<p>We visited more than 20 schools. Some memorable ones for us:</p>
<p>Best Experience:</p>
<p>Northeastern: Toured on a formal visitation day, HUGE turnout. They handled the crowds expertly, and we felt welcome by everyone starting right with the parking attendant. Registration was amazing and efficient, and a beautiful continental breakfast started things off right. They even added another large general information session on the fly to handle the crowds and never missed a beat. The whole school was a surprise to us, as we never expected the campus feel and green space in the middle of Boston. We visited three more times after that first experience, and ultimately my son selected Northeastern and is very happy there.</p>
<p>Good:</p>
<p>University of Rochester: Toured on a formal visitation day. Lack of parking on campus meant taking a shuttle from remote parking, but they ran a great general info session and they gave a nice tour. Although the day was well done, the school didn’t “click” with my son and he did not apply. </p>
<p>University at Albany (SUNY): This was our safety school, and they did a really good job with their information sessions and tours. I liked Albany’s tour much better than SUNY Binghamton. Ironically, though, it highlighted the shortcomings of the College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering (CNSE) Albany campus, now known as SUNY Polytechnic, where my son would take his classes. He turned down a full-ride scholarship from them when it became clear how disorganized and amateurish they were. The CNSE/SUNY Poly tour emphasizes the billions in investments in clean rooms and chip fabrication research, but spends precious little time on the student experience.</p>
<p>Franklin & Marshall: My son loved this campus and the tour, applied and was accepted. He eliminated them in the final cut since they don’t provide any merit aid and it wasn’t worth sticker price to attend.</p>
<p>Worst experience:</p>
<p>Boston College: Started out bad when we had to walk WAY out of our way around a line of 6 buses and heavy security at the football stadium. Why? The football team was heading out for a road game. You’d have thought the President was there, with all the police and security. I did not like the impression of a sports team being treated like royalty. We got there early, and asked the nuns at the info desk where we could get a bite to eat for lunch. They sent us to a dining facility that felt like a dungeon. The food was not good, WAY expensive, and the staff was crabby. The information session was BORING. Seemed like half of the incoming students were prospective student athletes, strutting around in their high school varsity jackets. They have a beautiful campus, but we hated the vibe. </p>
<p>Other bad events:</p>
<p>RPI: Worst general info session EVER. Boring speaker, uninformative session. Don’t know why anyone would apply after hearing that.</p>
<p>RIT: We were turned off right at the information session, when the speaker told everyone that they had to apply for their specific major, and warned not think you could change majors later. Seemed too rigid. Huge campus in the middle of nowhere, and you’d better like brick buildings that all look the same.</p>
<p>Princeton: Tour seemed to assume EVERYONE would want to go there. Riffed for too long on how great their supper clubs are. Seemed elitist and snobby. The tour group was WAY too big and people could not hear. Completely forgettable in every way. </p>
<p>Olin: Went on a formal visitation day. The material said registration and tours start at 10:30… so guess what? Hundreds of people showed up for 10:30, took a 20 minute tour (there are only 5 buildings total on campus), and were waiting in the auditorium by 11:00. The school had not scheduled any formal presentations until noon! The Dean took the stage at 11:15, and told the crowd he didn’t understand why people were there so early when the schedule said events started at noon. With a couple hundred parents and students sitting there with nothing else to do, the Dean ad-libbed for a half hour about how great Olin is, then did pretty much the same thing again at the formal event at noon. The students were smart and enthusiastic and represented their school well, though. This is one of those schools where, in retrospect, I’m not even sure why my son bothered to apply. We threw away 80 bucks on a rejection.</p>
<p>SUNY Geneseo: We went on a beautiful spring day when no tours were offered, as they were preparing for an accepted students event the following day. Fortunately we knew a student there that gave us an informal tour. They have a cute campus in a nice small town, but the funniest thing was the breeze coming up the hill from the farm fields below… carrying the overpowering smell of freshly spread cow manure throughout the entire town! LOL! I bet they were praying for a wind shift before their big accepted students day!</p>
<p>All in all, this was a great experience to go through with my kid. Even the schools we didn’t like taught us something about what factors were important to my son, and I don’t regret any of our visits. In fact, it was harder to draw the line and say “enough,” thinking that we might have missed a school that would be even better!</p>