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

[Anonymous]

I wish it were possible to puke on a thread.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I wish it were possible to puke on a thread.

Not to worry. A dirty back alley awaits you to puke. Surely, it's not your first.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Boston University: “needs to get over itself.”

Quote from DC? Too funny. Sounds just like a typical teenager.

[Anonymous]

Dartmouth…..beautiful, bucolic campus right on the Connecticut river. Loved the charm and New England vibe.

Trinity…nice enough campus in a dreadful neighborhood

Hamilton…..surprisingly nice. Learned that it is actually two campuses combined (merged with an adjacent women’s college some time ago). Middle of nowhere.

Georgetown……hated the campus. Barely any green space. Cramped, outdated and poorly maintained.

Cornell…..gorgeous setting on a hill overlooking Cayuga lake. Bigger than expected and lots of new dorms being constructed. Loved the overall outdoorsy vibe.

Bates……pretty bland in not so great a town

Bowdoin…..not as nice as expected but the town is really cute

Wesleyan…..surprised at how much DC loved it. Campus is adjacent to town so everything is very walkable. Likes that it wasn’t as remote as other LACs.

Middlebury…..picture perfect campus but too small and remote.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC quotes on visit a week ago:

Rutgers - “New Jersey is weird” (Yup but you don’t have to pump your own gas!)

Temple - “Edgy and kinda cool. Not sure if I want my next four years confined to five city blocks…” (Actually was way more impressive than expected.)

UMBC - “Where is everyone? School is in-person, right? Is this one big circle all there is? Where is there a coffee shop I can walk to?” (Answer to that last Q is none.)

UMD - “College Park isn’t that great. But it doesn’t matter I probs won’t get in anyway.” (Truth)

Yikes. Please tell me your DC is looking at schools besides these!

Yeeeesh! Just when I thought I found a fun thread where no one was gonna be mean...

DP. It's obviously not a fun thread. It may be a bit cathartic, though, for some parents to make snide comments about schools they don't want their kids to attend or that their kids have next to no chance of getting into.

I think this thread is helpful, because the serious and semi-serious observations can prepare kids for what they’re going to see. If I’d understood going in how ugly some great schools are, maybe I would have been more accepting of their ugliness.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Harvard: Bland and a little drab, too touristy.

Yale: Stunningly gorgeous in every way. A+

Princeton: Also beautiful but felt like it lacked patina/character and felt a little too pretentious.

Columbia: LOVED this campus. Gritty, beautiful, classic. NYC.

Northwestern: Another favorite - great mix of modern and classic, and absolutely stunning location on the lake.

UChicago: So classically beautiful. Felt almost European, or stately, but felt extremely gloomy and gray, even though we visited same day as NU.

Cornell: Another great one - stunning location. Friendly, collegial.

I loved Northwestern. Daughter ended of choosing UPenn because her friends went there. She has regretted not choosing NU ever since, and she's already graduated.

Aw, my kids LOVED Northwestern and ended up elsewhere, too. Would have been thrilled to send at least one of them there if they got in! But things happen for a reason.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wish it were possible to puke on a thread.

Not to worry. A dirty back alley awaits you to puke. Surely, it's not your first.

Not clever.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Harvard: Bland and a little drab, too touristy.

Yale: Stunningly gorgeous in every way. A+

Princeton: Also beautiful but felt like it lacked patina/character and felt a little too pretentious.

Columbia: LOVED this campus. Gritty, beautiful, classic. NYC.

Northwestern: Another favorite - great mix of modern and classic, and absolutely stunning location on the lake.

UChicago: So classically beautiful. Felt almost European, or stately, but felt extremely gloomy and gray, even though we visited same day as NU.

Cornell: Another great one - stunning location. Friendly, collegial.

I loved Northwestern. Daughter ended of choosing UPenn because her friends went there. She has regretted not choosing NU ever since, and she's already graduated.

Aw, my kids LOVED Northwestern and ended up elsewhere, too. Would have been thrilled to send at least one of them there if they got in! But things happen for a reason.

We visited Northwesternj in January. My kid's reaction was "Too cold." That wind really whips across the lake.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is everyone's child a genius?! These are all amazing schools! Congrats, parents!

To make you feel better:

Delaware -- do we have to do the tour? The color of brick here is terrible.

No we didn't do the tour.

[Anonymous]

I have no idea. We college shopped during COVID last summer and could only do drive through or walk around tours. DC would say "Nope, not this one" and any attempts to get more out of him would be stonewalled. I would say "omg, W&L is so gorgeous" for instance and he would just say "not the one". I still have little idea of what swayed him to pick the school he did.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:W&L. Where is everyone?

W&M. Cannot for the life of me figure out what people do here except attend school?

UChicago - Harry Potter. Frank Lloyd Wright. Do. not. leave. campus. No really. Economists

Wake Forest-> Ralph Lauren

Huh?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Boston University: “needs to get over itself.”

Why would it feel good about itself?

[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

Most of these are dumb and unfunny.

[Anonymous]

Five College Area - bucolic and classic New England, but seriously in the middle of nowhere aside from the towns of Amherst and Northampton in Western Mass (which is nothing like Eastern Mass)

Skidmore - ugly buildings and depressed downtown

Vassar - Beautiful buildings and depressed town

Dartmouth - pristine, remote, cold, everything was pine green, lots of frat houses and the smell of beer in the air

Brandeis - huge castle on an otherwise modern campus

BU - has the Mass Pike and Storrow Drive running through it

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Mount Holyoke: Classic New England with a gothic vibe and an incredibly chatty tour guide

Columbia: Dark and shadowy in a way I cannot explain - like didn't get sunlight

Conn College: Preptown and small

Skidmore: Not polished -- seemed like a small progressive high school

Never been there, but that is my impression from campus pics!

I interviewed there for my firm a couple of times, and it’s true. Once we were in the most prison-like room I’ve ever been in. One small, high window with bars that looked out onto a dark service alley.

I like Columbia a lot, but this description is so true.