what "good" college did you attend but would not necessarily recommend to your kids or others?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Went to Duke for undergrad. Great education but undergrad social vibe was not my thing. Would have been much better off somewhere with a crunchier, less superficial, less Southern vibe. Eventually found my people and academics were fantastic but I totally understand why people hate Duke.

I don't think these posters were there after 1980. I graduated in the 1990's and the culture was not Southern. It was NY/NJ. The wealthy people were not Southern. Read The Price of Admission and they discuss who is getting recruited for their money to Duke. It's not Southerners.

That place is soulless and I'm not paying for my kids to go there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Went to Duke for undergrad. Great education but undergrad social vibe was not my thing. Would have been much better off somewhere with a crunchier, less superficial, less Southern vibe. Eventually found my people and academics were fantastic but I totally understand why people hate Duke.

I don't think these posters were there after 1980. I graduated in the 1990's and the culture was not Southern. It was NY/NJ. The wealthy people were not Southern. Read The Price of Admission and they discuss who is getting recruited for their money to Duke. It's not Southerners.

That place is soulless and I'm not paying for my kids to go there.

Agree. I got into Duke, but passed (1993).....ended up at Northwestern. A much better fit (less snobby east coast and more midwest nice).

[Anonymous]

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Plus it has Zingerman's. That alone would make Ann Arbor a great college town. Ashley's is one of the best beer bars in the country, much less in college towns. And when you add Krazy Jim's and chipati sauce on top of all that, it's a slam dunk.

>Tell us you paint your face yellow and blue on Saturdays for sportball games without telling us you paint your face yellow and blue on Saturdays for sportball games.

Also, props on being so narrow-minded you think a good bakery and deli is incredibly rare near college towns, let alone college towns with a population of 150,000.

I can’t find a great Jewish deli in the entire Chicagoland area. So much for your point.

Ever heard of Northbrook’s Max & Benny’s? That baby bread basket! My husband palpitated the mini challah and pronounced it magnificent. I’ve lived in a lot of different places and it’s still at the top of my list.

Yes I have. Been there with relatives in Highland Park and Deerfield. I can think of at least four delis off the top of my head in metro Detroit better than anywhere in Chicago.

Are you the Michigan State grad from College Confidential with a pit bull dog avatar like 150,000 posts?

Nope, but you gave me a good laugh. Honestly, who eats challah at a deli? It’s all about the rye bread. The twice baked rye breads at many Michigan delis cannot be beat. Sorry to go so far off topic…..

You, people, are both insane and entititled and don't realize it. How asinine is it to evaluate quality of your child's college education by availability of a 'great Jewish deli'? That speaks volumes about education in this country, not to mention, this country's population.

Signed,
-a foreigner

Translation: I don’t have the cultural competence to understand this discussion, but I’m bursting with the need to share my opinion about this (and everything else).

Reminds me of my German roommate in Cairo who every day tried to explain to Egyptians how they were speaking Arabic wrong because they didn’t talk like his elementary grammar book.

[Anonymous]

UVA.

My family was not supportive of a liberal arts education. They wanted a more practical degree, such as business or engineering, but they agreed to pay for UVA because the options were there. I read another poster who thought Swarthmore was too intense, but that environment would have been better for me.

Most students were working towards law or med school at the time, and I felt a little lost in the frat/sorority social system. I had some great teachers, but I felt like a fish out of water (wahoo!) and finding a career path wasn't easy. I also attended an incredibly diverse high school. The lack of diversity, and the lack of appreciation for how someone from another culture could view the same problem, was difficult. It's been decades since I attended though.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:I was thinking about this and am curious if others have similar thoughts.

