Parents' College Visit Awards

Parents Forum
81

<p>Best chapel: Vassar
<a href="http://www.aavc.vassar.edu/vq/articles/CampusAngels_Winter2002%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.aavc.vassar.edu/vq/articles/CampusAngels_Winter2002&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Most beautiful library: Vassar<br>
<a href="http://admissions.vassar.edu/visit_tour_lib.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://admissions.vassar.edu/visit_tour_lib.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Most inspiring stained glass window: Vassar
<a href="http://library.vassar.edu/about/window.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://library.vassar.edu/about/window.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Most Steinway pianos (65): Vassar</p>

<p>Most arrogant admissions officer at info session: Wesleyan
Coolest admissions room to be in after reading The Gatekeepers: Wesleyan</p>

<p>Best fantasy of a college for Mom: Oberlin</p>

<p>Most boring and disinterested tour guide: Boston University</p>

<p>Most beautiful nature (gorges): Cornell
Most varied food selection: Cornell
College oasis surrounded by poverty: Cornell</p>

<p>Most parklike: Swarthmore
College with tour guide so nerdy that he didn't know how to use a cell phone: Swarthmore</p>

<p>Dining room most like Hogwarts: Harvard <a href="http://www.fas.harvard.edu/%7Ememhall/images2/annen1.jpg%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~memhall/images2/annen1.jpg&lt;/a>
Best college town: Harvard</p>

<p>Best info session that really explained philosophy of school: Columbia</p>

<p>Best architecture: Yale</p>

<p>Most students who told us they wished they were elsewhere: Brandeis
Best organized Open House with most accessible professors to chat with: Brandeis</p>

<p>Cutest elephants: Tufts</p>

<p>Most entertaining stories on tour (gotta love that Brown Band): Brown</p>

<p>Prettiest flowers planted for open house: University of Rochester</p>

<p>Most impressive range of majors: University of Pennsylvania</p>

<p>Most Republican tour guide: Wellesley
Tour guide most concerned with makeup: Wellesley
Best rolling hills: Wellesley</p>

<p>Most city walking through tour: NYU</p>

<p>Most politically oriented campus: GW</p>

82

<p>I've been astonished that so many people have listed Yale for best tour guide. Ours was awful! He spent a lot of time telling us how he got to be voted best-looking freshman in his house (he put serious effort into it).</p>

83

<p>That's because both my kids had their best tours at Yale. Heartbreak city!</p>

<p>But obviously, people's reactions vary considerably. I would never describe Cornell as a college oasis surrounded by poverty. (I thought it was a college oasis surrounded by off-campus student housing, except north towards the lake where there were a bunch of rich people.) Columbia's information session was perhaps the most generic one I attended, and the only school-specific thing I learned from it was that they expected their applicants to lie convincingly. (I.e., "Don't tell us that you want to come to Columbia because it's an Ivy League university in New York City.") And, as for Yale's architecture, I can only repeat the Frank Lloyd Wright anecdote -- that if he were to come to Yale, he would insist on staying at the base of Harkness Tower so that he would never have to look at it.</p>

84

<p>Architecture for an Interfaith Center (take the website tour)
Chapman U. <a href="http://www.chapman.edu/chapel/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.chapman.edu/chapel/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Art museum, best at an LAC: Oberlin's Allen Memorial Art Museum</p>

<p>Promotional Brochure, silliest ratio of graphics/words: Alfred University
"Alfred is...students; [turn the page] Alfred is...faculty"
Useful to teach First Graders at "Level B" Guided Reading. (Fine school, however!)</p>

<p>Scariest library: brick-facade skyscraper tower at UMass/Amherst; ribbon around its base kept students at a distance so when it occasionally spat bricks out, nobody would die. (okay...to be fair: that was 25 years ago). Hope they've fixed it by now.</p>

85

<p>"I've been astonished that so many people have listed Yale for best tour guide. Ours was awful! "</p>

<p>I've been pleasantly surprised to read that. We had a bad tour -- all about the buildings and we got no sense about the school. The tour convinced my D to take Yale off her list. It was only after her brother said at the very last moment, "Why aren't you applying to Yale?" that she decided to apply. She got in, got to know the school better and the rest is history. But one poor tour almost altered the course of events. I'm really glad to read that others are enjoying their tours there because it's a shame for anyone to be turned off to a school -- any school -- by a poorly done tour.</p>

