Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I had that same gut feeling as well, OP! Two years ago, when we toured colleges with DS. I'm a foreigner, so I don't care about the authenticity of old stones. I have medieval buildings on my country estate in my native country! What I want from a US college is a nice balance of academics and comfort.

The only places we really liked were George Washington and Middlebury. They were both renovated, clean, airy and comfortable. One was rural, the other urban, and DS opted for the urban.

Agree about Middlebury. When we toured, we felt like we were at a high-end country club. My wife, who went to a large public, was amazed at the perfectly manicured lawns and neatly placed stone buildings. Historic yet clean and well maintained. Apparently they knocked down most of the ugly buildings from the 50s, 60s, and 70s and replaced them with more modern facilities. Amherst, on the other hand, felt tired and worn down.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For high-achieving students who don't want to suffer in a cramped dungeon with no A/C, Alabama's honors dorms are the nicest college housing I've ever seen, bar none. They're more like luxury apartments. Freshmen can live in them, too.

Ha! I googled their dorms to see what you are talking about. I wanted to see pictures. I look at pictures for Ridgecrest South (listed as an honors dorm). in one of the pictures, the student has the Maryland flag on the wall.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:a lot of these schools have half the kids paying 100k a year and half paying 15k a year. People already feel like suckers .. and then when the food is frozen chicken cutlets or the dorms have mold in the vents, it's natural to complain.

The real issue is that many of these schools force students to pay $$ for these moldy crowded dorms that regularly flood and frozen chicken cutlets for the first few years of the degree.

and now they're forcing you to live in their moldy dorms for 4 years to make more $$$. It was a PITA to get DC's college to let him live off campus, because it's a "residential experience" and 94% of students live on campus-uh huh, and it's also $92,000 this year and he'd rather share an apartment in this expensive area than stay on campus.

Vanderbilt? This sounds exactly like their bullshit rationale -- and price tag. Many of the dorms literally ARE moldy, and flood periodically on the 1st floor. And the forced chicken cutlets are raw in the middle about 28% of the time.

It has taken me almost 3 years to realize that the school scrubs its FB and other fora of negative discussions like this, or uses parent "moderators" to gaslight commenters who protest the objectively horrible residential conditions for many* students. (Wow! MY rising junior says she's never TASTED such great food options! She says there's ALWAYS something fun going on in the residence halls and wishes she had even MORE TIME to spend in the dorms with all her friends who LOVE the SOCIAL aspect of dorm living!!!!!

* Vandy does have 3-4 pretty new "residential colleges" with 14 ft. ceilings that, despite a "lottery," are mostly awarded to Hollywood kids and the prettiest girls. But you'll still probably get a triple there

I have a senior at Vanderbilt. So much BS here I couldn't help but at least acknowledge it.

But do tell us more about the prettiest girls and the Hollywood kids and the 14 ft ceilings for those in the know

Are you asking me to name the student names? Can't imagine that is what you actually mean when you encourage me to tell you "more." Some people get Hank and EBI year after year, somehow

Happy to be more specific about flooding, mold and raw chicken though. McGill and Tolman flooded last year. The year before it was Gillette, which is infamous for 1st floor flooding. The HVAC system of Memorial spewed out black mold in 2022-2023. I have a lot of personal photos of that one.

There are multiple, signed posts *still present* on the two main FB pages detailing the lack of food (because it ran out in the middle of dinner); the undercooked food (with pictures!); the lines that are so long the students bail in order to make it to class and end up using the entire $21 meal swipe for a single tub of Chobani. There's even a video of that last situation.

To experience the gaslighting at its best, search for posts by a parent ambassador with the initials R.G. She'll tell you straight up that your kids need to "learn to be uncomfortable."

For $90k/yr, my kid actually does not need to learn to eat raw chicken, RG, and breathe mold as he sleeps.

