For fun: first impressions of colleges based on tours...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Five College Area - bucolic and classic New England, but seriously in the middle of nowhere aside from the towns of Amherst and Northampton in Western Mass (which is nothing like Eastern Mass)

Skidmore - ugly buildings and depressed downtown

Vassar - Beautiful buildings and depressed town

Dartmouth - pristine, remote, cold, everything was pine green, lots of frat houses and the smell of beer in the air

Brandeis - huge castle on an otherwise modern campus

BU - has the Mass Pike and Storrow Drive running through it

Skidmore’s Saratoga Springs downtown is far from depressed lmaoo

[Anonymous]

Harvard: architecture doesn’t match its reputation

Berkeley: so many homeless people right outside the lush campus

Dartmouth: just like my prep school. Only bigger.

Amherst: guessing they have a town vs gown type of rivalry with UMass Amherst

Princeton: so quaint, in a high tea kind of way.

Penn: couldn’t figure it out beyond the main walk

[Anonymous]

We toured Clemson when my dd was in elementary school. She couldn’t get over the way it is pronounced (Clempson). The whole tour, she kept muttering, there isn’t a p.

Her best friend just shared she wants to go to Clemson, and she is still struggling with the p.

[Anonymous]

UVA - dirty and muddy everywhere except the “Lawn” — underwhelmed — “too ugly”

W&M — foliage and some bridge where people got engaged, using this as a “hook” on the tour repelled DD

VT - gray buildings, too military-ish

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We toured Clemson when my dd was in elementary school. She couldn’t get over the way it is pronounced (Clempson). The whole tour, she kept muttering, there isn’t a p.

Her best friend just shared she wants to go to Clemson, and she is still struggling with the p.

Hilarious! I have no connection with this school at all, am a native of NoVA, and I do not say it with a “p” sound. Do most people actually pronounce it that way? (?). I (maybe like your daughter) am just pronouncing it as it is spelled? (?).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We toured a lot of colleges with our kid. Almost all were immediately and often illogically hated and these are the reasons why. This was in spring and fall of 2019.

JMU: the highway and bus system
VT: hokie this and hokie that all day long
CNU: The walmart down the road had the kitchen knife sets locked behind glass
UVA: hated the campus
URochester: yellow jacket mascot
Lafayette: tour guide referenced Harry Potter and a quidditch team
Marist: tour guide mentioned free tutoring too much
Cornell: everyone was walking and eating alone with airpods in
Ithaca: lots of blue and burgundy hair and black clothes, decided to skip the tour completely
Skidmore: there was some festival in town and lots of guys wearing skirts
UVM: too many beanies for a 60 degree day
Colgate:we literally had to stop the car because a bear was in the road
Villanova:kid misheard the tour guide and spent the whole tour thinking the school had 60,000 students, so had already dismissed it

Ok but seems a little harsh for CNU to be judged based on a Wal-Mart’s display decision.

My kid refused to get out of the car at Roanoke College because the buildings seemed old, after we had driven all that way. I was so annoyed.

You are the second poster to post about "refusal to get out of the car." I really can't imagine how ashamed you must be to have raised such a brat. If my kid did that I'd be refusing to help with college.

Ehhh, not the OP, but a parent. I remember back in the day my parents “swinging by” a random school in our way home from a family vacation “just to take a look” and it has never been mentioned in our family, I had never expressed interest in it, and it just lengthened the trip home. I of course did get out and walk around but I too was not mentally into it, and nothing about the trip endeared me to the school. I was very nonplussed by the whole experience.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Harvard: architecture doesn’t match its reputation

Berkeley: so many homeless people right outside the lush campus

Dartmouth: just like my prep school. Only bigger.

Amherst: guessing they have a town vs gown type of rivalry with UMass Amherst

Princeton: so quaint, in a high tea kind of way.

Penn: couldn’t figure it out beyond the main walk

I don’t think you know what high tea really is.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We toured a lot of colleges with our kid. Almost all were immediately and often illogically hated and these are the reasons why. This was in spring and fall of 2019.

JMU: the highway and bus system
VT: hokie this and hokie that all day long
CNU: The walmart down the road had the kitchen knife sets locked behind glass
UVA: hated the campus
URochester: yellow jacket mascot
Lafayette: tour guide referenced Harry Potter and a quidditch team
Marist: tour guide mentioned free tutoring too much
Cornell: everyone was walking and eating alone with airpods in
Ithaca: lots of blue and burgundy hair and black clothes, decided to skip the tour completely
Skidmore: there was some festival in town and lots of guys wearing skirts
UVM: too many beanies for a 60 degree day
Colgate:we literally had to stop the car because a bear was in the road
Villanova:kid misheard the tour guide and spent the whole tour thinking the school had 60,000 students, so had already dismissed it

Ok but seems a little harsh for CNU to be judged based on a Wal-Mart’s display decision.

My kid refused to get out of the car at Roanoke College because the buildings seemed old, after we had driven all that way. I was so annoyed.

You are the second poster to post about "refusal to get out of the car." I really can't imagine how ashamed you must be to have raised such a brat. If my kid did that I'd be refusing to help with college.

