Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:William and Mary. Horribly dull, current students wouldn't look anyone in the eye, dreary feel all around.

Students at W&M hate the tours bc they always block pathways and academic buildings and I don't blame them.

Anonymous wrote:William and Mary. Horribly dull, current students wouldn't look anyone in the eye, dreary feel all around.

Anonymous wrote:It’s so strange to hear how many tour guides are poor representatives. Isn’t there usually a screening process? You would think those types would be weeded out

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Fellow 1990s alumnus here. Yours, sigh, is a fair take. I'd also add that while some of the post-WWII, pre-1990 buildings are plain, they also were built on a more human scale than some of the post-1990 structures. I loved NU and would recommend it to most of the high school kids I know, but I preferred the campus as it was.

I have to push back on the earlier post you quoted, though. If strolling from the sorority quad, past Harris, University, and Annie May Swift Halls to Deering Library is "bleak", then I'll take bleak any day of the week and twice on Sundays.

[b]


You are talking to
a poster long gone some 10 months ago. Why reactivate such an old thread?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Fellow 1990s alumnus here. Yours, sigh, is a fair take. I'd also add that while some of the post-WWII, pre-1990 buildings are plain, they also were built on a more human scale than some of the post-1990 structures. I loved NU and would recommend it to most of the high school kids I know, but I preferred the campus as it was.

I have to push back on the earlier post you quoted, though. If strolling from the sorority quad, past Harris, University, and Annie May Swift Halls to Deering Library is "bleak", then I'll take bleak any day of the week and twice on Sundays.

Anonymous wrote:

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 wrote:

Anonymous wrote:However, we toured on a Saturday morning and saw only 2-3 students. I would caution against Saturday morning tours!

We visited a different LAC on a Saturday morning tour, and barely saw a single student other than our tour guides. My kid had been interested in it, but it came off his list. He claims there were other reasons he lost interest, but the early-morning weekend vibe — with most students cozy in their dorms away from public view, and nearly empty classrooms and libraries — certainly didn't help.