Visiting Over the Summer

<p>I'm basically visiting all my colleges over the summer because I won't have time and my parents won' have time to do it during the school year. I just got back from touring University of Rochester and SUNY Geneseo, and honestly, I wasn't impressed at all by either of them. geneseo is supposed to be my safety and my token SUNY school, but I honestly couldn't see myself spending four years there. Rochester, to which my school has nominated me to get their Baucsh and Lomb scholarship, also didn't really have the spark that I found when I visited Cornell back in may. Do all of you find that if you visit a college during the summer, you don't get an accurate depiction of the campus? I seriously hope I don't feel like this with the other 5 or 6 colleges I visit this summer...</p>

<p>I've visited four schools in the summer and if you visit during the week, you can usually get a pretty good feel for the school. Honestly, Rochester is one of the blandest schools I've looked at...as for your SUNY school - are there any others you could look at that would work for you as a safety?</p>

<p>no , its completely normal, if you dont fit in well with a school..you dont fit in...</p>

<p>thanks guys. I feel so bad. I really want to like Rochester, because it's always been a school where I think I could probably get into, but one that still has a fairly good repution, but like what kcirsch said, it was mind numbingly bland when I went to visit. When I went to Cornell, I immediately felt a spark, but I felt absolutely nothing when I went to Rochester, oh well...</p>

<p>Khan, when you say "no it's completely normal," do you mean it's normal not to like a school as much when you visit over the summer, or that the atmosphere of a school is completely normal as compared to during the regular school year?</p>

<p>I'm thinking ov applying to Syracuse and the University of Buffalo Honors Program now (my parents are making me apply to one SUNY school of my choice). </p>

<p>Can anyone think of any other safety schools I might consider that are between about 5 and 15 thousand students, and, haha, with an atmosphere like Cornell's? Maybe that's asking a lot of a school...</p>

<p>sounds like you really need to stay in New York...is this the case?
I would recommend Syracuse for you.</p>

<p>My theory is that frigid winters freeze the emotional aspect of anyone who treks to Rochester for school haha.</p>

<p>Actually, I would prefer NOT to stay in New York, I'm actually really sick of it, but I do want to stay in the northeast, and most of the safer schools I'm familiar with are in upstate New York. The only school in New York that I've liked is Cornell, basically because the campus is so huge and exciting that I almost forgot that I was in upstate New York. </p>

<p>Can anyone think of any schools in the New England/Middle Atlantic area similar to U of Rochester in selecivity repuation, but stightly more exciting?</p>

<p>I'm considering Boston College and NYU, although I think it might be too urban...</p>

<p>It's funny how much the discussion has shifted, but if anyone till has experiences with visit colleges over the summer, I'd be interested in if you think the portrayal is accurate...</p>

<p>Boston College is not too urban - if you don't want to ever see a skyscraper, you won't. But make sure you're okay with rich preppy Catholic clones.</p>

<p>Trinity College? Colgate?</p>

<p>Colgate's definitely not a safety school. It's admit rate dropped to 30% this year, and its avg SAT is now very close to 1400. </p>

<p>Maybe look at Clark U, Providence College, Union.</p>

<p>depends who you are</p>

<p>Judging from the OP's original safeties of SUNY geno and U of R, it's not the kind of safety he's looking for.</p>

<p>We just came back from our first visits too. All in NY.........tell me, are you familiar with.......Bard, Vassar, Marist or Fordham? That's what we saw.</p>

<p>All were different and in different leagues.</p>

<p>But I thought we got alot from the visits even tho it was summer. Alot of construction going on in each place. Study websites, school newspapers, alumni sites, interesting to see how many students do or don't stay on campus during summer and who are they? Undergrads?Grads? Visitors? Summer Festivals given and programs given by college and how they interact with surrounding community? Workshops, pre-college camps and day camps for kids? It all says something about town gown realations and climate of school and what is important to them on campus.</p>

<p>My d was also thinking of SUNY Geneseo. But it is far for us to visit. The website photos looked nice but I was curious. Can you say more about what you found there?</p>

<p>Also Alfred University? Other schools we are considering:</p>

<p>Reaches: NYU, Barnard for New York City
Boston College Boston ( We are going to see Boston College this week)</p>

<p>Middle: Fordham</p>

<p>Safety: ??????????? SUNY Schools?</p>

<p>But that is all she has so far. She loved Bard but felt it may be too unconventional and thinks she prefers an urban setting.</p>

<p>Basically, I go to a very small high school, and I'm so sick of that small "close-knit" atmosphere, I want somewhere fairly big, but still with a good community atmosphere and a good amount of school spirit, definitely not a liberal arts college though .</p>

