We hated Coastal Carolina. Looks beautiful online. The actual campus is right off a major road- think Route 7- and you turn right onto campus. Like right off the road. The campus itself feels really dated- like everything was built in 1985 and has not been touched since. The inside of the buildings feel like a high school. None of the students looked happy, none of them were walking with anyone else- we left after the first 30 minutes of the tour.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:WVU (looked at it as a safety and one that gives out a LOT of merit $$$) -- went in with low expectations and it was worse than expected. The surrounding town was depressing and downtrodden and the older part of campus was super hilly and not great. The new part of campus was okay but the split between the two was weird. Our tour guide was A+ though -- best we had anywhere.

UMD -- they seemed totally disinterested in trying to attract students. The whole experience including the campus was meh. Surprising because it seems like students like it.

We had the opposite experience ar UMD. DD was not super jazzed, but a wonderful tour guide got her excited about all the possibilities.

We had the worst experience at UMD admitted student day. Completely disorganized and not welcoming and a lot of deadtime. However, we took one of my friend's kids to a late lunch after it and he totally sold my son on UMD.

Anonymous wrote:We loved our tour guide at Brandeis, but the state of disrepair of some buildings was noticeable. Came out of that with mixed emotions.

Same concern about Brandeis. It’s still under consideration because academically it’s strong and we were overall impressed with the presentation and what we learned on the tour but the campus is shabby although in a pretty setting.

I'll add that we also had good tours at Georgetown, W&M, UMD.

Didn't tour BU but went to school in Boston as an undergrad (and had considered BU) and your interpretation is spot on.

Anonymous wrote:Princeton. The guide was disinterested and seemed to know they had no need to sell the school. He wasn't wrong though. Dartmouth seemed to emphasize how depressing the weather was, but I appreciated that because I think those winters can really blindside kids from this area.

Our Princeton tour wasn't disappointing, but didn't appreciate legacy guide whose legacy parents married at chapel. Now given admissions results at our school, just adds to message that it's a club. Too bad, the school seems like a great idea. (ps - DC didn't apply based on location - so no sour grapes here)

We loved our tour guide at Brandeis, but the state of disrepair of some buildings was noticeable. Came out of that with mixed emotions.

Anonymous wrote:WVU (looked at it as a safety and one that gives out a LOT of merit $$$) -- went in with low expectations and it was worse than expected. The surrounding town was depressing and downtrodden and the older part of campus was super hilly and not great. The new part of campus was okay but the split between the two was weird. Our tour guide was A+ though -- best we had anywhere.

UMD -- they seemed totally disinterested in trying to attract students. The whole experience including the campus was meh. Surprising because it seems like students like it.

We had the opposite experience ar UMD. DD was not super jazzed, but a wonderful tour guide got her excited about all the possibilities.

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.

I 2nd both of these. Vassar was gorgeous-- did 2 tours, 1 self pre admit and admitted students day. Really loved it.

We saw Wesleyan pre admit right after Middlebury and Williams. It was also under construction. Then for admitted students we went right after Brown, Dartmouth and Vassar. It didn't really stand a chance. Loved the library and arts focus though.

Ive said this before but my kids were split on W&M. My DS loved it and he and I even did the Colonial Williamsburg haunted tour, while my DD watched tiktoks in the hotel room. She HATED it. The tour itself was fine and the guide was nice and high energy, but she hated the sample dorm room and hates that CW is right there, felt touristy.

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:W&M - wanted to love it, but it was the worst visit we had. My kid asked if we could leave halfway through the session - before we even had a tour.

CNU - seemed so quiet. The only place we saw kids was the dining hall and this was on a Friday afternoon.

Same for CNU. Also it was a turn off for DD that all the tour guides (I think there were 6 or 7 that day) were in Greek life and she doesn't want to do that. Adding to that they didn't even visit a science building on the tour, giving her the impression that the sciences are not a priority. It didn't make her list.

They offer 90 majors. It'd probably be a really long tour if they gave time to all of them! Did you all go visit one of the buildings afterwards or was it not a priority?

Yeah, this. I gave tours as a student, and changed routes on the fly if I was trying to avoid another group or some other random reason. I get that teens base their impressions on all kinds of things (I was regularly asked if I was in a sorority and wasn’t, which may have turned someone off), but choosing which buildings to visit signifies not much.

OP here. So interesting. Contrary to a PP, we liked the 2022 Georgetown tour and insistence on academics, and thought it was nice to have an enclosed campus in a large city (compared to George Washington). We also visited W&M several years ago and thought it had a fine old air, and loved its proximity to Colonial Williamsburg.

Impressions can depend so much on one's mood, and fit with the tour guide or random people met there, that I realize that it's all subjective. I purposefully do not include my impressions of the tour guides, because as someone else said, I don't think that can be imputed to the college. But campus look, building maintenance and admissions officer's presentations can.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:W&M - wanted to love it, but it was the worst visit we had. My kid asked if we could leave halfway through the session - before we even had a tour.

CNU - seemed so quiet. The only place we saw kids was the dining hall and this was on a Friday afternoon.

Same for CNU. Also it was a turn off for DD that all the tour guides (I think there were 6 or 7 that day) were in Greek life and she doesn't want to do that. Adding to that they didn't even visit a science building on the tour, giving her the impression that the sciences are not a priority. It didn't make her list.

They offer 90 majors. It'd probably be a really long tour if they gave time to all of them! Did you all go visit one of the buildings afterwards or was it not a priority?

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can we just stop with the threads that drag tour guides. Students are allowed to have a bad day. They sign up for tour duty and then life sometimes happens in the meantime.

Show some grace. Maybe we can just cut this thread?

I appreciate the feedback of the tours.

Then I guess you can't put yourselves in the shoes of a kid giving a tour. Or a parent of a tour guide who watches these threads fill with comments tearing them apart.

I don’t think people should tear apart the guides themselves but I think it’s useful to highlight aspects of the campus or the vibe that may be helpful to others. Obviously it would be foolish to choose or not choose a school based on the personality of a tour guide but some of the impressions you get on a tour can certainly be relevant.

My brother said that Brown was filthy and run down. Two years later, I toured thinking "thank goodness I didn't take his word for it."

So be careful about listening to other people. You never know if someone's opinion is affected by them rushing, getting lost, being tired/hungry, or some other factor that's not even about the school.

Anonymous wrote:W&M - wanted to love it, but it was the worst visit we had. My kid asked if we could leave halfway through the session - before we even had a tour.

CNU - seemed so quiet. The only place we saw kids was the dining hall and this was on a Friday afternoon.

Same for CNU. Also it was a turn off for DD that all the tour guides (I think there were 6 or 7 that day) were in Greek life and she doesn't want to do that. Adding to that they didn't even visit a science building on the tour, giving her the impression that the sciences are not a priority. It didn't make her list.

W&M - wanted to love it, but it was the worst visit we had. My kid asked if we could leave halfway through the session - before we even had a tour.

CNU - seemed so quiet. The only place we saw kids was the dining hall and this was on a Friday afternoon.