What school dropped off the list because of your visit?

[Anonymous]

MIT. You have to really 'feel' this school to go there. The tour guide talked alot about how great it was that she could have her cat in her dorm room. And the buildings don't seem to have names, only numbers. DS hated this. Liking science isn't enough to want to go here, has to be a personality fit for sure.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Harvard. One of the most unimpressive, inarticulate tour guides we had anywhere. The overall event felt like they were phoning it in and didn't care what people thought.

Interesting- I expected to hate this tour/info session and to my surprise was really impressed by ours. It’s not like Harvard needs to put a big effort in to these tours, but I thought they did a great job. Only thing I didn’t like is the crowd size, probably at least 800 people so it really did feel like the tourist activity that it is. My dd didn’t end up applying there in the end but we both came away with a more favorable view of Harvard than we expected to.

Harvard and Cambridge are incredible. And who decides on a school based on the tour guide? I’m surprised so many people are swayed by that instead of the feel and look of the campus.

This is stupid. I went to MIT and Cambridge is meh, nothing special. Harvard square gets boring after you have been there 3 times. I could never live in Boston. Too small, too white, racist, too cold. Summer is nice though.

Cambridge is definitely not "meh." Charming, world-class city a river away from another one.

I loved my time there so much that I moved back. I loved the restaurants, bars and shops.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:MIT. You have to really 'feel' this school to go there. The tour guide talked alot about how great it was that she could have her cat in her dorm room. And the buildings don't seem to have names, only numbers. DS hated this. Liking science isn't enough to want to go here, has to be a personality fit for sure.

Everything goes by numbers at MIT. I was a Course 5 major.

[Anonymous]

Tulane. School is beautiful but could not get over how unsafe we felt in New Orleans at 10pm. And I (and DD) are not new to cities. I have worked in DC and Baltimore. But felt relieved to get back to hotel. Definitely crossed off list. But to be fair, it was a reach for DD anyway. Excited to be UVA bound (which was also reach but legacy).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Cornell. The whole area was desolate, gray, drab.

My kid loved the Cornell campus.

[Anonymous]

Uva

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Tulane. School is beautiful but could not get over how unsafe we felt in New Orleans at 10pm. And I (and DD) are not new to cities. I have worked in DC and Baltimore. But felt relieved to get back to hotel. Definitely crossed off list. But to be fair, it was a reach for DD anyway. Excited to be UVA bound (which was also reach but legacy).

Is she in state or OOS for UVA?

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Tufts-- just today, actually. DC already knew it was probably more suburban than they wanted, but the campus just didn't excite them-- architecture was really random, the commercial area near campus was tiny and sort of drab, and the only POCs on campus that we saw (out of many students walking around) were Asian; almost everyone was white. I know two students there who love it but it seems to be a poor fit for my kid.

Davis Square?

The thing is maybe there’s too much emphasis on the aesthetics of the campus? I agree urban vs rural or suburban can matter, but I personally passed over Tufts for many of these reasons years ago and honestly think it would have been a much better fit for me in retrospect. As I start touring with my DS I’m trying to get him not to focus so much on the buildings, etc...I think they don’t really matter that much.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Tulane. School is beautiful but could not get over how unsafe we felt in New Orleans at 10pm. And I (and DD) are not new to cities. I have worked in DC and Baltimore. But felt relieved to get back to hotel. Definitely crossed off list. But to be fair, it was a reach for DD anyway. Excited to be UVA bound (which was also reach but legacy).

I went to a conference there once, for four days. One participant was robbed at gunpoint standing in front of her conference hotel. A second was shot eating dinner in a nice restaurant when someone's gun fell out of their jacket and accidentally went off.

My colleague went to Tulane and was robbed at gunpoint.

While the history and culture of the city is very interesting and appealing, I was also turned off by how much they emphasize partying/alcohol to tourists (pre pandemic). And like you, I have lived in Baltimore and DC, as well as New York City--so no babe in the woods.

To be fair, I have not been on the Tulane campus, and cannot speak to the crossover between city problems and campus vibe.

[Anonymous]

Allegheny dropped off. Nothing about the college itself (which sounded great). But Meadville was downtrodden and sketchy, way beyond being rural.

We also found New London CT (home of Conn College and the Coast Guard academy) to be VERy sketchy, though Mystic (nearby) is supposed to be much nicer. I was not comfortable with the though of my daughter waiting in that New London Amtrak station at all...

