Underwhelming campus experience

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yale is like a weird Potemkin Village or movie set.

+1, as someone who got a degree from Oxford, seeing the American attempt at it for the first time was supremely disappointing. I like Harvard’s campus, because it’s very for-it’s-time and distinctly American.

Exactly!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The Free Palestine University

Huh, that was my favorite 🤷🏻‍♀️

[Anonymous]

W&M, Georgetown and NYU

[Anonymous]

UVA, Northwestern.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yale is like a weird Potemkin Village or movie set.

I wish I were jaded enough to toss out such a comment. Yale seemed magical to me as a visitor.

DP. A lot of people find it magical. I really struggled to enjoy the tour and found it extravagantly tasteless and a bit dull (which is a strange mix I wasn’t expecting). The auditorium they sent us into just seemed large but also rundown. We got to tour DC’s department and a residential college, since DC has a few upperclassmen friends there and neither of us were too impressed.

Strange, because DC now goes to Princeton and we both love the campus- which is admittedly quite similar.

I’m the poster you’re responding to and I went to Princeton.

When I first visited Princeton I was young and wide-eyed and thought it was amazing. However, when I later visited Yale I thought it was awesome and had a buzz Princeton lacked. Looking back now, I think the Princeton campus as a whole is nicer but that the individual buildings and quads at Yale are more impressive.

But, again, I’m a pushover…generally find things to like at every college campus and would love to be a student again (apart from the all-nighters to finish my thesis).

I remember going to Princeton, seeing a little row of shops with golf shirts in the window and writing Princeton off as a place for golfers.

[Anonymous]

UVA, we’ve visited twice because the first time we were unimpressed we thought we got it wrong, so we went back but were still underwhelmed.

Generally I struggle with schools in rundown areas, particularly ones that want kids moving off campus after the first year. Not implying UVA is in a rundown area but other schools we visited definitely were.

[Anonymous]

Brown. It’s just not a nice campus. I had the opinion 30 years ago visiting a college friend. I had the same opinion touring with my kids. I do not like that campus.

[Anonymous]

Amherst. A massive campus with nothing on it. It wasn’t even massive patches of green space, just undeveloped land sitting everywhere, which wasn’t enjoyable. The academic buildings were super tiny other than the science center (I found it strange that an LAC cared so much about the sciences exclusively).

[Anonymous]

UVA and Wake Forest. More about the vibe on each tour than the surroundings. They felt robotic and uninspiring. Also hate when schools compare themselves to other schools during the information sessions/tours. Just stand on your own merits.

[Anonymous]

Both DC and I did not like Harvard - felt way too much like a tourist trap - but loved Princeton. It may have been that we just had a good tour guide and the weather was nice, but it truly was a highlight for us. Shame DC won’t apply because she got in ED elsewhere, because it is a really nice campus.

[Anonymous]

Northwestern. Felt like I was in an office park.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:UVA

It's a world unesco site. And Poe's room is on display. And Montecello. And the vineyards around C'vile. And the beauty of the countryside. If you can't appreciate any of that then the problem is you so I can tell your kid didn't get in. Take your sour grapes elseshere.

I went to UVA and I agree that my recent visit with my high school student felt underwhelming. It doesn’t hit the way it used to. Loved W&M, though.

[Anonymous]

I have visited Oxbridge and still think Yale is beautiful! That Branford courtyard on a spring day just stole my heart!

[Anonymous]

Most of the ones we visited weren’t as nice as portrayed - Princeton for example.
That made the final choice easy!

[Anonymous]

Harvard was definitely underwhelming. Not that it was ugly, it’s a nice campus, but our expectations were much higher because it was Harvard. Complete let down. We also visited Yale and Princeton, which we found very impressive beforehand, so that probably didn’t help.