<p>Sometimes its the tour guides who come up with the chucklers. At several small schools we hid a smile when the tour guide said that the library was “hu-uu-ge”.</p>
<p>Colgate has the automated retrieval system in its library.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>sylvan8798, don’t forget that some of us have been on this merry-go-round more than once. :p</p>
<p>Yale, residential colleges and Princeton, eating clubs. Those did seem distinctive.</p>
<p>However, I was puzzled at Dartmouth because they talked about how anywhere on campus you can stop at any computer and “blitz” someone - I think that’s the word they used. Blitzing sounded suspiciously like…drumroll…e-mailing. I didn’t get how in this day and age of texting, cell phones, facebook and e-mail, this was unique, although I’m betting at one time it probably was. Did I not understand something about this?</p>
<p>Cpt - what is the merit situation at Fordham. I looked on the site and it was a little vague. Since we are from the NE, I would like S to have 1 or 2 NE schools on the list and at this point he doesn’t have any. Its hard because he is looking for a larger metro school with good merit.</p>
<p>Every DC college we visited touted their internship programs, but American seemed unique in saying that they had very few Wednesday classes so that kids could use Wednesdays for internships. </p>
<p>Every school talks about study abroad, but American (and Chicago) have actually set up their own programs in foreign countries. (There are plusses and minuses do doing it this way - I was actually more interested in whether language immersion programs were possible and they are harder to find than you’d think.) </p>
<p>I agree everyone touted interlibrary loans and blue lights, and starting clubs - it got really old. No one had a haunted house though! We also got way too much serenading by a Capella groups.</p>
<p>Boston University: They have a Quidditch team. They’re not the only college to have this, but it’s still pretty cool. Not much else stood out for me, though.</p>
<p>Boston College: I did this tour a few years ago and don’t remember much. I do remember that the library is exactly how I pictured the Hogwarts library, which was pretty cool.</p>
<p>Salve Regina: The mansions. These were constantly brought up.</p>
<p>Connecticut College: They have a program where a select number of students get a paid summer internship in a foreign country between their junior and senior years. They also give the students a lot of responsibility. </p>
<p>Fairfield: Nothing really stood out here.</p>
<p>Great thread. </p>
<p>I/my sons haven’t doen any visits yet. Mostly because we know we are going to hear the perfectly polished canned spiel. </p>
<p>The one thing we really want to hear, if he goes out of state or private, is the FA situation and frankly we have discovered most of what we need to know about that online. </p>
<p>FA CAN repeat CAN make a big difference in who goes where. The rest of it is just telling people what they want to hear.</p>
<p>Oh, yes, the blue light systems and the libraries and close relationships between students and professors!</p>
<p>I will say that Princeton stands out in my memory for two funny reasons. Our guide, who was my favorite one of all the tours we took, was very honest and open. When he spoke about the library lending program that the Ivys have amongst themselves he added, “Except Harvard, they don’t participate.” The way he said “Harvard” made it sound like Harvard was a sibling that he did not get along well with…a verbal eye-roll if you will. </p>
<p>He also pointed out the train station on campus and told us how it was great because people clear out on the weekends and the train station makes it so easy to get to NYC and Philly. Instantly all the teens on the tour perked up while all the parents looked vaguely alarmed. </p>
<p>Here’s what stood out to me:</p>
<p>Brandeis: There is a castle on campus! It’s so cool! </p>
<p>Brown: This was my favorite campus. The size felt right and the building were just lovely. </p>
<p>UMASS: It’s so big and has so many programs that it felt you could be interested in anything and find a class on it.</p>
<p>Harvard: Cambridge is so crowded! I had no idea. The campus itself was much more peaceful. Every staff member we came into contact with was so nice.</p>