86

<p>Across two kids over the last three years...whew I am retired from college touring..now....finally...</p>

<p>Best Tour Guides: Chicago, Swarthmore, Haverford, Vassar</p>

<p>Best Info Session: Bard, Vassar (very honest), Chicago (by far the best I thought but neither kid would apply..."where fun goes to die...bad for mental health etc...")</p>

<p>Most subversive group of parents hanging at back of tour group (parents really shoud have their own tours...): Chicago, Brown</p>

<p>Most comfortable Admissions House for parents to wait in during tours or interviews..quite a few Conn. College, Wesleyan, Vassar, F&M, Drew, and Bates</p>

<p>Most serious on-campus interviews: Bates, Hampshire</p>

<p>Most/Best Tatoos on students: Hampshire (I liked the vibe but the kids didn't...)</p>

<p>Best/Worst/Funniest Tour Guide: a Chris Rock lock alike (maybe it was really him) at Hampshire. In response to a parent's repeated questions about Math..."uh...I think we must have some Math courses or you can take in in the Five Colleges..." Whew...it was an honest response from a non-math student but...</p>

<p>Least informative tours (rarely entered a building): Brown, Princeton (nice gargoyles though), Harvard. The self-tour by dad(me) showed more.</p>

<p>Most walking or it seemed like it: F&M (small campus too), Oberlin, Tufts</p>

<p>Least animated tour guide: Amherst, F&M</p>

<p>Great stories: Tufts, Vassar</p>

<p>Best bulletin board material to check out: Wesleyan</p>

<p>Most unconventional looking student interviewers who thought they might shock me (fat chance): Conn. College, Swarthmore, Wesleyan</p>

<p>Best tour guide t-shirt - Wanna ruck? (Women's Rugby for the unitiated): Swarthmore</p>

<p>Nicest Library: Vassar, Wesleyan, Oberlin (Harvard, Brown, and Princeton obviously have great libraries but they were not on the tours)</p>

<p>Best library chairs: Oberlin..weird balls you sit in. I really can't describe them.</p>

<p>Best theaters (not all places showed them so we crashed them where possible...Princeton for example has several awesome theaters that we didn't get into and expect some others do as well): F&M, Vassar, Wesleyan, Drew</p>

<p>Best looking convenient student work out centers (not all showed them so a small sample): Haverford, F&M</p>

<p>Most common extra-curricular mentioned by tour guides: Radio station.</p>

<p>Most inviting spots to hang out outdoors on campus: Swarthmore, Haverford, Vassar, F&M, Tufts, Bates, Wesleyan, Trinity...might have been influenced by seeing students actually hanging out so visits to schools during the summer or exam time visits maybe caused them to be left off the list.</p>

<p>Nicest dorm (Ivies didn't show any dorms): Amherst..dorms are always tricky as each school will have a mix of great and not so great dorms.</p>

<p>Messiest looking dorm rooms...hmm...just about all of them....Most of the time I couldn't bring myself to look...</p>

87

<p>Worst planned information session: Boston College </p>

<p>Best planned info session: UConn</p>

<p>Best Food for prospectives: Connecticut College, Union, UConn</p>

<p>Most chalkings/political posters: Wesleyan</p>

<p>Most pretentious parents of prospective students on tour: Amherst</p>

<p>Most pretentious admissions people: Harvard</p>

<p>Nicest tour guide: Williams</p>

<p>Nerdiest tour guide: Brown</p>

<p>Best surprise (didnt think would enjoy but did): Union, Northeastern</p>

<p>Most disappointing (high expectations but did not connect): Tufts</p>

<p>Most depressing surroundings: Suny Binghamton, Clark</p>

<p>Most students wandering around (small school): Connecticut College, Trinity</p>

