<p>Rochestermom: SUNY Albany does have an ugly campus; gotta agree on that one…</p>
<p>Can’t think of any odd refusals by my son. I, on the other hand, refused to apply to Harvard because it was urban and happily applied to Yale (which in reality is in a much grittier urban setting). My daughter won’t apply to Amherst (where her brother is heading) because she says Lord Jeffrey Amherst gave smallpox infested blankets to the Indians as gifts. She doesn’t want to apply to any schools in Massachusetts because we live there (leaving out of her search 117 schools according to Wikipedia).</p>
<p>D applied to Bowdoin because she met some cute guys from Maine Maritime Academy.</p>
<p>There were two schools where DD refused to get out of the car. Both had red brick, Georgian architecture for their buildings. I guess she just didn’t like the buildings.</p>
<p>That reminds me…D stopped looking at Reed because the people in the brochures looked too much like hippies.</p>
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There is nothing stupid or funny about that</p>
<p>S hated William and Mary – “too old”. I tried to tell him that was what made it cool, but he was having none of it. :rolleyes:</p>
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<p>I’d say that’s an pretty legitimate reason. If that student is supposed to be representing the school I really wouldn’t be impressed.</p>
<p>That being said, my worst reasons for refusing to apply?</p>
<p>“I already applied to a private school with my major, why apply to another?”</p>
<p>“It’s too far away.” (farther than 2 hour drive)</p>
<p>There were more, really, but ultimately what it came down to is:</p>
<p>“It’s not (insert school here).” I really subconsciously sabotaged my options by not applying to any schools other than my first choice (a safety in terms of admissions but NOT in terms of finances) that I would legitimately want to go to. Then, when it came time to select schools, even though my first choice was significantly more expensive, I still went with it anyway because I really didn’t have any other good options to choose from.</p>
<p>D does not even want to visit a certain large university because both the allegedly weird sisters of a girl she knows go there. Thus she suspects the girl will end up there too, and D thinks she’s smarter and way cooler than that girl.</p>
<p>D2 is kind of granola, so I took her to UC Santa Cruz thinking “perfect match.” There is a display of paintings by students at the top of the hill, commemorating human rights, including Bob Marley, MLK, etc. I thought “YES!” Her comment: “they tried too hard. it looked faked.” geez. How do you distinguish true granola from fake? And it totally smelled like trees.</p>
<p>If S saw a radiator in any building, that was it. Just doesn’t like the look of radiators (?!?) and other “old stuff.” Also, he refused to apply to a school that was the perfect match for him and where he was guaranteed a big scholarship-- because his friend’s MOTHER had the “nerve” to suggest he apply there (!) (He doesn’t like his friend’s mother. . .and he really got back at her by not applying. . .)</p>
<p>D was more rational. She liked blue better than red.</p>
<p>This is the funniest thread ever. So many great reasons for not applying! Re not wanting to apply because a particular person may end up there. True story, one of my kids had a tense and competitive relationship with another student in middle school. I was relieved when they went to separate high schools. They both ended up applying all over the country and getting in all over the country and, of course, both chose the same school on the other side of the country. Summer before college, got together to bury the hatchet and became good friends throughout college. A face from home looks a lot friendlier once you are far from home.</p>
<p>our son refused to go on the Columbia tour because the guide looked like he just fell out of bed and had bad breath.</p>
<p>Caltech: Too nerdy
Harvey Mudd: Is a proud prefrosh</p>
<p>My older S refused to consider a “school named after a body part”. Ursinus. He didn’t do well in Latin. Younger S, who did get the language gene, wanted to know why the school was named after a constellation and a bear.</p>
<p>Younger S also got annoyed at short shrift being given to academics at one info session where the admissions presenter talked at length about how much fun it was to go there, clubs, outings, weekends, shuttles to downtown, frisbee on the lawn, Sunday brunch.</p>
<p>My D refuses to consider Gettysburg. “If I ended up going there I’d have to give a speech about the Civil War to everyone who asked where I go to college…” She dislikes history.</p>
<p>Richmond , because she thought the kids were “weird”.
To me ,they looked exactly like the kids I saw at every school we visited (mostly white & preppy!)</p>
<p>S would not consider any school in a “red” state.</p>
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Yes. But not big enough to rule it out.</p>
<p>D1 refused to consider Ithaca college because it was in the same town as Cornell and she would always feel like the “poor step-sister” if she went there.
D2 rejected York College in PA because of the “awful” smell in the air during the tour. Tour guide told us there was a paper plant nearby; when the wind conditions were right, you would smell that. “But don’t worry, you get used to it!” Needless to say, no application was sent to York.
D1 and D2 were nothing compared to D3. She had a reason or rule about everything. And after enduring the college tours of her older sisters, we were forbidden to repeat any previously visited schools. This meant no SUNY Geneseo because her sister went there and she “wanted her own school.” She did apply and was accepted there, but it was a waste of my money and her time. In the back of my mind I knew she would’t go there. Also rejected out of hand all schools in Boston because on the Northeastern tour we were standing on a small strip of concrete on a main road with cars passing in front of us and the T behind us. “What kind of crazy town is this where you have to watch for cars AND trains while going to class?”<br>
Schools had to be near cities, but not actually in them. Nothing further than Maryland because it was too hot. Nothing too big (10,000 or more) or too small (less than 2500). SUNY Binghamton was rejected because the tour guide spent most of his time talking to one family who came from his hometown. Plus the parents on the tour “asked too many stupid questions!” And the kicker was that a "really nerdy boy from my 11th grade physics class, who had a crush on me, goes there. I don’t want to risk running into him!
And as for Ursinus… "I can’t even say the name of that school with a straight face. How do you expect me to go there??</p>