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

[Anonymous]

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

Terrible.

[Anonymous]

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.

My DD literally did not like the “historic” feel, wants more modern surroundings. . .

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We were horribly let down by Duke in every way.

My DD hated it too. Split campus is weird, but the constant bragging about how they are the best at everything and being “amazing” seems to be their only defining characteristic paled in comparison to UNC, which articulated a clear mission to serve the public as a flagship public university dedicated research and teaching for the public good. The contrast was shocking

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We were horribly let down by Duke in every way.

DD was really let down too. Everything she had heard about the great programs and relaxed campus life was offset by the predominance of Greek life and athletics.

and legacies and celebrity kids

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It is funny seeing how people use the most stupid reasons to not apply somewhere. And these are mature adults?

+1

Another disgruntled DC person thread. So old.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is funny seeing how people use the most stupid reasons to not apply somewhere. And these are mature adults?

Well these are 18 year olds having to make their first major life decision among a vast array of choices that are hard to picture--so they fall back on weird impressions. I think a student's "gut reaction" to a place matters, but it should be taken with a grain of salt--how tired were they that day, how weird was the touring group, how many schools did they see in a row--and parents should think a bit more carefully on how to introduce a place to an 18 year old--e.g., reminding them that the families on the tour are also just touring, the tour guide is just one person, and many factors that matter are the things you don't "feel" on the visit (e.g., cost, academic reputation, quality of major). DC did a bunch of touring of random colleges (SLACs, big U's, city U's etc.) sophomore year just as we happened to be traveling so they could mentally picture the kinds of places other schools might be, did "virtual tours" in general on-line research of schools, and then narrowed down and did more substantive visits with the schools to decide where to apply ED.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is funny seeing how people use the most stupid reasons to not apply somewhere. And these are mature adults?

+1

Another disgruntled DC person thread. So old.

These are teens. Not adults.

[Anonymous]

Why shouldn't you have a gut reaction to a particular college when visiting? You are going to commit to spending 4 years there, and it's not like there are only 10 schools to choose from.

I had a very visceral reaction when I drove up to the school I ended up attending. I just knew it was home in a way that none of the other schools felt. And it was the right decision. What's wrong with that being part of the process?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We were horribly let down by Duke in every way.

My DD hated it too. Split campus is weird, but the constant bragging about how they are the best at everything and being “amazing” seems to be their only defining characteristic paled in comparison to UNC, which articulated a clear mission to serve the public as a flagship public university dedicated research and teaching for the public good. The contrast was shocking

Not the best, Duke came in second in a list of Douchiest Colleges: https://www.newser.com/story/67938/the-10-douchiest-colleges-in-the-us.html
The best line here is Duke should probably be number one but we don't want to make it number one in anything.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why shouldn't you have a gut reaction to a particular college when visiting? You are going to commit to spending 4 years there, and it's not like there are only 10 schools to choose from.

I had a very visceral reaction when I drove up to the school I ended up attending. I just knew it was home in a way that none of the other schools felt. And it was the right decision. What's wrong with that being part of the process?

I agree. Most people are only looking at schools that are reasonable ones to begin with that they would be ok attending. No one is picking a school only because it's pretty or they like the dorms, even if it doesn't have a program they want to do or if their reputation is terrible.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Different poster here, DD and I toured UVA last month and we were told the exact same thing.
FWIW, our tour was also super crappy. We were not shown much of the campus, of sorry, the grounds , and she didn't tell us much. Yet, it's DD's #1 choice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Different poster here, DD and I toured UVA last month and we were told the exact same thing.
FWIW, our tour was also super crappy. We were not shown much of the campus, of sorry, the grounds , and she didn't tell us much. Yet, it's DD's #1 choice.

well guess you had the same tour guide. My kids go there and 1. You absolutely do not have to secure housing a month in. Apartments are still widely available by spring, even summer if that is where they want to be. 50% of second years live in on grounds housing. 2. My kids do not hate the food. Is it gourmet, no, but it's tolerable and they are eating. 3. You earn points towards bball games by going to any sports, including football.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for providing this info on UVA. The housing info was odd so your clariification was very helpful.

[Anonymous]

The basketball ticketing at UVa makes perfect sense to me. They reward people with school spirit with better tickets. People actually go to the non-TV sporting events there, so it's not like it's hard to accumulate points. Student tickets are free, which isn't the case at a lot of places with big time sports.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Different poster here, DD and I toured UVA last month and we were told the exact same thing.
FWIW, our tour was also super crappy. We were not shown much of the campus, of sorry, the grounds , and she didn't tell us much. Yet, it's DD's #1 choice.

well guess you had the same tour guide. My kids go there and 1. You absolutely do not have to secure housing a month in. Apartments are still widely available by spring, even summer if that is where they want to be. 50% of second years live in on grounds housing. 2. My kids do not hate the food. Is it gourmet, no, but it's tolerable and they are eating. 3. You earn points towards bball games by going to any sports, including football.

oh and I couldn't care less if people want to go to UVA or not so I am not a "booster', just thought I'd clear up what is clearly bad information from a parent with kids there currently. There are plenty of other reasons why you may not like it there that are valid.