Review your spring break college visits / tours

[Anonymous]

It’s impossible ti visit every school we might be interested in. Would love to hear others impressions of their spring break campus visits / tours. The best? The worst? Surprises?

[Anonymous]

HYPSM.

[Anonymous]

Swarthmore info session - 10/10. Swarthmore campus - 95% construction. It was a bummer.

[Anonymous]

We visited UVM, Dartmouth, Tufts, WPI, Williams, Amherst, Wesleyan, UConn, Princeton, Haverford, and Swat. Happy to answer questions about any of them if people have them.

[Anonymous]

Curious about Dartmouth - we didn’t make it that far

[Anonymous]

In particular how was Dartmouth and Hanover compared to Swarthmore ? My DC found Swarthmore and the town too quiet - though liked what they heard about the academics

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We visited UVM, Dartmouth, Tufts, WPI, Williams, Amherst, Wesleyan, UConn, Princeton, Haverford, and Swat. Happy to answer questions about any of them if people have them.

Wow 11 schools in one week?! We did 5 and it felt like too much.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Curious about Dartmouth - we didn’t make it that far

DP. We went last year on an overcast and slightly rainy chilly spring day. It was a bit of a turn-off for DD, but an accurate depiction of Spring there. Good to see that, since she was considering ED. A little put off by core requirements. And, (this is more me) the traffic around the main quad kind of wrecks the charm. It's very loud and exhaust-y with all the buses. Then, there's 2 blocks of expensive stores and 1 cool used record shop.

Also, I'm not sure she's as gung ho outdoorsy as most and definitely not a drinker, though will probably drink some in college. So, it just wasn't a slam dunk for her.

It was our last stop on a loop of Brown, WPI, Olin, Tufts, Smith, Dartmouth. Regret going to WPI right after Brown. Hard for it to stand out, also Worcester just feels so ex-urban compared to Providence. Still, a lovely campus with engaging students and a passion for learning. Good spaces for classes and maker areas. A lot to love at WPI.

Next, Olin. Very impressed with the support and investment in students. They will fund passion projects, buy any books students request for library, and community seems great -- sewing machines in library, musical instrument library, classrooms that look like lounges, and students leave laptops lying out, a lot of trust. Very small though. Babson right next door and Wellesley 10min drive, but wish it were reversed.

Tufts - could not get a tour, so did self tour. Pretty campus. Don't understand why people don't like this campus. Lots of students hanging out on lawn, beautiful buildings. Didn't learn alot on self tour. Went mostly just to see it and log in interest. Knew DD would not apply ED because NPC did not look great, but thought it would be worth RD consideration.

Smith -another gorgeous campus. Love the house system. Really nice tour guide -- bright, engaged. Felt very personalized. Got a sense of a lot of student and institution support. Also, strong alum network.

Started the loop with Brown. Tours were ok. They don't show a lot. Did an engineering tour which went inside and had more to it. Met a current student and had a great in-depth chat about the program. Also, Ruth J Simmons seems so badass. Glad there is a quad named for her.

[Anonymous]

Our tour: Clarkson, RIT, RPI, Clark, WPI

We liked all except RPI (just didn't have any energy/enthusiasm) and Clark (probably a lovely liberal arts school, but that's not what my child wants).

The facilities at RIT were very impressive. WPI had a great liberal arts-y enery, even though it's a tech school. RIT emphasized their vocational training (coops, etc) and WPI emphasized learning/ideas.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We visited UVM, Dartmouth, Tufts, WPI, Williams, Amherst, Wesleyan, UConn, Princeton, Haverford, and Swat. Happy to answer questions about any of them if people have them.

Wow 11 schools in one week?! We did 5 and it felt like too much.

No, my daughter’s school had 3 weeks off. 11 was still too much!

[Anonymous]

Here's another loop:

Lafayette-- pretty campus. Very impressed with facilities for engineering. Seems like they can appeal to a wide variety of interests. They even have a dog dorm/house. AO was lovely and engaging. Combined Aug visit with early interview. They offered to waive app fee.

Lehigh-- beautiful campus, but we didn't see much because no tours due to first year move in, and DD not feeling well. Also, we knew this would not be an ED, so there to see it and demonstrate interest. A little surprised at how inarticulate admissions person was in presentation. A lot of pronunciation, grammar, maybe fact issues as well. She was relatively new, though. Still, it fell flat. Even so, DD planned to apply RD anyway based on program research.

Drexel-- expected everything contemporary, but nice surprise to see the charming interior of main building. AO who presented info session was so dry. Very hard to engage and get excited there. Loved our humanities major tour guide, though. Super engaging and bright. Made DD more interested as she is a blend of stem and humanities interests, so we were concerned Drexel might be too stem-y, but she (humn tour guide) seemed to love it. Decent facilities. Mixed emotions about coop schedule and about being next door to Penn.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In particular how was Dartmouth and Hanover compared to Swarthmore ? My DC found Swarthmore and the town too quiet - though liked what they heard about the academics

They’re really different in my opinion. Hanover has gotten *very* fancy since I visited when I was in high school. It’s small and all the shops and restaurants are very high end where Swarthmore felt more middle class to me. And its other main facet is its isolation. I loved that swarthmore has Philly just 20 min away by train. Dartmouth is just the Main Street in Hanover and then a very long drive to Boston if you want to get of campus.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Swarthmore info session - 10/10. Swarthmore campus - 95% construction. It was a bummer.

Felt that way about Wes a couple years ago. Maybe more like 30% construction, but it was the oldest, nicest section all covered in scaffolding, and all the equipment. Buzz kill. Kid still applied because it was a good fit, but I could see how she just emotionally disengaged with all the construction.
It ended up being a strong contender for her, but I think that first impression colored her opinion. I had to keep reminding her, "but, Bradley Whitford!" (and of course LMM, but that's obvious).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In particular how was Dartmouth and Hanover compared to Swarthmore ? My DC found Swarthmore and the town too quiet - though liked what they heard about the academics

They’re really different in my opinion. Hanover has gotten *very* fancy since I visited when I was in high school. It’s small and all the shops and restaurants are very high end where Swarthmore felt more middle class to me. And its other main facet is its isolation. I loved that swarthmore has Philly just 20 min away by train. Dartmouth is just the Main Street in Hanover and then a very long drive to Boston if you want to get of campus.

DP. I just noted similar observation about the shops in Hanover.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In particular how was Dartmouth and Hanover compared to Swarthmore ? My DC found Swarthmore and the town too quiet - though liked what they heard about the academics

They’re really different in my opinion. Hanover has gotten *very* fancy since I visited when I was in high school. It’s small and all the shops and restaurants are very high end where Swarthmore felt more middle class to me. And its other main facet is its isolation. I loved that swarthmore has Philly just 20 min away by train. Dartmouth is just the Main Street in Hanover and then a very long drive to Boston if you want to get of campus.

DP. I just noted similar observation about the shops in Hanover.

I had a delicious honey coffee with oat milk from a bakery on the main street in Hanover. If my ds goes there, I'll be happy to visit that bakery!