Ivy Tours

[Anonymous]

We’ve toured a couple schools twice so know the weather, tour guide, and other factors can greatly influence impressions. Here’s ours on one particular day in spring.

Harvard - sat through a long presentation and unfortunately 2 students working that day were incredibly similar and soft-spoken so didn’t get much out of it. Felt like takeaway was to be super impressed with school and to have zero expectations on getting in. Building smelled horribly of fish. Tour guide was okay. Nothing stuck out, felt touristy, and underwhelmed but know it’s Harvard so expectations were likely too high.

Princeton - phenomenal freshman tour guide which was impressive, beautiful campus and well-maintained, didn’t love eating clubs, love undergrad focus.

Penn- loved proximity to hospital, main walkway area is very cool, we must have had a sheltered stay as didn’t notice it being a rough area. Didn’t do official tour, students appeared happy and social. Not a fan of Wharton vibe though.

Brown - agree with person yesterday that quad felt like “funny farm” staged, Providence was nice, students seemed very happy, great tour guide, needs some updates on some interiors and felt worn in places.

Cornell - felt intense, beautiful campus and interesting architecture, Ithaca is cute, food looked amazing. Also felt worn in some buildings.

Yale - nice AO led session with q&a, another phenomenal tour guide, my favorite campus, interiors were astoundingly nice to me in some buildings. Didn’t see a lot of kids walking together or life outside but partially time of day.

Curious to hear about others experiences.

[Anonymous]

Curious why proximity to the hospital is a plus for Penn.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Curious why proximity to the hospital is a plus for Penn.

When you get stabbed or shot it is

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Curious why proximity to the hospital is a plus for Penn.

Just for my kid in particular who is pre-med focused.

[Anonymous]

My only impression of the Princeton tour was that it felt more geared towards a tourist exploring Princeton than an incoming student.

Lots of time explaining the history of Nassau Hall and other buildings but not allowed to go into anything.

Also, the tour stuck to a very small physical area in the heart of campus but didn’t see any engineering or other STEM parts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Curious why proximity to the hospital is a plus for Penn.

When you get stabbed or shot it is

Maybe our Penn experience was opposite of Harvard. Had heard about grittiness and then it was better than expected as expectations were low.

[Anonymous]

Penn is in a good part of Philly.

[Anonymous]

We recently toured Cornell and couldn't figure out what all the fuss is. It's was actually a huge disappointment because my kid had thought she would ED there.

The campus was shabby, especially certain parts like the Arts and Science quad (forgive me if that isn't the correct name). Tons of cracked sidewalks, weeds in every flower bed, paint feeling off buildings, etc. Then the buildings are all very random. Some old and falling apart, some new. Really an overall charmless place--and felt like a state school that suffers from very limited funding. (which it is in part..)

Then Ithaca? Everywhere we went there were meth/opioid (?) addicts stumbling around. We went out to lunch, out to dinner, drove through downtown. They were everywhere and it was one of the more depressing places I've visited. I guess this is much of rural America in 2024. I'm familiar with urban poverty from living in DC and working in a social service job but find the rural meth/opioid culture to be far more sobering.

I will say that I''m sure the Cornell student body is a vibrant one. Smart kids studying all sorts of interesting things. And the list of majors and schools is incredible. I want to go there just to study grape growing for 4 years. But all-in-all my kid decided that she doesn't want to be there for 4 years.

[Anonymous]

^ this is exactly why I started this, amazing how experiences can vary. We spent a day at JHU and it was wild what we encountered in less than 24 hours so I know how it can be. It was probably the best staff presentation of any too, so we wanted to love it.

Also, felt some uneasiness at U of C. I really enjoy college tours, we’ve done our share!

[Anonymous]

All the Ivies are older schools. The WASP aesthetic for a long time was ok with shabbiness. This no longer sells well in the modern environment where college costs $90K per year.

Despite the wealth and reputation of these schools, it is quite expensive to build new buildings.