<p>Most students wandering around (big school): URI</p>

<p>Least students wandering around (small school): Vassar</p>

<p>Least students wandering around (big school): Binghamton</p>

<p>Most awe inspiring campus: Yale</p>

<p>Pile of cement campus: UMass, BU</p>

<p>School Mom wanted to attend: Connecticut College, Smith</p>

<p>School Dad wanted to attend: Dartmouth</p>

<p>Worst weather on tour: Brown in rainy April</p>

<p>Best weather on tour: Dartmouth in June</p>

<p>"I'm not getting out of the car:" Brandeis</p>

<p>Most boring drive from Connecticut: Cornell</p>

<p>Prettiest drive from Connecticut: Williams</p>

<p>Least diverse: Boston College, Bryant College</p>

<p>Most diverse: Brown</p>

<p>Most attention to plants/flowers/landscaping on tour: vassar</p>

<p>Most attention to sports on tour: Boston College</p>

<p>Preppiest student body: Boston College, Colgate, Trinity</p>

<p>Least preppy student body: Wesleyan, Brown</p>

88

<p>Across two kids over the last seven years and in the middle of number 3</p>

<p>Best Tour Guides: UCLA, Princeton, Berkeley</p>

<p>Best Info Session: Brown, NYU although the room was uncomfortably packed, Pomona College</p>

<p>Most comfortable Admissions House for parents to wait in during tours or interviews..Occidental College, Pomona College</p>

<p>Funniest Tour Guide: Princeton, where the guide kept stopping to dramatically announce, "And now, A Beautiful Moment" and he would describe how the spot we were on was used in filming "A Beautiful Mind". He also did a hysterical description of how his parents learned to use IM when he got to college. He was very entertaining and informative.</p>

<p>Least informative tours: Yale (glad they've improved)</p>

<p>Most walking or it seemed like it: UCLA, Stanford, Brown, NYU</p>

<p>Unwisest thing to tell parents: Cal Poly San Luis Obispo where the guide kept saying that everyone loves it so much they stay five years. One dad finally interjected, "not on my dime." </p>

<p>Best backwards Flip Flop walker: UCLA, which is very hilly and was under construction, because UCLA stands for Under Construction Like Always.</p>

89

<p>Recanting some of my Post #84. It was Siena College, not Alfred U., that had the juvenile Promotional Brochure. </p>

<p>To its credit, Siena did produce a nice mousepad that said "Siena College" with kids of all races. I had it in my First Grade classroom for years, very inspiring to my little students.</p>

90

<p>Goosebumps: Amherst College - imagining JFK speaking in front of Robert Frost library</p>

<p>Cagiest answer at info session - Brown ("We're not need-blind; we're need-aware")</p>

<p>Dorkiest technology answer - Brown, in 2000 ("We want you to handwrite your personal essay so we know you wrote it just for us.")</p>

<p>Dorm tour moments that almost generated ED applications:</p>

<p>Hampshire - "All freshmen get single rooms."</p>

<p>Oberlin - "We show you our least attractive dorm, so when you get here you won't feel misled." (kid: "Mom, that's so fair!") </p>

<p>NYU - "All dorm doubles have their own private bathroom."</p>

91

<p>Most scripted info session: Trinity, CT (almost entirely read from notes)</p>

<p>Worst Info Session: Clark U.
Best Tour Guide: Clark U.</p>

<p>Best Fitness Center: Muhlenberg (amazing!)</p>

<p>Worst Dorm Rooms: Trinity
Best Drom Rooms: Clark, Dickinson</p>

<p>Most architecturally unified: Colby
Most architecturally incongruous: UConn</p>

<p>Best Food: UConn</p>

<p>Best maintained campus: Colby
Worst maintained campus: Wheaton, MA </p>

<p>Least character: American U. </p>

<p>Prettiest campus: Drew</p>

92

<p>This thread is bringing back some great (and not so great) memories of our trips with son.</p>