I went to Case Western as part of a 3/2 progam (2 yrs at liberal arts school, 3 years at CWRU). Case was fine but it was sort of very generic place. Lots of super brainy science and engineering kids and pre-meds who
were very competitive in class and didn't do much of anything for fun outside of class. In that vein there was not a lot of school spirit or sense of campus community. Super cold and grey weather from Nov to May so most socializing is done indoors. Cleveland is nicer than advertised but most of the students do
not venture out into the city. All-in-all sort of a let down down socially. I went on to Hopkins for graduate school and they're actually pretty similar places. Again, a lot of super intense studiers. Most students
spent a good portion of their lives in the library. Not much cohesion of the student body. Most students did not venture into the surrounding city either because it was not thought of as not safe or they had no interest.
To be honest, most students did not have much of a life outside of studying.
Now as my own kids start to consider colleges I would not recommend either institution. I spend summers at UVA and Georgetown and (in my experience) both were far, far better places to have a well-rounded traditional
college experience. I also started college with 2 years at a SLAC and there was a much better sense of community and belonging there than at CWRU (or JHU) so this is my other perpsective.

What are your thoughts on your own ala mater(s)? This is not meant to be snarky and I also recognize that places change over years. It's just striking to me to see all the CWRU intersest because my own experience was so blah.

CWRU is for people who want to stay in Ohio. You had a bad college experience bc JHU was your first opportunity to leave Ohio.

DP. Or maybe it's because they are in two of the worst cities in the country.

I’ve lived all over the world. Lived in Cleveland for 10 years and really enjoyed it.

Great food scene, great museums, great theatre.

Hard to make much money there, but amazing houses for next to nothing.

[Anonymous]

Culturally Cleveland is first rate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:UVA.

My family was not supportive of a liberal arts education. They wanted a more practical degree, such as business or engineering, but they agreed to pay for UVA because the options were there. I read another poster who thought Swarthmore was too intense, but that environment would have been better for me.

Most students were working towards law or med school at the time, and I felt a little lost in the frat/sorority social system. I had some great teachers, but I felt like a fish out of water (wahoo!) and finding a career path wasn't easy. I also attended an incredibly diverse high school. The lack of diversity, and the lack of appreciation for how someone from another culture could view the same problem, was difficult. It's been decades since I attended though.

UVA is excellent in business so your point is not very well taken.

[Anonymous]

I went to Barnard undergrad and Columbia grad. The academics are phenomenal at both, as are most of the professors. But the student body is pompous, pretentious, and obnoxious (especially at Columbia) and the administration fights to squeeze every dollar out of you they can. President Bollinger needs to resign, he is so out of touch… when he does maybe it will get better.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Swarthmore. Too small and way too much work. Also SJW.

Sorry to be the 4th person on here saying this, but I agree. I disliked it right away but wouldn’t transfer because it was so prestigious.

Prestigious among a small portion of the educated, maybe, but zero name recognition among laypeople.

Seriously. Let me be the 5th. 30 yrs later I seriously want a refund of the money my parents spent on Swarthmore.

A clueless Harvard alumna here. Was planning on encouraging DC to strongly consider SLAC over Ivies. Not having personal knowledge of individual schools, curious how culture at Swarthmore is different than other LAC like Amherst, Williams, Pomona, etc.

I saw this from a College Confidential listing of a parent whose child did the Swarthmore Pomona exchange:

My older D graduated from Pomona in 2019. But she spent an exchange semester during her junior year at Swarthmore, so she was able to compare the Pomona vibe (laid back West Coast) to the Swattie vibe (they sell T shirts that say things like “Swat Life - Anywhere Else it Would’ve Been an A.”) While at Swat she took an advanced Spanish class, real analysis, a computer science class (data structures & algorithms) and an intermediate level economics class. She felt that the two schools were basically identical in terms of academic rigor, grading and amount of homework. But Swatties take pride in their reputation for intensity and sort of a “misery poker” attitude about how hard they work.

One of the administrators she met at Swat told her that if you invite a Swattie and a Pomona student to a party on a Friday night, the Swattie will say no way, I’m too busy and the Pomona kid will say “absolutely” but in reality both will go to the library first to work until 10 pm and then go to the party.

