S/O - any disappointing tours?

[Anonymous]

Masks were required to be worn while on the outdoor Barnard tour this past fall, 2022. This was not a tour of the inside of Barnard buildings -- we were outside touring the grounds with a student guide. I thought that it was ridiculous that a college was not following mainstream public health and science guidelines at that point.

[Anonymous]

Obviously everyone has a different experience. Pur children (twins) both wanted what I can only refer to as schools in cold places. To be certain, I scheduled visits in January and February, when it was certain to be cold and gray!

U of MI - loved it
Wesleyan - loved it
Northwestern - hated it (never saw a smiling student the entire visit)
BU, NEU, Brown - same trip, loved all 3

We also visited safetys Pitt and Penn State (kids originally listed PSU above Pitt, but changed their minds after visiting - for rival schools, they are so different! Pitt is urban, PSU is in the middle of no where rural (although they do have happy cows and delicious ice cream, and incredibly happy looking students, most in Penn Staye garb)

One of them also expressed interest in Vanderblt, so off we went. Campus is nice, the city was covered with cranes (lots of building going on), but the focus of the info session was living with/access to professors (kid didn't care), and nothing about being a D1 school. Fortunately, our tour guide told us about taking the bus to away football, basketball and baseball games, and our child became interested again.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:WVU (looked at it as a safety and one that gives out a LOT of merit $$$) -- went in with low expectations and it was worse than expected. The surrounding town was depressing and downtrodden and the older part of campus was super hilly and not great. The new part of campus was okay but the split between the two was weird. Our tour guide was A+ though -- best we had anywhere.

UMD -- they seemed totally disinterested in trying to attract students. The whole experience including the campus was meh. Surprising because it seems like students like it.

We had the opposite experience ar UMD. DD was not super jazzed, but a wonderful tour guide got her excited about all the possibilities.

We had the worst experience at UMD admitted student day. Completely disorganized and not welcoming and a lot of deadtime. However, we took one of my friend's kids to a late lunch after it and he totally sold my son on UMD.

PP here. We accidentally booked a regular tour rather than for an admitted event (found UMDCP's admissions calendar confusing), but we lucked out in that the guide was in the honors house my kid was interested, so she gave her an extra tour of that house on her own time. My kid was the only Sr. in her tour group, and the guide talked a lot yo her specifically.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Princeton. The guide was disinterested and seemed to know they had no need to sell the school. He wasn't wrong though. Dartmouth seemed to emphasize how depressing the weather was, but I appreciated that because I think those winters can really blindside kids from this area.

I have to congratulate you on likely getting the one Orange Key tour guide at Princeton in history who wasn’t insanely upbeat and enthusiastic. I graduated years ago and still wish there was a way to tone down some of my classmates who bleed orange and black now just as much as they did when they were undergraduate tour guides.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:W&M - wanted to love it, but it was the worst visit we had. My kid asked if we could leave halfway through the session - before we even had a tour.

CNU - seemed so quiet. The only place we saw kids was the dining hall and this was on a Friday afternoon.

Funny you should say that about CNU because we had the complete opposite experience. Saw lots of kids in and around the student union and the ones entering even held doors open for our group. Then, as we were leaving, there was a group of guys playing a spontaneous rugby game on the manicured lawn. They almost looked like paid actors.

[Anonymous]

We toured Smith and Mount Holyoke same day last summer. The former barely let us go inside (maybe a quick peek at library even though most buildings were empty) while the former let us into to multiple buildings. Big impact on my daughter’s impressions.

[Anonymous]

The most boring tour was U Pen

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Northeastern was a mess. Disorganized from the time we arrived. We left midway through the tour.

Unpossible!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We toured Smith and Mount Holyoke same day last summer. The former barely let us go inside (maybe a quick peek at library even though most buildings were empty) while the former let us into to multiple buildings. Big impact on my daughter’s impressions.

I’m so confused. The former… the former. Which was which?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:W&M - wanted to love it, but it was the worst visit we had. My kid asked if we could leave halfway through the session - before we even had a tour.

CNU - seemed so quiet. The only place we saw kids was the dining hall and this was on a Friday afternoon.

Same for CNU. Also it was a turn off for DD that all the tour guides (I think there were 6 or 7 that day) were in Greek life and she doesn't want to do that. Adding to that they didn't even visit a science building on the tour, giving her the impression that the sciences are not a priority. It didn't make her list.

They offer 90 majors. It'd probably be a really long tour if they gave time to all of them! Did you all go visit one of the buildings afterwards or was it not a priority?

This. One can get a campus map an explore a campus at one's leisure. It's not the tour guide's job to customize the experience for every person in the group. Your expectations sound unrealistic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Princeton. The guide was disinterested and seemed to know they had no need to sell the school. He wasn't wrong though. Dartmouth seemed to emphasize how depressing the weather was, but I appreciated that because I think those winters can really blindside kids from this area.

Our Princeton tour wasn't disappointing, but didn't appreciate legacy guide whose legacy parents married at chapel. Now given admissions results at our school, just adds to message that it's a club. Too bad, the school seems like a great idea. (ps - DC didn't apply based on location - so no sour grapes here)

Luck of the draw with tour guides. Our guide at Princeton was great and the school is gorgeous. UPenn was terrible but in 2022 they were still not doing in person tours and most buildings were off limits, allegedly due to Covid. It looks like the in-person tours have resumed now.

+1. Shame tgat a legacy student can’t mention parents marrying in the chapel (very big thing at my flax!) without getting beaten up here. Learn to be more tolerant of others and pass that positive character trait on to your kids.

[Anonymous]

My kid absolutely hated the Hamilton tour. There was a lot of emphasis on sports and it seemed very isolated and boring. DC’s words, not mine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We toured Smith and Mount Holyoke same day last summer. The former barely let us go inside (maybe a quick peek at library even though most buildings were empty) while the former let us into to multiple buildings. Big impact on my daughter’s impressions.

I’m so confused. The former… the former. Which was which?

Sorry - Smith didn’t let us in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Princeton. The guide was disinterested and seemed to know they had no need to sell the school. He wasn't wrong though. Dartmouth seemed to emphasize how depressing the weather was, but I appreciated that because I think those winters can really blindside kids from this area.

Our Princeton tour wasn't disappointing, but didn't appreciate legacy guide whose legacy parents married at chapel. Now given admissions results at our school, just adds to message that it's a club. Too bad, the school seems like a great idea. (ps - DC didn't apply based on location - so no sour grapes here)

Luck of the draw with tour guides. Our guide at Princeton was great and the school is gorgeous. UPenn was terrible but in 2022 they were still not doing in person tours and most buildings were off limits, allegedly due to Covid. It looks like the in-person tours have resumed now.

our upenn tour was terrible too, but i assumed it was just a luck of the draw tour guide.
columbia tour had about 80 people on it; was kinda crazy. guide was great but didn't get a good sense of the school with 80:1 ratio.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Mixed feelings on Bates tour. They separated the kids from parents on the tour. Interesting concept but it didn’t over especially well. Kids were silent. Surrounding area also not a draw.

Interesting. That was not our experience. We were not separated at all. Seemed like a great school and had a great tour guide who even told us he almost transferred but was so glad that he hadn’t bc in the end he found everything he needed.

Nor ours and we toured twice — once in the summer and once in the early fall. Both times students/parents toured together in very small groups.