D refused to even finish up our tour at George Washington U because our tour guide “speaks like a valley girl”
S ruled out the entire state of Pennsylvania because every time we have driven through the state he has gotten motion sickness. He is even wary about applying to schools that would require a drive through PA to get there.
^Ha, I can feel your son’s pain, @classicalsaxmom ! Now that we have to drive to PA for our daughter (she goes to Susquehanna), it IS an arduous drive. I associate PA highway driving with trucks, hills, blown-out tires, and dead deer.
We got a flat tire driving back from a visit to UScranton that seemed to push the school down on my son’s list – maybe he felt it was bad karma?? (fortunately we had no issues going to and from my D who went to college in PA).
D will not consider Scranton because of the tv show The Office. Frustrating because it sounds like a great school…
^That’s funny! My D was very excited when we drove through Scranton because of the TV show. She made me slow down so she could take a photo of the highway exit sign.
@pct3 Yes, it was a nice school. It was one of our happy surprises – at least until the flat tire – oh well.
The guy leading the information session joked that “Swarthmore is where fun goes to die”. My daughter didn’t think it was funny.
^ Then it died.
My younger D refused to attend a school that didn’t have trees to climb.
My son ruled out any school that 10 or more of his classmates attending. I tried to tell him that he would seldom see them on a campus with 35,000 students. I did not make a difference and he was not the only kid at his HS to think this way.
@bucketDad - Swat’s comment is neither funny nor original - U. Chicago used that line for years.
“My son ruled out any school that 10 or more of his classmates attending. I tried to tell him that he would seldom see them on a campus with 35,000 students. I did not make a difference and he was not the only kid at his HS to think this way”
Well, at least for kids at our school this is true. Probably because a large percentage of the school is Jewish. This means that if these kids intend to go to Hillel (which many do) or join a frat/sorority that is Jewish, they will indeed likely see their highschool class mates on a basis that for many is all too often if lots of those class mates attend.
When my daughter went to visit HS friends at the HUGE State school, she literally saw groups of people sitting with the EXACT SAME groups they had sat with in HS. Staying at the sorority, which hung with a Jewish Frat, she saw 30+ of her HS classmates and many more at Shabbat services.
It is a reason many kids dont’ want to attend with lots of classmates, and it is not a stupid one.
I think that’s a good reason to rule out a school.
Our S18 says he doesn’t want to go anywhere with lots of Phillies or Steelers fans. S16 goes to Temple, but wears his Nationals shirts without incident. There are an awful lot of good college choices in PA.
@“Erin’s Dad” Your D sounds like mine. The tree factor was very important in her search, or at least lack thereof, was her reason for rejecting one school (Pomona College). I actually think it was her way of expressing “it’s too much like home.” She ended up in Wisconsin.
Our son wouldn’t seriously consider any school that wasn’t one of two service academies, though he was forced to apply to a few civilian schools as backups. He just mailed those in. 
I was lucky enough to earn to National Hispanic award this year. So far, a lot of colleges have mailed me congratulating me on this and asking me to apply. Any college who sent their letter in Spanish had their mail thrown in the trash and was immediately off my list.
“Any college who sent their letter in Spanish had their mail thrown in the trash and was immediately off my list.”
Why? Because you can’t read spanish? My guess is it is very intentional on their part.
My kid wouldn’t look at Syracuse because their mascot is an orange.
“I was lucky enough to earn to National Hispanic award this year. So far, a lot of colleges have mailed me congratulating me on this and asking me to apply. Any college who sent their letter in Spanish had their mail thrown in the trash and was immediately off my list.”
I find this a very odd reason to discard a school. Could you elaborate on your line of thinking.