Ehhh, not the OP, but a parent. I remember back in the day my parents “swinging by” a random school in our way home from a family vacation “just to take a look” and it has never been mentioned in our family, I had never expressed interest in it, and it just lengthened the trip home. I of course did get out and walk around but I too was not mentally into it, and nothing about the trip endeared me to the school. I was very nonplussed by the whole experience.

I still remember refusing to get out of the car to see Smith.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We toured Clemson when my dd was in elementary school. She couldn’t get over the way it is pronounced (Clempson). The whole tour, she kept muttering, there isn’t a p.

Her best friend just shared she wants to go to Clemson, and she is still struggling with the p.

Hilarious! I have no connection with this school at all, am a native of NoVA, and I do not say it with a “p” sound. Do most people actually pronounce it that way? (?). I (maybe like your daughter) am just pronouncing it as it is spelled? (?).

Without the p sound the s sounds sort of like a /z/. Every person on campus who said the name pronounced it with the p sound- it was worse if they had a strong southern accent. I have to admit I had never noticed, but I can’t stop hearing it ever since. The football announcers say the p too.

She also remembers lots of orange tiger paws on the road, but she liked those.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We toured Clemson when my dd was in elementary school. She couldn’t get over the way it is pronounced (Clempson). The whole tour, she kept muttering, there isn’t a p.

Her best friend just shared she wants to go to Clemson, and she is still struggling with the p.

Hilarious! I have no connection with this school at all, am a native of NoVA, and I do not say it with a “p” sound. Do most people actually pronounce it that way? (?). I (maybe like your daughter) am just pronouncing it as it is spelled? (?).

Without the p sound the s sounds sort of like a /z/. Every person on campus who said the name pronounced it with the p sound- it was worse if they had a strong southern accent. I have to admit I had never noticed, but I can’t stop hearing it ever since. The football announcers say the p too.

She also remembers lots of orange tiger paws on the road, but she liked those.

Half of my husband’s extended family went there and none of them say it with a P sound.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We toured a lot of colleges with our kid. Almost all were immediately and often illogically hated and these are the reasons why. This was in spring and fall of 2019.

JMU: the highway and bus system
VT: hokie this and hokie that all day long
CNU: The walmart down the road had the kitchen knife sets locked behind glass
UVA: hated the campus
URochester: yellow jacket mascot
Lafayette: tour guide referenced Harry Potter and a quidditch team
Marist: tour guide mentioned free tutoring too much
Cornell: everyone was walking and eating alone with airpods in
Ithaca: lots of blue and burgundy hair and black clothes, decided to skip the tour completely
Skidmore: there was some festival in town and lots of guys wearing skirts
UVM: too many beanies for a 60 degree day
Colgate:we literally had to stop the car because a bear was in the road
Villanova:kid misheard the tour guide and spent the whole tour thinking the school had 60,000 students, so had already dismissed it

Ok but seems a little harsh for CNU to be judged based on a Wal-Mart’s display decision.

My kid refused to get out of the car at Roanoke College because the buildings seemed old, after we had driven all that way. I was so annoyed.

You are the second poster to post about "refusal to get out of the car." I really can't imagine how ashamed you must be to have raised such a brat. If my kid did that I'd be refusing to help with college.

Ehhh, not the OP, but a parent. I remember back in the day my parents “swinging by” a random school in our way home from a family vacation “just to take a look” and it has never been mentioned in our family, I had never expressed interest in it, and it just lengthened the trip home. I of course did get out and walk around but I too was not mentally into it, and nothing about the trip endeared me to the school. I was very nonplussed by the whole experience.

But that isn't pp's situation. PP specifically says "after we had driven all that way"--to ROANOKE, which is a 6 hour drive from DC!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We toured Clemson when my dd was in elementary school. She couldn’t get over the way it is pronounced (Clempson). The whole tour, she kept muttering, there isn’t a p.

Her best friend just shared she wants to go to Clemson, and she is still struggling with the p.

Hilarious! I have no connection with this school at all, am a native of NoVA, and I do not say it with a “p” sound. Do most people actually pronounce it that way? (?). I (maybe like your daughter) am just pronouncing it as it is spelled? (?).

Without the p sound the s sounds sort of like a /z/. Every person on campus who said the name pronounced it with the p sound- it was worse if they had a strong southern accent. I have to admit I had never noticed, but I can’t stop hearing it ever since. The football announcers say the p too.

She also remembers lots of orange tiger paws on the road, but she liked those.

Half of my husband’s extended family went there and none of them say it with a P sound.

I went to grad school there and only the Yankees said it without the p. And when they did they would get the “ya’ll aren’t from around here” comment.

[Anonymous]

Is this an American thing to choose a college based on kids impressions from a campus visit? I am a immigrant and this feels so strange and random to me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is this an American thing to choose a college based on kids impressions from a campus visit? I am a immigrant and this feels so strange and random to me.

If my kid is going to spend 4 years and I'm going to spend $100,000+ on something, my kid's feelings at a school are something to consider.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is this an American thing to choose a college based on kids impressions from a campus visit? I am a immigrant and this feels so strange and random to me.

If my kid is going to spend 4 years and I'm going to spend $100,000+ on something, my kid's feelings at a school are something to consider.

But these first impressions are so irrelevant to the product you are paying for.