S/O - any disappointing tours?

[Anonymous]

DD didn't take a tour per se of Michigan, but had an audition there a couple of weeks ago. It was a cold and dreary day and that didn't help. The school was so hyped in her high school and then she got there and thought "meh" about the campus. Said buildings were old and very spread out. Something didn't strike her the right way, and she doesn't care so much about it anymore, which is fine with me.

[Anonymous]

Oberlin: Saturday morning tour (no students anywhere), no info session - just a tour, some parts of the campus were really unappealing to my son, clearly there are still some tensions between the school and the townspeople. Tour guide was really sweet and sort of shy but honestly she was the best part of the visit. My son loves the course offerings but can't get past the lack of students outside on a beautiful fall day (and it was homecoming) and the students that we did see looked incredibly unhappy.

CMU: really nice, upbeat tour guide, but students in general seems miserable (just walking across campus alone with their heads down). Made all that much worse by going over to Pitt where there were students everywhere, tons of school spirit and a really bustling campus atmosphere.

[Anonymous]

Did not love (outside of campus) at JHU and somehow Duke felt fraud gothic. UNC felt very open. Georgetown felt cramped.
Was surprised how impressive Berkeley is; a bit rundown maybe. UPitt was busy and open but lots of energy. CMU you don't go for the campus;
Rice- was very pleasantly surprised how much we liked it, seemed to tick mark a lot of wants.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can we just stop with the threads that drag tour guides. Students are allowed to have a bad day. They sign up for tour duty and then life sometimes happens in the meantime.

Show some grace. Maybe we can just cut this thread?

I appreciate the feedback of the tours.

Then I guess you can't put yourselves in the shoes of a kid giving a tour. Or a parent of a tour guide who watches these threads fill with comments tearing them apart.

I *was* a tour guide in College, and I don’t mind these threads at all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I didn't go to WVU for a tour, but we went so my husband could go to a game there and take our older daughter (the little one was a toddler at the time)

I agree with the assessment of the area - so run down. We eventually found the mall outside of town, but it was a very disappointing visit.

My husband went back with our then-teen a couple years later and some drunk townie who was probably our age was mouthing off to my daughter who was minding her own business. It was so bad that even the home fans (my family was there supporting the opposing team, but not obnoxiously) were telling the woman to shut her mouth and sit her behind down. I know it took everything in my husband, who is ex-military, not to grab that chick by the throat.

Yeah those townies really tell you what it’s like to be a student on campus. Same thing could’ve happened at Fenway if you were wearing Yankees garb. Bet you wouldn’t blame it on Harvard or BU.

DP. Probably a night game. I’ve visited WVU as a fan of an opposing team several times, and night games there are a whole different experience (and I’ve been to a lot of football games in big stadiums with famous tailgating scenes). Same experience with a drunk fan that was so obnoxious that other WVU fans finally reined him in. On the other hand, the people at day games were lovely and friendly. Dialing back the alcohol consumption by about 90% helps.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I actually was surprised how much we liked Vassar. But I think that Wesleyan does a tour that does not show itself in the best light. Have toured it with more than one kid and it seems great, but not because of the tour. Second time was during last year in the last days of Covid restrictions so we could not enter any buildings. That always hurts. But even pre-Covid, they did not seem to put their best foot forward.

Agree. My partner and I both went to Wesleyan and took one of our kids there last Summer to visit. The tour was extremely underwhelming - tons of construction on campus, no entry into buildings, and a line of talk that was kind of generic. It’s an amazing school; I wish they’d step up their game.

A bad tour might not be indicative of the quality of education a college offers in the short term, but it does reflect on the quality of administration and marketing, which matter in the long term. So, not dispositive, but definitely something to be taken into account.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Northwestern. I really wanted to like it. Thought it might be a great fit. The guide was informative. But so full of himself. Can ignore that because he's one of thousands of students. The geographical location is great. On Lake Michigan. Can see Chicago in the distance. But the campus felt dismal and very cynical. The nice buildings on the lake are the meeting center for parents and potential students and the football complex, which is basically the Starship Enterprise. The rest of it seemed bleak. Students didn't seem particularly cheerful or happy. I know that's not a fair judgment, but first impressions are what they are. Evanston seemed fine. But that's the best I can say of it. It's fine.

WashU in St. Louis. Felt like a country club. I'm sure it's a very pleasant place to study. Wouldn't be surprised if students use golf carts to go from class to class. But, no.

Penn. Again, not a wonderful tour guide. Very privileged and not hiding it either. If you don't go to Wharton, there is no point to Penn. It dominates the school. I liked the campus, but the vibe seemed very stressful. Definitely for the type As who want to go to a target school and a pipeline to Wall Street. And no one else

Columbia. Even first time visitors can breathe the misery. That's after you walk through the clouds of cigarette smoke from the Chinese students

Schools we liked were Vanderbilt, McGill, Rice, and Notre Dame. The all seemed like pretty grounded places, but in different ways

Northwestern: Not my cup of tea but not horrible.
WashU: Not a fan of St. Louis.
Penn: You are way off base in your assertion "If you don't go to Wharton, there is no point to Penn." Wharton does not "dominate" the school. All of the colleges in UPenn are outstanding. Love the campus and find Locust Walk amazing! UPenn is a place for social people who work hard and like to socialize. Philly is an underrated city.
Columbia: I would not call it a miserable place. Would prefer attending NYU.
Rice: Very cool vibe.