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:We just did spring break with DD (which is more like self guided wandering around during COVID). But she came away with strong feelings. Introvert into humanities and music, which colored her view.

No to:

Tufts: I agree with PP the campus was weird and off putting. And it’s hard to described, but it felt more Greek that the numbers let on. Beer pong out of second story windows, etc.

Hamilton: nixed for the same reason as Kenyon. Just too rural for her. If you don’t have a car, literally nothing off campus is walkable. Greek system also a negative. Kids setting beers outside dorm windows on ledges to chill also made a bad impression. It feel like that with a school that rural with a Greek system alcohol and parties will make up a big piece of social life. And that’s not her thing.

Colby: it’s obvious that Colby right now is sinking a lot of money into athletic facilities. And the number and quality of athletic facilities for a small school really stood out. And did kids walking around campus with LAX sticks and Conby swim and dive shirts. And there was,UCs less emphasis on fine arts. It’s a mismatch for my kid.

Mixed feeling on Northeastern. It’s a new, sprung up in the middle of Boston campus. The metro station is a nice bonus, but we heard “it doesn’t feel like a real college campus”. She probably won’t consider GW for the same reason. Mostly, she’s undecided on the co-op program. Really likes it in theory but isn’t sure about friends constantly leaving and returning for being away 4-6 months. And isn’t sure whether taking 5 years to graduate is better than doing a gap year between college and grad school. I like the focus of giving kids skills for employment.

OTOH, really lived Brown (we’ve been clear that with a 34 ACT and a few Bs on her transcript and no curing of cancer, it’s a high reach), Boston College, Bates. Bowdoin to a lesser extent.

Loved Vassar, which makes sense. She also loves Oberlin. Likes Vasser was an hour train ride from New York, relatively large for for a SLAC ADAs a cute, walkable downtown.

Hope this helps. Not trying to put down any schools. Place like Hamilton have great academics and are great for some kids. Just maybe not my kid.

The brief description of your child and their likes/dislikes sounds like my DD who is at Oberlin. And with that 34 ACT she can get good money from them. I would definitely give them strong consideration. My DD has loved her peers and the opportunities she's had there and the town, while small and a bit worn down to some, is full of some really great restaurants and coffee shops and all of them are steps from campus.

This is all interesting. We've visited almost all of these schools as well as doing online events. Very similar reactions, including loving Oberlin and Vassar. Also like Bowdoin a lot. Applying next year, when in hope the world will be a lot closer to normal life.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:U Penn - too many bike police - too city - too much crime around
Georgetown - Crumbling buildings, trash everywhere, homeless on campus
UVA - brick building look like prisons.

How in earth dud you miss the rotunda and the lawn? It’s a world historic site

LOL, you must be new here.

Not at all! Old timer. Just can't imagine how a World INESCO site can be seen "as prisons" unless they are referring to the old men's dorms which have been torn down: From Wiki: UVA is known for its Academical Village, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.[8][9] UVA is known for its historic foundations, student-run honor code and secret societies."

Hereford College hasn't been torn down.

Nor should it be. (fortunately, McCormick has been renovated and Alderman has been town down). Hereford college is a residential college built in 1992 and dedicated to sustainability and environmentally conscious living. Today it is dedicated to mindfulness, social awareness, sustainability (the dorm itself and the greens around it) and diversity. https://hereford.virginia.edu/. It's highly desirable because, like Yale and Harvard, Hereford is its own residential college with its own set of activities and own dining hall. The building is long and thin to make the best use of light and to simultaneously provide the largest area of green outdoor living space per dorm space on campus. It also offers singles for almost everyone, even some lucky first-year students. (I wish my kid had gotten into there instead of McCormick). Hereford was highly acclaimed by the New York Times when unveiled: The modernist architecture of Hereford College won great acclaim when the residential college was unveiled. The New York Times said glowingly "it is more different from Jefferson than anything that has been built at the University in generations, but it rises to challenge him[4]" and in a later article the New York paper seemed to imply that all of New York City was jealous of the new dorm complex, stating "but for an international city, New York is sadly lacking in contemporary world-class buildings. And the lack is especially glaring considering how many world-class talents live here. Where are the buildings that can compare in formal intelligence to... Williams and Tsien's New College at the University of Virginia?[5]". This wiki article explains how the windows are set to avoid the harsh morning sun. Note the architecture articles at the bottom. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hereford_College

The old Alderman dorms were ugly, but they didn't look like prisons. Certainly not a secure prison. Hereford looks like a prison.