I went to school at a top MBA school that replaced its building after I graduated. The old building had a 1950s high school vibe but in retrospect I liked it better than the new one. The new one is fancy, grandiose, and sterile. It also has expensive and ridiculous corporate art sculptures scattered about. It's strength is probably better wifi and more breakout rooms. For $100M or so.

[Anonymous]

Why are you wasting time touring Ivy schools? Visit safety schools instead to a make sure your kid has some options they like and can get into

— Mom of 2023 grad with 4.9 W GPA and 36 ACT that did not get into any Ivy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:All the Ivies are older schools. The WASP aesthetic for a long time was ok with shabbiness. This no longer sells well in the modern environment where college costs $90K per year.

Despite the wealth and reputation of these schools, it is quite expensive to build new buildings.

I went to school at a top MBA school that replaced its building after I graduated. The old building had a 1950s high school vibe but in retrospect I liked it better than the new one. The new one is fancy, grandiose, and sterile. It also has expensive and ridiculous corporate art sculptures scattered about. It's strength is probably better wifi and more breakout rooms. For $100M or so.

I'm the Cornell poster. I don't need new buildings (I personally own a 1920s house by choice) but Cornell completely felt like it was falling apart. There were giant weeds everywhere. It truly looked like there was zero ongoing maintenance being done. I know this doesn't matter for academics but I notice these things.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All the Ivies are older schools. The WASP aesthetic for a long time was ok with shabbiness. This no longer sells well in the modern environment where college costs $90K per year.

Despite the wealth and reputation of these schools, it is quite expensive to build new buildings.

I went to school at a top MBA school that replaced its building after I graduated. The old building had a 1950s high school vibe but in retrospect I liked it better than the new one. The new one is fancy, grandiose, and sterile. It also has expensive and ridiculous corporate art sculptures scattered about. It's strength is probably better wifi and more breakout rooms. For $100M or so.

I'm the Cornell poster. I don't need new buildings (I personally own a 1920s house by choice) but Cornell completely felt like it was falling apart. There were giant weeds everywhere. It truly looked like there was zero ongoing maintenance being done. I know this doesn't matter for academics but I notice these things.

Yes, much prefer old to new and sterile, but also a noticer of weeds, dirty upholstery, and peeling paint. I know they take a beating with the weather, but my eye just sees this stuff. It for sure was a $90k tuition and noticing maintenance too!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We recently toured Cornell and couldn't figure out what all the fuss is. It's was actually a huge disappointment because my kid had thought she would ED there.

The campus was shabby, especially certain parts like the Arts and Science quad (forgive me if that isn't the correct name). Tons of cracked sidewalks, weeds in every flower bed, paint feeling off buildings, etc. Then the buildings are all very random. Some old and falling apart, some new. Really an overall charmless place--and felt like a state school that suffers from very limited funding. (which it is in part..)

Then Ithaca? Everywhere we went there were meth/opioid (?) addicts stumbling around. We went out to lunch, out to dinner, drove through downtown. They were everywhere and it was one of the more depressing places I've visited. I guess this is much of rural America in 2024. I'm familiar with urban poverty from living in DC and working in a social service job but find the rural meth/opioid culture to be far more sobering.

I will say that I''m sure the Cornell student body is a vibrant one. Smart kids studying all sorts of interesting things. And the list of majors and schools is incredible. I want to go there just to study grape growing for 4 years. But all-in-all my kid decided that she doesn't want to be there for 4 years.

We visited Cornell/Ithaca last June—same thing with the meth/opiod addicts! I assume when the 17k students are there you don’t see them anymore. Waterfalls were beautiful. Food was not that good.

[Anonymous]

Who wore it shabbier?

Cornell vs Georgetown

So wish I could post photos. Writing from a totally out of date, very old salt box on the Maine coast. But yeah, for $95k/year, a little elbow grease and sugar soap would t hurt.