Any tours you went on that totally surprised you in a positive way?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In the reverse:

UCLA---I thought the angels would sing. I'm brand new to tours but we visited a few over winter break. It reminded me a lot of UMBC (where I took night classes in my 30s). I'm not sure why but it just felt like a totally generic state school.

So interesting - I went in not wanting to like it and was totally surprised at how nice it was and understood how someone might like it there, despite the huge size.

I grew up a mile from campus and attended so I might be biased but comparing it to UMBC is a bit much. I do agree that once you get out of central campus it loses some of it's charm because it is just another state school with a paltry 5.1B endowment. With 9 UC and 23 CSU campuses the state cannot compete with privates and their first class infrastructure.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:UC Santa Barbara shocked me because the campus is a dump. Looks like a Marriott from 1982 that hasn't been updated and is visibly crumbling. Like, stucco chunks falling off the sides of buildings

The adjoining town -- Isla Vista - is a verified $h!thole with as many homeless men as students. Actual Santa Barbara, which is lovely, is miles away and not walkable.

No question, the OCEAN and shoreline are stunning. But the campus and student commercial area are literally decrepit

Your description of both the campus and Isla Vista are spot on but the students really seem to love living in IV and a couple of the on campus dorms have absolutely stunning ocean views.

[Anonymous]

Kenyon. The whole experience was intimate and personalized. They were really selling the small school benefits. And campus is beautiful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:UC Santa Barbara shocked me because the campus is a dump. Looks like a Marriott from 1982 that hasn't been updated and is visibly crumbling. Like, stucco chunks falling off the sides of buildings

The adjoining town -- Isla Vista - is a verified $h!thole with as many homeless men as students. Actual Santa Barbara, which is lovely, is miles away and not walkable.

No question, the OCEAN and shoreline are stunning. But the campus and student commercial area are literally decrepit

That’s always been my impression as well. I laugh at those who think UCSB is in paradise. Santa Barbara is nice, but it’s miles from the campus.

[Anonymous]

Case Western. Beautiful campus. Cleveland is not as bad as they say but Case Western’s campus beat expectations.

[Anonymous]

UMD was not nearly as bad as I was accepting. Lots of off campus restaurants, bars, cafes. Nice quad area. But it’s huge.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:UC Santa Barbara shocked me because the campus is a dump. Looks like a Marriott from 1982 that hasn't been updated and is visibly crumbling. Like, stucco chunks falling off the sides of buildings

The adjoining town -- Isla Vista - is a verified $h!thole with as many homeless men as students. Actual Santa Barbara, which is lovely, is miles away and not walkable.

No question, the OCEAN and shoreline are stunning. But the campus and student commercial area are literally decrepit

Your description of both the campus and Isla Vista are spot on but the students really seem to love living in IV and a couple of the on campus dorms have absolutely stunning ocean views.

.

I’d rather have an interesting campus and neighborhood.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Case Western. Beautiful campus. Cleveland is not as bad as they say but Case Western’s campus beat expectations.

+1 Maybe it's because it's a small school but Case Western was so welcoming.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:UMD was not nearly as bad as I was accepting. Lots of off campus restaurants, bars, cafes. Nice quad area. But it’s huge.

+1

[Anonymous]

Richmond had a really beautiful campus with lovely buildings.

[Anonymous]

VT was impressive. Fantastic presentation and amazing job dealing with thousands of people at their event.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Haverford - gorgeous campus (despite being a rainy day) and warm school.

Swarthmore was also very pretty - our tour guide was amazing but, honestly, the complete opposite of everything I have heard about Swatties since. I think he must be a superstar anomaly!

Even still, DC liked Haverford better but I really couldn't tell you why. (has stats for either)

My botanist husband geeked out over the arboretum campus of Swarthmore. He persuaded DS to apply despite it not being on his original list - if one of our kids ever attends, DH will be the one suggesting visits!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Went to VT with low expectations. We were pleasantly surprised.

UVA tour was meh. I was not impressed. Turns out my kid will attend in the fall!

Exactly our experience. VT had a beautiful campus. Food was great. Buildings were beautiful and I didn't see one part that was run down. Tons of school spirit. Was really surprised, although my kids weren't interested in going there.

Really wanted to like UVA but very underwhelming.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Case Western. Beautiful campus. Cleveland is not as bad as they say but Case Western’s campus beat expectations.

+1 Case surprised us. Like the area a lot more than expected.

University of Cincinnati is very compact with both academic buildings and athletics in the center and dorms/housing around the edges. It has “layers” where plazas & gardens are on top of lecture halls. Far more tucked in there than you would guess from Google maps. I thought it was a pretty campus and just close enough to Cincy to have city access without being in the city.

[Anonymous]

Took our youngest on a campus tour. Was totally surprised that our oldest (a junior at that college) had arranged to be the tour guide for our tour (he was a regular tour guide but did not tell us he was going to do our tour).