Schools you toured that you were surprised you liked or didn’t like?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My daughter was pretty much convinced she was going to go to ED to Williams…until the tour.

The horrible weather that day and a very stressed out tour guide talking about how intense the school was did a double whammy on her. I know that both of those factors were random fate, and who knows, if she would’ve had a beautiful spring day and an upbeat tour guide, maybe she would have applied.

A week later, we found ourselves touring. Davidson on a warm day with a lovely guide, and that’s where she is now.

+1 Davidson is an amazing place to spend 4 years! Very strong academically, friendly students, engaging and supportive professors, charming campus/town, and a variety of activities/sports to support! I'm happy for your daughter!

I think it was about 2 years ago now, a student was down to these two and there was a boyfriend going to charlotte. The parents asked for advice and everybody was like "she should absolutely go to Williams-it's a better school" I understood the concern about picking a school to be closer to a boyfriend, but in terms of the schools, I honestly thought they were both solid choices. Picking Williams just felt like it was all for the bragging rights of going to "the #1 LAC". I think Davidson is also an excellent school AND the weather is better. I think about that post so much.

It was Amherst or Davidson.

[Anonymous]

Exceeded expectations: Carleton, Grinnell, Haverford, Hamilton
A little disappointing: Williams, Vassar, Macalester, Swat, Bowdoin
I think we may have been overly affected by the specific tour guides.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My daughter was pretty much convinced she was going to go to ED to Williams…until the tour.

The horrible weather that day and a very stressed out tour guide talking about how intense the school was did a double whammy on her. I know that both of those factors were random fate, and who knows, if she would’ve had a beautiful spring day and an upbeat tour guide, maybe she would have applied.

A week later, we found ourselves touring. Davidson on a warm day with a lovely guide, and that’s where she is now.

+1 Davidson is an amazing place to spend 4 years! Very strong academically, friendly students, engaging and supportive professors, charming campus/town, and a variety of activities/sports to support! I'm happy for your daughter!

I think it was about 2 years ago now, a student was down to these two and there was a boyfriend going to charlotte. The parents asked for advice and everybody was like "she should absolutely go to Williams-it's a better school" I understood the concern about picking a school to be closer to a boyfriend, but in terms of the schools, I honestly thought they were both solid choices. Picking Williams just felt like it was all for the bragging rights of going to "the #1 LAC". I think Davidson is also an excellent school AND the weather is better. I think about that post so much.

It was Amherst or Davidson.

Oh, dear - you’re right. Mea Culpa. I get those 2 mixed up - 2 high ranked MA lacs.

Same idea, though - I don’t think Davidson was as big a step down as people were making it sound and the weather in NC is nicer. I don’t think making that choice would have ruined the child’s life.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Those who loved Columbia, what did you love about it?

My child was admitted off the waitlist last year and we never toured. The most we ever visited was a 10 minute walk across campus a few years prior.
They ended up taking another waitlist offer so I'll forever be a tiny bit curious about Columbia.

Where did your child pick over Columbia?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Exceeded expectations: Carleton, Grinnell, Haverford, Hamilton
A little disappointing: Williams, Vassar, Macalester, Swat, Bowdoin
I think we may have been overly affected by the specific tour guides.

How so?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC- Strongly disliked -
University of California San Diego - DC thought it was directly on the beach but it is not easy to get to the beach since it requires walking a considerable distance. It has an ugly concrete, cold feeling about it with no central campus. So many of the students seemed depressed and even the tour group guide seemed sad every time he looked away and wasn’t directly addressing the people in the tour. University of Irvine seemed similar.

Pepperdine. In the middle of a burned out small town far from any actual city. Students seemed rich and entitled.

Pomona/Claremont McKenna- it was really hot when we went and it is in a far far off area of LA. Not sure how to describe some of the Pomona students.

University of Santa Barbara- Campus seemed so run down. So much deferred maintenance needed. Great that campus is actually on a beach so that part was amazing, but so many students seemed really into partying.

DC liked-
UCLA- nice campus, students seemed friendly. We try to eat in the dinning commons just to get a feel for food and students. DC liked diversity of food and vibe.

University of Utah-DC wasn’t thrilled about the lack of diversity, the new dorms and new buildings on campus were really nice. Everyone was over the top friendly and helpful. Super close to skiing and hiking. Students didn’t seem ultra competitive and seemed like they would collaborate.

