<p>Ha ha…not sure how he figured out the Latin diploma, but he decided he was willing to compromise IF the school had a Latin motto. He did google them, and I heard a lot of mottos. He definitely did end up at a school with a Latin diploma, although I think he was just lucky that it fit the bill.</p>
<p>Bayberry, thanks for the chuckle with my morning coffee.</p>
<p>I drove my son and his friend on a local college tour their junior year during spring break. We finished the UC Santa Cruz visit and marveled at how the campus felt like a summer camp. The guide had provided us with stories of frequent wildlife sightings on the way to class through the wooded campus. Every so often the trees would part and the views where magnificent.</p>
<p>Immediately after the UCSC tour, we drove down the coast to CSU Monterrey Bay. The campus is on the sight of an old military base right on the windswept flatlands near the sea. They have made some effort to make the architecture interesting, but even the new buildings looked a lot like the barracks they had replaced, and there were only a handful of small trees. As we drove around looking for the admissions building where our tour was suppose to begin, we didn’t see a single student walking around this rather desolate campus. Once parked, the boys refused to get out of the car and the friend said, “I know why we don’t see any students, they all killed themselves”. We drove home.</p>
<p>My younger daughter used to turn her nose up any time I mentioned Colgate because of the toothpaste connection. Then we visited the school and now she loves it.</p>
<p>Oh boy. I always thought that my friends and I had petty reasons for not attending certain colleges… but this thread makes me feel a lot better about that haha. I’ve heard some pretty silly reasons, though. </p>
<p>UC Berkeley: “The architecture didn’t match up! It was appalling!”
UNC-CH: “Too much shade.”
Maryland: “Not enough shade.”
UVa: “Too pretty… it would be distracting.”
UCSD: “The weather is too good… I would never get anything done.”
Illinois: “The library is too big.”
Rice: “The school name is so stupid.”
Stanford: “Couldn’t accept going to a college where the mascot is a tree.” </p>
<p>I laughed last night to DH because we saw a kid wearing a Pfeiffer University t-shirt and I said to him that D2 was likely to pick a school because no one had heard of it as opposed to one everyone knows! Off to check out Pfeiffer for D2 (it could be well known to most but I had never heard of it, not that that is saying much )</p>
<p>It’s so nice to know that S is not the only difficult teenager! LOL!</p>
<p>Tufts - “stupid name”
Harvard - “don’t like the feel, and they dress funny”
Dartmouth - “all the buildings look alike and I hate red brick buildings”
JHU - same as Dartmouth comment, and “it feels like Harvard”</p>
<p>I think we should all take other people’s children on college visits - I swear D2 will be far more receptive to anything she sees when she is with someone else and not with us :D</p>
<p>And by that I mean not bringing a friend but swapping kids for tours.</p>
<p>Yes! The UCSC Banana Slugs, the coolest team name east of the Pacific Ocean. And there are BIG yellow banana slugs throughout the campus, which is really a Redwood forest. The t-shirts are great, unless you don’t happen to like big yellow slimy creatures.</p>
<p>DH would love for one of ours to pick based on mascot and Banana Slugs is right at the top of his list </p>
<p>For D1, school colors weren’t an issue as long as they weren’t the same as her HS colors, she was very tired of those. I doubt it would have been a deal breaker but fortunately we didn’t have to test that!</p>
<p>For years I kidded around and said I wanted one kiddo at Purdue and the other at Rice just so I could have both those stickers on my back window (ya know…chicken and rice; yeah my family doesn’t think it’s funny either ;)</p>
<p>ohio state-- good program, good merit aid, etc…BUT Son hated the way they seem to find any opportunity to find 4 grads and spell O-H-I-O as human/letters. HATED it and the final blow was going to an alumni/accepted student dinner in april…EVERYONE was in red and white. We left before dinner was served he said he felt sick…sigh…</p>
<p>S hated how alumni stressed the “The” in “The Ohio State University”. Sounded way too pretentious for a state school. Didn’t want to look at any schools in NJ - probably due to less than great experiences there growing up. JHU - we live near there and too many bizarre crimes in the news over the years, esp. the sword guy.</p>
<p>My kids never warmed up to THE OSU for the same reason. They do seem to have this superiority thing going on, what with being in the state capitol and getting more money than the other state schools. What are the rest of us, chopped liver? :D</p>
She even bought the t shirt…</p>