tell me about colleges that didn't make your kid's list

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:William and Mary - DS ruled it out immediately because of the town or lack thereof. Not enough live music venues, Indian food ... he says the commerce there appears to cater to tourists (artisan pewter galleries).

Washington and Lee - again, the town is almost non-existent >>for the purposes of college life.<< Shocked to find out school is essentially attached to VMI.

Emory - grim or joyless vibes and Atlanta was ... disappointing.

Where did your DS end up going?

He’s still a senior. All the schools that stay on his list, reach/match/likely, need to be attached to a city with plenty of cultural offerings. Enough for 4 years. That rules out a lot of excellent schools

Had some of the most amazing cultural experiences at college in the middle of a corn field. Only place that exceeded our experience was Harvard. School is what you make of it. Know many Chicago and Columbia and Georgetown grads who blew off their cultural opportunities in the cities, but in little college towns you often find cultural gems.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Boston College - they had an entire stage full of students during the info session, DC leaned over and said "this many kids and they couldn't find a single black or brown student?", felt very disconnected from Boston, didn't like the separate campus (Newton) for many of the students, horrible tour guide who complained constantly

Lehigh - way too much Greek life, depressing area, felt too focused on engineering which DC wasn't planning to study

Wesleyan - looked perfect on paper and had a great tour guide but really didn't like the campus, felt more arts oriented compared to other NESCACs, wasn't as far north as DC wanted to be

So true about Boston College. We noticed the same thing. No diversity at all.

This is also what turned us off from Boston College -- there appeared to be a lack of ethnic and socioeconomic diversity. It came off the list.

I posted previously about BC off our list, and our panel had some diversity, but it was white guy heavy and really uninformative. In fact, one of the white dudes took about 5 min to talk about how he took an 8am, couldn't make himself get up and did poorly in it, so changed his course of study. What?!?! THIS is what you want to show prospective students? And they couldn't answer DCs question. And, the admin guy was so stiff and did nothing to endear anyone to Jesuit values or the core. Such a disappointment. But, the Wizard of Oz hall was cool.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Amherst. They were sooooo snooty. Kid took it right off the list.

This is a true story.

Years ago the Director of Admissions at Amherst visited my NoVa public when they were looking to diversify their applicant pool. I was among a number of seniors invited to meet with him. He made a presentation about the school and then asked if anyone had questions.

No one had questions at first, so he pointed at me and said “I’m sure you must have a question.” On the fly, I asked him if a middle class kid from a NoVa public would feel at home at a college with a lot of private school graduates.

For whatever reason, he lost it and started yelling about how misguided the question was and how Amherst had rich and poor students from all over the world, including Harlem. I was totally mortified.

Later that day I got called to my guidance counselor’s office. My counselor was also the head football coach and I thought he was going to chew me out for asking an inappropriate question and embarrassing our school. Instead, he said that he’d reviewed the grades and test scores of some of the seniors with the AD and that the AD had committed to admit three of us, including me, to Amherst if we applied. I never found out if he knew I was the same student who had asked the impertinent (although, in hindsight, fairly innocuous) question.

I didn’t end up applying there. I did visit Amherst once, on a trip to Massachusetts to see Williams, and wasn’t crazy about the vibe. But one of my classmates did take the AD up on his offer, and went on to be very successful.

I’ll take Things That Never Happened for $1000.

The college visit every year. It wasn’t some special program. Don’t you remember hearing what colleges were coming every single day during announcements?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Maybe in 10 years, when my kid is looking at colleges, William & Mary will have air conditioning in all of their freshman dorms.

+1
I hope all of the VA colleges put A/C in their dorms.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Amherst. They were sooooo snooty. Kid took it right off the list.

This is a true story.

Years ago the Director of Admissions at Amherst visited my NoVa public when they were looking to diversify their applicant pool. I was among a number of seniors invited to meet with him. He made a presentation about the school and then asked if anyone had questions.

No one had questions at first, so he pointed at me and said “I’m sure you must have a question.” On the fly, I asked him if a middle class kid from a NoVa public would feel at home at a college with a lot of private school graduates.

For whatever reason, he lost it and started yelling about how misguided the question was and how Amherst had rich and poor students from all over the world, including Harlem. I was totally mortified.

Later that day I got called to my guidance counselor’s office. My counselor was also the head football coach and I thought he was going to chew me out for asking an inappropriate question and embarrassing our school. Instead, he said that he’d reviewed the grades and test scores of some of the seniors with the AD and that the AD had committed to admit three of us, including me, to Amherst if we applied. I never found out if he knew I was the same student who had asked the impertinent (although, in hindsight, fairly innocuous) question.

I didn’t end up applying there. I did visit Amherst once, on a trip to Massachusetts to see Williams, and wasn’t crazy about the vibe. But one of my classmates did take the AD up on his offer, and went on to be very successful.

I’ll take Things That Never Happened for $1000.

The college visit every year. It wasn’t some special program. Don’t you remember hearing what colleges were coming every single day during announcements?

At the time such visits were not common at all. And I don’t really care if you’re incredulous.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Boston College - they had an entire stage full of students during the info session, DC leaned over and said "this many kids and they couldn't find a single black or brown student?", felt very disconnected from Boston, didn't like the separate campus (Newton) for many of the students, horrible tour guide who complained constantly

Lehigh - way too much Greek life, depressing area, felt too focused on engineering which DC wasn't planning to study

Wesleyan - looked perfect on paper and had a great tour guide but really didn't like the campus, felt more arts oriented compared to other NESCACs, wasn't as far north as DC wanted to be

So true about Boston College. We noticed the same thing. No diversity at all.

