Promote/Demote a college from firsthand experience.

[Anonymous]

We had a great visit at Quinnipiac. The admission counselor's talk was the best I'd heard and at that point we were on the college search with child #3.

[Anonymous]

Promote:
W&M -- everyone seemed to be having a good time, even with the hard workload
VT -- so many opportunities
Iowa State -- Surprisingly good

Demote:
UDEL -- great place to be a big fist in a small pond was a turn off
JMU -- looks like a fun school, but not serious about academics
UVA -- To pretensious
RPI -- Computer-human interface is not all there are to humanities
SUNY Binghamton -- just depressing. Campus architecture is the ugliest (I got my PhD there)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can anyone chime in for the B students?

Promote Wooster

I assume:
St. Mary's College of Md, Pitt, Stony Brook and Pitt
Have higher acceptance rate.

[Anonymous]

These are from college visits 2 years ago--full day hanging out visits and some overnights--so not sure if it's what you mean by "firsthand experience." It was really interesting to me because before visits UVA was number one choice and Denison was first "safety" liberal arts choice and they both dropped down in favor of others. And he almost didn't want to visit W&M, but it became his first in-state public choice. (I recently revisited DS's notes from the visits because DD is in application season and didn't get to visit due to covid and I wanted to show her how much his perspective changed about schools, and how much of his initial perspectives were based on vague rumors/stereotypes).

Promote: W&M: DS who is fairly sporty, social and academic had thought it was going to be very nerdy and stressed-out and found it wasn't at all.
VT: Similar to above
Oberlin: Was worried that it was going to be "too crunchy" and "SJW" but found it was a serious and laid-back school
Kenyon: Surprised by how much attention were given sports/athletics at a small, remote school. Liked the feel of the community and seriousness of academics.

Demote: UVA: DS was sure this was the one (and has GPA/SAT to be a target) but didn't love it.
Denison: He thought this was going to be his favorite on the Ohio tour, but was rubbed wrong by what he saw as too much marketing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Promote

Pomona (ended up here) - best of both worlds, small college with large student body/classes/activities thanks to the Claremont Consortium, very diverse, great location.

Vassar and Bryn Mawr - beautiful, engaged student body, interesting majors.

Wesleyan (sister went) - highly intelligent and engaged student body, great vibe, excellent small classes, plenty of on-campus activities.

Demoted:

Middlebury - remote, jock vibe, homogenous.

Penn - competitive/cutthroat, very pre-professional.

Columbia - stressful atmosphere, expensive surroundings, students seemed unhappy.


I see this comment a lot. Not usually about Penn but certainly about a lot of other schools. What does this mean exactly? It is clear that "pre-professional" is seen as a negative, but why is that? I mean medicine, law, finance etc are all 'professional' fields. Folks seem to be happy if their kids are going to be lawyers or doctors or financiers. What is the opposite of pre-professional? To me that would be something like a liberal arts focus but that is generally looked down by DCUMers. Can someone clear this up?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Promote:
W&M -- everyone seemed to be having a good time, even with the hard workload
VT -- so many opportunities
Iowa State -- Surprisingly good

Demote:
UDEL -- great place to be a big fist in a small pond was a turn off
JMU -- looks like a fun school, but not serious about academics
UVA -- To pretensious
RPI -- Computer-human interface is not all there are to humanities
SUNY Binghamton -- just depressing. Campus architecture is the ugliest (I got my PhD there)

*too pretentious*

[Anonymous]

Promote:
WM - daughter loved it from minute one and we went for a visit with no expectations. I liked how many times I saw kids walking around talking with one another with obvious enthusiasm.
JMU - so much fun and a brand new business school building
UMW - small with lots of personal attention and several really interesting programs

Demote:
GMU - really crowded and just felt like everyone was too close and there wasn’t enough space.
UVA - I thought this would be the one. Our daughter had the stats for it and she is very social. She wasn’t wowed. I really wasn’t either.

She wound up at W&M and is very happy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Promote

Pomona (ended up here) - best of both worlds, small college with large student body/classes/activities thanks to the Claremont Consortium, very diverse, great location.

Vassar and Bryn Mawr - beautiful, engaged student body, interesting majors.

Wesleyan (sister went) - highly intelligent and engaged student body, great vibe, excellent small classes, plenty of on-campus activities.

Demoted:

Middlebury - remote, jock vibe, homogenous.

Penn - competitive/cutthroat, very pre-professional.

Columbia - stressful atmosphere, expensive surroundings, students seemed unhappy.


I see this comment a lot. Not usually about Penn but certainly about a lot of other schools. What does this mean exactly? It is clear that "pre-professional" is seen as a negative, but why is that? I mean medicine, law, finance etc are all 'professional' fields. Folks seem to be happy if their kids are going to be lawyers or doctors or financiers. What is the opposite of pre-professional? To me that would be something like a liberal arts focus but that is generally looked down by DCUMers. Can someone clear this up?

I'm not the PP, but I also went to Penn many years ago and also found it too pre-professional. I would say it's exactly what you said it means. To me, it means a lot of talk and focus on "professional" studies whether it's studying to be an engineer to go into business, etc. It changed the social dynamics for me and liberal arts was definitely looked down on there. I guess it's a negative to some people and a positive to some depending on what you want out of college.

