S/O - any disappointing tours?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Northwestern. I really wanted to like it. Thought it might be a great fit. The guide was informative. But so full of himself. Can ignore that because he's one of thousands of students. The geographical location is great. On Lake Michigan. Can see Chicago in the distance. But the campus felt dismal and very cynical. The nice buildings on the lake are the meeting center for parents and potential students and the football complex, which is basically the Starship Enterprise. The rest of it seemed bleak. Students didn't seem particularly cheerful or happy. I know that's not a fair judgment, but first impressions are what they are. Evanston seemed fine. But that's the best I can say of it. It's fine.

WashU in St. Louis. Felt like a country club. I'm sure it's a very pleasant place to study. Wouldn't be surprised if students use golf carts to go from class to class. But, no.

Penn. Again, not a wonderful tour guide. Very privileged and not hiding it either. If you don't go to Wharton, there is no point to Penn. It dominates the school. I liked the campus, but the vibe seemed very stressful. Definitely for the type As who want to go to a target school and a pipeline to Wall Street. And no one else

Columbia. Even first time visitors can breathe the misery. That's after you walk through the clouds of cigarette smoke from the Chinese students

Schools we liked were Vanderbilt, McGill, Rice, and Notre Dame. The all seemed like pretty grounded places, but in different ways

Northwestern: Not my cup of tea but not horrible.
WashU: Not a fan of St. Louis.
Penn: You are way off base in your assertion "If you don't go to Wharton, there is no point to Penn." Wharton does not "dominate" the school. All of the colleges in UPenn are outstanding. Love the campus and find Locust Walk amazing! UPenn is a place for social people who work hard and like to socialize. Philly is an underrated city.
Columbia: I would not call it a miserable place. Would prefer attending NYU.
Rice: Very cool vibe.

[Anonymous]

U pen extremely disappointing. The whole time they were focusing on the kids that they were minority on the tour and ignoring others.
it was so strange!

[Anonymous]

I went to UPenn as a grad student and never understand the hate. The larger size is definitely a selling point, and the undergrads I knew had a great time socially. Locust walk is beautiful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I actually was surprised how much we liked Vassar. But I think that Wesleyan does a tour that does not show itself in the best light. Have toured it with more than one kid and it seems great, but not because of the tour. Second time was during last year in the last days of Covid restrictions so we could not enter any buildings. That always hurts. But even pre-Covid, they did not seem to put their best foot forward.

Agree. My partner and I both went to Wesleyan and took one of our kids there last Summer to visit. The tour was extremely underwhelming - tons of construction on campus, no entry into buildings, and a line of talk that was kind of generic. It’s an amazing school; I wish they’d step up their game.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Northwestern. I really wanted to like it. Thought it might be a great fit. The guide was informative. But so full of himself. Can ignore that because he's one of thousands of students. The geographical location is great. On Lake Michigan. Can see Chicago in the distance. But the campus felt dismal and very cynical. The nice buildings on the lake are the meeting center for parents and potential students and the football complex, which is basically the Starship Enterprise. The rest of it seemed bleak. Students didn't seem particularly cheerful or happy. I know that's not a fair judgment, but first impressions are what they are. Evanston seemed fine. But that's the best I can say of it. It's fine.

I went to Northwestern in the 1990s and can definitely say that much of the charm of the campus has been lost in the intervening years because they decided to build things in just about every open space on campus. The lakefill (the strip of campus along the lake) used to be much more open; there used to be tree-lined quads in the north part of campus. Now it's just a bunch of buildings. I still like it -- they can't build away Lake Michigan! -- but it's not what it used to be.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s silly, but agree with PPs that the weather can make a big difference in perceptions.

100% The day we visited UNC it was pouring rain. We got out of the car and even with umbrellas and rain coats we got soaked. It was a chilly rain and we were wet and miserable the entire time. Totally turned him off the school, even though it had nothing to do with the school.

