Promote/Demote a college from firsthand experience.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Promote Pitt: No secret; DCUM seems to love it. Great vibe, nice kids, lots to do.

Demote Drexel: Good if you're an engineering major. Bleak otherwise.

Mostly Love-hate relationship with Pitt on DCUM.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Promote: Stony Brook - nice, research oriented university
Promote: CWRU
Promote: W&M
Promote: UCSD

Demote: VT
Demote: CMU - everyone looked miserable
Demote: UIUC
Demote: UC Berkeley
Demote: UW Madison

Just for perspective, mine applied to W&M, Grinnell, Stony Brook, CWRU, WUSTL, Rice, and RPI

Their attending CWRU

What's your "firsthand experience" with the 5 colleges you are demoting? You didn't even apply to those!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Demote: CMU - everyone looked miserable

Several years back, my kid attended the weekend overnight Tartan night, where kids are hosted in dorms and attend classes the next day.
This was the singular impression my kid came away with.

Huge contrast to Pitt

[Anonymous]

Demote: UVA. Overrated.

[Anonymous]

Visited all of these schools, and ended up at one of them:

Promote: Oberlin (great info session, personal tour, exco, cute town)
Promote: Kenyon (great info session, had a specific arts tour, loved the campus)
Promote: Grinnell (amazing on campus visit, nice campus, cute midwestern town)
Promote: St. Mary's College of Md (so underrated, loved the visit/location)
Promote: Ohio Wesleyan (great tour, student who led it was so impressive, was a safety school that she really liked)
Promote: Mount Holyoke (warm environment, great academics, cute campus)

Demote: Bryn Mawr (not a great visit, seemed unorganized and not interesting)
Demote: Muhlenberg (thought it would be a great fit arts wise, but it was an uninspiring visit)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Promote Pitt: No secret; DCUM seems to love it. Great vibe, nice kids, lots to do.

Demote Drexel: Good if you're an engineering major. Bleak otherwise.

Mostly Love-hate relationship with Pitt on DCUM.

I’m one of the Pitt haters. Thought based on reading Pitt would be no 1 choice. Hated virtual college visit. It was disorganized and counselor we met from major was RUDE! So bad DD isn’t applying. I know people here love it and I’ve heard the campus is beautiful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Promote St. Olaf.

2020:grad l It started as a likely/ safety that we only visited because we were at Macalester anyway, his counselor recommended it, and recent grads from his school have gone and just love it.

My kid had 8 acceptances, 1 Denial, 1 WL. It ended up being his second choice for science (PhD track) and it was important he could keep playing his instrument as a strong EC. He might have ended up there if he had been able to revisit over spring break, like we had planned.

St. Olaf is a very special place, in a way that’s hard to describe. Really walks the walk on creating community. It has a very different atmosphere from other colleges we had visited. Purposeful yet peaceful, if that makes sense. We walk on campus and I could feel my BP drop

Based on our perceptions going in vs where we ended up, I would:

Promote St. Olaf

Promote Wooster (another safety that we only visited because we were in Ohio to see other colleges. It was also more impressive than I would have thought, but the academics were a step down from his other applications)

Promote Oberlin (where he ended up)

Promote Macalester (third choice)

Promote Pitt (great location and not what we expected from a large school)

——

Hold on WM (DH and I we’re impressed. My kid spent the night with a friend and was turned off).

Hold on CWRU and Kenyon (again, DH and I really like these schools. DC thought Kenyon was way too remote. And just didn’t like the feel of CWRU. CERU was his outright denial).

Hold on Grinnell (we were going to visit after acceptances came out, but COVID. DC didn’t want to go to Iowa sight unseen).

Demote Davidson. DC was WL. But demoting isn’t sour grapes. My kid was never enthused. The Southern / D1 sports atmosphere was not a good fit for him. I assume Davidson thought so as well.

DD a is a 2022 and has started the college search virtually for SLAC, international relations and linguistics. St. Olaf is also topping her list based on talking to her brother, a virtual admissions session, a virtual tour and talking to a current student.

As we thumbs up, thumbs down colleges based on mostly virtual tours and admission sessions here’s where she is so far. Hopefully, we can visit top contenders.

She has liked/kept: St. Olaf, Oberlin, Occidental, Middlebury and Carleton

Is neutral on: WM and Bates (Bates presentation was very generic. It was hard to get a read).

Does not want to apply to: Davidson and Colby

Next up: Tufts, Macalester, Vasser and American.

How come Georgetown isn’t on the list for your DD .
Strong for international relations.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Promote St. Olaf.

2020:grad l It started as a likely/ safety that we only visited because we were at Macalester anyway, his counselor recommended it, and recent grads from his school have gone and just love it.

