Bad College Campuses

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:The Umd campus is nice, the surrounding area not so much. Supposedly , 15 projects proposed and started on rt 1 between the school and the beltway are addressing that. A four star 400 room conference center hotel, marriott suites , marriott extended stay, a whole foods and founding farmers center, a new 2nd cvs center, two new apt buildings , a town home community, a new urban outfitters building , 2 office buildings , a new 300 room student apt with university bookstore on first level.

Rumours of a 250 million indoor football facility by Underarmour.

Retention of the university golf course, a new soccer stadium , a new best western , burying all power lines and resurfacing, roads and bricking sidewalks.


The word on the street is , the area will be transformed over the next 10 years.

Wow, an extended stay hotel and another CVS! Then it will be a great campus!

just saying, the area is next on the list of inside the beltway boomtown.

I'll believe it when I see it; for now and the foreseeable future, Maryland is the epitome of a "bad college campus."

Have you even been on the College Park Campus? It is G-O-R-G-E-O-U-S - even before the recent upgrades it was used as a filing location by Hollywood.

St Elmo's fire... Rob Lowe on frat row!!
National Treasure, species ,life 101, x files!!
Tons of TV shows.

Georgian architecture. I love it.

Nothing wrong with the style but the execution at Maryland is poor and lacking in imagination. It's not inspiring at all.

Umd did not execute slaves on its campus like UVA , but the plantation look was not the goal.

Wrong. Slavery was big business in Maryland too. Go check the Mason-Dixon Line.

Umd integrated the ACC. UVA was dragged in kicking and screaming. Most national championships, Nobel , fields medal, oscar , Emmy, Pulitzer alumni plus integrated.

Athletically, academically, morally.

[Anonymous]

Temple University

http://colleges.niche.com/images/standard/40308/?v=BF693FA

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:American U - how is that not on here?

It was, earlier in the thread.

Yikes. DD is headed there in the fall. Sight unseen. What's so bad about it?

It's just a very boring, sterile environment, that's all - not much character to it.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:American U - how is that not on here?

It was, earlier in the thread.

Yikes. DD is headed there in the fall. Sight unseen. What's so bad about it?

AU has a perfectly fine campus - don't worry. It will never be voted among the most beautiful or interesting campuses, but it's in a safe part of the city and I'm sure it has all of what she will need to do fine. Frankly, it's a much nicer campus than a few I saw when looking with my own DD last year. Saw some beautiful campuses and then saw some real dudes…

Also, Washington DC is a great place to go to school! I came here 20+ years ago and stayed…she'll have a good time.

I'm going with this AU description.

But what about all the buried toxic munitions waste?

That was cleaned up years ago.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:We toured Washington & Lee in the Spring. I was surprised how much I disliked it. So was DC.

why?

A lot of things. DC didn't like it either. We were on the grand tour so W & L was one of 6 schools we toured that week. W & Lee has astronomical ratings so I was expecting just a more positive experience. I was turned off by the two ED (binding) deadlines. I was turned off by the extremely high grades and scores expected which was made quite clear in the hour-long presentation before the tour started (I'm not so sure DC could make the cut). I was turned off by the heat and humdity (nothing they can do about it). DC didn't like the fact that most dorms are older and don't have AC. The racism issue (only 3.5% AA) bothered me a lot. The focus on Lee, his crypt, the skeleton of his horse and the Confederate flag in the chapel bothered me (discussed in a recent Post article - the Confederate banner is now down due to pressure from the Law School). The Greek scene permeates the campus life so that even if you get a full-ride scholarship, those scholarship kids can't participate in the very expensive Greek scene, which results in a "have" and "have-not" culture. The percentage of kids in the Greek system (an astonishing 83-87%) bothered me. Housing off campus nearby is poor, or not well-maintained, so kids move far away from campus which leads to horrible car accidents when students return from drunken orgies out in the sticks. One girl died last fall when 9 kids in a car had an accident. She wasn't wearing a seat belt of course. The young male driver was drunk and is now expelled and facing criminal and civil actions. The casual hook-up culture is very alive. And, finally, I expected the campus to be more impressive than it was. The lawn in front of some of the older pillared buildings was pretty but that's about it. It's a very all-white campus with very little diversity and that bothered me a lot (and I'm white).

^^This. Plus it's next door to VMI, which is notorious for its rape culture - for that reason alone I would never send DD there. I was also deeply, deeply unimpressed by the town of Lexington itself when I was there recently for a visit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Temple University

http://colleges.niche.com/images/standard/40308/?v=BF693FA

I really liked Temple's campus. You obviously have to want an urban campus. It has a nice vibe and feel and lots of new dorms. The technology/computer center is amazing. It's a lot nicer than Drexel and some of the other urban schools we looked at. It's also an incredible deal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:American U - how is that not on here?

It was, earlier in the thread.

Yikes. DD is headed there in the fall. Sight unseen. What's so bad about it?

It's just a very boring, sterile environment, that's all - not much character to it.

It looks really nice in the pictures!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:American U - how is that not on here?

It was, earlier in the thread.

Yikes. DD is headed there in the fall. Sight unseen. What's so bad about it?

It's just a very boring, sterile environment, that's all - not much character to it.

It looks really nice in the pictures!

The new School of International Service building is very nice, and I know AU's done a fair amount of other physical upgrades/updates in the years since I went there, but on a recent campus visit I still fought the urge to yawn.

There's nothing wrong with that in and of itself - I agree with other posters that you don't choose a school based on the architecture - I've just always thought AU's campus was a pretty "blah" space.