<p>I'm really beginning to like Syracuse as a safety school a lot more. It's fairly large, has a big, what I believe to be attractive campus, and of course, a lot of school spirit. I'll probably try to visit in the fall, does any one know anything about their honors program? I may be really wrong in this feeling, but it actually reminded me of a less selective version of Cornell or Northwestern (a variety of undergraduate schools, fairly large, etc.) Can anyone tell me about the intellectua; climate? Are there a lot of different student types and whatnot?</p>

<p>I don't know how much any of you know about Syracuse, but it's worth a shot...</p>

<p>known for communications, Basketball.....my d's art teacher attended and told her good for the arts. I know it's COLD!!!!! there. In looks I can see the similarity to Cornell too.....at least from photos. That's all I know about Syracuse.</p>

<p>luliztee, I can give you my appraisal of geneseo...</p>

<p>I thought it was okay. The campus was decent I suppose, actually, it was fairly pretty in some spots, expecially the view of all the hills around the campus. If she's looking for an urban setting, I definitely would not recommend Geneseo; it's in a very small town which I can imagine would get VERY old, VERY fast. The facilities weren't that impressive, but then again it is a state school. The dining hall we visited and the student union were both very nice, and the dorms were SO much better than the ones we saw at Rochester, but then again, that's not saying much...</p>

<p>I hope that gives you a little bit of insight about Geneseo, although I would recommend Albany or Binghamtom is she needs to apply to one of them...</p>

<p>jmarsh, it's normal to not like a school when you visit..especially if you thought highly of it before hand (the campus is just as important as rep in choosing a school). As for rochester, visiting in the summer and judging it by that is completely propostrous due to the fact that Rochester, during the summer, and especially during the weekends during the summer has a very "dead" atmosphere with very little summer session kids (it's a school of 5k undergrad, and not more than 3k otherwise grad/phds) so there really isnt much going on. When i walked around campus a week ago when i was passing by, it was beautiful as hell but i only saw like a couple people walking around.</p>

<p>I strongly suggest you visit in the fall, and get another feel for the campus. The campus is much more different, and with the beauty of the overall architecture, with this time the addition of students, i think you will get a different view. I didnt really say anything before, and held my tongue because i thought it was something else about the campus such as the architecture, or the way it was set up, or the location that you didnt like. If it is the atmosphere which is the problem..i strongly urge you look again under the realistic circumstances. BTW, it's crazy to see how much UR is a fallback school for cornell people lol, or maybe not a fallback, but like, a parallel school ( i know 3 people that were choosing between the two schools, and so many more that got rejected ed at cornell and did ed 2 or applied later at UR..kinda humerous). You prolly got the good vibe at cornell because it's a bigger campus, and there was prolly a lot of people in it, so it seemed like stuff was happening.</p>

<p>Might want to look at Holy Cross or Bucknell both very good academic schools with nice campus atmosphere. Holy Cross has the better location-1 hour from Boston. Not sure Boston College is in the same academic category of a Rochester, Bucknell or Holy Cross as BC was a Boston commuter school until 20-30 years ago and has very low alumni giving rate.</p>

<p>To luliztee:
You visited Vassar? Would you mind telling me how that went and what you thought of it?</p>

<p>Vassar 's campus was like a dream that you never want to wake up from and the programs and facilities were about as fitting for my daughter as could be.</p>

<p>But it seemed a little out of her reach both in terms of selectivity and money.
She will work hard and retake SAt BUT NOT SURE IT WILL BE ENOUGH.......can only wait and see how strong her final app is. Because this school was perfect in so many ways for her EXCEPT it is NOT in a city......she prefers an urban setting.</p>

<p>If I had to describe it briefly I'd say it was a country gentrified atmoshere, traditional and "ladylike" left over from when it was all women college.</p>

<p>Eclectic buildings and architecture and stately impressive stone and brick towers and arboreteum settings. A pond and hills. Yet everything technologically up to date clean and new for the most part. Art,Theatre, Dance and true Liberal Arts prevail.....( We heard someone practising opera floating across campus from thier dorm room.)</p>

<p>Poughkeepsie was just ok. Suburban......rt 9 dotted w/ your typical Applebees, Home Depot, Best Buy etc.</p>

<p>Hudson River........nice views but the area not too exciting.</p>

<p>Hope that helped.</p>

<p>I'm going to be visiting Rochester and Cornell this fall, along with Wells and Binghamton (safety schools). I've heard several people say they weren't impressed with Rochester, so now I'm starting to get a little concerned. I'm definitely going to give it a fair shot, though. :)</p>

<p>I personally don't like visiting in summer, simply because the only thing you're really getting a good view of is the scenery. I like to see what campuses are like when there's a lot of life around, when I can sit in on classes, when I can talk with faculty and students, and generally get a better feel for the entire college than I would when they're out for the season. Still, if it's all you can do, it's all you can do.</p>

<p>Thanks a ton lulitzee :)</p>