Anonymous
10/26/2025 21:23
Subject: Schools you toured that you were surprised you liked or didn’t like?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Wide lists - 3 kids.
exceeded expectations:
Claremont Colleges
UCLA
GW
Bowdoin
Columbia
Middlebury
JHU
UNC
Yale
Rice
about what we expected/all positive:
GW
Princeton
Penn
Holy Cross
USC
Davidson
meh/came up short:
Villanova
Tufts
Amherst
UChicago
Bates
Colgate
Hamilton
Georgetown (x100)
Dartmouth
Harvard
BU
Swat
How did Dartmouth come up short?
so pretty - but admission session was very blah, then the tour was this guy who kept saying how really impossible it was to get in - and also the kids there were POPULAR and SOCIAL and EMPLOYABLE and COULD LOOK PEOPLE IN THE EYES unlike all the other Ivy League schools (I guess those Princeton and Harvard kids aren't popular or employable). Then we had lunch and - nothing changed my kids' minds. It was a v pretty day and a pretty campus in a pretty corner of the world
we had a similar tour at ND. it's off putting when a tour guide puts down another college. bad form
Anonymous
10/26/2025 21:19
Subject: Schools you toured that you were surprised you liked or didn’t like?
Anonymous wrote:I have a very average kid (not DCUM average) and have found some lovely nurturing places for kids who don’t have 4.8 GPAs an 10 APs and may benefit from some more personal attention and support. Very pleasantly surprised with Randolph-Macon and Christopher Newport, and because my kid wants to study a language not always taught, looked at Elizabethtown in PA. We were very impressed at how they had tracked his interest and a professor of that language spent a whole hour on a personal session just for him.
We wound up getting very personalized tours at the smaller schools we visited. We visited Randolph (the former women’s college sister to RMC) during private college week in the summer. They took us to the ice cream place just outside one of the gates during the general tour. Also, because my daughter was interested in a specific performing art, after everyone else left, a professor took us to see those facilities.
2 other schools basically planned a day just for my daughter, including a couple sample classes to get a feel for the program of interest. The school she eventually chose sent us on a tour with a guide that was doubling in the two fields my daughter planned to combine.
It really does feel much more personalized and special.
Anonymous
10/26/2025 21:17
Subject: Schools you toured that you were surprised you liked or didn’t like?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:DC- Strongly disliked -
University of California San Diego - DC thought it was directly on the beach but it is not easy to get to the beach since it requires walking a considerable distance. It has an ugly concrete, cold feeling about it with no central campus. So many of the students seemed depressed and even the tour group guide seemed sad every time he looked away and wasn’t directly addressing the people in the tour. University of Irvine seemed similar.
Pepperdine. In the middle of a burned out small town far from any actual city. Students seemed rich and entitled.
Pomona/Claremont McKenna- it was really hot when we went and it is in a far far off area of LA. Not sure how to describe some of the Pomona students.
University of Santa Barbara- Campus seemed so run down. So much deferred maintenance needed. Great that campus is actually on a beach so that part was amazing, but so many students seemed really into partying.
DC liked-
UCLA- nice campus, students seemed friendly. We try to eat in the dinning commons just to get a feel for food and students. DC liked diversity of food and vibe.
University of Utah-DC wasn’t thrilled about the lack of diversity, the new dorms and new buildings on campus were really nice. Everyone was over the top friendly and helpful. Super close to skiing and hiking. Students didn’t seem ultra competitive and seemed like they would collaborate.
UC Berkeley- thought it would be grungy with homeless all around but that wasn’t our experience at all. Had a great tour and saw a beautiful campus in an urban setting.
UC Davis- fantastic college town, students were friendly and seemed happy, such a great campus to bike around. We ended up renting bikes because there were so many amazing bike paths and the campus has a lot of very flat land. Biked to pet a goat and cow, biked to a small lake and small river that runs through campus, biked to town to get ice cream, bikes to raptor center, bikes to student union, biked to an athletic event. Helped the tour guide was really personable and fantastic and it was a gorgeous day. So hard to know how it would be different if it were a dreary rainy day with a bad tour guide.