This is also what turned us off from Boston College -- there appeared to be a lack of ethnic and socioeconomic diversity. It came off the list.

I went to Boston College and knew FOUR men named Patrick Walsh there if that tells you anything hahahah

This is so different from our lives. I may send my kids to Boston College just so they can have a different experience!

You joke - but for me this is exactly what happened. It was totally different from my very diverse (in every way) HS. I was surprised when I got there because I had never been in that sort of environment before, and it hadn't ever occurred to me. But I actually learned a lot from that. I was also not as wealthy as many of my classmates and learned a lot from that too.

[Anonymous]

We were horribly let down by Duke in every way.

[Anonymous]

+1

[Anonymous]

UVA. I had been on grounds many times just touring the area and both DS and I really wanted to love it. Maybe it was our tour guide. He told us nothing positive about the school - negative, negative, negative. He said the food is awful. If you wanted to go to a men's basketball game, you had to go to sports that never get spectators to earn "points" which you then use to bid on basketball tickets. He said you had to secure your housing for sophomore year about a month after you start your first year. Yes, I realize at bigger schools you need to find housing in the fall, but a month into school, you're just getting acclimated and this was a big turn-off. DS ended up only applying to smaller schools: 4,000 to 10,000 range.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:UVA. I had been on grounds many times just touring the area and both DS and I really wanted to love it. Maybe it was our tour guide. He told us nothing positive about the school - negative, negative, negative. He said the food is awful. If you wanted to go to a men's basketball game, you had to go to sports that never get spectators to earn "points" which you then use to bid on basketball tickets. He said you had to secure your housing for sophomore year about a month after you start your first year. Yes, I realize at bigger schools you need to find housing in the fall, but a month into school, you're just getting acclimated and this was a big turn-off. DS ended up only applying to smaller schools: 4,000 to 10,000 range.

Pretty bad tour guide because all of those statements are false. Even the food isn’t as bad as people say.

[Anonymous]

Admissions rep.from Mt. Holyoke asked me where we summered. Nope. Not gonna fit in there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Boston College - they had an entire stage full of students during the info session, DC leaned over and said "this many kids and they couldn't find a single black or brown student?", felt very disconnected from Boston, didn't like the separate campus (Newton) for many of the students, horrible tour guide who complained constantly

Lehigh - way too much Greek life, depressing area, felt too focused on engineering which DC wasn't planning to study

Wesleyan - looked perfect on paper and had a great tour guide but really didn't like the campus, felt more arts oriented compared to other NESCACs, wasn't as far north as DC wanted to be

So true about Boston College. We noticed the same thing. No diversity at all.

This is also what turned us off from Boston College -- there appeared to be a lack of ethnic and socioeconomic diversity. It came off the list.

I went to Boston College and knew FOUR men named Patrick Walsh there if that tells you anything hahahah

This is so different from our lives. I may send my kids to Boston College just so they can have a different experience!

You joke - but for me this is exactly what happened. It was totally different from my very diverse (in every way) HS. I was surprised when I got there because I had never been in that sort of environment before, and it hadn't ever occurred to me. But I actually learned a lot from that. I was also not as wealthy as many of my classmates and learned a lot from that too.

I'm going to get roasted for this but as I guide my kiddos through the college search process, diversity isn't something I'm focusing on. I'm telling them to look at other aspects of the college (good fit, is it good for your major, big/small, rural/not rural, big/small). I wouldn't be surprised if they choose a college that is nowhere near as diverse as their current MCPS school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I should add that my DD who didn't like the dorm room at W&M also hated that Colonial Williamsburg was right there. Didn't feel like a college town to her, just a tourist trap. My DS loved it and probably would have ended up giving tours or working in CW had he gone there.

Tourist trap? Well, duh, it’s Colonial Williamsburg.

I really worried about that for my DC. Like that was so important to me. DC loved W&M and spent time sailing on the Charles river instead of CW.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The helicopter parents at William and Mary were a trip. We were at a an info session in a large auditorium with a dean and this girl must have told her mom to "be quiet and stop embarrassing me". She got up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the presentation and her mom stood up and enrolled a long list of questions and started asking them, then abruptly stopped and sat down when the girl came back in the room. And the admissions dean used that language about " one fun major for you like literature, and a second more practical major for your parents."

You do get that the parents at an info session aren't W&M parents, right? They are parents touring all the schools. There was a parent like that in the info sessions at most of the schools I toured. I think that's one of the reasons why tours aren't great for figuring out your opinion of a school--your most contact is with people who are also touring and have nothing to do with the place really. We felt we got a better sense when we lightly attended the official sessions and instead did our own touring.

This is what I mean about tours. The other people and sometimes the tour leader leave such an impression. Lots of time wrong.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Things may have changed since you applied. My DC recently visited Amherst and thought the vibe was fairly chill and welcoming.

My DC was on a semester abroad with Amherst students. Very very snooty. Also the program catered to them so much. They stayed in a castle as part of the event. Guess who stayed in the luxury castle rooms? Guess who stayed in the extra rooms ?