<p>So you read all the college guides, monitored CC religiously and came up with a solid list of potential schools.</p>
<p>From that list, you visited, spoke with students and administrators, gathered materials and maybe even applied.</p>
<p>Which schools went down the list the more you learned and which schools went up the list you more you learned?</p>
<p>Down: New York University --Though the school probably wasn't for me, anyway, what sealed the deal was when the tour guide, a junior, said she had never read or taken a book from the library. She didn't talk very much about academics or the education I would get there. I thought that as a tour guide she should be one of the better students and someone who likes the school, so I couldn't get over her seeming lack of care about academics. I did not apply.</p>
<p>Down: University of Michigan --In my experience with their Admissions department, they were late, slow, disorganized, and not very knowledgeable. If that's how Admissions operated, I figured other parts of the school were probably run in similar ways. It (with "rolling" decisions; I applied in December) was the last school I heard from, and by that point I hardly even cared whether or not I was accepted. </p>
<p>Up: Notre Dame --I have always loved Notre Dame, but I was overcome again and again with respect for the institution and the education it can provide.</p>
<p>I love NYU, but they don't give much merit scholarships.</p>
<p>Up: University of Michigan - Just the opposite of corranged. Prompt follow-up, very personal. Probably helped that DS applied in September. They are very up front about early applicants getting preference.</p>
<p>Down: University of Chicago - It came off as a very cold, impersonal place. Emails and phone calls were not returned. They are not forthcoming about the crime problem or the mental stress imposed on students (got a real earful from some current students). Need-based aid aid was disappointing. Not a pretty picture.</p>
<p>Wow. Complete opposite! A couple Chicago admissions officers spoke to me through email and in person at length, they answered any questions I had (though none were about crime or mental health; I looked online), they offered me a nice scholarship (I didn't apply for financial aid, so I have no idea on that), and they generally made me feel very wanted. I'm very happy here. :)</p>
<p>^ Proof that you have to be careful with impressions...</p>
<p>Not really, just proof that some schools fit some kids and others do not.</p>
<p>Well, if a school was cold, impersonal, and non-communicative, who would that fit?</p>
<p>
[quote]
Well, if a school was cold, impersonal, and non-communicative, who would that fit?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>My daughter. She likes to be left alone and has no objections to being treated like a number. To her, personal = intrusive.</p>
<p>Reed - Down</p>
<p>Carleton - Up</p>
<p>Based on what she learned through various sources about level of student "happiness". The Reed students seemed highly stressed, the Carleton students didn't.</p>
<p>Down: Ivies & Eastern LAC's. The more she looked, the less D felt she would "fit." Good for some, bad for her.</p>
<p>Down: WashU. Loved the campus, loved the programs. D decided it was not for her last spring when a student at her school was treated very, very poorly in the admissions process. While we don't know everything that transpired, of course, the impression D got was of a school that cares more for impressions than for the individual student in the admissions process. For her, that was a deal-breaker.</p>
<p>Down: U Chicago. Visited, but D was so turned off by location (including the very public nature of campus due to hospital), she couldn't continue considering it. Too bad, because it's a neat school.</p>
<p>Down: Oxford at Emory. Nothing bad ... just found out it was way too small for her. She wants small, but that was bordering on claustrophobic for her.</p>
<p>Up: DePauw. D had no interest in even looking based on the info they sent. Alum who knows her well urged her to look ... Mom made her look! ... D loves the place!</p>
<p>Up: Rhodes & Centre. Totally unheard-of in Michigan, but the more D sees, the more she likes. Once again, it's not the "name" that's important, but the "fit" for the individual student.</p>
<p>Down: University of Pennsylvania. Thirtysomething years ago, my mother wouldn't let me apply there because "it's in an awful neighborhood," and I resented it for decades. When I visited with my daughter, I discovered that Mom was right. It is in an awful neighborhood. I'm glad my daughter decided not to apply for other reasons.</p>
