<p>"I think parents (and kids) on this forum get stuck in believing that every single thing about the top 20 or so colleges on the various "lists" is just wonderful. That is not the case"</p>
<p>Comments welcome, but will only have value if you name the school. This could be interesting.</p>
<p>The thing I like least about my kids U is the neighborhood. USC is in a working class neighborhood. On the other hand, I also like that it is so close to so many opportunities because it IS an urban environment & so great for cinema, engineering & so many fields BECAUSE of its location.</p>
<p>I guess I don’t like that they don’t have enough housing for the kids to be on campus all 4 years if they choose. That could create a closer student body, but both kids haven’t had trouble getting good housing just off campus.</p>
<p>Perhaps you haven’t hung around the Parents Forum long enough. There are HEFTY doses of skepticism in there. The kind of people who take the time to read and post there want the best for their kids and don’t take a lot for granted. Grains of salt are rock sized. At best, I’ve seen parent posters admit on some occasions to fall under the spell or hype that a college puts out there, but then they come back to their senses.</p>
<p>So, just to make it clear for future posters to this thread: You’re only looking for dirt on the top 20 or so?</p>
<p>HImom:</p>
<p>I guess it’s hard to have it both ways in too many places. Looked at from a different perspective, living in an area such as that which USC is located in should heighten awareness of students to some basic “street smarts” if you will. This may hold them in good stead if their first few jobs are in a heavily urban area, as first jobs usually don’t come with salaries that allow those workers to live in the very best parts of town.</p>
<p>Anyway, hope your kids are doing well at USC. My H is on faculty there.</p>
<p>Carnegie Mellon:
The food is pretty bad and kids tend to get off the mealplan ASAP, which I think leads to less socializing around meals. (I’m a big believer in the residential college system.)</p>
<p>The dorm offerings are very different and priced accordingly. This wouldn’t be so bad, but incoming freshman are ordered by when they accept the CMU offer, so people who don’t have to compare financial aid offers (or who just take a while to make up their mind) end up disadvantaged.</p>
<p>A lot of upper classmen live off campus.</p>
<p>Educationally no complaints! I love the neighborhood.</p>
<p>Oberlin:
Seems to be a lot of “petty thievery” (bikes, cell phones, backpacks, etc) that i had not anticipated, and that doesn’t seem to occur at many other schools. My daughter (a senior) says it is the students themselves, and she is amazed when she visits her friends schools and they can leave laptops in the library, jackets on hooks outside the cafeteria, etc, and not get ripped off. Disappointing. Otherwise love the school.</p>
<p>Rice- Most of the sports teams suck (except baseball). Some people have a problem with the fact that housing is not guaranteed for all 4 years, but that usually works out just fine. Otherwise, pretty awesome. Balletmom- Rice had the petty theft problem, too, especially with bikes.</p>
<p>Penn- Safety of the surrounding area. Freshman food plan (required) is expensive and you don’t get your money’s worth. Much more of a Greek presence than an applicant would realize. Off-campus housing options are mainly horrible (slum landlords) with a couple exceptions which are hard to land. Service people have a bad attitude and are surly and rude- especially to students.</p>
<p>Vanderbilt:</p>
<p>Must be honest - so far, its been pretty perfect! If I had to pick something, it would be the tuition! Although, every other school he considered was in the same price range, so I guess there was no way around that.</p>
<p>UC San Diego: The expensive of living off-campus anywhere nearby.</p>
<p>University of Maryland, College Park: Theft. My son had bicycles stolen three times in his four years there. </p>
<p>Cornell: Location, location, location. At times other than scheduled breaks, when there are charter buses available to practically everywhere, getting in and out of there is a hassle, especially for students who don’t have cars.</p>
<p>The cost. (And it doesn’t matter the school – tuition is too high at ALL the schools).</p>
<p>I also particularly resent mandatory fixed cost meal plans & their cost – coupled with limited hours of campus dining halls, meaning the kids miss the meals their parents have prepaid.</p>
<p>*I also particularly resent mandatory fixed cost meal plans & their cost *</p>
<p>A major drag if the food isn’t good. </p>
<p>What I can’t understand is this. My kids’ school has several dining venues, yet one venue has food that isn’t nearly as tasty as the others. Why the inconsistency? Why not move some management/cooks/food preparers around and correct that issue? How hard would that be???</p>
<p>Yes, I don’t think any of us are fond of the high cost of tuition, “fees,” housing, and inflated food prices. Fortunately, S only had to buy the mandatory meal plan the 1st year. Thereafter & when D transferred, neither bought any meal plan but prefer to purchase what they want on campus as they need to. Mostly, they prefer to keep the fridge stocked & eat in their apartments & off campus instead of inflated campus food that tends toward monotony.</p>
<p>dwhite: braggard…lol…just trying to aggravate me that my daughter chose to go elsewhere…</p>
<p>not top 20 school so can’t comment…</p>
<p>Penn State (in top 50 last I checked) </p>
<p>Too much focus on drinking
BAD basketball team
Cloudy most days (don’t go there if you have SAD!)
