Schools you toured that you were surprised you liked or didn’t like?

[Anonymous]

I almost forgot about our horrible Vandy experience. We visited during parents’ weekend. The info session was marred by several different parents of current students attacking the admissions presenter who tried to play down sibling legacy. The level of entitlement was gross, and I say this as someone who has a legacy connection to Vandy. Then we had a lovely tour guide who was constantly interrupted by several current parents adding their 5 cents throughout the tour. It didn’t bother my kid much but really left me with some concerns about the school. Also didn’t love the campus.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:UPenn needs to overhaul its presentation and tours. I went to grad school there, so know the school well enough to present it to my kid. The admissions office had about 15 tour guides there and they all looked like they were from the land of misfit toys. Further, the tour guides are instructed to relay personal stories at each stop. So boring and unnecessary.

Our Penn tour guide was great. But the visitors were sooo quiet and disengaged with zero questions for her almost the entire time. Some were playing with their phones which were quite disrespectful. I actually felt bad for her that she had to keep saying "any questions? Alright, perfect!" It was awkward.

But as one poster pointed out earlier, Locust Walk was great! Love the campus.

[Anonymous]

I thought St. Johns, Annapolis was going to be amazing. It was a shit hole.

I liked Columbia, Yale, Georgetown, American University (surprisingly)

didn't like Colby, or Barnard (again, shit hole).

[Anonymous]

Indiana was a pleasant surprise— loved everything about it. Georgia had a warm and personal tour. Virginia Tech was gorgeous.

Was surprised our kid hated GWU—he wanted urban but it was too urban!

[Anonymous]

Tufts was run so poorly. The admissions professional spoke in a room with no windows for 45 minutes without one visual. Such a miss.

The admissions session at Colby was also dissapointing. Also in a room with no windows, although the admissions person at least had the Colby logo and a picture up on the screen behind them. The tour guide there was better, he really tried.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Harvard - great guide and your
MIT - informal visits multiple times; campus looks dead; other kids have had the same impression
Northeastern - great guide and your; pretty campus
BU - informal visit; not for my kid!
Tufts - informal — saw the trailers being used as dorms. No, thank you!
U Iowa - some really cute spots; pretty spread out campus
UT (Austin) - amazing for kids looking for urban campus

My kid is a freshman at Tufts and those trailers are not attractive but they are new and clean and have a/c. Don’t judge a book by its cover—the kids like them!

[Anonymous]

Northwestern- smart kids but stuck up and pretentious school although very beautiful April-October.

UChicago, very cold vibe, my accepted kid visited initially during a break, and thought it would be their number 1. When we returned for a revisit they realized how impersonal the campus was. Truly lived up to the vibe of where fun goes to die.

WashU, gorgeous campus, very welcoming and inclusive students. Had a collaborative vibe.

Princeton, beautiful campus, very preppy culture.

Lehigh & UNC- both are in adorable college towns, idyllic beautiful campuses, great team spirit. Students seem to be generally happy.

Carnegie Mellon- do the students ever interact with each other off a computer or device. Spent three days on campus for an event and never once saw the students just hanging out or off their devices.

Virginia Tech- very remote, maybe visiting in March didn’t do it justice but not very pretty.

Purdue- Most of the campus looks like a community college.

[Anonymous]

Experiences having visited a range of schools over the years as student/parent:

Schools Visited That Exceeded Expectations:

Pitt - Hadn't anticipated how cool some of the buildings would be and how vibrant the Oakland neighborhood is.

Georgia/South Carolina - Hadn't anticipated how beautiful these campuses are

Iowa - People seemed exceptionally friendly there and Iowa City is a surprisingly nice college town

Williams - Pretty much the epitome of a small liberal arts college that you'd read about in novels

Northwestern - Campus is nice, as expected, but had not been aware of the beach and Evanston plus the easy access to Chicago impressed

Schools Visited That Disappointed:

NC State - Quite possibly one of the ugliest schools we ever visited; really did seem like a trade school

Elon - Overall vibe seemed highly pretentious for a mid-tier private school. Campus is pretty but overly manicured

CMU - The students seemed unhappy and we didn't find the campus attractive

Amherst - Just underwhelming given the school's prestige and reputation

Duquesne - Really, really didn't like the location on a bluff and very much seemed like a commuter school

Schools Visited That Met Expectations:

Auburn, Virginia Tech, CNU, Michigan, Duke, Wesleyan, Princeton, UVA

[Knew what to expect and was neither surprised nor disappointed\

[Anonymous]

Disliked NYU—no sense of campus, more like a bunch of buildings clustered near each other but in the midst of a very busy portion of the city. The closest thing they have to a central “quad” is Washington Square Park which is overrun by
non NYU people like tourists, weed dealers, skate boarders, mystics/psychics, homeless people etc etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Tufts was run so poorly. The admissions professional spoke in a room with no windows for 45 minutes without one visual. Such a miss.

The admissions session at Colby was also dissapointing. Also in a room with no windows, although the admissions person at least had the Colby logo and a picture up on the screen behind them. The tour guide there was better, he really tried.

This! It was beyond boring, and there weren't even slides to amuse us or coffee to keep us awake. The room smelled musty, too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:UPenn needs to overhaul its presentation and tours. I went to grad school there, so know the school well enough to present it to my kid. The admissions office had about 15 tour guides there and they all looked like they were from the land of misfit toys. Further, the tour guides are instructed to relay personal stories at each stop. So boring and unnecessary.

Our Penn tour guide was great. But the visitors were sooo quiet and disengaged with zero questions for her almost the entire time. Some were playing with their phones which were quite disrespectful. I actually felt bad for her that she had to keep saying "any questions? Alright, perfect!" It was awkward.

But as one poster pointed out earlier, Locust Walk was great! Love the campus.

This is the result of admissions telling them to talk for 15 to 20 minutes at each stop.

[Anonymous]

Williams is s-t-u-n-n-i-n-g and tour was well run and informative, no wonder it's the #1 ranked LAC. Williamstown was also cuter than I expected too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our kid disliked Northwestern (except for the lake view) but loved Chicago. And disliked Duke (felt too southern) but loved Columbia. Not what we were expecting.

+1 very similar for our DC. Surprised at how small Durham NC was, felt would get bored quickly. Expected to love Northwestern, in fact we planned an extra day there for this reason. Didn't like how spread out the campus was or that a major street runs through it. Loved Columbia and now attends and still loves it.

[Anonymous]

Impressed with GA Tech

[Anonymous]

Loved: Brown, Lafayette, and Carleton.

Liked: Haverford, Penn, Amherst, Williams, Hamilton, and Yale.

Meh: Harvard, Wesleyan, Vassar, Lehigh, and Cornell.

Did not like: Tufts and Swarthmore.

My DD ended up at Swat, and I still don't like it. It has a dreary and serious vibe (the campus is beautiful, though). DS is headed to Carleton, which is kind of nerdy like Swat but seems to have an air of conviviality that Swat does not.