And you missed a chance at learning about architecture and why Hereford is important and renowned in architecture circles. https://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/21/magazine/21uva.html. The Gropius dorms at Harvard Law were ugly too but historic. You do know who Gropius is?

[Anonymous]

University of South Carolina. Pretty campus but when asked about diversity I got an answer about “diversity being about more than just race” . When we saw kids on campus they were generally self grouped by race and then when they mentioned the Strom without a hint of shame we were outta there. It was good for my son to see that the diversity that he considers normal up here is not the norm in many parts of the country.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:U Penn - too many bike police - too city - too much crime around
Georgetown - Crumbling buildings, trash everywhere, homeless on campus
UVA - brick building look like prisons.

How in earth dud you miss the rotunda and the lawn? It’s a world historic site

LOL, you must be new here.

Not at all! Old timer. Just can't imagine how a World INESCO site can be seen "as prisons" unless they are referring to the old men's dorms which have been torn down: From Wiki: UVA is known for its Academical Village, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.[8][9] UVA is known for its historic foundations, student-run honor code and secret societies."

Hereford College hasn't been torn down.

Nor should it be. (fortunately, McCormick has been renovated and Alderman has been town down). Hereford college is a residential college built in 1992 and dedicated to sustainability and environmentally conscious living. Today it is dedicated to mindfulness, social awareness, sustainability (the dorm itself and the greens around it) and diversity. https://hereford.virginia.edu/. It's highly desirable because, like Yale and Harvard, Hereford is its own residential college with its own set of activities and own dining hall. The building is long and thin to make the best use of light and to simultaneously provide the largest area of green outdoor living space per dorm space on campus. It also offers singles for almost everyone, even some lucky first-year students. (I wish my kid had gotten into there instead of McCormick). Hereford was highly acclaimed by the New York Times when unveiled: The modernist architecture of Hereford College won great acclaim when the residential college was unveiled. The New York Times said glowingly "it is more different from Jefferson than anything that has been built at the University in generations, but it rises to challenge him[4]" and in a later article the New York paper seemed to imply that all of New York City was jealous of the new dorm complex, stating "but for an international city, New York is sadly lacking in contemporary world-class buildings. And the lack is especially glaring considering how many world-class talents live here. Where are the buildings that can compare in formal intelligence to... Williams and Tsien's New College at the University of Virginia?[5]". This wiki article explains how the windows are set to avoid the harsh morning sun. Note the architecture articles at the bottom. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hereford_College

The old Alderman dorms were ugly, but they didn't look like prisons. Certainly not a secure prison. Hereford looks like a prison.

And you missed a chance at learning about architecture and why Hereford is important and renowned in architecture circles. https://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/21/magazine/21uva.html. The Gropius dorms at Harvard Law were ugly too but historic. You do know who Gropius is?

No, I don't know who Walter Gropius is or anything about Bauhaus.

You should probably read the URL you included. Here is the part about Hereford. It sure doesn't support your statement that Hereford is important and renowned in architectural circles:

"What's the alternative? Many of the university's modernists point admiringly to Hereford College, a complex of undergraduate dorms designed in the 90's by the New York architects Tod Williams and Billie Tsien. "There's an engagement with the landscape and a compositional playfulness," says Daniel Bluestone, a professor of architectural history at the university. But I found Hereford, which is home to some 500 students, as depressing as Darden: an off-kilter arrangement of towering brick slabs, their slitlike windows resembling gun ports in World War II pillboxes. Unlike the Lawn, which on that same morning was full of students sunbathing and tossing Frisbees, the quad at Hereford was devoid of any life.

In fact, the more time I spent touring Virginia's campus beyond its Jeffersonian core, the more I found myself wishing impossibly that most of it would simply go away, leaving the Lawn in its pristine glory amid antebellum cornfields. Stern himself expressed almost the same thought when he told me that new buildings in a place like Charlottesville should meld seamlessly into what's already there: "It takes a great architect to wield an invisible hand. It's the third-rate clod who leaves his filthy fingerprints all over everything."

I find it a pretty good description of UVA apart from the Jeffersonian core.

[Anonymous]

my kid thought middlebury was too remote and also was turned off by swarthmore. I thought they'd like both. It was a helpful way to conclude that they were looking for something bigger and more urban. ended up applying to places like Tufts, Emory, Wash U.