<p>Up: Columbia. It's not in an awful neighborhood. But my daughter decided she couldn't endure the Core, so she crossed it off her list.</p>
<p>Up: William and Mary. The more I learned about it, the more I liked it. Slightly nerdy, slightly shabby (the town, not the campus), very academic. Unpretentious (I like that). It had the most comfortable feel of any college I've ever visited. I wish I had known it existed when I was an applicant; it would have been my first choice. It ended up being about #4 or #5 on my daughter's list. She prefers bigger schools and nicer college towns.</p>
<p>Down: Johns Hopkins. It's only for people who relish the thought of spending their entire four years in a research lab. You would never want to go out into the neighborhood.</p>
<p>Jeepers! I know the Penn and Columbia areas quite well, and I lived near Penn for almost a decade. Neither is in anything like an "awful" neighborhood. You can get uncomfortable with the neighborhood within fewer steps from Columbia than Penn, but you probably notice it less because the Columbia campus is so closed off to the outside world, and the "front door" looks very affluent, while the Penn campus is very integrated with the city. But if you think Penn's neighborhood is awful, there are not many urban universities that are going to please you.</p>
<p>I agree that this thread shows some of the hazards of "impressions." My daughter had the same experience corranged had at NYU, except she had it at Brown. To this day, based on that and one friend who went there, she insists that Brown is anti-intellectual. Meanwhile, our tour guide at NYU was super-smart and very intellectual, and the library knocked our socks off.</p>
<p>I would say:</p>
<p>Chicago - Up (the more we learned, the more we liked, especially talking to current or recent students)
Penn - Up (really interesting, impressive faculty in some areas of interest)
NYU - Up, then sideways (great opportunities for students, I'm convinced it will be universally considered a top-rank university 20 years from now, but uneven in its delivery)
Cornell - Up, then down. Maybe the most beautiful campus we saw, loved the new president and his vision. Then he got fired.</p>
<p>JHS, my divergent opinions of Penn and Columbia are very colored by the fact that kids live on campus for all four years at Columbia but usually do not do so at Penn. I have much higher standards for a neighborhood that a kid might actually have to live in, as opposed to one that the kid merely walks through on the way to the subway on those occasions when he wants to go off campus.</p>
<p>The new, new president of Cornell seems OK, so far (I'm an alum). I wish we knew what got the other one fired, though.</p>
<p>Well, at Columbia you don't have to walk through any neighborhood to get on the subway, since the Broadway line is right on the doorstep. At Penn, too, there are two Green Line stops on campus and a Blue Line stop one block north, in the middle of Drexel's campus. But kids are more likely to walk places, because it's walking distance from more of the places they want to go to. (Not that it's better located than Columbia, but that Philly is smaller than New York.) And it's true that many/most Penn students eventually live off campus, but there are a ton of decent, affordable places to do that, including some apartment buildings that are virtual dorms.</p>
<p>Up -- Colorado College. before moving here (Colorado Springs) I had never heard of it even though it is around 25-26 top LAC in US NEWS. Now I live a block away and my son has participated in many school events, lectures and classes (he is in high school) and I am very impressed. definitely a school to consider.</p>
<p>Down -- Davidson. Not at all friendly to homeschoolers (my son is one).</p>
<p>Down -- NYU. bad FA packages.</p>
<p>Up -- Georgetown. son visited and loved it -- the campus, the people, the professors</p>
<p>Up -- Deep Springs. Had never heard of it before CC, but son is intrigued and will be applying.</p>
<p>Down -- Cornell. Thought it would be great, but the more I learned the less I liked it. son was never very interested. Size of school, isolated atmosphere and weather were all negatives.</p>
<p>Up -- Brown. before I thought it was a school for rich, drugged out hippies. I have heard alot more information and I am much more impressed. my son is very interested.</p>
<p>Same -- Stanford. I thought it would be a good school for my son and everything I have heard confirms that.</p>
<p>Up -- U of Colorado, Boulder. living in colorado, it is a safety school. I wasn't that thrilled, but the more I read and the more I learn, it would be a great school for my son (and it offers a combined BA/MA in the program he is interested in). He would be very happy if he attended.</p>