[Anonymous]

Ohio State University. The tour guide talked about herself the whole time. The tour was engineering focused, and she couldn’t answer any questions about engineering (as she was an engineering student!). We learned much more from a family friend that walked around campus with us. The rec center there is to die for - never even mentioned on the tour.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s silly, but agree with PPs that the weather can make a big difference in perceptions.

100% The day we visited UNC it was pouring rain. We got out of the car and even with umbrellas and rain coats we got soaked. It was a chilly rain and we were wet and miserable the entire time. Totally turned him off the school, even though it had nothing to do with the school.

+1. That was our experience at Va Tech. And it was a weekend so not many student out walking around. Couldn’t really get a feel for the campus vibe.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I actually was surprised how much we liked Vassar. But I think that Wesleyan does a tour that does not show itself in the best light. Have toured it with more than one kid and it seems great, but not because of the tour. Second time was during last year in the last days of Covid restrictions so we could not enter any buildings. That always hurts. But even pre-Covid, they did not seem to put their best foot forward.

This was our experience with Wesleyan as well when we visited with our older child. We will take our high school junior to visit is in the spring and see if they do a better job this time around.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s silly, but agree with PPs that the weather can make a big difference in perceptions.

100% The day we visited UNC it was pouring rain. We got out of the car and even with umbrellas and rain coats we got soaked. It was a chilly rain and we were wet and miserable the entire time. Totally turned him off the school, even though it had nothing to do with the school.

Not UNC, but I lived right down the road from UD (Delaware) and my aunt for some reason was supposed to go take pictures there. She told me to "dress like a college student" (can't remember if I I was just finishing HS or already in a different college oos) and she drove me over in the rain to take some shots of the quad and surrounding areas.

Oddly, I thought that campus in the rain wasn't so bad.

[Anonymous]

Terrible visit at Boston College - info session was poorly done and tour guide was terrible (she openly complained about the school and the things she didn't like about it). My kid didn't like the two separate campuses. We also felt that they billed themselves too much as being "in Boston" when they are in the suburbs and the students all told us that they rarely go into downtown Boston. The school looked like a great fit but was crossed off my kids list before the tour was even done.

[Anonymous]

Does any larger national university do tours that aren't the standard- 1) watch a video, 2) hear a short speech from AO about admissions and Q&A, and 3) current student led tour of main quad, student union, library, lecture hall or two, maybe lobby or common area of a dorm for like an hour?

Like visiting a class in session, talking with a faculty member or students in their intended major. Or anything out of the ordinary?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Terrible visit at Boston College - info session was poorly done and tour guide was terrible (she openly complained about the school and the things she didn't like about it). My kid didn't like the two separate campuses. We also felt that they billed themselves too much as being "in Boston" when they are in the suburbs and the students all told us that they rarely go into downtown Boston. The school looked like a great fit but was crossed off my kids list before the tour was even done.

Interesting. I was unexpectedly extremely impressed with the students on the panel at the info session and thought the admin guy was pretty good too. The tour guide was above average. The campus is sort of typical and nice. The biggest downside was when we were finished and needed to get back to (downtown) Boston. Security guard at edge of campus said uber and taxis were hard to come by and he directed us to the train station. Worked out fine, we figured it out, but, really? Not sure what it was, but BC remains at top of DS's list.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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

Unpossible!!

We walked off too. The advantage of the school being in the city -- you can easily disappear from your group and no one notices.

[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.

When we toured they did separate the kids from the parents, which I actually liked. It gave the kids a chance to ask questions without their parents around. Also, some parents tend to dominate tours so it was nice for the kids to get away from them. I can understand the mixed feelings about the area but it didn't bother my kid and it ended up as their first choice (in their junior year now). The info session was one of the best we went to and the tour guides were really nice, down to earth seeming students. It definitely isn't the right school for everyone but we really didn't expect our kid to love it (too small, too far from a major city) but sometimes you never know. Didn't hurt that it was a beautiful fall day.