What school dropped off the list because of your visit?

[Anonymous]

Wake Forest. The tour guide laughed and called it “Work Forest” and describes extreme grade deflation with pride. No thanks.

[Anonymous]

Wake Forest challenges the students. Absolutely superb school!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hopkins. It just lacked the energy of happy college kids. My kids said “where fun goes to die”. Nice campus surrounded by a crappy area.

Great university stuck in an extreme crime zone worse than Somalia or Afghanistan (I was deployed to Somalia and felt safer there lol)

If a student stays inside the campus seemed really nice but a few blocks here or there...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hopkins. It just lacked the energy of happy college kids. My kids said “where fun goes to die”. Nice campus surrounded by a crappy area.

Great university stuck in an extreme crime zone worse than Somalia or Afghanistan (I was deployed to Somalia and felt safer there lol)

If a student stays inside the campus seemed really nice but a few blocks here or there...

Lol. You think that area is bad? I teach in West Baltimore. Try visiting sometime.

[Anonymous]

Dickinson - busy road splits the campus
SMCM - pretty but in middle of nowhere
W&L - tour guide bragged about the parties

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hopkins. It just lacked the energy of happy college kids. My kids said “where fun goes to die”. Nice campus surrounded by a crappy area.

Great university stuck in an extreme crime zone worse than Somalia or Afghanistan (I was deployed to Somalia and felt safer there lol)

If a student stays inside the campus seemed really nice but a few blocks here or there...

Oh please, the area around the undergrad campus is fine. I was there in the early 90s and it was fine, and is more gentrified now. For sure Baltimore has some tough arts, I recall a cab driver being pretty reluctant to take me someplace once, but the campus area is full of students and like cities everywhere.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:Duke

+1 Said campus was gorgeous, but nowhere to go.

There is so much to do in the Triangle!

But not everywhere is for everyone, I get that!

+1 Durham has improved so much in last 8 years. Tons of fun clubs! Plenty to do!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:College Park and NC State were the two schools we visited that DC found oppressively ugly.

unfortunately have to agree. But great schools.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Can the people who didn’t like Oberlin elaborate please? We’re waiting to hear from them before a visit.

I didn’t go to school there but I lived in Oberlin.

It is kind a depressing area in Lorain County, Ohio. It’s not close to the lake and the cities of Elyria and Lorain are depressing. Oberlin itself is a dry town (or was when I lived there) and there are no bars or anything for nightlife. And it’s bloody cold in the winter.

I didn’t go there but I’ve been there a couple of times as an adult because my husband did attend. I thought the town was so cute and the campus was very nice. I was impressed.

+1. My DD is there now. The town is charming and town and gown has improved a whole lot since the 2016 Gibsons Bakery thing. Weirdly, COVID really helped town and gown. There was a concern that kids would come back to campus and bring COVID with them and the town seems to appreciate that the kids are more obsessive than the town about masks and social distancing than they are. People are being good neighbors, which wasn’t the case all around after Trump was elected. Good riddance and all that.

But wow, the Lake effect is real and February is brutal. They are making it work during COVID with an ice carnival and snow sculpting and ice rink and bonfires as the social center. So they are embracing the suck. But let’s face it. The weather is miserable right now. Great place for COVID summer and fall. Awful COVID winter. Many kids are off campus for Jan term. But make sure your kid can handle 6 weeks of snow and ice amd the real possibility of snow into April. Seeing the Ohio or MN colleges in winter is not a bad idea. You don’t was to oversell downside. But, there is one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This thread has been helpful, but it would be really helpful if everyone could say a few words about why their kid didn't like the campus. For example, a few people have mentioned that their kids didn't like Univ of Chicago and I'd love to hear why.

Also, it seems like people put too much stock into tour guides. It's one kid at the school. Whether that tour guide is great or a dud doesn't seem to matter, but maybe I'm missing something...