<p>Best Ice Cream-UConn/UNH
Worst Walking in FlipFlops-Univ. of Richmond (she told us ahead of time she would walk out of them, did so every other step-would you maybe wear other shoes?)
Most Down to Earth-Fun-loving Tour Guide-NC State
Most Over Achieving Tour Guide-Univ. of S.C.
Best Tour Guide-Univ. of S.C. (This kid knew everything)
Coldest Tour-B.C. in January (I needed oxygen after scaling the steps in 3 degree weather)
Most "Don't Bother to Apply"-B.C. in January
Friendliest Students/Most Helpful-Virginia Tech
Beautiful Building-Library at Wake Forest and Business Building at B.C.
Strangest Place to End a Tour-Wake Forest Library (If husband hadn't been on tour too, I think I would still be trying to get back to car)
Most Annoying Info. Session: NC State (the person used the word literally so often we started counting)
Prettiest Campus Area: Horseshoe at Univ. of S.C. Overlooking Drillfield at Virginia Tech
Beautiful Landscaping: Elon (could someone please come make my yard look like this)
Twin Campus Designs: Elon and Quinnipiac (Talk about deja vu)
Most Cement We Saw: NC State
Almost broke leg on tour: Fairfield College (sidewalks need some work)
Most Disappointed Tour: Clemson (large group, walked so fast and could not hear tour guide)
Almost Lost the Family at Crosswalk: James Madison (toured on Friday afternoon when everyone was leaving campus)
Really Lovely Campus-Univ. of Mary Washington, Wake Forest, Bryant Univ.,Univ. of Richmond
Most Disappointed in Campus-B.C. in January
Hogwarts Building-Admission Hall area at Univ. of Richmond (I was waiting for Dumbledore to arrive)
Fewest people on Tour- Babson in January
Only Tour offered Drink: Univ. of S.C. (brought in dining area to get something), Virginia Tech (given bottle of Hokie water)
Most tired after tour: B.C. steps, Bentley's hills, walking entire Univ. of S.C. campus in 85 degree weather
Best Meal on Campus: Univ. of S.C. student run restaurant in Horseshoe
"Where's the Downtown": UCONN, Elon
Best Sport Award: Younger daughter being dragged to all these tours!</p>

93

<p>This is a great thread to read! I am wondering though, have any of you had an experience where the students or the vibe of a campus from a tour end up totally different, even OPPOSITE of what you had expected based on a viewbook, brochure or web site? I have seen some mailings lately that my D has received, and thought to myself...this is NOT the idea of this place that I have gotten from CC...</p>

94

<p>Biggest surprise was CalTech: </p>

<p>I expected a miserable techy campus with ugly buildings (like MIT). </p>

<p>But the CalTech campus is on of the prettiest and most original I have seen. It has a Zen like aesthetic with beautiful understated landscaping (gorgeous water lily ponds that are also research ecosystems! Unexpected little courtyards with unusual plantings!) and architecturally unique buildings that blend in with the landscape. Total absence of a nerdy vibe.</p>

<p>Too bad my kid refuses to apply there.</p>

95

<p>Absolutely - this is why visiting a college for more than an hour or two is critical.</p>

<p>My older daughter stayed overnight at a midwest school four years ago. Before she arrived, this school was at the top of her list: a well-designed website showed it to great advantage, with great academics, responsive admissions office, you name it. When she arrived on Sunday afternoon, she was met by a girl who showed her around until her host came back to campus. My daughter hung out with the 'babysitter' and her friends, most of whom carried Star Wars light sabers and talked about their high HS SAT scores. Her host finally showed up, and told my daughter she didn't know why they put them together, because she hated the school, and only went there because of the merit money. (She had posters and pennants of the state U plastered all over the walls.)</p>

<p>On Monday morning, my daughter said the vibe on the campus was funereal - kids moving around like zombies as they trudged from class to class. A lackluster tour guide who was clearly not involved in any campus activities did nothing to change my daughter's impressions, and the college went from first to last place.</p>

96

<p>So I have more: (due to great ideas here)</p>

<p>Best Backward-Walking: Sarah Lawrence (TG was a dance major -- even walking backwards downstairs, swinging his arms, and talking at the same time --do not try this at home!)</p>

<p>Most Surprising in a Good Way: Drew, Wheaton, S. Lawrence</p>

<p>Nicest Dorms (that we saw): Sonoma State (all villa-style)</p>

<p>Best College Bookstore: UChicago</p>

<p>Unexpected Pleasures:
--Faculty Jazz Band playing outside the quad at lunch time - Stanford
--Gorgeous Rose Arbor - Santa Clara U.
--Ethereal Non-Denom Chapel - MIT
--"And here is our Gutenberg Bible. Take your time." - Yale
--Hacks-in-progress, experiments and digital art galore - MIT
--Piece of the ceiling fell on group in info session (it was funny!) - Princeton</p>

<p>And some Raspberry Awards:
Parking Nightmare: practically all of them, but some standouts were UPenn, Brown, Williams, and Princeton (where I got a huge ticket)</p>

<p>Most Disappointing: Swarthmore, Tufts, Hampshire, Brown</p>

<p>Most Annoying People on the Tour: Swarthmore, Bard, Harvard, and of course any tour that I am on</p>

