What school dropped off the list because of your visit?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ohio state. Oops, sorry, THE Ohio state. We stopped by for a self-guided tour. Very nice student union, but the joke about Michigan that our family friend dropped in the admissions office as a test drew daggered looks from all 6 people there. Saw similar intensity about hatred of Michigan touring the campus. Just a little too intense of a sports focus for both of our DCs.

Harvard. The campus is just sprawling throughout Cambridge. DC didn't like the scattered dorms, where the athletic facilities were, and the hodgepodge for different parts of the school. Liked the Law School area.

Princeton had a highly desirable program, and the campus was nice enough, but the whole eating clubs and academic plan just weren't what was expected. And then being in the middle of nowhere was not appealing to my DC. 1 hr train to either Philly or NYC wasn't a benefit.

Yale - as previously said, nice campus, surrounding area severely lacking.

UPenn actually rose on the list, but I can see why it would drop off some people's lists. It was more compact and dense than expected, with good access to the city, which was a plus for my DC.

I think there are two main things that can come from a visit - obviously the actual campus and campus feel, but also some nuances about student life and academics that are hard to tell from the website and online tours. Better if you whittle the list before you apply, but sometimes after you have admission offers, the tour ends up being the deciding factor.

LOL didn't like Harvard, Yale or Princeton but liked Penn. Sounds like a realist setting herself up for rejections. Don't blame her.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Rice (very surprised...expected to absolutely love it but didn't like it at all), UT-Austin, and UVA

Why didn't you like those places after the visits?

We'd been to a lot of schools (was fortunate to be able to visit pre-COVID), so we had sense of comparison and we wanted to look at all types.

The campus and facilities at Rice and UVA were very underwhelming: library, student center, dining, fitness center, just everything. But other campuses seem to care so much about having everything much more state-of-the-art and making a student's life better. With regard to culture, Rice was super small...felt like summer camp and felt a little too introverted. People were very nice though. UVA felt to too material and fratty.

UT-Austin on the other hand did have great facilities like so many other campuses we visited. But, it's big, and it felt big!...felt like it was too big for kids to know each other. Everywhere we went, students were by themselves...they didn't congregate like on most campuses. Whereas, we didn't get that same sense from other schools of comparable size (ASU and Texas A&M). Other large school were able to make themselves "feel small."

BTW...DC fell in love in with Texas A&M. But was impressed with many schools. After visiting many schools, became partial to state schools...better funding and better facilities (at least for engineering).

Hope that helps.

Surprised about Rice bc my DC felt the opposite of when we went. Did you go a few years ago bc now they have a new fitness center and will have a new student center. But the quad and all the old oak trees are so beautiful and the neighborhood around Rice is gorgeous.

[Anonymous]

You’re damned if you do, and damned if you don’t. If you visit in summer when campuses are gorgeous the students aren’t there but if you go when the students are there in the winter or early spring the weather will scare them away.

Wish we could do more spring visits but my junior will have tons of exams and year end projects. Oh well!

[Anonymous]

Oh, but it's too much peer pressure
Don't want to teach them to handle peer pressure

[Anonymous]

Duke - didn't like that you had to take a shuttle to get from East to West Campus. Thought the architecture was pretentious

Dickinson- didn't like that there was a busy road running through the middle of campus. Didn't like that it was in the middle of nowhere.

Really came away impressed by

Elon - had to drag him there but he loved how beautiful it was and how friendly everyone there seemed

U of Richmond - loved the beautiful campus and how close it is to Richmond

[Anonymous]

I feel like a jerk but I thought I knew about colleges but I’ve lived in this area for 20 years and had never heard of Elon until a few years ago and did not know until recently there is a U of Richmond.

I hope my DS has ways to find out about the good places that are in my blind spots!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Any poster who (or whose kid) writes a school off because the student tour guide didn't sit well with them is just plain silly.

Totally agree. Tour guide is 1 person amid hundreds/thousands of students at a school.

[Anonymous]

One of my college on-campus interviewers looked like John F. Kennedy Jr. It’s idiotic but that school moved way up on my list. (That school knew what it was doing. 😜)

[Anonymous]

UCLA. They do not offer tours during the school year but that is when we could go. After looking for parking for 30 minutes, being buffeted around by the mobs of students when classes were changing and a cool reception at the school DC was interested in, it dropped off the list.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Vanderbilt, William and Mary,

Princeton, university of Chicago,

Do you hate beautiful campuses?

+1. I can understand visiting a school and thinking I did not know everyone had to take two semesters of foreign language or housing not guaranteed or no vegan options. But anyone that walked on UVA, Wake Forest or Vanderbilt campus and didn’t care for it is crazy IMO. They are gorgeous.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Any poster who (or whose kid) writes a school off because the student tour guide didn't sit well with them is just plain silly.

Totally agree. Tour guide is 1 person amid hundreds/thousands of students at a school.

+1. Visit at least twice. DS hated UVA the first time (hot day; too many on tour; couldn’t hear guide; didn’t get to see what he wanted to see) but loved VTech (I did too). Went back to UVA and adored it and graduated from there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Duke - didn't like that you had to take a shuttle to get from East to West Campus. Thought the architecture was pretentious

Dickinson- didn't like that there was a busy road running through the middle of campus. Didn't like that it was in the middle of nowhere.

Really came away impressed by

Elon - had to drag him there but he loved how beautiful it was and how friendly everyone there seemed

U of Richmond - loved the beautiful campus and how close it is to Richmond

Elon is beautiful

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You’re damned if you do, and damned if you don’t. If you visit in summer when campuses are gorgeous the students aren’t there but if you go when the students are there in the winter or early spring the weather will scare them away.

Wish we could do more spring visits but my junior will have tons of exams and year end projects. Oh well!

They should see the weather they will face (which is not usually summer weather). Believe me, a freezing spring storm scared my daughter from Mt. Holyoke, but I thought that was legit (because those are not rare in Western Mass).

I think seeing kids on campus is well worth it. An empty campus has little personality.
Putting the pandemic aside (ie, in future years) , I also strongly recommend overnight visits for accepted students.

I do wish high schools and colleges could agree on some schedule so that high school kids would be allowed stress-free visits (i.e., a break from AP classes for a week or something).

Good luck!

[Anonymous]

Here they are along with DS's "reasons" for eliminating it:

Lehigh-gross area around school
Oberlin-ugly buildings and "nothing" downtown
Wm & Mary-too touristy surrounding area and campus too boring, all buildings look the same
UNC - the tiniest dorms he's ever seen
UVM - everyone looks the same

Keep in mind these are his observations

[Anonymous]

😂