For fun: first impressions of colleges based on tours...

[Anonymous]

We only toured where DC got in.
- Davidson: tour guide hated it and looked fake old after W&M
- Swarthmore: beautiful campus but way too woke and small
- Wake Forest: beautiful but too rich for our blood
- W&L same as above and tour guide hated the place. Beautiful tho.
- UVA: beautiful campus but needs to get over itself and long ride to campus on bus
- W&M: tourist town?
- What was up with tour guides hating the school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

We were touring much different schools than Auburn. Mainly liberal arts colleges in the Midwest and northeast. The largest school we toured was W&M. I don’t have strong feelings about people announcing their pronouns. Since so many were doing it I figured it was something being done on college campuses these days.

Pp you quoted (Auburn visitor) here
Oh you are correct it definitely is being done at a lot! My son has mostly been visiting large state universities and has encountered it--CU Boulder did.

I definitely expect to hear the pronouns announcement these days at colleges. But, the one time the info might have been helpful was on a tour at Juniata with an excellent tour guide who I was not sure was male or female. Eventually he mentioned being gay and when discussing the school's gender inclusive dorms and other supports for LGBTQ students but nobody on our visit proactively mentioned pronouns

But why would it have been helpful? You aren't going to have an ongoing relationship with the tour guide. The tour guide won't hear you if you are telling your friends/family about the tour, so even if you used the "wrong" pronoun, it's not like the tour guide will be around to hear it and be offended.

DP here. Regardless of what our political leanings are, most people are polite individuals and feel the urge to use the correct pronoun when referring to someone in the third person. It's basic decency, really. Even if we don't want to be forced to use it by law, we are driven by our social instincts to do it.

I agree about it being polite to use the correct pronoun. The thing is, I just don't talk about tour guides so there is no "wrong pronoun" or "correct pronoun"--there is "no pronoun" because it never comes up. The tour guide is only in our life for about 90 minutes and I never need to think about them (and definitely don't need to be talking about them) ever again.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We only toured where DC got in.
- Davidson: tour guide hated it and looked fake old after W&M
- Swarthmore: beautiful campus but way too woke and small
- Wake Forest: beautiful but too rich for our blood
- W&L same as above and tour guide hated the place. Beautiful tho.
- UVA: beautiful campus but needs to get over itself and long ride to campus on bus
- W&M: tourist town?
- What was up with tour guides hating the school?

Si, which one did she choose?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We only toured where DC got in.
- Davidson: tour guide hated it and looked fake old after W&M
- Swarthmore: beautiful campus but way too woke and small
- Wake Forest: beautiful but too rich for our blood
- W&L same as above and tour guide hated the place. Beautiful tho.
- UVA: beautiful campus but needs to get over itself and long ride to campus on bus
- W&M: tourist town?
- What was up with tour guides hating the school?

Si, which one did she choose?

Yeah. Doesn't sound too keen on any of these. I think they are some pretty good choices.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We only toured where DC got in.
- Davidson: tour guide hated it and looked fake old after W&M
- Swarthmore: beautiful campus but way too woke and small
- Wake Forest: beautiful but too rich for our blood
- W&L same as above and tour guide hated the place. Beautiful tho.
- UVA: beautiful campus but needs to get over itself and long ride to campus on bus
- W&M: tourist town?
- What was up with tour guides hating the school?

Si, which one did she choose?

Yeah. Doesn't sound too keen on any of these. I think they are some pretty good choices.

I don’t want to jump to conclusions but I think the kid went to the small “woke” college

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We only toured where DC got in.
- Davidson: tour guide hated it and looked fake old after W&M
- Swarthmore: beautiful campus but way too woke and small
- Wake Forest: beautiful but too rich for our blood
- W&L same as above and tour guide hated the place. Beautiful tho.
- UVA: beautiful campus but needs to get over itself and long ride to campus on bus
- W&M: tourist town?
- What was up with tour guides hating the school?

Si, which one did she choose?

Yeah. Doesn't sound too keen on any of these. I think they are some pretty good choices.

I don’t want to jump to conclusions but I think the kid went to the small “woke” college

I disagree. I'm going to guess UVA because "needs to get over itself" isn't as bad as some of the other criticisms.

[Anonymous]

Bowdoin: Very White
Northeastern: cool internships
W and L: lots of smiles
Va Tech: unbelievably good food
UVA: tour guide who loves his frat
Georgetown: tour guide who seems to have 3 majors and 3 minors

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We only toured where DC got in.
- Davidson: tour guide hated it and looked fake old after W&M
- Swarthmore: beautiful campus but way too woke and small
- Wake Forest: beautiful but too rich for our blood
- W&L same as above and tour guide hated the place. Beautiful tho.
- UVA: beautiful campus but needs to get over itself and long ride to campus on bus
- W&M: tourist town?
- What was up with tour guides hating the school?

What long bus ride? That’s impossible. Both the bus station and the train station are within easy walking distance of campus. My kid trained back and forth and walked to campus. Was he being bussed from another campus to visit? Did he bus from DC? It takes just as long to drive. The train is nicer and you can read.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My older kid dismissed most schools for random reasons.

A few I remember:
Providence College: I can't be a Friar for life
Boston College: The T is too slow out here.
Haverford: the grass is too tall
Anything in the DC area: too close to home (like we want to visit them!!!!!!)
"Not enough trees": this was a bunch of schools, apparently my kid had a "tree quota".

This cracks me up because my kid's impression of Haverford was that all they talked about were the trees. In the car as we were leaving he asked me "Do we think that's like a THING here, that it's like a point of pride for everyone who goes here that there are all these old trees? Because I don't see myself caring about trees that much."

Other highlights include:

Johns Hopkins: If they are that obsessed with how much financial aid they give out, maybe they should see that as a sign that they charge too much
JMU: Wait, the highway runs right through the campus?
Mary Washington: So. Much. Brick. But the beverage selection in the dining hall weirdly impressed him.

OMG, love your son’s reaction to John’s Hopkins! He should send them a letter! (Yeah, I know… but seriously, this is like what Elon did).

[Anonymous]

Swarthmore: they seemed particularly woke but DC chose it.
W&M: I thought tourist town but DC chose it and loved it.
2 kids.

[Anonymous]

John’s Hopkins: all the young people looked seriously stressed.

[Anonymous]

This thread is cracking me up and making me feel better about my kid. Too hilly. Not enough trees. I'm dying.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This thread is cracking me up and making me feel better about my kid. Too hilly. Not enough trees. I'm dying.

Haha, my kid also commented on all the emphasis on trees at Haverford (and the mascot is a squirrel!).

[Anonymous]

Oberlin: so depressing, I would kill myself if I had to go here
Swarthmore: I already don’t fit in and I don’t even go here

[Anonymous]

W&M — foliage and some bridge where people got engaged, using this as a “hook” on the tour repelled DD

I was repelled by that engagement on the bridge hook on the W&M tour 40 years ago when I was searching. Amazed they're still using it and amused it is still having that effect!