UC Berkeley- thought it would be grungy with homeless all around but that wasn’t our experience at all. Had a great tour and saw a beautiful campus in an urban setting.

UC Davis- fantastic college town, students were friendly and seemed happy, such a great campus to bike around. We ended up renting bikes because there were so many amazing bike paths and the campus has a lot of very flat land. Biked to pet a goat and cow, biked to a small lake and small river that runs through campus, biked to town to get ice cream, bikes to raptor center, bikes to student union, biked to an athletic event. Helped the tour guide was really personable and fantastic and it was a gorgeous day. So hard to know how it would be different if it were a dreary rainy day with a bad tour guide.

Pepperdine isn’t in the middle of any town and the fires were far away. Strange also that you don’t mention its spectacular location and unspoiled views of the Pacific. It’s usually at the top of everyone’s list of most beautiful campus.

What a crazy thing to say the fires were far away. Pepperdine is in Malibu where over 700 homes burned down. Drive from Pepperdine to the west side of LA/ Westwood/ Santa Monica and you pass so many burned out houses and buildings. I don’t call that a spectacular location as it stands right now and for years to come.

The Palisadez fires were 3.5 miles away as the crow flies. Pepperdine was not impacted because of its careful conservation methods.

DP. We saw the remnants of a big fire right up to the school property when we were there last year. But the school itself was not burned.

Franklin fire - late 2024

[Anonymous]

Surprised how little either of us (me and DD) liked Reed. This was early in the college search and the visit was more intended to be "do you like small schools" than Reed-specific. I grew up on the West Coast and attended a different PNW LAC, so I knew about Reed and expected to love it -- Portland, smart and quirky kids, etc., etc. The only place we saw students was in the library, nobody seemed happy, and every building we went into had warning signs about the dangers of fentanyl. The tour guide knew absolutely nothing about performing arts on campus, which was bad luck, and used the word "cozy" so often it became a running joke in our family. The tour included 15 minutes in the room in the library where they display all of the students' senior theses, which held absolutely no interest to DD. Who did not apply.

[Anonymous]

Absolutely loved Stanford.

-Mediterranean weather
-Spanish architecture
-proximity to San Francisco, Lake Tahoe
-palm trees galore
-non football sports culture

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Absolutely loved Stanford.

-Mediterranean weather
-Spanish architecture
-proximity to San Francisco, Lake Tahoe
-palm trees galore
-non football sports culture

Stanford is very close to SF but not that close to Tahoe. It's 4 hour drive without traffic.

[Anonymous]

Did the New England schools for DD. Liked Bowdoin(reach), Colby, Holy Cross, and Middlebury. No longer interested in Wesleyan and Trinity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Absolutely loved Stanford.

-Mediterranean weather
-Spanish architecture
-proximity to San Francisco, Lake Tahoe
-palm trees galore
-non football sports culture

Stanford is very close to SF but not that close to Tahoe. It's 4 hour drive without traffic.

It’s not even that close to SF. It’s like 45 mins if you have a car?

[Anonymous]

Loved Northeastern - wasn’t expecting that. Loved the vibe and collaboration and support

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Absolutely loved Stanford.

-Mediterranean weather
-Spanish architecture
-proximity to San Francisco, Lake Tahoe
-palm trees galore
-non football sports culture

Stanford is very close to SF but not that close to Tahoe. It's 4 hour drive without traffic.

It’s not even that close to SF. It’s like 45 mins if you have a car?

Caltrain goes from Palo Alto to SF in 30 minutes- no need for a car.
As for Tahoe, it’s indeed a 4 hour drive but I can’t think of any peer college that can get you that close to alpine skiing (sorry Vermont doesn’t come close)

[Anonymous]

When we toured schools in 2024:

liked: Wes, Swat, Brown, Yale, Berkeley
disliked: Penn, Amherst, Williams, Stanford

Kid Ed'd at Brown, there now. We disagreed about Swat in particular.

[Anonymous]

I never realized how important tour guides are before reading this thread! I think I’m grateful we never toured Tufts where my son attends. We first visited at accepted students day and he was too busy attending other sessions to do an official tour. He just loves it - good thing we never toured, maybe the admissions session or a bad tour guide would have taken it off the list! 🤣