Pepperdine isn’t in the middle of any town and the fires were far away. Strange also that you don’t mention its spectacular location and unspoiled views of the Pacific. It’s usually at the top of everyone’s list of most beautiful campus.
What a crazy thing to say the fires were far away. Pepperdine is in Malibu where over 700 homes burned down. Drive from Pepperdine to the west side of LA/ Westwood/ Santa Monica and you pass so many burned out houses and buildings. I don’t call that a spectacular location as it stands right now and for years to come.
The Palisadez fires were 3.5 miles away as the crow flies. Pepperdine was not impacted because of its careful conservation methods.
DP. We saw the remnants of a big fire right up to the school property when we were there last year. But the school itself was not burned.
Anonymous
10/26/2025 21:16
Subject: Schools you toured that you were surprised you liked or didn’t like?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Loved both UVA & WM. Kid attends UVA and is super happy with all aspects of her Hoo experience. She chose it over other top admits. Virginia residents are blessed to have great in-state options.
DD had the opposite reaction to UVA. She said it felt like a giant frat-party and also felt extremely impersonal. She compared to other large, state-flagship schools, which gave off the vide of being “diploma - mills.”
UVA is hardly a diploma mill. Good grief, do you even know what that means?? Giant frat-party - how would she get this feeling from a tour? Loads of Hoos don’t frequent frat parties or the bars, but rather they find entertainment in the vast happenings on Grounds.
"vast happenings on grounds"... not really making the case here.
DP
Anonymous
10/26/2025 21:16
Subject: Schools you toured that you were surprised you liked or didn’t like?
Anonymous wrote:Williams, the students were obnoxious.
Williams alum here. I’m sorry your Williams tour wasn’t great. When I looked toured decades ago, my parents and I were so impressed by how nice and friendly everyone there was. My kid wasn’t crazy about our Williams tour though. They enjoyed their tours of Wake, Richmond, and Davidson though.
Anonymous
10/26/2025 21:12
Subject: Schools you toured that you were surprised you liked or didn’t like?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Our Georgetown tour guide talked about the high percent of GU alum who marry each other, then she made a cringey joke about coming to college to get her diploma and a ring. I'm actually an alum who married another alum, but the whole thing made me roll my eyes.
Likewise a different Georgetown tour guide who, when asked why he chose Georgetown said something about it having a strong pre-med program, which I took to mean he didn't get into wherever else he applied.
Also did not like the U Penn tour, which did not take us into a single building other than the admissions office and the tour guides seemed supremely uninterested in the people on the tour.
Can you explain the bolded?
I went to Georgetown. It's fine for pre-med, but so are a bunch of other colleges on the East Coast. I don't see that as a distinguishing aspect of the school in the same way that the DC location might be, for instance.
Thanks, that makes sense
Anonymous
10/26/2025 21:08
Subject: Schools you toured that you were surprised you liked or didn’t like?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Our Georgetown tour guide talked about the high percent of GU alum who marry each other, then she made a cringey joke about coming to college to get her diploma and a ring. I'm actually an alum who married another alum, but the whole thing made me roll my eyes.
Likewise a different Georgetown tour guide who, when asked why he chose Georgetown said something about it having a strong pre-med program, which I took to mean he didn't get into wherever else he applied.
Also did not like the U Penn tour, which did not take us into a single building other than the admissions office and the tour guides seemed supremely uninterested in the people on the tour.
Can you explain the bolded?
I went to Georgetown. It's fine for pre-med, but so are a bunch of other colleges on the East Coast. I don't see that as a distinguishing aspect of the school in the same way that the DC location might be, for instance.
Anonymous
10/26/2025 21:04
Subject: Schools you toured that you were surprised you liked or didn’t like?
Anonymous wrote:Our Georgetown tour guide talked about the high percent of GU alum who marry each other, then she made a cringey joke about coming to college to get her diploma and a ring. I'm actually an alum who married another alum, but the whole thing made me roll my eyes.
Likewise a different Georgetown tour guide who, when asked why he chose Georgetown said something about it having a strong pre-med program, which I took to mean he didn't get into wherever else he applied.
