on campus: Reed
"Keep driving" schools/schools that my kids refused to get out of the car to tour: Vassar (son), Franklin & Marshall (daughter)
Prettiest campuses with close proximity to a city: University of San Diego, Swarthmore and Reed
Most impressive library feature: Reed College's thesis tower.
Campus my son was most disappointed to learn was all-female: Mt. Holyoke
The tour guide wore pearls: Dickinson (a big reason why my daughter did not apply to Dickinson)
The tour guide whistled while he walked: Beloit (a big reason why my daughter is there now)
Most inane prospie question during an information session: At the University of San Francisco, the admissions presenter was talking about available majors when a young man urgently raised his hand and asked: "Dude, how many more girls than guys do you have here?"
Campus most likely to illicit cabin fever during the deep of winter: Bard, Washington College (MD)
Best contacts with faculty while a visiting student: Beloit
Biggest dorm closets: Goucher
Most unicycles seen on a college campus: Beloit
Nicest student-run equestrian facility: Earlham College
Most disappointing art facilities: Earlham College
Most student smokers: Bard
College dorm I most shuddered at: The Johnston Center dorms at the University of Redlands
College dorm my daughter thought was the most cool: The Johnston Center dorms at the University of Redlands
Campus that seemed most unlike the pictures in the brochures: Willamette
Campus that seemed most like the pictures in the brochures:
Amherst
Most dead campus on a weekend: St. Mary's College of California (two separate visits)
College dorm that looked most like a depression-era orphanage: the one we were shown at Sarah Lawrence
Friendliest admissions office staffers: the University of Portland, and any college in the midwest
Biggest single room seen on a college campus: Princeton
Smallest single room seen on a college campus: Franklin & Marshall
Public school that felt most like a private school: St. Mary's College of Maryland
Prettiest waterfront: St. Mary's College of Maryland
Most organized admissions offices: Reed, Earlham
Campus that feels most like an office park: UCSD
Most beautiful campus chapel: University of San Diego</p>
<p>One addition:</p>
<p>Carnegie Mellon also should be on my list for silliest sculpture - people climbing up a ladder to the sky (ugh!) -- so glad I didn't have to pass by this sculpture every day when I was a student there!</p>
<p>Best Locale- Gotta agree with Pepperdine
Most Beautiful- Santa Clara University and Stanford (different but both are gorgeous)
Most Spectacular Facilities- Davidson
Best (by far) Tour Guide- University of South Carolina
Friendly/Helpful Students- Chapman University
Best College Town- Boston (for Boston University)
Most Helpful Admissions- University of South Carolina
Best Snack- Claremont McKenna (yum...rice krispie treats...homemade)
Nicest Climate- U of San Diego
Best Dorms- Chapman University</p>
<p>And the Worst....</p>
<p>Worst Tour Guide- Elon (just was not very good)
Worst Adcom- Elon (abrupt)
Dreariest Facilities- Drew University
Most Overrated (sorry Xiggi)- Claremont McKenna
Most "vanilla"- Pepperdine
Preppiest- Southern Methodist University
Worst Freshman Dorms- Boston University
Worst Location- Elon</p>
<p>Funny, thumper. I think of Santa Clara U and Stanford as looking "just alike." I mean, how many red tile roof, California mission style campuses are there?</p>
<p>The architecture of SCU and Stanford certainly is similar. But Stanford is like being in a huge, spacious park with lots of land. SCU is much more compact. But I think both have spectacular landscaping in addition to beautiful buildings. Of course, I was there when the roses were blooming!!</p>
<br>
<blockquote> <p>I mean, how many red tile roof, California mission style campuses are there?<<</p> </blockquote>
<br>
<p>The official name for this architectural style is Taco Bell Modern.
;-)</p>
<p>"Most aggressive squirrels: Yale (despite Chicago's claims to the contrary -- we were being stalked by a pack of them a la Jurassic Park velociraptors)"</p>
<p>The squirrels at Yale are like something out of a Hitchcock movie. My daughter's friend closed a window when she saw some coming to close and they went nuts beating on the window and making intense squirrel noises. One day, someone in my D's suite left the window open (fourth floor) and she came in to find a squirrel on the window seat, having used it as a powder room. A true city girl, my D thought it best to scream while one of her suitemates, from a more rural area, calmly dealt with the situation.</p>