<p>Sewing School. My mother made me go twice and I really hated it. Cannot sew to save my life.</p>
<p>WUSTL - was just beautiful and spotless. S and I made the trek to St. Louis b/c we had read about the outstanding "engineering" program. What a shock! It's BIOMED engineering that's so outstanding there. A multi-million dollar building was going up for biomed when we visited summer '03. The "other" engineering there was not impressive to us at all (S wants EE), although it may actually be better than what we saw on our tour. Then you add in the price tag - ! This school was not mentioned by S again. But we had a really fun "mom and son" visit. :)</p>
<p>Me again - just saw the post about the Tulane girls being "all dressed up" and laughed out loud! I've been on the campus quite a few times, and every girl I ever saw had on shorts/jeans, usually flip flops, and was dressed very, very casually! There must be a dressed-up "group" I have missed.</p>
<p>Cheers, then we need to start a sewing anonymous club. I don't do needle and thread either. :)</p>
<p>I do needle and thread when I have to but the problem is that the needle always winds up stuck in my finger or thumb.</p>
<p>May I join the sewing anonymous club, too? In our house, when a button needs to be sewn on, everyone shouts for Dad. Ditto for help with any school project (thankfully, they've ended) that calls for small motor coordination. I am missing the arts and crafts chromosome.</p>
<p>I would agree on Duke. It was lovely, probably one of the most beautiful campuses we visited. I wanted to like it, but it fell flat. It almost seemed like a movie scene, with little real interaction. I imagine it isn't really like this, but first impressions seem to last.</p>
<p>Re: Tulane- we noticed on our visit that the kids were VERY casual in dress, t-shirts, flip-flops and shorts (in February) unlike Emory where kids do seem to dress stylishly. I wasn't happy about the student union construction initially, but kids there on the weekend we visited were everywhere, playing softball or football on every available open space, and there were plenty. I hear the student center opens in January, and while the lawns weren't as manicured as Emory, and I thought the dorms looked rather run down, my son really liked the feel of the campus and the kids and the professors he met with.</p>
<p>My son didn't like Vanderbilt and I can't get a handle on why. </p>
<p>My son did several summers at Duke and didn't apply there even though his dad went there. Those beautiful old dorms are not air-conditioned and too hot to inhabit in the summer-that experience evidently colored his opinion of the school.</p>
<p>Bryn Mawr didn't do it for my D. It was not really a fair time to see a school (early am.) Kids were all silently going to classes, looked sort of glum. (Of course, I look glum in am sometimes too.) Gorgeous campus, but small: one quad and a few blocks of buildings ringing the quad and that was about it for the campus. I had like Bryn Mawr when I was applying and thought the prople I met there on my overnight were great. D just felt "too quiet, too small." She did like the squirrels!</p>
<p>I was let down by Skidmore due to the tour guides, who were simply not articulate and not energetic. Some of the buildings on campus looked a little dirty, down at the heels, but the natural setting was gorgeous and kids were very friendly. D liked Skidmore very much.</p>
<p>I loved Smith too (gorgeous campus/town, even in driving rain) and loved the coach there-- a great woman. Student who showed us around was a dynamic, fun, smart, friendly, interesting, a total "winner." Incredible food! But the no guys thing just did not appeal to my D...</p>
<p>Wanted to love UVa, D is legacy there & H loved it; however, it was just too big for her.</p>
<p>It was the Singer Sewing School. I know, I know. Prestige name. Go figure.</p>
<p>Just didn't do it for me. I've had a bad case of nappy brain between then and now. I don't remember what the other students were wearing. Wait a minute--this was 1972--what the other GIRLS were wearing. </p>
<p>The campus was basic department store design, but the sewing machines were newish.</p>
<p>i wish i liked Amherst better, but everyone seemed really apathetic</p>
<p>I SHOULD love Claremont McKenna College (in CA), but it just doesn't feel right. </p>
<p>On one hand, they offer great majors, the 5 college connections are great, the CA weather is amazing, the campus is gorgeous, they've offered me a scholarship, it's a good distance from home...</p>