Funny how different people have such different reactions. We loved Northwestern. Thought WashU was ok, but didn’t like the loop area. Absolutely hated Rice. It felt depressing. We were disappointed in Vanderbilt — it did not live up to the hype.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Loved the actual city of Boston but Boston University did not feel like a college. You can't tell what part of the city is BU and what isn't. You'll walk down a busy city street and happen to see a "Boston University" sign on a building and realize it's BU and then walk down another block and see another BU building. There is no campus.

That sounds like every urban university, which is why my kids had no interest. They wanted a real campus.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Oberlin: Saturday morning tour (no students anywhere), no info session - just a tour, some parts of the campus were really unappealing to my son, clearly there are still some tensions between the school and the townspeople. Tour guide was really sweet and sort of shy but honestly she was the best part of the visit. My son loves the course offerings but can't get past the lack of students outside on a beautiful fall day (and it was homecoming) and the students that we did see looked incredibly unhappy.

CMU: really nice, upbeat tour guide, but students in general seems miserable (just walking across campus alone with their heads down). Made all that much worse by going over to Pitt where there were students everywhere, tons of school spirit and a really bustling campus atmosphere.

Re Oberlin - we visited on a nice fall Sunday and no one was on campus either. Is that the norm? Or are people off doing something those days?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Loved the actual city of Boston but Boston University did not feel like a college. You can't tell what part of the city is BU and what isn't. You'll walk down a busy city street and happen to see a "Boston University" sign on a building and realize it's BU and then walk down another block and see another BU building. There is no campus.

That sounds like every urban university, which is why my kids had no interest. They wanted a real campus.

+1
GW was scratched from my kid's list for the same reason.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I didn't go to WVU for a tour, but we went so my husband could go to a game there and take our older daughter (the little one was a toddler at the time)

I agree with the assessment of the area - so run down. We eventually found the mall outside of town, but it was a very disappointing visit.

My husband went back with our then-teen a couple years later and some drunk townie who was probably our age was mouthing off to my daughter who was minding her own business. It was so bad that even the home fans (my family was there supporting the opposing team, but not obnoxiously) were telling the woman to shut her mouth and sit her behind down. I know it took everything in my husband, who is ex-military, not to grab that chick by the throat.

Yeah those townies really tell you what it’s like to be a student on campus. Same thing could’ve happened at Fenway if you were wearing Yankees garb. Bet you wouldn’t blame it on Harvard or BU.

+1
Same with Johns Hopkins, UChicago, Yale, etc. Every school has its own townies.

It does not reflect well on the school when a fan that is a grown woman gets tanked at a game and decides to scream at and loudly insult a 13 year old unprovoked

And how many townies go to games at the 3 schools you mention?

Look, I was sharing the impression our family has of the area based on a few visits. I think the surrounding area is pretty depressing. I just added the story because that further turned us off to the area. It isn’t a school we will be pursuing.

You took your 13 yo on college tours? Honestly, I think you’re just being purposely obtuse because it was West Virginia and that woman fed into some preconceived stereotype you already had. It wasn’t like you were ever going to actually let your snowflake attend WVU, amirite?!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Loved the actual city of Boston but Boston University did not feel like a college. You can't tell what part of the city is BU and what isn't. You'll walk down a busy city street and happen to see a "Boston University" sign on a building and realize it's BU and then walk down another block and see another BU building. There is no campus.

That sounds like every urban university, which is why my kids had no interest. They wanted a real campus.

+1
GW was scratched from my kid's list for the same reason.

Having attended both, GW is much more of a campus than BU - just about any urban school has more of a campus feel than BU.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Northwestern. I really wanted to like it. Thought it might be a great fit. The guide was informative. But so full of himself. Can ignore that because he's one of thousands of students. The geographical location is great. On Lake Michigan. Can see Chicago in the distance. But the campus felt dismal and very cynical. The nice buildings on the lake are the meeting center for parents and potential students and the football complex, which is basically the Starship Enterprise. The rest of it seemed bleak. Students didn't seem particularly cheerful or happy. I know that's not a fair judgment, but first impressions are what they are. Evanston seemed fine. But that's the best I can say of it. It's fine.

I went to Northwestern in the 1990s and can definitely say that much of the charm of the campus has been lost in the intervening years because they decided to build things in just about every open space on campus. The lakefill (the strip of campus along the lake) used to be much more open; there used to be tree-lined quads in the north part of campus. Now it's just a bunch of buildings. I still like it -- they can't build away Lake Michigan! -- but it's not what it used to be.

You could say that about a lot of universities now. They are overbuilt.

[Anonymous]

Wellesely - did not give an outdoor tour in summer 2022 because of Covid, but did give an indoor info session. They were so clearly using covid as an excuse not to give tours. So we wandered around campus on our self tour during a heat wave, got hot, got lost, and just came away annoyed. Pretty campus though.

[Anonymous]

Hampshire College - we were the only ones there, so we got a private tour. Tour guide and admissions people were very nice and were fawning all over us. But the campus was sad, desolate and run down, and it's so clear the school is teetering on the edge of closing. Had been on the list as a safety/likely. But not after visiting.