Also did not like the U Penn tour, which did not take us into a single building other than the admissions office and the tour guides seemed supremely uninterested in the people on the tour.
Can you explain the bolded?
Anonymous
10/26/2025 21:03
Subject: Schools you toured that you were surprised you liked or didn’t like?
I have a very average kid (not DCUM average) and have found some lovely nurturing places for kids who don’t have 4.8 GPAs an 10 APs and may benefit from some more personal attention and support. Very pleasantly surprised with Randolph-Macon and Christopher Newport, and because my kid wants to study a language not always taught, looked at Elizabethtown in PA. We were very impressed at how they had tracked his interest and a professor of that language spent a whole hour on a personal session just for him.
Anonymous
10/26/2025 21:03
Subject: Schools you toured that you were surprised you liked or didn’t like?
Our Georgetown tour guide talked about the high percent of GU alum who marry each other, then she made a cringey joke about coming to college to get her diploma and a ring. I'm actually an alum who married another alum, but the whole thing made me roll my eyes.
Likewise a different Georgetown tour guide who, when asked why he chose Georgetown said something about it having a strong pre-med program, which I took to mean he didn't get into wherever else he applied.
Also did not like the U Penn tour, which did not take us into a single building other than the admissions office and the tour guides seemed supremely uninterested in the people on the tour.
Likewise a different Georgetown tour guide who, when asked why he chose Georgetown said something about it having a strong pre-med program, which I took to mean he didn't get into wherever else he applied.
Also did not like the U Penn tour, which did not take us into a single building other than the admissions office and the tour guides seemed supremely uninterested in the people on the tour.
Anonymous
10/26/2025 21:01
Subject: Schools you toured that you were surprised you liked or didn’t like?
My kid loved Penn. We had a great tour guide, the campus felt vibrant and kids looked engaged. We visited again to be sure, and had another great experience. I was pleasantly surprised. On the other side, kid hated tufts and couldn't wait to leave. They also disliked northeastern and BU. I personally liked hopkins- the campus was nicer than I expected but the vibe/culture isn't right for my kid.
Anonymous
10/26/2025 20:54
Subject: Schools you toured that you were surprised you liked or didn’t like?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Wide lists - 3 kids.
exceeded expectations:
Claremont Colleges
UCLA
GW
Bowdoin
Columbia
Middlebury
JHU
UNC
Yale
Rice
about what we expected/all positive:
GW
Princeton
Penn
Holy Cross
USC
Davidson
meh/came up short:
Villanova
Tufts
Amherst
UChicago
Bates
Colgate
Hamilton
Georgetown (x100)
Dartmouth
Harvard
BU
Swat
How did Dartmouth come up short?
so pretty - but admission session was very blah, then the tour was this guy who kept saying how really impossible it was to get in - and also the kids there were POPULAR and SOCIAL and EMPLOYABLE and COULD LOOK PEOPLE IN THE EYES unlike all the other Ivy League schools (I guess those Princeton and Harvard kids aren't popular or employable). Then we had lunch and - nothing changed my kids' minds. It was a v pretty day and a pretty campus in a pretty corner of the world
Anonymous
10/26/2025 20:54
Subject: Schools you toured that you were surprised you liked or didn’t like?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Tulane was underwhelming. Tour was not great and the campus was a bit rundown, very old classrooms with chalkboards.
Syracuse was beautiful. Great tour, great guide, great facilities.
UIUC was good. It’s a big school and there were lots of us visiting that day. Campus and town both nice. Big school
Tulane doesn't rely on chalkboards ...
And lots of professors actually prefer a good chalkboard, like for writing out equations.
Anonymous
10/26/2025 20:52
Subject: Schools you toured that you were surprised you liked or didn’t like?
We all loved Colorado College. The two student tour guides were delightfully dorky, even the one that was a varsity athlete. DS said he could really see himself being friends with them. The location is incredible and the block plan is great for the right student.
Anonymous
10/26/2025 20:51
Subject: Schools you toured that you were surprised you liked or didn’t like?
Williams, the students were obnoxious.