<br>
<blockquote> <p>Her feeling was that even the free thinking-alternative kids would eventually be beaten down and start wearing J.Crew.<<</p> </blockquote>
<br>
<p>That's a vision!</p>
<p>Glad to know I won't be alone at Swarthmore, DH wanted to go to, so there will be 3 of us. I could have happily stayed at Williams as well, but DD had one of those "don't bother getting out of the car moments".</p>
<p>This whole thread is rather silly. Who really cares what someone thinks about a school that wasn't a good fit for their child?</p>
<p>I don't think that bad mouthing any particular school based on a single visit or perceived notion about the school, serves any purpose. </p>
<p>Your Dream School could indeed be someone else's nightmare. So what?</p>
<p>I know my son would not even visit many of the liberal arts schools that are touted so strongly on this board. In his opinion, "they are filled with liberal misfit hippies and are often in the middle of nowhere"....</p>
<p>I'm sure his opinion doesn't matter to those who like those schools, and it really shouldn't! To each his (or her) own.</p>
<p>Duke.. for a top rated school it does seem to come in for more than its fair share of bashing on this board, which I can only assume is a NE bias. Huge Greek presence/pre-professional -- absolutely! But more than some of the ivies? More preppy than some of the top LAC's? I think though that many of you may be doing your offspring a disservice by crossing Duke off the list too early. Duke awards full-tuition scholarships and the opportunities Duke provides these students are almost unlimited. It is a so much more than "just" the tuition. Take a chance on an application. Send one more common app. You have nothing to lose!</p>
<p>Wesleyan at one point was tops on my D's list; after we visited, she didn't even submit an application. My H and I concurred. (No offense intended - I know we've got some W. alum here.)</p>
<p>Sokkermom: no need to take this so seriously. I think Thedad introduced the topic in a lighthearted "this says more about me than it does about the school" manner, and I think that's how posters are replying. And one of my favs (mom of Wes alum) just got zapped. I don't take offense; heaven knows we all have different tastes, and that's how it should be.</p>
<p>Garland,</p>
<p>I guess you misread me. I am not taking this seriously at all, but some may.
The thread should probably be moved to the Parents Gossip thread, or whatever it is called.</p>
<p>Jax-
My s. also cooked in the dorms at Duke for 2 summers (once @ Duke East, once @ West)- possibly why he didn't apply, though in all honesty he really wanted a smaller school. </p>
<p>I agree with some of Coureurs tongue-in-cheek comments. Harvey Mudd's architecture was quite drab, and the dorms were just plain ugly. But I didn't find the students as geeky as many say. And I liked their strong corporate research program alliances.</p>
<p>Cal Tech was quite pretty, but the pressure is palpable. I was particularly turned off by the dorm selection process. You get a "temporary" assignment for the first week, while you check out the dorms and see where you want to live. Then it's almost like a fraternity rush, where you see if you can get into the dorm you want. And then you have to move from your temporary housing. Yuk. Its hard enough getting settled into college the first week or so. And there's enough pressure at Tech-- why add this?? And what a way to start. My son was, however, intrugued by the fact that some classes were held late at night (til midnight) and there were no morning classes, since most of the students were up studying 'til 4 am. I wondered if they were pulling our legs about the class schedule. Does anyone know??</p>
<p>MIT was intriguing, but clearly focused more on the grad students. They secretary in the Physics Dept pointed out a nobel laureate who walked right by us and didn't even acknowledge our presence. Their new gym/fitness center is, however, quite attractive</p>
<p>1sokkermom, but it has been helpful to me. Wash U sounds great for my s. the "negative" comments all sounded really good to me, lol.</p>
<p>I actually find the thread intersting....and entertaining ... and reassuring that there is a place for every student.</p>
<p>Peace!
