I’ll start. We didn’t apply to school XYZ because when we got on campus, it felt super spooky!
Please add on with your own anecdote, as a fun way to pass the time 'til M10. Rules:
Didn’t apply to school *** cuz when I was in SSAT testing, we were spilling tea n a few people said that it was a bad school lol. Also the LOGO and their like whole vibe was off. Oh well.
i wasnt going to apply to a school bc i thought it was too big but then the interview went well sooo
We eliminated the only independent schools within an hour drive of us because:
School A has the word “Christian” in its name and we’re not. And a former friend of my kid goes there, and he and his sister think they’re superior to my kid. (Mind you, they’re Jewish.)
School B does applications its own unique way, and doesn’t use any of the standard portals. Don’t get me started on the commute.
Interviewer only spoke about HER experiences as an advisor to students - didn’t ask me any questions.
Interviewer seemed totally uninterested in anything having to do with girls and my daughter was, well, a girl…He talked about boys hockey the whole interview.
MODERATOR’S NOTE:
Please refer to OP:
The school is too big and the interviewer sucked are valid reasons. The mascot is a lemur or the school color is brown are silly reasons.
@stalecookies @Mercurrii @mondaydevil I think those are fairly good reasons (too big, or people have told you it’s not a very good school [when 'spilling the tea i.e. talking about the school], or it’s a Christian school & you’re not)! @2024ac @one1ofeach I think the AO acting uninterested or seeming self centered are red flags, making those really good reasons to not apply. True, maybe for some people any these might not be the most important reasons, but they were valid for you & are reasonable.
I’m hoping someone will reply with a truly RIDICULOUS (“silly”) reason they didn’t apply 
Four my OP “spooky” reason: the school checked all the “fit” criteria (for us): academic, social, EC, school size, % boarding, special programs, dress code, location.
But, six months before we began truly researching schools we had stopped by (we’d travelled far & were in the area… but this wouldn’t be an AO visit/tour). Unbeknownst to us, it was the start of a long weekend. The drive up took us through a forest (weird-feeling-ish since we live in a populated region), the sun felt like it was going down too early & strange shadows were cast by the trees. After a long twisty-turny stretch of road, the school appeared: an imposing gray stone building on a hill, with a cloudy & bleak sky behind it. We were almost too scared to turn onto the driveway! We did & it was empty save three students (I think day students) in sports uniforms (months later we realized they must’ve just finished practice & were waiting for parent pick-ups). There was NO ONE else. We got scared & turned back!
Later, when developing our list to apply to, all of our research showed it to be a really good fit for us, so we kept trying not eliminate that school, but we couldn’t shake the feeling it was “spooky” LOL 
Are we the only ones in CC land to drop a school for a totally silly reason?
We dropped one school because the tagalong younger siblings were at the end of their ropes after visiting 5 schools in 4 days and we wanted to head home 1 day sooner. It was a school that we were feeling lukewarm about anyway and the littles acting up was just the nail in the coffin.
We are practicing Christians and DD20 has been going to church and midweek services her entire life so she said that she did not want to even visit any schools whose name had a St., or Saint in from of it. We respected her wishes.
My daughter took a school off her list because she didn’t like the name!
I didn’t apply to Milton cause I hated the name… I don’t know why, but Milton Academy just doesn’t flow well to me. Same with Hill, Lawrenceville, and Kent.
Per earlier post, since there are international families who peruse CC boards who may not be familiar with American (or British) religious practices, I’ll chime in. The words “Saint/St.” in a high school, boarding school, or university name indicates that school has historical ties (and possibly/probably current ties) to Christianity. The word Saint/St. in a school name is commonly associated with schools (and hospitals, and churches) that are Episcopal, Catholic, Lutheran, and Anglican, all of which are different denominations (branches) within the Christian faith. So those schools would be considered by most objective standards to be Christian, or having a founding/history based in Christianity, or at the vey least to be tolerant of practicing Christian students (and for sure not to be anti-Christian). Soapbox stowed away now
But, agreed avoiding a school for how a name sounds is silly, and that’s in the spirit of the Original Post.
“Choate” sounds like it should be the name for a really nasty skin infection
Didn’t apply cuz I’m a massive urbanite and schools in the middle of nowhere really scares me and the town around it was minuscule. Actually went there and I was spooked so much I took the next train to NYC
We didn’t have our kiddo apply to one Boston area school because as we parked the car in the lot close to the admissions office, we saw 3 kids smoking pot. We left without getting out of the car.
Kiddo got freaked out when she saw the 8th grade dorm at Groton - at the time no door on the “room” - just a curtain and the wall didn’t go all the way up to the ceiling. It was too strange for her. I kind of liked the way it was set up with the living room in the middle, however.
@skieurope Is there a way to rename the thread “Silly and not silly reasons you did not apply to a particular boarding school?” Or to start a new thread & merge the two?
Everybody’s ideas are really interesting, but like when you popped in earlier skieurope, most to me aren’t very silly/ridiculous. I think it’s a totally valid reason to choose to not apply if a parent feels school(s) won’t support their family’s interpretation of their denomination of their religion. And it’s a reeeeaaaallly good reason to not apply to a school if you see kids smoking weed on campus, out in the open!!!
@Golfgr8 I’ve heard about those curtains. Did Groton change that? I thought maybe I’d heard they had, but idk. Just curious. And the weed?? Yikes.
@skieurope I was hoping as OP to hear about ridiculous reasons, but I think many will find all of these reasons pretty interesting (if not perhaps silly)!
Maybe silly is too subjective anyway? Like, skieurope & I may find curtains instead of walls in a dorm room a valid reason, but if a potential boarder’s family knows a number of kids who went to that school & did great with that style of dorm, they may themselves feel it’s a “silly” reason. Perhaps “prestige” comes into play too, on evaluating which reasons are deemed ridiculous? If everyone is telling a kid the “only schools” to apply to two Brand X (HADES?) schools, and he or she doesn’t apply for what to most people outside of that bubble would say is a really good reason, maybe to that kid it feels “silly” not to apply?
I can, but I won’t.
The silly reasons are a fun laugh. The not-silly reasons attracts a different audience, and to be frank, non-silly reasons are personal; they may be valid for one person but are a valid reason for applying to another.
@skieurope that’s sound good. I like the way you think it. Thanks 