Anonymous wrote:For high-achieving students who don't want to suffer in a cramped dungeon with no A/C, Alabama's honors dorms are the nicest college housing I've ever seen, bar none. They're more like luxury apartments. Freshmen can live in them, too.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:a lot of these schools have half the kids paying 100k a year and half paying 15k a year. People already feel like suckers .. and then when the food is frozen chicken cutlets or the dorms have mold in the vents, it's natural to complain.

The real issue is that many of these schools force students to pay $$ for these moldy crowded dorms that regularly flood and frozen chicken cutlets for the first few years of the degree.

and now they're forcing you to live in their moldy dorms for 4 years to make more $$$. It was a PITA to get DC's college to let him live off campus, because it's a "residential experience" and 94% of students live on campus-uh huh, and it's also $92,000 this year and he'd rather share an apartment in this expensive area than stay on campus.

Vanderbilt? This sounds exactly like their bullshit rationale -- and price tag. Many of the dorms literally ARE moldy, and flood periodically on the 1st floor. And the forced chicken cutlets are raw in the middle about 28% of the time.

It has taken me almost 3 years to realize that the school scrubs its FB and other fora of negative discussions like this, or uses parent "moderators" to gaslight commenters who protest the objectively horrible residential conditions for many* students. (Wow! MY rising junior says she's never TASTED such great food options! She says there's ALWAYS something fun going on in the residence halls and wishes she had even MORE TIME to spend in the dorms with all her friends who LOVE the SOCIAL aspect of dorm living!!!!!

* Vandy does have 3-4 pretty new "residential colleges" with 14 ft. ceilings that, despite a "lottery," are mostly awarded to Hollywood kids and the prettiest girls. But you'll still probably get a triple there

I have a senior at Vanderbilt. So much BS here I couldn't help but at least acknowledge it.

But do tell us more about the prettiest girls and the Hollywood kids and the 14 ft ceilings for those in the know

Anonymous wrote:One of mine attended an elite school with a mix of fancy and dumpy dorm buildings. Unfortunately, ended up in a dumpy one in dorm draw. It was so painful to pay for housing, they moved out to off campus rentals with friends after freshman year, which was way nicer and cheaper.

Anonymous wrote:One of mine attended an elite school with a mix of fancy and dumpy dorm buildings. Unfortunately, ended up in a dumpy one in dorm draw. It was so painful to pay for housing, they moved out to off campus rentals with friends after freshman year, which was way nicer and cheaper.

Anonymous wrote:I have a rising senior and have been doing the rounds of many top 25 schools (universities and colleges). We started with safety schools last year and then junior year grades came back so this summer we've been touring some top schools. My kid is trying to figure out an ED.
We have a rising junior as well so we have a couple of kids with us.

The more of these schools we tour, the less impressed I am. They're sort of all a bit falling apart, poorly maintained, with pretty odd students (tour guides, summer students and especially touring students alike--don't jump all over for for saying this--being brutally honest), little sense of community, same-old, same-old stuff about study-abroad, etc. Many have very large class sizes, etc.

I feel like we're (kid and parent alike) are supposed to love these schools and want to pay $90K for them and my kids can't find one they really like. I very, very, very much feel like we're being sold a product that we're supposed to want to buy because of prestige and name but when we see the product up close it doesn't look great and I feel like a sheep lining up to say "yes sir. let me put my kid through mental/emotional twister for a 5% chance of being admitted to your school and then I will gladly pay you $90K for the honor. Yes sir." It just feels... gross. Maybe not gross but yucky. My kids are like, "well I didn't really like this or that here but I could probably make it work." They too feel the pressure to LIKE these places. The Almighty XYZ or ABC school! It's supposed to be their dream!

Please don't jump on me. I know it's summer and we're not seeing the universities at their best but ugh. They're all kind of disappointing. I can't be the only one who feels this way? (I'm not going to name university/college names because then this post will turn into a giant thread about whatever school(s) I name.

Anonymous wrote:Having similar feelings. Just dropped off DC at Hopkins and was underwhelmed. Food was not good… dorm room was old. I don’t think we would pay $90K/year for it. Sounds like the feeling is similar at other private schools too.

My top SLAC 20+ years ago was so much nicer.