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

[Anonymous]

All the people who are saying that UVA tour/ guide was a snob: What exactly did they do on the tour that made you think they were snobby?

Or is that a common criticism of UVA that you then went in and thought while you were on the tour?

Feels like confirmation bias.

[Anonymous]

UVA - Thought we'd love it, but it felt rundown.
UCLA - Thought we'd love it, but DC walked away saying absoltely not.
Pitt - Thought we'd like it, but it made DC realize an urban campus was not their vibe.

VT - Thought we'd be meh about it, but their open house event was fantastic.

UGA - Thought we'd be meh about it, but it was 100% the best tour we took.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:UVA - Thought we'd love it, but it felt rundown.
UCLA - Thought we'd love it, but DC walked away saying absoltely not.
Pitt - Thought we'd like it, but it made DC realize an urban campus was not their vibe.

VT - Thought we'd be meh about it, but their open house event was fantastic.

UGA - Thought we'd be meh about it, but it was 100% the best tour we took.

It really depends on the kids. My one daughter loved UVA, the other one felt it was too preppy and nerdy for them.

[Anonymous]

I just wanted to comment that with all these colleges’ marketing budgets, it is baffling that so many can’t get the tour and info session consistently right. Should be such an easy thing to fix.

I have been on several tours where you could not hear the tour guide some or part of the time. Unacceptable.

I have been on tours where the group never enters a university building (this is post-Covid) except the admissions office. Unacceptable.

And on and on…

Same goes for admitted student days. Both parents can’t come because you are all booked up (top SLAC) so the donut-hole family can’t decide together on a 90k investment? Unacceptable.

Stuffing parents into a crowded room where they can barely move and can’t find where the coffee is because they can’t see it (top 20 National university)? Unacceptable.

This little things matter…

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am now touring schools with my 4th kid, so I have been on A LOT of tours. UGA is the best tour I have been on and it isn’t even close. I wasn’t expecting to love the campus and Athens so much. Playing REM while everyone was settling into the info session gave off such a fun vibe.

+1Go Dawgs!! Athens is a beautiful small, friendly city; and UGA is beautiful and provides an excellent education!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Tulane was underwhelming. Tour was not great and the campus was a bit rundown, very old classrooms with chalkboards.

Syracuse was beautiful. Great tour, great guide, great facilities.

UIUC was good. It’s a big school and there were lots of us visiting that day. Campus and town both nice. Big school

Tulane doesn't rely on chalkboards ...

DD really liked Syracuse, too. Ended up at VT. SU is much more expensive for a similar vibe.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:With DC1:

Wanted to Like but Hated: UVA (awful tour, snobby students both on tour and ones we know from home) and Catholic U (it’s DC, way too urban)

Wanted to like and thought OK: JMU, Franciscan

Liked way more than anticipated: Longwood, WVU

With DC2:

No, thank you (wanted to like, just didn’t): Ole Miss and Kentucky

Mom (and School field trip tour) made me do it and still hated it: UVA (after three strikes….you’re out)

Knew it would be liked (and did): VT and Auburn

Way better than we all thought: Tennessee

Still to Come (so advice and experience appreciated!): Texas A&M, LSU, Shenandoah, and ODU (loved hearing positive vibes on the last three from upthread!!)

I’m the poster who liked Shenandoah and ODU. They are completely different schools, obviously. But I hope you enjoy your visits. I think it helped that we visited for a planned event day vs just going on the everyday tour.

Thanks! That’s our “plan”. DC2 really wants the Big SEC experience (can’t you tell from the list 😜 ) but these two in-state options probably appeal the most.

Not sure ODU lives up to the SEC, but we did eat lunch in the football stadium. They have beaten Tech there a couple times

Full disclosure - my child had already attended their dance intensive twice (it was a day program vs dorming), so already knew those facilities. They never took her on a full campus tour, so it was nice to see more than just that one building. My parents own a condo on the Bay, so we are somewhat familiar with the area. The surrounding part of Norfolk isn’t the best, but the campus itself is nice and fairly self contained. The Norfolk waterfront is a tourist area with restaurants and museums. And there is of course a lot to do in the tidewater area.

Shenandoah is a small school in a nice town. Not sure about sports, though. Again, I liked it more than I thought I would. It isn’t for everyone. But it does have a lot going for it and a ton of good programs. Especially good for pre- health, as it has masters and doctoral programs, too. It is only an hour from Dulles, so close but not to close. They are good with merit money and you also can use the VTAG money. I was sad my daughter decided not to apply in the end.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am now touring schools with my 4th kid, so I have been on A LOT of tours. UGA is the best tour I have been on and it isn’t even close. I wasn’t expecting to love the campus and Athens so much. Playing REM while everyone was settling into the info session gave off such a fun vibe.

