<p>I'm a college freshman, but looking back on how I went through the college search process, I considered myself lucky where I ended up.</p>
<p>Stupidest reasons why didn't apply:</p>
<p>Harvard (the only college I visited) - the guy at the admissions desk wasn't friendly enough
State schools - because they were in my state</p>
<p>Stupidest reason why I did apply:</p>
<p>Tulane (had no intention of going here, by the way) - because the application form was free
WashU - because they sent the nicest fliers
Brown - because they sent a rep to my high school, which was out in the middle of nowhere</p>
<p>Nothing too liberal. Hopefully below the Mason-Dixon.
Can't snow very much.
No California. No Midwest. No Northeast. No Southwest. No Northwest.
Didn't like the entrance to the library at one school.
Mascot.
Can't have a lot more girls than boys.</p>
<p>My son has particular criteria...no snow, more rural than urban, California only, great engineering programs. I don't have a problem with that.
But...UC Santa Barbara and by extension all southern CA schools are off the list...too much like Hawaii, he'd felt like he was on vacation.
Stanford is too noisy with all of the campus construction (I promised to take him hiking on the back 100, we'll probably find a mountain lion...that should make him happy)
Another college near Stanford is too Jesuit and too close to an airport.
Cal is dirty, and urban.
Well okay, UC Davis, Cal Poly and UC Santa Cruz are still on the list. I'm afraid to take a second tour of any campus, the criteria just gets tighter. I'm going to make him promise to apply to five colleges. Then he can be just as choosy as he wants in selecting The One.
I suspect that he has his college already picked out, and for the rest of it...he's just snowing us.</p>
<p>^^Probably a lot. Getting what you want in life usually consists of steering others and yourself away from things you don't want and toward things you do. And if seemingly silly reasons why or why not are all you have to work with, well..you go with that.</p>
<p>We went from campus to campus counting the number of times the tour guide (both the students, and the admissions reps who gave the presentations) used the word "actually." As in "you can actually study abroad" or "actually live off campus" or "actually get credit for some of your AP courses" or "actually make lifelong friends" or "actually bring a laptop and use the wireless." I think that "actually" is the new "like." Our top was 127 in a twenty minute talk at Geneseo. We fled the Rice presentation when the AdCom rep reached 50 before she even got to the slide presentation.</p>
<p>My D really didn't like the way our tour guide at Georgetown gushed about a cappella concerts, a cappella groups in general, and her own a cappella group in particular. D said all that a cappella singing would drive her crazy. </p>
<p>She ended up at a much larger school and I was talking to her on the phone today. "So, did you have a fun Friday night?"</p>
<p>Any guesses? </p>
<p>(Did she go to an a cappella performancy by the group she and her friends love? the one with the best beatboxer on campus? ;) )</p>
<p>I didn't look at Cornell because I saw a thread on the Cornell forum titled "lesbians and gays at cornell". I know there are gay people everywhere, but I didnt want a school with absolute transparency.</p>