<p>Yale: The quads were spectacular, just picture perfect. The student’s were enthusiastic and quick to share their love of all things Yale.</p>
<p>Northeastern: Two co-ops plus a semester abroad? Very interesting and PMKjr was sold right away. Now we are a Northeastern family! Go, Huskies!</p>
<p>Here’s a compilation of all the previous comments. I alphabetized everything and removed most personal comments, like whether you applied there or thought it was “cool”, but kept the specific impressions. Please add more by copying and adding. If a college is already mentioned, rewrite the name so you can see it’s another opinion.</p>
<p>Amherst-No Italian program.</p>
<p>Bard: Quirky students, and they were the most quirky of the colleges he visited</p>
<p>Boston College: All the cool Catholic kids. The library is exactly how I pictured the Hogwarts library, </p>
<p>Boston University: They have a Quidditch team. BU: no college campus, whatsoever.</p>
<p>Brandeis: There is a castle on campus!</p>
<p>Brown - open curriculum. The size felt right and the building were just lovely. </p>
<p>Bucknell: The most vanilla college ever seen</p>
<p>Columbia - The core curriculum. </p>
<p>Carnegie Mellon - arts + science (something about how they came together, etc.) CMU: One big carnival and fun fest all year according to the tour guides, but no joy seen on campus</p>
<p>Clemson’s school spirit. Seriously, I know a lot of schools have spirit but these folks live and breathe orange 24/7/365.</p>
<p>Colgate: has the automated retrieval system in its library.</p>
<p>Connecticut College: They have a program where a select number of students get a paid summer internship in a foreign country between their junior and senior years. They also give the students a lot of responsibility. </p>
<p>Cornell - huge, beautiful Finger Lakes in the distance, waterfall. Hard to get to.</p>
<p>Dickinson: A train track and major road splits the campus</p>
<p>Duquesne: A whole different world from it’s surrounding</p>
<p>Elon: large and beautiful fountains (especially when they’re lit at night). Also their emphasis on “engaged learning” which doesn’t seem to be lip service, it seems to permeate every single thing they do.</p>
<p>Fordham: The perfect campus choices with Lincon Center/Rose Hill choice</p>
<p>Gettysburg: The biggest graveyard ever</p>
<p>Goucher: Feels like out of away campus with a town and shopping center right on the rim. Country club feel, but ominous feeling that the academics are intense</p>
<p>Harvard: a a dark and soulless place. Harvard: Cambridge is so crowded! I had no idea. The campus itself was much more peaceful. Every staff member we came into contact with was so nice.</p>
<p>Holy Cross: Serious atmosphere. Holy Cross - hilliest. campus. ever. </p>
<p>Johns Hopkins - They put a huuuge emphasis on research. And while research is found everywhere, their expenditures are pretty impressive. Hopkins: Perfect southern campus</p>
<p>Lehigh - second hilliest, and a new casino at the edge of the campus (I guess that’s an improvement, there used to be an active steel mill at the edge of the campus).SUNY Buffalo: Everything brand spanking new and sparkling clean</p>
<p>Loyola: The most cramped campus that isn’t in a city</p>
<p>Manhattan College: The biggest apartment/dorm complex relative to campus he has ever seen</p>
<p>Marist’s location & view - literally on the bank of the Hudson</p>
<p>Mary Washington: Looks like a private college, beautiful women</p>
<p>Middlebury: So, so pretty. Middlebury: Their emphasis on Foreign Languages</p>
<p>MIT - had BUBBLE TEA!! </p>
<p>Northeastern: Co-op opportunities - often imitated, never duplicated. They’re the original at it and probably still the best.</p>
<p>Northwestern: Boring tour/info session. Northwestern: see the sights of Chicago across the lake, enjoy a “real” college campus in a suburban setting. Evanston…most restaurants in the country</p>
<p>Penn State: the quintessential college campus</p>
<p>Pitt: A priest taking confessions in the open grassy area on a lawn chair</p>
<p>Princeton, eating clubs. Princeton - the required senior thesis. Princeton-Highest concentration of people wearing polo shirts. Nassau street is the definition of WASPy. Aaron Burr went there. </p>
<p>Providence: Priests in the dorms? Yuuugh.</p>
<p>Salve Regina: The mansions. </p>
<p>Smith: they offered engineering (an LAC and a women’s college) </p>
