<p>Son refused to consider a school because the info post card they sent was too boring. Another flyer had a “goofy” looking person on it so that school was removed. His theory was that the school should put better advertising out there if they want to attract students. If they don’t care, then why should he? LOL
Also knocked one off the list that had a horrible website. Poorly organized and difficult to navigate. For a CS major, big no-no. LOL</p>
<p>^ Websites were an irritation for my son too so I totally understand this. More than three clicks to get where you are going is ‘just wrong’ according to him. Nothing got knocked off the list, but I heard distinct grumblings over it. He’s not even a programmer. Something about ‘even a caveman could do this’… Keep in mind that he went to an IT high school so even the kids that aren’t programmers program.</p>
<p>College websites matter to me a great deal. If a website is cluttered, unattractive, not user-friendly and I have to search too long to find something, it turns me off a lot. This is the 21st century. A school needs to have a good website to be competitive.</p>
<p>I agree with everyone about the website stuff, except that I thought Caltech’s website was the worst college site I saw! We couldn’t take it off the list for that. :p</p>
<p>Geekmom- my son probably would have! But he has kind of “picked” his school, so he will gladly bump schools right now.</p>
<p>Since they no longer send catalogs, the websites are essential. Places that don’t get that-- what do they get? Still, D will applying to several website-challenged schools.</p>
<p>Son crossed Union College of the list because the tour guide kept talking about baking cakes & cookies. She liked to bake cakes & cookies in her dorm common kitchen as a freshman. She then really enjoyed baking cakes & cookies in some group house where the theme was cooking! Baking cakes & cookies was how she relaxed - and it helped her get through finals. It did become rather funny. We thought that maybe she really wanted to be at the Culinary Institute of America!</p>
<p>I think your reason takes the title…but</p>
<p>I knew a guy in High School who didn’t want to go to Ohio University because it wasn’t a “party school”. There are two reasons why this is dumb.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>ANY school CAN be a party school. Now do you want to PASS college or party and fail? your money, your choice.</p></li>
<li><p>Just a side note, OU makes the top five list every year for “party schools” lol. He said this back in 2009 when it was ranked SECOND(First being ASU). Seriously what an idiot! It’s like he didn’t even research the college.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>But refusing to go to a college because a school is located in the same state as a football team IS the dumbest reason to not go to a college.</p>
<p>[Elite</a> recruit eliminates Baylor because he doesn’t like its colors - The Dagger - NCAABBlog - Yahoo! Sports](<a href=“http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/blog/the_dagger/post/Elite-recruit-eliminates-Baylor-because-he-doesn?urn=ncaab-wp4726]Elite”>http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/blog/the_dagger/post/Elite-recruit-eliminates-Baylor-because-he-doesn?urn=ncaab-wp4726)</p>
<p>Yep, any college with a poor website or mailings with typos / bad layout were doomed to the rejection pile by our perfectionist D!</p>
1 Like
<p>The thing that always amazes me is how hard it can be to find the college’s address on the website.</p>
<p>“Son crossed Union College of the list because the tour guide kept talking about baking cakes & cookies. She liked to bake cakes & cookies in her dorm common kitchen as a freshman. She then really enjoyed baking cakes & cookies in some group house where the theme was cooking! Baking cakes & cookies was how she relaxed - and it helped her get through finals. It did become rather funny. We thought that maybe she really wanted to be at the Culinary Institute of America!”</p>
<p>Maybe the guides at Union are told to talk up wholesome activities to ward off any questions about how much drinking goes on there. It is a huge drinking school. If you don’t drink, you will have zero social life there. And I’m not exaggerating.</p>
<p>We visited a small intimate expensive school where my child also did a lengthy interview and actually was interested in the school. Afterwards we kept receiving postcard invitations to come visit the school which led my child to conclude that even if they just weren’t organized it was also insulting after the interview (which by all accounts went well) to keep getting these mailers. Was accepted but declined to go there.</p>
<p>NOTE TO SMALL SCHOOLS: Update your mailing lists when kids have interviewed so they really do feel that you practice what you preach, i.e. we are small, intimate, know who are students are!</p>
<p>and yes, should have been
our students are!
It’s early and I need coffee</p>
<p>I really don’t see why some of these are ridiculous, but then again, I’m a HS senior. The whole “the school colors don’t look good on me” is quite laughable, but given how many colleges there are, any reason to cross a bunch off the list is a good reason (unless you’re not a strong applicant and can’t afford to be picky).</p>
<p>I don’t think any of my reasons are idiotic, but apparently some people think otherwise. I won’t apply to: schools with religious affiliations, schools with a conservative/Republican reputation, schools in the south (with the exception of schools in my country, which are my safeties), schools that are at best lukewarm towards the LGBTQ community, schools that are too preppy or athletic, and rural schools that are too far away from a city.</p>
<p>Well, I have a couple of more superficial reasons, like wanting to go to a school where I’ll be able to attend concerts regularly…</p>
<p>Here’s the way I look at this…</p>
<p>Our kids can only go to ONE school (or at least one at a time 
), so the list has to be weeded down somehow. If my kid has worked hard and has afforded himself the luxury of choice both by applying to schools within his reach and a certain amount of luck then he gets the luxury of being supremely picky when he chooses that school. I don’t care HOW that list is whittled down. I really, really don’t. Make an intelligent statement, make an idiotic statement about why you are knocking #7 safety off the list…I care not, I promise you.</p>
<p>I happen to love this thread!! :D</p>
<p>^ I love this thread ,too.</p>
<p>Most kids do not get to choose the HS they attend. The vast majority simply attend the local public while others have a limited choice of private or religious depending on location and cost limitations. Some students are an ideal fit academically and socially with the HS, but many more are mismatched and simply have to make the best of the 4 years. For many (sadly not all) students college is an opportunity to choose an environment which suits them. Not a bad thing.</p>
<p>D would not consider our state flagship (one of the top publics) because when she attended dance camp there she didn’t like how far she had to walk in the morning (on a hilly campus as well). Sounds sort of laughable, except it actually would not have been a good fit for her. And FWIW, my friend’s D is now a member of that same HS dance team, has attended that same camp and feels the same way.</p>
<p>Haven’t read this whole thread…but my son makes many of his decisions based on who the mascot is for the school. This is the same method he uses to establish his NCAA brackets.</p>
<p>Son has his favorite but I insisted that he visit two schools he was recently accepted to in the same state, just to make sure that his number one was truly his number one. </p>
<p>He said that the first school had a beautiful campus, but, he saw few girls who rated above a 2 (ugh, I certainly didn’t raise him to be so shallow), the school’s color made him feel unstable (really? a color can do that?), and the chant that they did at the game was awkward and weird.</p>
<p>The second school had a gorgeous campus, but, he thought that there were too many hippies and hipsters walking around town, and he thought the mascot was silly. </p>
<p>The good news is that the visits made his realize that his number one is truly a good pick for him.</p>
<p>lovemykids2, sounds like your DS is right in line with mine. Because of financial aid, he aplied to ALOT of schools. Although we won’t know much until financial aid is in, he has demoted to the bottom of the list quite a few based on how ugly the students are in the viewbook/website. In his words. “if you can’t put your best foot forward here, then you aren’t trying very hard”.</p>