<p>Down: Sarah Lawrence, for its overwhelmingly female student body (25% male) and financial problems -- the day we visited, the lead story in the student newspaper was about the school's financial woes.</p>
<p>Up: Fordham, which we visited the same day as Sarah Lawrence. As a former New Yorker, I'd heard about Fordham all my life but never visited. The campus is quite nice, it's easy to get into the city, and it's near a very cool Italian neighborhood.</p>
<p>Down: Trinity (in Hartford, Ct.). On paper, many of its academic programs seem very very good. But it was a bad fit for my daughter (too preppy)</p>
<p>Up: Skidmore. No longer a finishing school for debs.</p>
<p>hsmomstef: My daughter, who is going to Brown, is not rich or drugged out, although some might call her a hippie.</p>
<p>Wow. For me, this would depend on which kid at which time. I'll just go with the most recent (#7).</p>
<p>Up -- U of Chicago. I already knew of its academic boot camp reputation, but I wasn't aware of just how much the faculty thinks about undergrad education and how much they appear to care about it.</p>
<p>Down -- Whitman. On a visit, #7 sat in a core class where women were doing their nails and no one bothered to answer an easy "think" question from the prof. At lunch, the frat boys he was with talked about never cracking a book and how easy it is to nail the girls.</p>
<p>Down -- Berkeley. This was a tough one for me, personally, since I have many friends teaching there, but I had to agree with #7 that the tour guide was just insufferably conceited. The entire tour was about her. When we went into the building with the obvious T-Rex, she said in her best kindergarten voice, "Can anyone tell me what this is?" One person does not a university make, but when you're trying to eliminate ... well ...</p>
<p>Up -- Dickinson. The faculty, admissions officer, and everyone else there was extraordinarily helpful and responsive. </p>
<p>Down -- Gettysburg. I sent an e-mail to admissions with a simple question, and they never bothered to respond. That doesn't speak well of them.</p>
<p>Up and Down -- UC Davis. Up for helpful faculty we tracked down in their offices. Down for having so many oversubscribed majors.</p>
<p>Up and Down -- UC Santa Cruz. Up for beauty and having a banana slug as a mascot. Down for the inane tour.</p>
<p>Down -- Pomona. Students there put a LOT of pressure on #7 to do drugs and alcohol on an overnight. #7 was 16 years old at the time. #7 had to beg a place to sleep from other students walking into a different dorm.</p>
<p>Up --Vassar. Very helpful staff. Beautiful campus. As we learned more about their approach to education, it seemed very appealing.</p>
<p>Down -- Connecticut College. Staff not very helpful. Students we talked to and on the tour seemed very attached to material things as well as body sculpting.</p>
<p>Up -- Tufts. We liked their focus on undergrads.</p>
<p>Down -- Stanford. Faculty in the department that most interested #7 were cold at best, and rude at worst.</p>
<p>Up -- Colorado College. Block system tends to breed intense learning.</p>
<p>Up -- Reed. See "Chicago"</p>
<p>Down - Willamette. Visit with students made #7 think they were just there to punch a ticket.</p>
<p>sly_vt: my impression of Brown was from vague comments heard over the years. I was pleasantly pleased to discover that not all the kids are wacked out drug addicts. And as far as being a hippie -- how about we use the word "non-conformist". I would say that describes both my sons very well -- and probably your daughter as well. I have gone from thinking "I will never allow my son to even consider Brown" to supporting him attending the summer program there, so it has definitely undergone a change of impression with me!</p>
<p>Up: William & Mary. Loved it by reputation and was not disappointed after tour. Guide was honest about its shortcomings but appeared to genuinely love the school. The focus on undergraduate education is wonderful.</p>
<p>Up, we hope: Pitt. Have not visited yet, but research seems to indicate they are trying very hard to make a good institution world-class. Wish S had applied earlier...we just didn't know much about it.</p>
<p>Down: UVa. Wonderful and beautiful school, but NO merit aid and very difficult to get in to for out-of-staters, not to mention expensive. S decided not to apply. Had I known more about it, we wouldn't have even considered it. Also, small detail but wasted our time: incorrect information about tours on website. We drove hundreds of miles for a tour that never took place. Grrr.</p>