<p>Stanford: Pinkberry on campus.</p>
<p>St Mary’s Md: Most beautiful campus ever, on the very tip of Maryland</p>
<p>Stonehill: has the only Shovel Museum in the world on their campus.</p>
<p>SUNY Maritime: Bare bones</p>
<p>Tulane: Gumbo, gumbo, gumbo. Gumbo!</p>
<p>Quinnipiac: Almost all freshmen housed in quads, and trying to sell that as a plus. 5000 students, but only 3 or 4 academic buildings? </p>
<p>Union’s Minerva House system (all incoming students are assigned to one of 8 houses for social purposes).</p>
<p>UMASS: It’s so big and has so many programs that it felt you could be interested in anything and find a class on it.</p>
<p>UChicago: gave out free t-shirts on the tour. </p>
<p>UPenn-Dorms resembled dungeons.</p>
<p>Vandy: There’s a full sized recreation of the pantheon near campus. </p>
<p>WUSTL: therapeutic mattresses. Food - chef used to work at La Bellagio in Las Vegas. Freshman programs - like Mind, Brain, and Behavior.</p>
<p>William & Mary: across the street from historic Williamsburg. Thomas Jefferson is an alum.</p>
<p>Yale: residential colleges Yale: The quads were spectacular, just picture perfect. The student’s were enthusiastic and quick to share their love of all things Yale.</p>
<ul>
<li>means ‘new’, delete the person’s previous* to make it easier.</li>
</ul>
<p>Amherst-No Italian program.</p>
<p>Bard: Quirky students, and they were the most quirky of the colleges he visited</p>
<p>Boston College: All the cool Catholic kids. The library is exactly how I pictured the Hogwarts library,</p>
<p>Boston University: They have a Quidditch team. BU: no college campus, whatsoever.</p>
<p>Brandeis: There is a castle on campus!</p>
<p>Brown - open curriculum. The size felt right and the building were just lovely.</p>
<p>Bucknell: The most vanilla college ever seen</p>
<p>Columbia - The core curriculum.</p>
<p>Carnegie Mellon - arts + science (something about how they came together, etc.) CMU: One big carnival and fun fest all year according to the tour guides, but no joy seen on campus</p>
<p>Clemson’s school spirit. Seriously, I know a lot of schools have spirit but these folks live and breathe orange 24/7/365.</p>
<p>Colgate: has the automated retrieval system in its library.</p>
<p>Connecticut College: They have a program where a select number of students get a paid summer internship in a foreign country between their junior and senior years. They also give the students a lot of responsibility.</p>
<p>Cornell - huge, beautiful Finger Lakes in the distance, waterfall. Hard to get to.</p>
<p>*Cornell - zooming traffic and buses through campus, disarmingly busy</p>
<p>Dickinson: A train track and major road splits the campus</p>
<p>Duquesne: A whole different world from it’s surrounding</p>
<p>Elon: large and beautiful fountains (especially when they’re lit at night). Also their emphasis on “engaged learning” which doesn’t seem to be lip service, it seems to permeate every single thing they do.</p>
<p>Fordham: The perfect campus choices with Lincon Center/Rose Hill choice</p>
<p>Gettysburg: The biggest graveyard ever</p>
<p>Goucher: Feels like out of away campus with a town and shopping center right on the rim. Country club feel, but ominous feeling that the academics are intense</p>
<p>*Hamilton: Really cool variety of architectural styles. Campus is "Adirondacky’ as opposed to “New Englandy.” Beautiful, cozy dorms with non-working fireplaces.</p>
<p>Harvard: a a dark and soulless place. Harvard: Cambridge is so crowded! I had no idea. The campus itself was much more peaceful. Every staff member we came into contact with was so nice.</p>
<p>Holy Cross: Serious atmosphere. Holy Cross - hilliest. campus. ever.</p>
<p>Johns Hopkins - They put a huuuge emphasis on research. And while research is found everywhere, their expenditures are pretty impressive. Hopkins: Perfect southern campus</p>
<p>Lehigh - second hilliest, and a new casino at the edge of the campus (I guess that’s an improvement, there used to be an active steel mill at the edge of the campus).SUNY Buffalo: Everything brand spanking new and sparkling clean</p>
<p>Loyola: The most cramped campus that isn’t in a city</p>
<p>Manhattan College: The biggest apartment/dorm complex relative to campus he has ever seen</p>
<p>Marist’s location & view - literally on the bank of the Hudson</p>
<p>*Marist – first term freshman study abroad program</p>