+1Go Dawgs!! Athens is a beautiful small, friendly city; and UGA is beautiful and provides an excellent education!

It really was great there, from the moment we walked into the conference room we felt the enthusiasm. Our tour guides were energetic, not cheesy and engaging with prospectives. It was the only tour where a guide asked to walk side by side with each kid who was willing as we went from stop to stop. In the end my kid didn't attend b/c they got into their top program at another school (UGA didn't offer the same program), but it was definitely right up there until the end.

[Anonymous]

My takeaway is that people who think they need to personally gel with their tour guide and expect them to be perfect (when they're just a year or two older than our kids) should just do the self-guided tour.

You aren't going to love every kid at a school of thousands.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I just wanted to comment that with all these colleges’ marketing budgets, it is baffling that so many can’t get the tour and info session consistently right. Should be such an easy thing to fix.

I have been on several tours where you could not hear the tour guide some or part of the time. Unacceptable.

I have been on tours where the group never enters a university building (this is post-Covid) except the admissions office. Unacceptable.

And on and on…

Same goes for admitted student days. Both parents can’t come because you are all booked up (top SLAC) so the donut-hole family can’t decide together on a 90k investment? Unacceptable.

Stuffing parents into a crowded room where they can barely move and can’t find where the coffee is because they can’t see it (top 20 National university)? Unacceptable.

This little things matter…

Georgetown's admitted students day was a real turnoff. The students running the event weren't particularly friendly or welcoming. It was actually a big contrast to William & Mary (where we went the next day), where folks were super sweet. My kid didn't wind up at either of these schools, but as a GU alum I was disappointed.

[Anonymous]

So interesting about the UGA folks. We had a bad experience - they asked everyone from out of state to raise their hands and basically said it's impossible to get in. Our tour guide wasn't great and the only time we could hear everything was when we were on the bus. Athens seemed cool but more homeless than we expected and the campus was charming in parts but seemed really, really big. I know it's a great school and people love it - we had high hopes but DS took it off his list after seeing it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My takeaway is that people who think they need to personally gel with their tour guide and expect them to be perfect (when they're just a year or two older than our kids) should just do the self-guided tour.

You aren't going to love every kid at a school of thousands.

Maybe but if the school isn’t giving tour guides that are representative, that is on the school. There are thousands of schools in the country, you need some way to narrow down. And if the school tells you something why wouldn’t you believe it?

We went on a tour where the entire time the guide only talked with other kids that played elite private school boys lax, talking about scores, rankings, etc. The guide spent 90% of his energy on the athletic center tour.

That’s great for kids who are interested in that, but then let people choose their tour guides so the kids who want to talk prep school lax go with that guy, and the kids who want to know about academics go with someone else.

[Anonymous]

We still joke that our tour of Rice was like the Truman Show -- in a good way. Before the college counselor strongly recommended it for our son we hadn't even heard of Rice or ever visited Texas. But when we visited in April, it was warm and sunny and throughout our visit it was like there was someone cuing up really perfect vignettes for our son -- cue the friends playing frisbee and spike ball, cue the student walking an adorable puppy, cue groups of friends studying together outside. We had coffee with a professor that a friend had introduced us to and at least three different groups of students approached the professor to just say hi.

I'm sure that the things I described happen everywhere, it just felt so lovely and perfect for our son. We didn't encounter that same feeling on any other tour.

Rice went to the top of his list, he got in ED and loved his time there. So it really wasn't a "show" and the reality held up to that first glowing experience.

[Anonymous]

Just dropping in to say - this is a great, and useful thread!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I just wanted to comment that with all these colleges’ marketing budgets, it is baffling that so many can’t get the tour and info session consistently right. Should be such an easy thing to fix.

I have been on several tours where you could not hear the tour guide some or part of the time. Unacceptable.

I have been on tours where the group never enters a university building (this is post-Covid) except the admissions office. Unacceptable.

And on and on…

Same goes for admitted student days. Both parents can’t come because you are all booked up (top SLAC) so the donut-hole family can’t decide together on a 90k investment? Unacceptable.

Stuffing parents into a crowded room where they can barely move and can’t find where the coffee is because they can’t see it (top 20 National university)? Unacceptable.

This little things matter…

All true but remember the privates can throw endless money at admissions and marketing (hence the person above thinking USC was too “Disneyland”) compared to publics like UVA with budgets