<p>I think it's really hard to generalize on this stuff. I'll share our experience - although it may differ from others based on a particular tour guide or day (Easter week tends to bring out the crowds for example).
We visited a couple of elite colleges - Duke, Penn, and Georgetown. The tour group at Duke was HUGE but the guide was very friendly and welcoming. At GT, we got stuck with a "robotic" tour guide. Not a great tour. At Penn, I DID find the group session to be snooty. Go ahead and apply if you'd like but keep in mind, we VERY popular and VERY selective. And it seemed to emphasize pre-professional tracks. Tour guide was very nice though. Overall, though, the general session left a bad taste...<br>
We LOVED our tour at Tufts. The session focused on the importance of learning and finding your passion. The student guides were exceptionally friendly and the campus was beautiful.
Our state school visits varied. I found the UVA general session to be a bit pretentious - with a big focus on how many apps they get and how hard it is to get in. UNC had a friendly, folksy approach but the tour group was large.
PSU had a rather large group, but our tour guide was very bright, and enthusiastic and seemed to know almost every one he saw ( how can that be on such a huge campus?). What was great though was our tour of the honors college. They gave us a lengthy one-on-one session with the admissions coordinator and then a full tour of the facilities. They really encouraged us to apply - seems that they know who they were competing with and that they had to try harder. My son left feeling wanted.<br>
State vs elite? Don't think there's a real pattern. But I do think some of these ultra selective schools present themselves in a way that turns off some buyers. There's a fine line between pride and arrongance...</p>