<p>blueiguana and kinderny – I agree. I have thoroughly enjoyed touring colleges. The dorms are nicer, the food is better, the first-year seminars sound so interesting, and sometimes there are free t-shirts. All of it makes me want to go back to get another degree (but not, at my age, live in a dorm!). When I was coming along, there were no tours. Prospective students, if they visited at all before applying, just walked around on campus themselves. The admissions offices did not welcome high school students coming by to ask questions. Colleges didn’t try to sell themselves at all.</p>
<p>It’s easy to see why parents often enjoy college visits as much as or more than their children.</p>
<p>All through Junior year, D1 would not look at Rutgers because it was our state school and she was apalled that she would see people from her HS. Umm…approx 15 kids/year from our HS go there in an entering class of 6000+ on a campus of 30000+ are not good odds of daily interaction with people you knew. </p>
<p>Fast forward - she’s happily enrolled as a Freshman and in the first week reported seeing a few HS classmates & older grads on a bus to/from class or the football game and it was no big deal.</p>
<p>Conn College - wouldn’t visit cause he didn’t like their website</p>
<p>Ithaca - won’t consider cause his cousin went there (graduated 3 years ago, but still…)</p>
<p>Bennington - “Can’t figure out what you study there” (okay, that’s a valid reason). But also thought the student art work was crappy. </p>
<p>Denison - No reason specified, but refused to leave the admissions office during the two hours wait between his tour and interview, even for the free cafeteria lunch. </p>
<p>Oberlin - (after a tour that endlessly highlighted the school’s environmental consciousness), “Who cares about the environment?” </p>
<p>Goucher - too close to a mall</p>
<p>Stupidest reason for LIKING a school (U Mich) - they have a football team (before you get worked up, this kid has never, ever watched a football game, or played football, and hates sports - and might not be able to pick a football out of a lineup of multiple sports balls)</p>
<p>The two schools that DS loved when visiting: Kenyon and NYU. Could they be more opposite? Ummm, no.</p>
<p>My nephew allegedly told his mother and father that he dislikes William and Mary because he didn’t like the color that the bricks were on campus, and he didn’t like “the weird little village thing.” (The restored village) </p>
<p>He ended up later admitting that the real reason was because he got drunk at a party there with his friend and had a horrible hangover the next morning. I’m not sure which reason is worse!</p>
<p>So glad this thread is going again! It’s my favorite!! It’s in such good humor and also a good reminder that these are teenagers, afterall. I am still laughing at the one from way back who didn’t like Stanford’s “Taco Bell architecture”.</p>
<p>@ANIMOM - I almost spit out my coffee on the keyboard laughing! The upside of all the crazy “no way” reasons that I’ve noticed is that D is better able to articulate what she does like about the better fit schools after seeing a “no way!” option. It can be easier for a teen to say what they don’t like.</p>
<p>D eliminated Whitman, Denison and Ursinus based on the college fair representative. many of her peers also eliminated Whitman for this reason - it is reasonably local and they call her “the creepy Whitman lady”</p>
<p>Carleton - too much brick “I hate brick” “looks too much like dad’s high school”</p>
<p>D eliminated a school because their rep at a college fair seemed snobby. Talked all year about how much she hated that school, its location, everything about it. Finished her applications, I’d long since forgotten. Someone mentioned the school in passing…she went to the website, read the curriculum…applied 1/15, just before the deadline. It’s her top choice-- all day and night I hear about how she’ll die if she doesn’t get in.</p>
<p>Jea828 - loved the Notre Dame one. Laughed out loud!
Toledo - too funny!
saintfan - ‘too much sun’? Is there such a thing? That’s like having too much money or too much fun… not possible!</p>
<p>My DD refused to look at Ohio State for many reasons. One is it is much too close to home and the other is she got a detention in 2nd grade for not putting on an OSU t-shirt as requested by her teacher. Her teacher wanted everyone in red for a class picture for homecoming of something like that. As a result her feelings were that if every University on earth burned down and OSU was left standing, she might have to join the army.</p>
<p>She also did not like Ball State after visiting. Her reason “there were too many buildings.” I remember thinking it is a college campus, it has to have buildings. My husband translated for me because he went on that particular visit, it had too much concrete, it wasn’t pretty.</p>
<p>Another Ohio college said negative things about another rival college’s dance department. She didn’t like the negative references at all.</p>
<p>She loves where she attends - Slippery Rock University. Many probably would not choose that one based on the name but she is so happy there.</p>
<p>My D1 refused to consider any school in Pittsburgh because of a certain pro football rivalry. She also refused to look at any school with “tech” in the name.</p>
<p>D1 didn’t like MIT because of the “Toon Town” architecture. D2 loved MIT because you can get a “Pirate Certification” (sailing, fencing, and riflery or something).</p>