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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]There’s something for everyone. My DS has not liked any of the colleges we have toured with our DD who is a junior. He does not like any old buildings. While he does not want to go to Mason because it is “too close to home” it was the only campus he liked (went to UVA, W&M, JMU, VT, and Elon, in addition to UMD, Notre Dame, and Northwestern). I love the beauty of old college campuses, but understand his point, as I would love to live in a non-cookie cutter house, but only if it was updated. Will be interesting to see where he ends up as he has a perfect GPA so far as a sophomore and scored 1400+ on his PSAT.[/quote]

Agreed, but jeez, what a limiting way to select a college. Many (most?) old campuses have lots of fantastic new spaces and hardly any have no old buildings. And most excellent schools - and your son is obviously an excellent student who will have opportunities at lots of great schools - are old. His views will probably evolve. The “too much brick”/“the doors are too heavy” absurdity usually evaporates.  [/quote]

Going through top schools in my head, I can't think of too many that don't have significant older sections.  MIT has been trying to push more modern forms for quite a while (perhaps to varying degrees of success).  Yale has significant modern buildings, but it is still probably the colleges from the 1920s and 1930s that people remember best.  In Virginia, I'd say UVA, William and Mary, and other schools have struggled with their modern buildings.  The ones from the 1960s and 1970s were often bland and uninspired, and were really just flat roofed versions, non-decorated versions of what was already there.   UVA is taking a wrecking ball to all the Alderman Road dorms from the 1960s (which actually had pitched roofs).  I can't say I'm really taken with the replacements, but it is an improvement.

Anyway, I'd agree that you should never pick based on campus architecture.  Sure, it is great to spend 4-5 years in a beautiful place, but kids should look beyond that.

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