My kid had 8 acceptances, 1 Denial, 1 WL. It ended up being his second choice for science (PhD track) and it was important he could keep playing his instrument as a strong EC. He might have ended up there if he had been able to revisit over spring break, like we had planned.

St. Olaf is a very special place, in a way that’s hard to describe. Really walks the walk on creating community. It has a very different atmosphere from other colleges we had visited. Purposeful yet peaceful, if that makes sense. We walk on campus and I could feel my BP drop

Based on our perceptions going in vs where we ended up, I would:

Promote St. Olaf

Promote Wooster (another safety that we only visited because we were in Ohio to see other colleges. It was also more impressive than I would have thought, but the academics were a step down from his other applications)

Promote Oberlin (where he ended up)

Promote Macalester (third choice)

Promote Pitt (great location and not what we expected from a large school)

——

Hold on WM (DH and I we’re impressed. My kid spent the night with a friend and was turned off).

Hold on CWRU and Kenyon (again, DH and I really like these schools. DC thought Kenyon was way too remote. And just didn’t like the feel of CWRU. CERU was his outright denial).

Hold on Grinnell (we were going to visit after acceptances came out, but COVID. DC didn’t want to go to Iowa sight unseen).

Demote Davidson. DC was WL. But demoting isn’t sour grapes. My kid was never enthused. The Southern / D1 sports atmosphere was not a good fit for him. I assume Davidson thought so as well.

DD a is a 2022 and has started the college search virtually for SLAC, international relations and linguistics. St. Olaf is also topping her list based on talking to her brother, a virtual admissions session, a virtual tour and talking to a current student.

As we thumbs up, thumbs down colleges based on mostly virtual tours and admission sessions here’s where she is so far. Hopefully, we can visit top contenders.

She has liked/kept: St. Olaf, Oberlin, Occidental, Middlebury and Carleton

Is neutral on: WM and Bates (Bates presentation was very generic. It was hard to get a read).

Does not want to apply to: Davidson and Colby

Next up: Tufts, Macalester, Vasser and American.

How come Georgetown isn’t on the list for your DD .
Strong for international relations.

It is. As is GW. We just haven’t made it that far down the list. She really doesn’t want to go to college a metro ride from home. But is looking at the 3 DC schools reluctantly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Promote: Johns Hopkins! It isn't cutthroat, just some very driven students. Baltimore has steadily improved in the past few years and is a really exciting place to be for young people
It's not only a STEM school, the humanities programs are great too
-Parent of JHU undergrad.
Honorable Mention: George Mason, very underrated in STEM.

+1 for Johns Hopkins.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Promote: Johns Hopkins! It isn't cutthroat, just some very driven students. Baltimore has steadily improved in the past few years and is a really exciting place to be for young people
It's not only a STEM school, the humanities programs are great too
-Parent of JHU undergrad.
Honorable Mention: George Mason, very underrated in STEM.

+1 for Johns Hopkins.

Jhu - excellent academics.

Crappy network/oci compared to peers.

Student body physically less attractive to its peers.

I really like Hopkins — just not sure if it’s worth it for undergrad over northwestern for example.

[Anonymous]

Promote:

St Andrews, Scotland- really impressive academics, engaged students

W & M- students seemed nice, happy. lowkey chill atmosphere.

Haverford- inquisitive, studious students. Athletes held to same admissions standards

Tufts- vibrant vibe. kind students

Demote: all of these schools have social climber vibes

GWU- yikes. feels like a middle school trip to washington dc.

NYU- the campus felt anxious.

Northeastern- student body is tacky. very keen to show off newly acquired wealth

Fordham- feels like suburban new jersey

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Promote: Johns Hopkins! It isn't cutthroat, just some very driven students. Baltimore has steadily improved in the past few years and is a really exciting place to be for young people
It's not only a STEM school, the humanities programs are great too
-Parent of JHU undergrad.
Honorable Mention: George Mason, very underrated in STEM.

+1 for Johns Hopkins.

Jhu - excellent academics.

Crappy network/oci compared to peers.

Student body physically less attractive to its peers.

I really like Hopkins — just not sure if it’s worth it for undergrad over northwestern for example.

[Anonymous]

Promote

Pomona (ended up here) - best of both worlds, small college with large student body/classes/activities thanks to the Claremont Consortium, very diverse, great location.

Vassar and Bryn Mawr - beautiful, engaged student body, interesting majors.

Wesleyan (sister went) - highly intelligent and engaged student body, great vibe, excellent small classes, plenty of on-campus activities.

Demoted:

Middlebury - remote, jock vibe, homogenous.

Penn - competitive/cutthroat, very pre-professional.

Columbia - stressful atmosphere, expensive surroundings, students seemed unhappy.

[Anonymous]

Can anyone chime in for the B students?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can anyone chime in for the B students?

Promote Wooster