<p>Mary Washington: Looks like a private college, beautiful women</p>
<p>Middlebury: So, so pretty. Middlebury: Their emphasis on Foreign Languages</p>
<p>MIT - had BUBBLE TEA!!</p>
<p>Northeastern: Co-op opportunities - often imitated, never duplicated. They’re the original at it and probably still the best.</p>
<p>Northwestern: Boring tour/info session. Northwestern: see the sights of Chicago across the lake, enjoy a “real” college campus in a suburban setting. Evanston…most restaurants in the country</p>
<p>Penn State: the quintessential college campus</p>
<p>Pitt: A priest taking confessions in the open grassy area on a lawn chair</p>
<p>Princeton, eating clubs. Princeton - the required senior thesis. Princeton-Highest concentration of people wearing polo shirts. Nassau street is the definition of WASPy. Aaron Burr went there.</p>
<p>Providence: Priests in the dorms? Yuuugh.</p>
<p>Salve Regina: The mansions.</p>
<p>Smith: they offered engineering (an LAC and a women’s college)</p>
<p>Stanford: Pinkberry on campus.</p>
<p>St Mary’s Md: Most beautiful campus ever, on the very tip of Maryland</p>
<p>Stonehill: has the only Shovel Museum in the world on their campus.</p>
<p>SUNY Maritime: Bare bones</p>
<p>Tulane: Gumbo, gumbo, gumbo. Gumbo!</p>
<p>Quinnipiac: Almost all freshmen housed in quads, and trying to sell that as a plus. 5000 students, but only 3 or 4 academic buildings?</p>
<p>Union’s Minerva House system (all incoming students are assigned to one of 8 houses for social purposes).</p>
<p>UMASS: It’s so big and has so many programs that it felt you could be interested in anything and find a class on it.</p>
<p>UChicago: gave out free t-shirts on the tour.</p>
<p>UPenn-Dorms resembled dungeons.</p>
<p>*Wesleyan (ct) – 5 year masters - 5th year free - for some students. Her first choice.</p>
<p>Vandy: There’s a full sized recreation of the pantheon near campus.</p>
<p>WUSTL: therapeutic mattresses. Food - chef used to work at La Bellagio in Las Vegas. Freshman programs - like Mind, Brain, and Behavior.</p>
<p>William & Mary: across the street from historic Williamsburg. Thomas Jefferson is an alum.</p>
<p>Yale: residential colleges Yale: The quads were spectacular, just picture perfect. The student’s were enthusiastic and quick to share their love of all things Yale.</p>
<p>Don’t forget the house system at Smith. VERY unique if you ask me :D</p>
<p>Grinnell–intellectual AND unpretentious. Incredible facilities and activities and good merit aid too!</p>
<p>I love what Vassar said: Poughkeepsie. I kid you not!</p>
<p>Williams: Tutorials. Oxford Program.</p>
<p>Barnard: LAC within a research uni + NYC.</p>
<p>One college said: “We have students from every state except for two: North and South Dakota. If you know anyone from North or South Dakota, please tell them to apply here!”</p>
<p><<one college=“” said:=“” “we=”" have=“” students=“” from=“” every=“” state=“” except=“” for=“” two:=“” north=“” and=“” south=“” dakota.=“” if=“” you=“” know=“” anyone=“” or=“” dakota,=“” please=“” tell=“” them=“” to=“” apply=“” here!“=”">></one></p>
<p>I just heard that! We must have toured the same college.</p>
<p>@ldinct - Fordham has nice merit aid, $10K or so off for a good student <a href=“college%20confidential%20typical%20good,%20%20not%20real-life%20good,%20not%20college%20confidential%20outstanding”>i</a>*</p>
<p>Took a tour of UCLA today with my fourth kid because I had to kill time while waiting on an out of town guest. I decided during the tour that I honestly don’t think I can survive any more campus tours. I don’t want to hear any more about emergency buttons, how accessible professors are, how much school spirit there is, how the buildings get named, etc., etc.</p>
<p>How about superstitions? Like…
If you rub a certain statue’s particular body part, you get an A on your final
If a couple walks through a certain arch, they get married
etc.
I think that I’ve heard one of these at every tour!</p>
<p>I’ve also heard too many times–from visitors, rather than from the school–that X has the most or “one of the most” beautiful campuses in the country/ever. Beauty is a totally subjective decision to begin with, but at least try for… a more descriptive adjective? (E.g. I always call Swarthmore’s campus “stately” because that’s how it feels to me. Whereas Scripps is more like a perfectly manicured garden.)</p>