There are some take home points from this - there are, thank heaven, many different schools for our very different children to pick from and people can visit the same school and come away with very different opinions of the same place. For those beginning the round of visits, it is something to be aware of - perhaps emphasize to the kids to concentrate on the more tangible things like size of school and size of classes, location, progams offered, and leave the more intangible things like "atmosphere" for in depth visits after acceptances are in.</p>
<p>It is interesting, my DD originally refused to apply to any school she had not visited, but after finishing the round of visits her tune completely changed. Now she would say visits were a complete waste of time, and she should have waited until she was accepted - I think the truth is somewhere in between.</p>
<p>When we visited, didn't float my boat:</p>
<p>Oberlin - (as S said "too dark")
Kenyon - beautiful but too coddling - felt like a boarding HS
Case - Cleveland
U Penn - lousy area
Swarthmore - too stuffy
JHU - undergrads don't count</p>
<p>Really Liked - Universities:</p>
<p>MIT - great energy, but best if you're an engineer
Yale - gorgeous campus, performing arts
Brown - free to pursue interests</p>
<p>Really Liked - LACs
St. Mary's - world is your oyster
Goucher - small classes, lots of attention to students</p>
<p>Well, I wish I had liked Rutgers better. We are friends with many professors at Rutgers and have known them and RU for years. I wish it had worked out - coulda saved a ton of money not sending kid to a private. The professors are top-notch there.</p>
<p>The kid did not like it and I could see why...it just isn't convenient around campus. Sprawling campus, slow buses, no place to put car.</p>
<p>Anyway, it still is a great value for the money.</p>
<p>
[quote]
It is interesting, my DD originally refused to apply to any school she had not visited, but after finishing the round of visits her tune completely changed. Now she would say visits were a complete waste of time, and she should have waited until she was accepted - I think the truth is somewhere in between.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>That's what I did - visit the schools after acceptance. You are right, there is a middle ground, which is actually narrowing down criteria you look for in a school. I didn't know I preferred a non-urban campus until after I received my acceptances and did my visits. Had I visited at least a couple of schools beforehand, I would have figured that out.</p>
<p>Sokkermom: sorry if I've misread you. I went back and reread, but it still struck me the same way.</p>
<p>We'll just have to agree to disagree. I would, though, agree that it could move to what you quaintly call the "Parents Gossip Thread", but apparently some posters feel they are getting useful info here.</p>
<p>shizz, where are you going? Do you know yet?<br>
liked:
New College - right on the Gulf of Mexico, eccentric, charming.<br>
Kenyon - beautiful campus, relaxing environment
U of Colorado, Boulder - stunning setting.</p>
<p>Williams. When we first visited my son has already been accepted as an early write, so we decided to take a trip east while he was on his spring break. Maybe it was because after the liveliness of Harvard Sq the remote beautiful setting with a tiny tiny town with barely a stoplight in it just didn't have what we were expecting. We'd been sold on the school before by an alum and the general reputation. But several things were jarring on this visit and so he crossed it off.</p>
<p>Syracuse and Boston University. My daughter was seeking art programs at universities. The setting/city and the dorms (hallways well designed to take a firehose to wash out the vomit every Saturday morning) were a real turnouff at Syracuse. At BU, the admissions person seemed to disparage art ("If you're deciding what to take your senior year, take another math or science course, not some art course") which is one of BU's strengths and there were several kids in the audience who were there to look at the fine arts programs!</p>
<p>Not a school, but a region. I wish my D would be open to schools in NE (we live in NY). I would love for her to check out BU, BC and Northeastern as well as Bates and Bowden. However, she has absolutely no desire to be anywhere in NE. Her reason...."I couldn't deal with all those Red Sox fan on a regular basis". Not a very good reason, but she does need to go where she will be happy. Right now she is loving American U in DC.</p>
<p>"Your Dream School could indeed be someone else's nightmare. So what?</p>
<p>I know my son would not even visit many of the liberal arts schools that are touted so strongly on this board. In his opinion, "they are filled with liberal misfit hippies and are often in the middle of nowhere"...."</p>
<p>That is also what I thought before starting to read the Parent's Forum. It may have been pure and simple ignorance on my part, but the word liberal stuck out in all its negativity. I did, however, pay a bit more attention to the opinions of posters I respected -and to the opinion of my parents- and the rest is history. </p>
<p>I do believe that, despite its negative overtone, a thread of this type is imortant and is not gossipy. It does reflect a combination of first impressions and deeper analysis. It is not a scientific process, but do we really use scientific processes to do most of what we do in life? Don't we base the cars we like, the persons we date, the places we visit on emotional and rapid reactions? </p>
<p>As usual we learn more from posts which with we disagree than from the ones that feed our own vision or fuel our ego.</p>
<p>I guess the term is "Parent's Cafe". (not gossip thread)</p>
<p>Didn't mean to offend anyone with the word gossip - I just couldn't remember the thread name. LOL</p>
<p>S and I visited 10 campuses and oddly we pretty much agreed on these:</p>
<p>Didn't like but expected (hoped) to: Wesleyan, Tufts, Johns Hopkins</p>
<p>Both really liked: Penn, Carnegie Mellon</p>
<p>Wesleyan, it was late August in the middle of a drought, the lawns were brown and we should have looked past something so minor, but we drove througfh the town of Middletown, and we just didn't get it.</p>
<p>Tufts: expected it to be more "Boston-y" but it was quiet and there was what seemed a long walk to the train station to take you into the city.</p>
<p>Johns Hopkins: something didn't click, I wanted it to, maybe the surroundings which looked scary to both of us.</p>
<p>On the other hand, Penn's campus we thought was beautiful, and CMU just had a different kind of feel we both liked.</p>