<p>Most Frank Assessment of Student Slackerdom: Bard</p>

<p>Admissions Areas that were Meat-Locker Cold (poor energy usage): Boston University</p>

<p>Rudest Admissions Officer: UCSD </p>

<p>Worst College Visits Overall, Hands Down: Harvard (2 visits)</p>

97

<p>Rachacha...</p>

<p>For my S it was Columbia. He fell in love with the viewbook. I don't know why. There were only two schools that effectively marketed to him: Columbia and Harvey Mudd (where he attended). He didn't apply to Columbia but he always kept it in the back of his mind, I think. One year during college, he applied there for summer research. Ended up withdrawing his app because of an early acceptance elsewhere. Still... there was that allure. Eventually he visited the campus and a few departments during a stop in NYC (which he loves); was thoroughly unimpressed. Go figure.</p>

<p>For my niece (an athlete) it was Yale. Very high on her list until the visit. Felt like it was a walled enclave. Had a good visit with a coach there but not good enough to convince her to apply.</p>

<p>For me it was Harvey Mudd. I expected an ugly campus. I didn't find it ugly at all, mostly due to the landscaping. The architecture isn't anything to write home about. It's only one of five adjoining campuses, each with a different style and feel. I love Scripps' and Pomona's campuses; Claremont McKenna's and Pitzer's are much less well defined and distinct IMO.</p>

<p>And CalTech. Expected a pretty campus. It's actually gorgeous, due in large measure to the landscaping. The architecture is well integrated. To me, there's a definite feel to the campus that's serene, a sort of an island in the midst of a busy city, a place of gravitas. This was reinforced for me by the people walking around on campus; each seemed engrossed (lost? isolated? I don't know exactly) in his/her own little world (not a bad thing, by any means).</p>

98

<p>twinmom --</p>

<p>"College oasis surrounded by poverty -- Cornell."</p>

<p>I lived in Ithaca for four years during grad school at Cornell. I can't possibly imagine what you mean by this. Are you talking about off-campus or are you talking about rural areas around Ithaca, or . . .?</p>

<p>paying3tuitions --</p>

<p>Did any of your kids end up picking Ithaca College?</p>

99

<p>Well, it's all a bit hazy now and many of these are schools not often discussed on CC, but:</p>

<p>Friendliest: Bridgewater College (VA)</p>

<p>Nicest Campus: Elon -- Honorable Mentions, Mary Washington and Furman</p>

<p>Best Tour Guide: James Madison (wasn't terribly knowledgeable but had terrific enthusiasm)</p>

<p>Most Formal: VMI</p>

<p>Best Dorms: Elon</p>

<p>Worst Dorms: Bridgewater -- to be fair, it was 102 degrees and none of the dorms had A/C. Dishonorable Mention to James Madison, which didn't show an actual room but a mocked up "model room". </p>

<p>Most Disappointing Overall (Tie): Randolph-Macon, Lynchburg (two schools that looked very promising on paper, but did not click at all)</p>

<p>Best Campus Tour during a Typhoon: Muhlenberg (the rain was coming down in buckets, and the wind had it going sideways so umbrellas were useless. Many, many bonus points to the personable young student who stuck it out with us)</p>

<p>Worst Campus Layout: James Madison, with its bisection by an interstate</p>

<p>Most Boring Surrounding Area: Presbyterian (SC). And we visited Elon twice, so you have an idea what Clinton, SC must be like. </p>

<p>Most Entertaining Info Session: Bridgewater</p>

<p>Best Overall Info Session: James Madison</p>

<p>Most Surprising (Positive): Bridgewater</p>

<p>Most Surprising (Negative): Lynchburg</p>

<p>Most Racially Diverse: Winthrop (SC)</p>

<p>Least Racially Diverse: Elon and Randolph-Macon</p>

100

<p>dbwes: To clarify, I am not talking about Ithaca at all. I am talking about the impoverished rural New York State areas that you pass through to get to Ithaca, depending on your route. We were were struck by how poor the economy was in that area of the state; then we got to Ithaca and could not believe the disparity. Our observations had nothing to do with Cornell or Ithaca College. We did not tour Ithaca, but Cornell was indeed beautiful. (They should have showcased the gorges on the tour.)</p>