Expensive OOS without much fin aid. </p>
<p>For those of you who think your kid’s school is perfect - I suggest not posting here…lol.</p>
<p>ucla- under construction like always-- buidling everywhere—even when they don’t have the money to retain upper division seminars or discussions with big lectures or reasonable class sizes. right now, they are breaking ground on new dorms (which are not for expanded student enrollment) when they have enough for everyone to have 2 years in a dorm, and have raised tutition twice in 7 months due to the state budget crisis for those with incomes over 60k/year. </p>
<p>Also, my d’s 4-year merit scholarship and alumni scholar status came with benefits that were taken away from her in years 2-3 and 4. It was unethical of them not to freeze benefits for those current students.</p>
<p>Michigan’s disability services are ineffective and transfer students are treated pretty poorly. I would have given MSU and GVSU a better look had I known that coming in. Because it is so huge and so bureaucratic, a lot of departments manage to shirk their responsibilities insisting it is some other departments job, when really it isn’t, and the student is left to pick up the slack. That last thing is something I expected with a big school and generally don’t mind as I am usually on top of things anyway, but that combined with the lackluster disabilities office makes for an extremely frustrating situation for disabled students.</p>
<p>I am also not satisfied with the security. For the most part I think it is pretty good, but the rules they have in place need to be better enforced (and not contradicted with other rules), and I think the number of blue light phones we have is so absurd we may as well not have that system. They have them at BFs school and while sometimes you have to make a run for it, there is always a phone in sight. I only know the location of one here off the top of my head, I almost never see them. But then again, when you call 911 they don’t come get you anyway, my roommate and I were followed home by someone that came out of a bar after us and the police let us walk a whole mile with him 10 paces back and met us at our dorm to file a report rather than actually coming to help us. </p>
<p>The crime alert system isn’t very good, either. I’ve only gotten two or three emails all year, but I’ve seen dozens of postings in remote places on campus that the vast majority of students are never going to see. And if they can make the argument that it isn’t on campus, we don’t hear about it even if it really probably is considered to be on the campus by most people.</p>
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<p>True, but it’s generally a parent with a specific concern on a specific campus seeking feedback about that concern. I’m wondering what the benefit might be of soliciting random complaints about random colleges. Just group venting?</p>
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<p>Is that venue in an older or more crowded building? The poorer food may reflect an older or smaller kitchen, with poorer food preparation facilities.</p>
<p>This all started because I got blasted for questioning the safety of the Penn campus after a shooting at campus two weeks ago. When I point out safety concerns I get accused of always being negative about Penn and the northeast, so the OP started this thread.</p>
<p>rodney - sorry, didnt know your daughter chose another school. Yes, I did feel like a braggard but, I couldnt think of anything! Ask me again in a year-he is only a freshman!</p>