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

[Anonymous]

Super impressed with Pitt, more so than we anticipated. Great school with smart and social kids. I love the integration of the campus and the city where it still feels very much like a college town. And then there's the beautiful gothic Cathedral, the hilly landscapes, the 3 rivers, and you add to that all the stuff you can do (concerts, games, hiking, kayaking, etc.); it's really hard not to like it.

[Anonymous]

Super impressed with Penn’s campus and integration into Philly.

Heavily disliked all the liberal arts college campuses we went to-Amherst, Williams, Bowdoin. Mostly just unimpressive and sad with few people around.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Vassar and Brown. We are pretty far left but felt it was too much at both. Kids were too odd for our kid - we know a bunch of very normal, mainstream kids who have gone to Brown recently, but that type seemed hard to find. My kid is not a partyer but he wanted others who like sports, pop culture, and other mainstream things. Met very few of them.

What a bunch of nonsense. Your kid isn’t special for liking pop culture. You met like 2 students and made a ridiculous judgement.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Super impressed with Penn’s campus and integration into Philly.

Heavily disliked all the liberal arts college campuses we went to-Amherst, Williams, Bowdoin. Mostly just unimpressive and sad with few people around.

Is West Philly nice now? When I used to go visit a friend there in the 90s I felt like I might get mugged/shot any minute.

[Anonymous]

Alabama. Amazing and completely unexpected. Our school search ended there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Alabama. Amazing and completely unexpected. Our school search ended there.

Because who wouldn't be thoroughly impressed by a school with an 80% acceptance rate?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Super impressed with Pitt, more so than we anticipated. Great school with smart and social kids. I love the integration of the campus and the city where it still feels very much like a college town. And then there's the beautiful gothic Cathedral, the hilly landscapes, the 3 rivers, and you add to that all the stuff you can do (concerts, games, hiking, kayaking, etc.); it's really hard not to like it.

My son is a freshman and this sums up Pitt.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Alabama. Amazing and completely unexpected. Our school search ended there.

Because who wouldn't be thoroughly impressed by a school with an 80% acceptance rate?

Anyone who's not a prestige whore? I do feel DCUM needs to get out of their rat race bubble sometimes and realize that their worth as a human is not tied to their alma mater and HHI. Many, many people are totally fine with their kid attending a school with acceptance rates over 10% if it's the right program and fit. I can't imagine telling my kid they can't go to a school they really loved because it's going to embarrass me to tell my friends and colleagues where they're going. Unless you're doing finance, Big Law, or McKinsey consulting, where they are also academic snobs, it really does not matter that much.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Super impressed with Pitt, more so than we anticipated. Great school with smart and social kids. I love the integration of the campus and the city where it still feels very much like a college town. And then there's the beautiful gothic Cathedral, the hilly landscapes, the 3 rivers, and you add to that all the stuff you can do (concerts, games, hiking, kayaking, etc.); it's really hard not to like it.

My son is a freshman and this sums up Pitt.

That's great! My DD just got in as a business major and it's definitely moved to her top schools after the visit. We also got to visit the new wellness/rec center and it's fabulous!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Those of you whose kids love Rice, are they Asian? I am not trying to be inflammatory by talking about race but I know 2 kids who were accepted to Rice last year who went for the revisit and came back and said "it feels overwhelmingly Asian both in numbers and culture" and they both chose (and now attend) lower ranked schools that are more diverse.

Is this meant to be a joke?? Not funny!

No, not a joke and not meant as a play on words. Apologies for how ridiculous I know it sounds.
Genuinely curious about Rice University.

Rice is about a 1/3 Asian.

Harvard is even more Asian (Class of 2029 is 41% Asian)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Those of you whose kids love Rice, are they Asian? I am not trying to be inflammatory by talking about race but I know 2 kids who were accepted to Rice last year who went for the revisit and came back and said "it feels overwhelmingly Asian both in numbers and culture" and they both chose (and now attend) lower ranked schools that are more diverse.

I have a white kid at Rice. Talent is talent. If you can't roll with different people from different backgrounds, you're going to have trouble in a global economy.

One of the things I liked about Rice is they don't give a damn about whatever race you were born into. MIT is similar. They don't care. If you have the brains and the talent, they want that.

Social life has been all good. It's not a hard partying school. And they don't have Greek life. But Rice has a residential college system - similar to Yale and Notre Dame. Which builds community. My kid is in a serious relationship so I gather all that kind of thing is still working at Rice. All in all, a good place. Terrific education. Good community. Very nice campus in a good neighborhood.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Alabama. Amazing and completely unexpected. Our school search ended there.

Because who wouldn't be thoroughly impressed by a school with an 80% acceptance rate?

Anyone who's not a prestige whore? I do feel DCUM needs to get out of their rat race bubble sometimes and realize that their worth as a human is not tied to their alma mater and HHI. Many, many people are totally fine with their kid attending a school with acceptance rates over 10% if it's the right program and fit. I can't imagine telling my kid they can't go to a school they really loved because it's going to embarrass me to tell my friends and colleagues where they're going. Unless you're doing finance, Big Law, or McKinsey consulting, where they are also academic snobs, it really does not matter that much.

This! It isn’t where you got the degree, it’s what you do with it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Those of you whose kids love Rice, are they Asian? I am not trying to be inflammatory by talking about race but I know 2 kids who were accepted to Rice last year who went for the revisit and came back and said "it feels overwhelmingly Asian both in numbers and culture" and they both chose (and now attend) lower ranked schools that are more diverse.

1/3 Asian = “overwhelming Asian”

Some people aren’t subtle.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Those of you whose kids love Rice, are they Asian? I am not trying to be inflammatory by talking about race but I know 2 kids who were accepted to Rice last year who went for the revisit and came back and said "it feels overwhelmingly Asian both in numbers and culture" and they both chose (and now attend) lower ranked schools that are more diverse.

Is this meant to be a joke?? Not funny!

No. When we visited, most of kids visiting were not Asian. The bigger impact was the medical center across the way from Rice.
Super nice campus though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Those of you whose kids love Rice, are they Asian? I am not trying to be inflammatory by talking about race but I know 2 kids who were accepted to Rice last year who went for the revisit and came back and said "it feels overwhelmingly Asian both in numbers and culture" and they both chose (and now attend) lower ranked schools that are more diverse.

Where did they choose to go?