<p>..but it just didn't "feel right" the two times I visted it. And I really DID want to love it!</p>
<p>I expected to like Mr. Jefferson's University a lot more than I did. But the adcom at UVA seemed very elitist and overly impressed with their status as gatekeepers. The campus was lovely (though not as lovely as Williams and Mary's) and the student population seemed vibrant enough. Our tour guides were extremely enthusiastic about UVA, but it just didn't seem to be the place for D. I think a lot of it had to do with its size. D was looking for a more intimate learning environment.</p>
<p>Bryn Mawr, on the other hand, seemed perfect for D. Yes, it's definitely small (around 1200 students), and the campus is "cozy" but absolutely beautiful. It's also somewhat intellectually intense, but thankfully, the atmosphere is also non-competitive. D is definitely a proud Mawrter, and can't imagine herself any place else.</p>
<p>Colgate - shouldn't make a determination based on a 4-hr visit, but the combination of that plus reading a ton of stuff has left me impressed with the faculty and administration but unimpressed with the intellectual seriousness of a good chunk of the student body.</p>
<p>Bowdoin - like a previous poster, just didn't get a spark there. Vibe from the prospective students and their parents was a weird sort of entitlement.</p>
<p>Schools I don't actually wish I liked better, but I probably SHOULD like better.</p>
<p>Smith - the counter-culture quirkiness of the students we met seemed a little forced - an affectation if you will, as though they felt obliged to live up to a reputation.</p>
<p>MIT - Educationally I thought the school was great, but the architecture was uninspiring concrete. And they were so proud about their confusing building and room numbering system.</p>
<p>Reed - I grew up on Oregon, and Reed's reputation among the locals was, uh...let's say "mixed". What I've read on CC has done nothing to dispel any of my doubts about the place.</p>
<p>Duke - I have an open mind about the school. In fact I have an empty mind about it, having never visited. But I've always been uneasy about it being founded on tobacco money --> nicotine-stained endowment.</p>
<p>Any school that doesn't pass the car park test --> Do I feel comfortable parking my car for the day in the neighborhood around the school, or am I worried that I will come back and find it broken into or gone? Flunking this test: USC, Penn, Johns Hopkins, and some parts of Yale.</p>
<p>Rice - Goofy name. As long as we were going for food names, I would have preferred "Tofu U."</p>
<p>Harvey Mudd - Combine the brutal academic grind of Caltech with the charmless architecture of a high school, enroll a student body that probably starred in the Dungeons and Dragons Tournament of Champions, and give it a goofy name that nobody has ever heard of and you've got Harvey Mudd.</p>
<p>Coureur- my S went to a reception for Case Western this weekend and was turned off immediately to hear about the dungeons and dragons prevalence as a recreational outlet; said that he heard that another tech school he discounted early on was obsessed with it also. Is this some sort of litmus test for engineering programs where the social life is lacking...</p>
<p>Who was attending.....lower classmen? Kids who perhaps have not made the big transition from their high school adventures?</p>
<p>Hey I go to Penn.....don't know what campus you are talking about being afraid to park your car on? No missing cars among folks I live with....no broken or missing cars. Perhaps you are not from a city??</p>
<p>University of Texas had the friendliest students who seemed so happy. However, the hustle-bustle and overcrowdedness left us feeling a bit claustrophobic.</p>
<p>I loved Wesleyan but D did not feel the same excitement. I remember visiting Williams when I was in high school in the middle of a snow storm. For obvious reasons I saw few students walking around and the ones that were, walked alone. NEver saw students together and formed a strong negative impression about the social climate that ultimately lead me to choose a different school...silly, huh?. I remember visiting again and wanting to like it but just couldn't get the same feeling I did at the college I attended. It is a good thing we all have different tastes, even if sometimes they are based on immature or false impressions!</p>