For fun: first impressions of colleges based on tours...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:These impressions come from my two DCs and myself over many years (OP asked for fun takes):

UVA - very pretty and charming, but AO's presentation was offputting and student guide kept talking about how he had really wanted to go to an Ivy

VTech - Gothic prison run by turkeys

W&M - retirement home run by colonial-era cosplayers

Villanova - very small (I know it's not), very Catholic, very safe

Georgetown - compressed feel; younger child said it looked like a larger version of Gonzaga College High School

UNC - more accessible version of UVA (town and university better integrated)

Duke - very high-end shopping mall

Stanford - even higher-end shopping mall

Berkeley - students and homeless reeking of pot

Pitt - area near Tower of Learning is very nice, surprisingly international; area near hospital looked more run down

Michigan - 1950s era architecture surrounding faux-Ivy (law school) and ultra-modern (business school)

Harvard - confused about who is from the university and who is a tourist

Amherst - mini-Harvard, but with a beautiful hill/cliff overlooking the athletic fields

Dartmouth - upscaled prep school in the middle of nowhere

Williams - mini-Dartmouth

Yale - beautiful campus surrounded by meh

Wesleyan - mini-Yale

Cornell - peaks and valleys everywhere

Brown - should have been named Beige

Penn - criticisms of location and environment overblown, actually pretty nice

Columbia - Ghostbusters!

NYU - who actually attends classes here?

Johns Hopkins (medical school) - felt like the Matt Damon movie Elysium brought to life

BU - Fenway Park

W&M--the funny thing is that this was almost word for word the first impression for my DC (who now goes there!) --He almost skipped out on doing the full tour. But we were there so we did it and he was impressed by the school. Then, after meeting with students and hearing that they have social lives and parties and don't really do anything connected to CW, W&M became his first choice, and he loves it there.

So for all the first impressions, sometimes they shift!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Every college we toured: "We have over 200 clubs! There's a club for everyone! We even have a CHEESE CLUB!"

I think we toured the same schools. My kid likes cheese, so it was a line that worked, lol.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My older kid dismissed most schools for random reasons.

A few I remember:
Providence College: I can't be a Friar for life
Boston College: The T is too slow out here.
Haverford: the grass is too tall
Anything in the DC area: too close to home (like we want to visit them!!!!!!)
"Not enough trees": this was a bunch of schools, apparently my kid had a "tree quota".

Vassar has amazing trees.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My older kid dismissed most schools for random reasons.

A few I remember:
Providence College: I can't be a Friar for life
Boston College: The T is too slow out here.
Haverford: the grass is too tall
Anything in the DC area: too close to home (like we want to visit them!!!!!!)
"Not enough trees": this was a bunch of schools, apparently my kid had a "tree quota".

Tree quota 😂😂😂

My DD has declared "the less trees the better!"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:These impressions come from my two DCs and myself over many years (OP asked for fun takes):

UVA - very pretty and charming, but AO's presentation was offputting and student guide kept talking about how he had really wanted to go to an Ivy

VTech - Gothic prison run by turkeys

W&M - retirement home run by colonial-era cosplayers

Villanova - very small (I know it's not), very Catholic, very safe

Georgetown - compressed feel; younger child said it looked like a larger version of Gonzaga College High School

UNC - more accessible version of UVA (town and university better integrated)

Duke - very high-end shopping mall

Stanford - even higher-end shopping mall

Berkeley - students and homeless reeking of pot

Pitt - area near Tower of Learning is very nice, surprisingly international; area near hospital looked more run down

Michigan - 1950s era architecture surrounding faux-Ivy (law school) and ultra-modern (business school)

Harvard - confused about who is from the university and who is a tourist

Amherst - mini-Harvard, but with a beautiful hill/cliff overlooking the athletic fields

Dartmouth - upscaled prep school in the middle of nowhere

Williams - mini-Dartmouth

Yale - beautiful campus surrounded by meh

Wesleyan - mini-Yale

Cornell - peaks and valleys everywhere

Brown - should have been named Beige

Penn - criticisms of location and environment overblown, actually pretty nice

Columbia - Ghostbusters!

NYU - who actually attends classes here?

Johns Hopkins (medical school) - felt like the Matt Damon movie Elysium brought to life

BU - Fenway Park

Wow. Actually a school you did like?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Every college we toured: "We have over 200 clubs! There's a club for everyone! We even have a CHEESE CLUB!"

we have heard about the lettuce eating club at 3 colleges.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My older kid dismissed most schools for random reasons.

A few I remember:
Providence College: I can't be a Friar for life
Boston College: The T is too slow out here.
Haverford: the grass is too tall
Anything in the DC area: too close to home (like we want to visit them!!!!!!)
"Not enough trees": this was a bunch of schools, apparently my kid had a "tree quota".

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We toured a lot of colleges with our kid. Almost all were immediately and often illogically hated and these are the reasons why. This was in spring and fall of 2019.

JMU: the highway and bus system
VT: hokie this and hokie that all day long
CNU: The walmart down the road had the kitchen knife sets locked behind glass
UVA: hated the campus
URochester: yellow jacket mascot
Lafayette: tour guide referenced Harry Potter and a quidditch team
Marist: tour guide mentioned free tutoring too much
Cornell: everyone was walking and eating alone with airpods in
Ithaca: lots of blue and burgundy hair and black clothes, decided to skip the tour completely
Skidmore: there was some festival in town and lots of guys wearing skirts
UVM: too many beanies for a 60 degree day
Colgate:we literally had to stop the car because a bear was in the road
Villanova:kid misheard the tour guide and spent the whole tour thinking the school had 60,000 students, so had already dismissed it

Yikes....How big was that colgate bear? Just planning a Colgate, Hamilton, Cornell loop and bears did not really occur to me around there. I was thinki g that was farmland area, not forest.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:HS Sophomore at the time:

UVA: "dirty" (I still don't know what this means)

W&L: "too hilly" (98 degrees in July)

High school sophomore and already touring colleges? Obviously you're one of THOSE parents . . . .

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:HS Sophomore at the time:

UVA: "dirty" (I still don't know what this means)

W&L: "too hilly" (98 degrees in July)

High school sophomore and already touring colleges? Obviously you're one of THOSE parents . . . .

Walked through the campuses a-hole.

[Anonymous]

My DD has actually said no to a few schools bc she didn't like the school colors. Sigh.

[Anonymous]

My sibling ruled out UCLA. Cause “too many stairs.”

[Anonymous]

Wow. Actually a school you did like?

Yes, we liked many of these schools. OP asked for first impressions. My DCs and I attended/attend schools on this list, so first impressions aren't determinative, just the first.

[Anonymous]

This is the nerdiest thread I've ever seen.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Wow. Actually a school you did like?

Yes, we liked many of these schools. OP asked for first impressions. My DCs and I attended/attend schools on this list, so first impressions aren't determinative, just the first.

So true but it is interesting how first impressions can influence the decisions on how to rank the choices. Try to visit on a nice day when school is in session if you want to get the best impression.