So I'm guessing it's more of a mentality thing than anything. FWIW, the average GPA of Swarthmore grads was 3.66 in 2021, which is generally along the lines of schools known for "grade inflation".

This is interesting. I can see where the reputation kind of feeds on itself.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would not call it sour grapes but maybe more if a mis-match. Many of these schools attract students that very academically oriented and really motivated to learn and enjoy learning. It is not a "grind" for kids that like it.

An academically intense schools can be a good place for a super geek that has always felt out of place in high school. They finally find a place to fit in and be surrounded by other that love school.

Yes, but you don’t seem to understand that lots of very smart kids are well-rounded and don’t plan on becoming academics. For those students, a school full of grinding nerds is a turnoff. Of course, some of this can be addressed in the school selection process, but that process is not perfect. Where a kid attends depends on lots of factors, like admission, family financials, and PERCEIVED notions about a school. Also, a kid/family can be induced to attend a higher-ranked school simply because of its ranking, yet another school might have been a better fit. The point is, college matches are frequently imperfect, even when students and families are trying to get it right.

Yes! This is my kid. She is at her first choice top 5 school. Is happy with her choice but does say she gets tired of how stressed out and anxious kids are all the time. Also, school is overrun with ultra elite and wealthy kids. She is happy with her choice but she says she now understands the appeal of other types of schools like Michigan or small SLACS as well and how they are different but can also be a great experience

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:I would not call it sour grapes but maybe more if a mis-match. Many of these schools attract students that very academically oriented and really motivated to learn and enjoy learning. It is not a "grind" for kids that like it.

An academically intense schools can be a good place for a super geek that has always felt out of place in high school. They finally find a place to fit in and be surrounded by other that love school.

My niece went to UChicago. Double major in Econ and stats. Says she will discourage any kids she has from going there, because she says the courses are arbitrarily difficult, as if to preserve the reputation that this is where fun goes to die. I have heard similar from her friends (with vastly different majors). Yet, if they had to do it over, they would all make the exact same choice again.

+1 I have heard this from many as well. They will talk negatively about some aspect, or most aspects, of the college they attended but then at another point state emphatically that they'd not change a thing if they could do it again.

Here is the thing that this entire thread does not easily relay: one size has never fit all. Some people are just more critical or analytical or even negative in their overall perspectives. Personalities are as different as there are colleges. There are so many subjective layers to why one likes or dislikes something. I appreciate reading all of these comments but I absolutely take each one with a grain of salt.

Thank you for stating the obvious!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Harvard. Lots of insufferable people and lots of nice people with serious mental health issues later.

This. Appreciate the doors it opened (based on the wow factor on the resume in the early years) but you definitely feel the class differences. But probably not as bad as other Ivies. It was great for need-based aid though. So, YMMV.

[Anonymous]

This thread is making me glad my kid didn't go to a lot of these schools mentioned that were on his list.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:UVA.

My family was not supportive of a liberal arts education. They wanted a more practical degree, such as business or engineering, but they agreed to pay for UVA because the options were there. I read another poster who thought Swarthmore was too intense, but that environment would have been better for me.

Most students were working towards law or med school at the time, and I felt a little lost in the frat/sorority social system. I had some great teachers, but I felt like a fish out of water (wahoo!) and finding a career path wasn't easy. I also attended an incredibly diverse high school. The lack of diversity, and the lack of appreciation for how someone from another culture could view the same problem, was difficult. It's been decades since I attended though.

UVA is excellent in business so your point is not very well taken.

ALSO “most students” do not work towards law or Med” at UVA. There are enormous career options like teaching, nursing, Econ, engineering, liberal arts, etc

[Anonymous]

Michigan.

Too big. Curved courses are full of ruthless strivers who will throw their momma down the stairs to get ahead. Thousands of obnoxious cocaine addicted rich kids from CA-NY-NJ control the social scene. And way too much athlete worship.

Great medical and law school but I would not recommend undergrad there. Weather is terrible too.