<p>In person, it looks like it was dropped in from Pyongyang or Soviet-era Moscow.</p>
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<p>OMG…it looks like a landing strip…prepare for take off. LOL </p>
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<p>mom2collegekids: is it just me, or does that swearingen building look like a federal prison? </p>
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<p>Yes, it does…very little green, very little softness. But that roof!!! It looks like the top of an aircraft carrier. It just needs some fighter jets sitting up there. LOL</p>
<p>Tufts could also be a a lawn care product. The only name we got an absolute nix to was Ursinus. And Beaver college actually changed its name to Acadia.</p>
<p>The doors on the on the sides of the building. You can see it at the bottom of the second picture. The front is just an architectural flourish. It faces a concrete courtyard.</p>
<p>Two women at my kids’ HS refused to let their kids look at any schools that were south of the Mason Dixon line. That eliminates a lot of great schools…UNC Chapel Hill, U VA, Davidson, Vanderbilt, Duke, Emory, U Florida…and the list goes on.</p>
<p>Regarding buildings - they do matter. I like Weans hall, dislike Swearinagain and dislike most red brick buildings- they tend to be too depressing/old. Some modern architecture is refreshing. At UW-Madison they have kept some historic buildings and have torn down/are planning to tear down some 1960’s era buldings that were functional mistakes. Current day architecture makes good use of building materials and esthetics, no reason to repeat styles just because they used them a hundred years ago.</p>
<p>I think if the older brick buildings and their wood trim aren’t maintained/restored, they can look old, dingy, and sad. </p>
<p>But, I think well-maintained brick buildings with freshly painted wood trim can look very “academic” - to me they say…“this is a place of learning” :)</p>
<p>That said, I do think that most brick buildings need to be properly landscaped with bushes and trees to add some softness to the buildings.</p>
<p>Williams: Visited on the coldest day of the early spring. “Dad, you must be kidding–I’d freeze to death here.” This is a kid who is a terrific skier. </p>
<p>UCal Berkeley: Son was freaked out by the homeless right next to the campus. And then we sat in a class and he thought the professor looked homeless (and he was kind of right). </p>
<p>Daughter No. 1</p>
<p>Yale: Thought the buildings looked too old.</p>
<p>William & Mary: “Dad, I can’t go to a college where they let the horses poop all over the street.”</p>
<p>Son Number 2</p>
<p>Sewanee: Thought the male students had “wierd” facial hair. (Seriously, this was the cleanest cut looking group of students I’d seen on any college campus.)</p>
<p>Rollins: Tour guide spent most of the tour showing and talking about the swimming pool and completely neglected to show us the library. Also told the group that the school accepts pretty much anyone who applies.</p>
<p>My sons thought: " St Olaf is too weird a name. How could I tell people I was going there?" also were concerned about the rampant Lutheranism of the students…Just like the Moonies, I guess
MIT:tour guide had too many computers(5 actually)" I’m not weird enough to go there"(Their father is an alum)</p>
<p>“Rampant Lutheranism”! A girl in our neighborhood is a freshman as St. Olaf’s this year. Another neighbor remarked that she had no idea St. Olaf’s was a “real” school–She thought is was just a fictional school made fun of on “The Golden Girls”!</p>
People in the office are staring at me.</p>