[Anonymous]

Promote Northwestern - really stunning campus, impressive range of top-ranking programs. Feels like a blue-chip investment with upward momentum.

Promote Columbia - the campus, though small, really gives you that imposing Ivy League vibe. Students seemed edgier and more hip than what you'd expect at a more hoity-toity school.

Demote NYU - anxious, disconnected student body that lacks unity. Good for grad school programs perhaps (if you can get funding), but not sure it's ideal for undergrad.

Demote Georgetown - possibly the most overrated school in the US (in terms of lay prestige, name recognition). surprisingly grungy campus (and not in a good way) and extremely homogenous student body.

[Anonymous]

Demote UCLA. Undergrad curriculum is an afterthought to its research focus. Labs were so poorly funded they lacked basic safety equipment, assuming you could even get in as a 5th year since they were so oversubscribed. Professors cared so little and classes were so over booked that exams were both multiple choice and cutthroat. Lots of cheating with no ability for professors to stop it. Really poor eduction.

-former grad student

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Promote:
W&M -- everyone seemed to be having a good time, even with the hard workload
VT -- so many opportunities
Iowa State -- Surprisingly good

Demote:
UDEL -- great place to be a big fist in a small pond was a turn off
JMU -- looks like a fun school, but not serious about academics
UVA -- To pretensious
RPI -- Computer-human interface is not all there are to humanities
SUNY Binghamton -- just depressing. Campus architecture is the ugliest (I got my PhD there)

*too pretentious*

I rest my case. Grammar Nazis for UVA.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Promote Northwestern - really stunning campus, impressive range of top-ranking programs. Feels like a blue-chip investment with upward momentum.

Promote Columbia - the campus, though small, really gives you that imposing Ivy League vibe. Students seemed edgier and more hip than what you'd expect at a more hoity-toity school.

Demote NYU - anxious, disconnected student body that lacks unity. Good for grad school programs perhaps (if you can get funding), but not sure it's ideal for undergrad.

Demote Georgetown - possibly the most overrated school in the US (in terms of lay prestige, name recognition). surprisingly grungy campus (and not in a good way) and extremely homogenous student body.

My dd would agree with you. We don't live in DC but visited some of the schools as my kid is interested in politics/IR and I was surprised at how much she disliked Georgetown. On paper it was her dream school, but she couldn't get out of there fast enough. I think we bailed on the tour halfway through. On the other hand she was pleasantly surprised by American and I also had a very positive experience dealing with the staff for their honors program when we ran into some technical issues while applying. Dd ended up elsewhere but I think we both would have been happy with her at AU.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Promote: Stony Brook - nice, research oriented university
Promote: CWRU
Promote: W&M
Promote: UCSD

Demote: VT
Demote: CMU - everyone looked miserable
Demote: UIUC
Demote: UC Berkeley
Demote: UW Madison

Just for perspective, mine applied to W&M, Grinnell, Stony Brook, CWRU, WUSTL, Rice, and RPI

Their attending CWRU

How shallow. You're basing this on first impressions, not firsthand experience. Didn't realize that's what the OP was asking. So we're supposed to respond with impressions based on tours or walking around a campus?

Yes. It's an anonymous internet survey. You don't have any credentials to make your opinions more valid than anyone else's. I'm a Harvard alum, obvi, so only I can promote or demote them. If you believe me. You can demote just based on a name if you want. Looking at you Ball State.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Promote Northwestern - really stunning campus, impressive range of top-ranking programs. Feels like a blue-chip investment with upward momentum.

Promote Columbia - the campus, though small, really gives you that imposing Ivy League vibe. Students seemed edgier and more hip than what you'd expect at a more hoity-toity school.

Demote NYU - anxious, disconnected student body that lacks unity. Good for grad school programs perhaps (if you can get funding), but not sure it's ideal for undergrad.

Demote Georgetown - possibly the most overrated school in the US (in terms of lay prestige, name recognition). surprisingly grungy campus (and not in a good way) and extremely homogenous student body.

My dd would agree with you. We don't live in DC but visited some of the schools as my kid is interested in politics/IR and I was surprised at how much she disliked Georgetown. On paper it was her dream school, but she couldn't get out of there fast enough. I think we bailed on the tour halfway through. On the other hand she was pleasantly surprised by American and I also had a very positive experience dealing with the staff for their honors program when we ran into some technical issues while applying. Dd ended up elsewhere but I think we both would have been happy with her at AU.

I would promote AU as well. DD was very impressed with the political science/IR programs and it was high on her list--except for it being about a mile from our house!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Promote: Stony Brook - nice, research oriented university
Promote: CWRU
Promote: W&M
Promote: UCSD

Demote: VT
Demote: CMU - everyone looked miserable
Demote: UIUC
Demote: UC Berkeley
Demote: UW Madison

Just for perspective, mine applied to W&M, Grinnell, Stony Brook, CWRU, WUSTL, Rice, and RPI

Their attending CWRU

How shallow. You're basing this on first impressions, not firsthand experience. Didn't realize that's what the OP was asking. So we're supposed to respond with impressions based on tours or walking around a campus?

Yes. It's an anonymous internet survey. You don't have any credentials to make your opinions more valid than anyone else's. I'm a Harvard alum, obvi, so only I can promote or demote them. If you believe me. You can demote just based on a name if you want. Looking at you Ball State.

Furman