<p>I would not apply and I discourage my Ds from applying to any school that has a dumb or ridiculous sounding name. Case in point: Harvey Mudd. Just can't see going to a college whose "name is Mudd."</p>
<p>Similarly, I would not live in a town or on a street that had a bad name. I'm a big believer in the power of place names.</p>
<p>"I would not apply and I discourage my Ds from applying to any school that has a dumb or ridiculous sounding name. Case in point: Harvey Mudd. Just can't see going to a college whose "name is Mudd.""</p>
<p>Seems a bit shallow considering Mudd offers one of the best undergraduate educations in the country.</p>
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<blockquote> <p>Seems a bit shallow considering Mudd offers one of the best undergraduate educations in the country.<<</p> </blockquote>
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<p>Seems a bit harsh considering that, as the title indicates, the thread is about ridiculous reasons. Doesn't seem any shallower than not choosing schools because they had pictures of too many nuns in the brochure.</p>
<p>Anybody who goes to a school named Mudd better develop a sense of humor about it, because you are going to get strange looks from people over it for the rest of your life.</p>
<p>I got used to respecting the name "Mudd" because of the Sealy G. Mudd Learning Center, a wonderful library, or "MuddCenter", at Oberlin College. We never made fun of Mudd--much too busy giggling about the Robert K. Carr Pool ("Carpool"). </p>
<p>As for the STD story, what happend to the incest ban against sleeping with the prospies (=prospective students). I'm shocked, really shocked...</p>
<p>To keep the thread on track, all my kids shied away from Alfred University b/c it's their dad's middle name.</p>
<p>Colgate U - too toothpasty sounding....</p>
<p>I quit worrying about the "Mudd" name when I kept seeing it (and Olin) on science and engineering buildings at great schools all over the country!</p>
<p>Applied to and attended Furman University because it was in the same city as my guidance counselor's alma mater and so he recommended it. My guidance counselor went to Bob Jones University. I knew nada about it. My parents knew very little about colleges. Four to six people total went to residential college from my high school class. However, on weekend nights Bob Jones posted people on street corners with Bibles and some ear shattering hell and damnation shouting in downtown Greenville. Bob Jones Junior always took the lead in the annual Shakespeare plays, or so I was told. What a Romeo.</p>
<p>Whoa!</p>
<p>Fear was the prime factor in my decision. I admit it, I was afraid to leave home! I applied to only one school (man, we midwesterners were so far behind the rest of the nation!) - a small, private, Catholic college 15 minutes from home. I lived at home, didn't study aboard (did people do that in the mid 70s?). My "Mass in Latin loving Catholic father" was so proud I was attending a Catholic college that he never questioned the fact that my education was costing more than my 2 brothers and a sister combined. I don't recall ever attending a sporting event, play, etc. I have one junior in college and a senior in the final stages of selecting her college for next fall - as we go on campus visits, hear all the things my older one is involved in at school, I really regret that I didn't make a better choice "back when". I refuse to let either of my Ds make the same mistakes.</p>
<p>As a college counselor at a high school I have to laugh at the reasons kids have told me for not selecting a particular school: "There were too many hills to walk," "It was raining there," "I just can't imagine myself being a banana slug or being around banana slugs." </p>
<p>The reasons for selecting a school are almost as good: "The food was so good," "Everyone said hi to me," "They let you paint your dorm room," "The have a dorm for cats (and their owners). </p>
<p>I've started keeping a journal in my desk with these reasons...one day I may write a book. :)</p>
<p>Mythreed, sounds like you're talking about my alma mater in your first paragraph--Humboldt! (Our mascot is actually the Lumberjack, but the environmentalists have been pushing to have it changed to the banana slug for years).</p>
<p>My Top-Ten Reasons for Choosing Humboldt . . .
10. Nice dorms
9. Highly-rated teacher preparation program
8. Small classes and relatively small school
7. No one from my high school was going there
6. It was in California (parents required it to be in CA)
5. It was a CSU or UC school (another parent requirement)
4. I could get in super easy (I had a good GPA and really high SAT scores)
3. It had redwoods
2. It rains a lot up there (I hate the heat in So-Cal)
1. It was the college that was the farthest way from parents and still met their requirements.</p>
<p>(And somehow I was so naive that I had no idea there were so many hills, stairs, or drugs when I applied. I probably wouldn't have gone if I had. How did we ever make college decisions without the use of the Internet back then?)</p>
<p>I picked one school over the other because there were more boys. It was a no brainer for me, 45% vs. 52%!</p>
<p>My daughter refused to consider Cornell because it's too hilly. </p>
<p>I talked her out of applying to Barnard after we got lost on the subway & ended up in Spanish Harlem.</p>
<p>My son picked the school where the secretary in the admissions office said "Oh great, we've been waiting for you!" over the school where the secretary asked how to spell his name.</p>
<p>avcaster, the banana slug is the mascot for UC Santa Cruz. ;)</p>
<p>But is there anybody who chose a college because it was expensive and preppy! and had a good brand tag!?</p>
<p>I chose my school (Wash U in STL) because my guidance counselor did his Master's there and thought I would like it. My mother visited with me and she walked around saying, "Just think of all the knowledge and learning that has soaked into these walls." It was embarassing. But I went ED and liked it.</p>
<p>D-7, i think I kinda did. I picked my college because it was soooo pretty and southern (I'm from Long Island, NY), and "elite", with tons of old old traditions, and everyone there dressed nice and old-school preppy, and everyone said hi to me. and it was a private school and pretty expensive. Needless to say, I transferred to a more "liberal" liberal arts school in good ol' New Jersey after my freshman year. I'm just finishing up my soph. year here and I couldn't be happier...</p>
<p>Unfortunately I think a lot of kid choose their college the same way I did....</p>
<p>Friends were going there</p>
<p>My best friend's brilliant s applied to 10 colleges last year and was accepted at all ten. Since all were wonderful schools, he was faced with quite a dilemma. During his family's annual spring vacation at DisneyWorld, he kept track of college t-shirts and decided to attend the school whose shirt he saw last. As he was leaving the park on his final day he saw a kid in a particular shirt and thought he had made his decision. As he was boarding his flight home the next day he saw a kid in a shirt from another school on his list (probably his real first choice, though not his parents') and decided to go there. He's finishing his first year and the school was the perfect match for him. I guess the answer is out there if you look hard enough.</p>
<p>Coureur -- LOL. Seriously?</p>
<p>My daughter is taking a serious look at a college which she applied to because it has a (to her) <em>interesting</em> name. Or at least it caught her attention in the first place because of the name. Wooster. And yeah, if she were a Harvey Mudd type, she would probably be headed there because she likes the name.</p>
<p>Do you think that it is because our last name is <em>weird?</em> It is a name that everyone asks how to spell and pronounce.</p>
<p>Anyway, on our college visit, we had to go take a look at the thrift store in Wooster. She needed to make sure the town had a thrift store. She likes to shop in thrift stores. And guess what, Wooster has a thrift store that passes muster.</p>
<p>I always joked that I chose my college because it was as close to Fenway park as I could get. It's true that is is close to Fenway Park, but the real reason I chose it was it was simple the best school for my major for undergrad that I got into.</p>