<p>@prepschoolwannab i watched that film! Yeah, I remember Choate being featured there.</p>
<p>Please Note!!: The replies to this thread are NOT meant to include the names of the schools. Just your anecdotal experiences. (see the OP’s request)</p>
<p>@cameo43 sorry for my incompetence</p>
<p>boardingschoolx: please, don’t think of yourself as incompetent. You are not. But when posters haven’t read the thread from the beginning, they can sometimes miss something important. I think the OP’s intent was for us to share our stories without naming the schools, to avoid hurt feelings (like: ‘how could you say that about my wonderful school… our tour guides are always so nice…’ etc.). There are so many other threads where things get stirred up… just trying to avoid that here! </p>
<p>BUMP 
</p>
<p>At one school I visited, one I applied to last year, I was interviewed by an English teacher. Perfect, right? I’m an English person! Writing is my strongest academic subject and the form of art where I’m most talented. </p>
<p>Wrong. She was cold. My mom was telling her about my writing awards and she said “well we expect everyone here can write.”</p>
<p>Really? That’s like saying “everyone can draw” because we can all do stick figures. Or “everyone can sing” because we can open our mouths and make noise. </p>
<p>Fun topic. I was just discussing with my family what we think happened to make us drop one school off our list after visiting.</p>
<p>AO was nice. I got the impression that she “got” my quirky daughter pretty quickly. Swim coach was very personable. But they paired us up with 2 student tour guides - both day students, neither of them particularly science/math types, no shared interests or sports. Both were more quiet and reserved. They didn’t hold up their end of a conversation at all. I wouldn’t have put it at the top of our list, but DD made it clear that she had no intention of going to that school even if it was the only place she was accepted, so we have not continued the application for that school.</p>
<p>At another school the number of kids walking through campus with their heads down looking at their phones really turned me off - to the point I brought it up during the AO interview. It’s still on the apply list, but lower in my estimation because of the phone issue. This is where I’ll admit that Hotchkiss rose in my estimation a little based on how hard it was to get a cell phone connection there!</p>
<p>The best school tour we had was actually when we were paired up with another family touring and interviewing the same day. Our guide was personable and bubbly, my daughter and the other young lady were both swimmers and hit it off immediately. They kept up a conversation in the AO waiting room the whole time we were there. It was a refreshing change to find that easy conversation from another applicant and made a good impression on my daughter. I can see where touring families together at highly competitive schools could backfire, but in this case it was a bonus for us.</p>
<p>Why do we have to do with the OP wants? I like it when the schools are identified.</p>
<p>
I vehemently disagree with this.</p>
<p>As a matter of perspective, when I was going through the selection process, there was a school that I crossed of the list in a nanosecond due to academic requirements, athletic offerings (lack thereof), and physical plant. However, many students and their parents think this school is the greatest thing since sliced bread.</p>
<p>You need to decide what is important to you/your child, without being unduly influenced by an anonymous community.</p>
<p>In defense of cell phone use on the pathways…my kid often used those minutes between classes, or walking from classes to sports, to give us a quick call. It seemed like a good idea to me…better than sucking up studying or social time. Now it they had the phones out in the classroom, I’d be turned off.</p>
<p>I agree with @jmtabb. Seeing kids walking around with their heads up, greeting others on the pathways, was a refreshing change from everyday life at home and it was one of the things that made me value the BS setting. One of the schools we visited didn’t restrict phone use on the campus and there was a big difference in the feel of the campus community - kids were more isolated in their own world and less interactive. The phone use was one thing that turned us off from that particular school.</p>
<p>In defense of my impressions at the school re: cell phones - </p>
<p>My comments mostly referred to the kids who were texting or otherwise using their smart phones for something other than calling someone. The lack of interaction among the kids as they were passing between classes was noticeable, especially as this was our 5th school visit in as many days and the only place where we saw kids walking through campus using their phones at all.</p>
<p>And it was Halloween! I really expected to see <em>more</em> student interaction outside of class on Halloween, not less. While I won’t name any names here, all of the schools we visited were top name schools regularly mentioned on these boards.</p>
<p>When I brought it up to the AO, I was told that they figure it’s the student’s responsibility to learn how to balance their on-line time with their other responsibilities, and that as an adviser he’d bring it up only if he saw it turning into a distraction. I preferred the approaches at the other campuses we visited - keep it discreet i.e., step outside or return to your room for a phone call), focus more on where you are now and who is with you now and don’t let the tech in your pocket be more important than your “real life”.</p>
<p>At one school I visited that was one of my top choices, I saw the same thing. I was walking by the dining hall and everyone was staring at a screen. It was disconcerting. </p>
<p>One school had a very “old” (read rundown) career center building, smelled musty. </p>
<p>RE: identifying schools. Vehement all you wish, but innumerable threads, both current and historical, on CC are replete with impressions that identify schools. Don’t know why you feel Andover should be immune to identity while URochester (et al) gets knocked for bad dorms or weather, whatever. I liked Andover because when I stopped at a local pizza shop, they had half the kids cellphones and email addresses at Andover input into a system for immediate pizza delivery, along with preferences! The rest of Andover seemed ok, but the athletic facilities were embarrassingly bad and, of course, Andover could do nothing about the fact that it is located in New England, which has God-awful weather from November to April. Bleak, bleak, bleak . . . </p>
<p>This wasn’t a turnoff, just something funny I noticed at one school. There was a door from their admission waiting room that opened to a hallway, and to the right of the door was another door to the women’s bathroom. So the first door, the one to the admission room, had the restroom symbol on it. When I came back with my interviewer, my mom noticed the two of us coming out of the bathroom door. ^#(^ </p>
<p>I actually hate kids staring at cell phones all the time so agree that that would be a turn-off. I’d probably just try to assess how many were really staring at cell phones (certainly there are some good reasons to be texting or reading texts between classes) vs. greeting others on the paths. I’m a college teacher, and constantly need to remind myself of the many students don’t use their cell phones in class because my attention is always drawn to the few that do.</p>