Things may have changed since you applied. My DC recently visited Amherst and thought the vibe was fairly chill and welcoming.

Anonymous wrote:Amherst. They were sooooo snooty. Kid took it right off the list.

This is a true story.

Years ago the Director of Admissions at Amherst visited my NoVa public when they were looking to diversify their applicant pool. I was among a number of seniors invited to meet with him. He made a presentation about the school and then asked if anyone had questions.

No one had questions at first, so he pointed at me and said “I’m sure you must have a question.” On the fly, I asked him if a middle class kid from a NoVa public would feel at home at a college with a lot of private school graduates.

For whatever reason, he lost it and started yelling about how misguided the question was and how Amherst had rich and poor students from all over the world, including Harlem. I was totally mortified.

Later that day I got called to my guidance counselor’s office. My counselor was also the head football coach and I thought he was going to chew me out for asking an inappropriate question and embarrassing our school. Instead, he said that he’d reviewed the grades and test scores of some of the seniors with the AD and that the AD had committed to admit three of us, including me, to Amherst if we applied. I never found out if he knew I was the same student who had asked the impertinent (although, in hindsight, fairly innocuous) question.

I didn’t end up applying there. I did visit Amherst once, on a trip to Massachusetts to see Williams, and wasn’t crazy about the vibe. But one of my classmates did take the AD up on his offer, and went on to be very successful.

Anonymous wrote:University of San Diego didn't feel very inclusive

Not fair. They do admit both Northern Californians AND Southern Californians.

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Anonymous wrote:UVA - weak STEM programs and too "Southern".

No kidding.

My STEM kids' impression - "They're not interested in us."

Totally false. My stem kid went in for aerospace engineering and is now doing grad work at Princeton I. Electrical engineering. Do your research. A lot of kids from rival colleges post nonsense here about UVA

Amherst. They were sooooo snooty. Kid took it right off the list.

They don't really want to.

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Anonymous wrote:Boston College - they had an entire stage full of students during the info session, DC leaned over and said "this many kids and they couldn't find a single black or brown student?", felt very disconnected from Boston, didn't like the separate campus (Newton) for many of the students, horrible tour guide who complained constantly

Lehigh - way too much Greek life, depressing area, felt too focused on engineering which DC wasn't planning to study

Wesleyan - looked perfect on paper and had a great tour guide but really didn't like the campus, felt more arts oriented compared to other NESCACs, wasn't as far north as DC wanted to be

So true about Boston College. We noticed the same thing. No diversity at all.

This is also what turned us off from Boston College -- there appeared to be a lack of ethnic and socioeconomic diversity. It came off the list.

It’s pretty outrageous because BC has plenty of money. They should be able to attract a more diverse student body.

Anonymous wrote:UVA - weak STEM programs and too "Southern".

No kidding.

My STEM kids' impression - "They're not interested in us."

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Anonymous wrote:high point was unsettling

Agree. It was really weird. I got a religious vibe to it. Is it actually a Christian school? GORGEOUS dorms though : )

United Methodist affiliated institution

It also has a reputation for really, really pampering students. There's a stereotype why students want to go there--it's like a spa, has laundry service etc. I don't think that serves their graduates the best when going for jobs, grad schools etc. as there's a reputation that they are spoiled.

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Anonymous wrote:Texas Christian University is off the list for very predictable reasons

Such as?

DP. Are you asking for real or baiting the PP above you?

It's Texas, which has just recently swung so far right that women are racing to neighboring states for abortions and voting rights are under serious attack. Not to mentiom the hysteria in school boards over so-called "critical race theory."

I get it -- none of that is IN colleges there. But it's become a toxic environment overall in that state. I wouldn't let my kid go there unless it was sole home to the one magical college that was the only one on the planet teaching the only subject on the planet in which DC was interested. Maybe not even then.

DP. Jeez - you don't sound overly dramatic at all. I was also wondering what the cryptic "predictable reasons" poster was getting at. Not all of us have clutch our pearls at the idea of Texas.

right back at ya. You knew what that PP meant as soon as you saw "predictable." You knew it was about the entire climate there.

Wow, the chip on your shoulder must be enormous. I had no clue what that PP was talking about and in fact, assumed it was something about rich kids, or the Greek system at TCU, both of which have been mentioned here before. I'd actually love to know what the PP meant, and not what YOUR hyper-partisan interpretation is. Maybe next time, let people speak for themselves?

The anti-choice vigilante enforced law recently enacted in texas is huge news. How could you have no clue about it and how it might influence reactions and opinions about going to texas for colleges students and anyone else? If your student is clueless about this, I would suggest filling them in.

Good grief. Still nattering away about this? Of course I'm aware of the Texas law, as are my kids. However, in a thread about COLLEGES, that's not the very first thing that comes to mind. Maybe get off your one-issue soapbox and let people talk about the COLLEGES their kids are and are not applying to. You still haven't even allowed that PP to say what she was going to say about TCU. Go away and take your politics to the political forum.

DCUM exists for nattering. The poster that wants to avoid texas schools because of the oppressive politics is not nattering anymore than the one that thinks syracuse is expensive and depressing or middlebury is too preppy or harvard is too full of arrogant snobs.

DP. That's like saying a poster avoid Syracuse or any other school for "obvious reasons" (or the inability to teach punctuation). Asking what those reasons were was hardly out of line. Get a grip.

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Anonymous wrote:Boston College - they had an entire stage full of students during the info session, DC leaned over and said "this many kids and they couldn't find a single black or brown student?", felt very disconnected from Boston, didn't like the separate campus (Newton) for many of the students, horrible tour guide who complained constantly

Lehigh - way too much Greek life, depressing area, felt too focused on engineering which DC wasn't planning to study

Wesleyan - looked perfect on paper and had a great tour guide but really didn't like the campus, felt more arts oriented compared to other NESCACs, wasn't as far north as DC wanted to be

So true about Boston College. We noticed the same thing. No diversity at all.

This is also what turned us off from Boston College -- there appeared to be a lack of ethnic and socioeconomic diversity. It came off the list.

I went to Boston College and knew FOUR men named Patrick Walsh there if that tells you anything hahahah

The school has a history of educating Irish Catholic in America. Hence, four friends named Patrick Walsh.

From their website, “ Boston College has had a long tradition of engagement with Ireland and its culture. The University was founded, in part, to educate the children of Irish Catholic immigrants in Boston. The Irish Studies program at Boston College began in 1978 and is one of the leading international centers for Irish Studies.”

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Anonymous wrote:high point was unsettling

Agree. It was really weird. I got a religious vibe to it. Is it actually a Christian school? GORGEOUS dorms though : )

United Methodist affiliated institution

Anonymous wrote:high point was unsettling

Agree. It was really weird. I got a religious vibe to it. Is it actually a Christian school? GORGEOUS dorms though : )

Anonymous wrote:Maybe in 10 years, when my kid is looking at colleges, William & Mary will have air conditioning in all of their freshman dorms.

That is their goal

Maybe in 10 years, when my kid is looking at colleges, William & Mary will have air conditioning in all of their freshman dorms.