Except the tour guides are students the colleges hand pick to sell the college. Who they hand pick tells you something. And the tours aren’t whatever the guide random decides to say. Tour guides in 2021 aren’t a work study program. If the tour guide is a blonde sorority girl, there’s a reason.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:William and Mary for my daughter, that sample dorm room they show you on the tour.... ugh not homey at all. Was a shame because if they hadn't shown the dorm room it would have climbed to do the top of the list. Loved the campus and the vibe though my daughter noticed not alot of cute boys lol.

Also Georgetown, not that we were going to get in, but we went a few times just to explore and the last time we were there almost stepped on a dead rat in the middle of the walkway. That was enough to scare my son away once he read that rats and roaches are a big problem there. I'm sure that happens everywhere but it was a turnoff lol

So both you and your son applied? If you both got in, was the plan to be roommates?

Do you think that is clever?

Not particularly, but that poster takes the plural to the extreme. I mean, c'mon. It's one thing to say "we were looking at XYZ school," but ti say "we were going to get in?" Seriously? It's over the top hyperinvestment.

I was thinking the same thing.


haha since I don't actually spend all day sitting at my computer finally getting back on to see all this hullabaloo about my choice of the word "We". You are just so witty it's overwhelming. In fact, the reason I said "we" is that I actually have twins so when WE went college touring, it was out whole family and I tend to think in the collective when responding since I'm speaking for two. I suppose in order not to offend you all I could have said "my twins" but why spend 7 letters when 2 will do the same?[/quote]

You sound like Ted Cruz the way you backtrack. Sorry, it still isn't "we."

Instead of “we” or “twins”, you could use “DCs”.

As charming as you’re argument is, perhaps a spin off thread is more appropriate?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wake Forest challenges the students. Absolutely superb school!

I attended. It does. And it is. And I worked, but had plenty of free time and I was a pretty studious kid. And, I keep hearing grade deflation and disagree. I graduated phi beta kappa, was accepted at several T20 law schools and was not prepared for the writing. I think I got by on articulating good ideas and was missing some real fundamentals. I came from a crappy Southern HS and Wake let me continue to coast without being able to construct a good paper. It was an issue my 1L year. Looking back, my classes were very timed bluebook heavy and my handful of Bs were paper classes.

I’m not pursing it for my two kids for two reasons. One, we chose to leave the South and I have no desire to send my kids back. It’s not where the future is and they’d hate it. And two, Wake make the choice to compete at as National U and not a SLAC around the time I was there. Up until then, it was a lot more like Davidson with good associated law, medicine and MBA programs. I think awake lost something special when it expanded so much. They would have been better served staying SLAC IMO, but that was never going to happen with the med school being such a powerhouse.

Just my 2 cents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wisconsin. Actually DC liked the school, good guide, campus was fine...but we went on an early April day when it was 29 degrees and there was still snow on the ground. No thank you.

Yeah, winter in Madison is brutal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Rice (very surprised...expected to absolutely love it but didn't like it at all), UT-Austin, and UVA

Why didn't you like those places after the visits?

We'd been to a lot of schools (was fortunate to be able to visit pre-COVID), so we had sense of comparison and we wanted to look at all types.

The campus and facilities at Rice and UVA were very underwhelming: library, student center, dining, fitness center, just everything. But other campuses seem to care so much about having everything much more state-of-the-art and making a student's life better. With regard to culture, Rice was super small...felt like summer camp and felt a little too introverted. People were very nice though. UVA felt to too material and fratty.

UT-Austin on the other hand did have great facilities like so many other campuses we visited. But, it's big, and it felt big!...felt like it was too big for kids to know each other. Everywhere we went, students were by themselves...they didn't congregate like on most campuses. Whereas, we didn't get that same sense from other schools of comparable size (ASU and Texas A&M). Other large school were able to make themselves "feel small."

BTW...DC fell in love in with Texas A&M. But was impressed with many schools. After visiting many schools, became partial to state schools...better funding and better facilities (at least for engineering).

Hope that helps.

[Anonymous]

Drexel. It's just so gray. It's great if you want to be an engineer, but very expensive and just didn't seem very exciting.