Anonymous
10/27/2025 16:58
Subject: Schools you toured that you were surprised you liked or didn’t like?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Absolutely loved Stanford.
-Mediterranean weather
-Spanish architecture
-proximity to San Francisco, Lake Tahoe
-palm trees galore
-non football sports culture
Stanford is very close to SF but not that close to Tahoe. It's 4 hour drive without traffic.
It’s not even that close to SF. It’s like 45 mins if you have a car?
Caltrain goes from Palo Alto to SF in 30 minutes- no need for a car.
As for Tahoe, it’s indeed a 4 hour drive but I can’t think of any peer college that can get you that close to alpine skiing (sorry Vermont doesn’t come close)
um Dartmouth has it own ski area.
Not in the least bit comparable to skiing in the Sierras
DP. Agree Sierra skiing way better than northeast. That doesn't make Stanford a good school for skiing though. Round trip to Tahoe is 7-10 hours on the road depending on traffic. Dartmouth hill is tiny but it's is a 15 minute shuttle ride from campus. It's very easy to ski a couple hours with friends.
Of course best school for skiing is University of Utah.
Colorado schools are pretty good for skiing too. Much closer than Stanford to good skiing.
Anonymous
10/27/2025 16:49
Subject: Schools you toured that you were surprised you liked or didn’t like?
lol like anyone is looking at Duke and UConn as possible schools. And Duke’s undergraduate enrollment is 6,800 kids hardly big.
Anonymous
10/27/2025 16:39
Subject: Schools you toured that you were surprised you liked or didn’t like?
Anonymous wrote:At the schools where my kids attended (Yale and UPenn), the admissions offices weren't directly involved in selecting the tour guides. Applicants for those positions were evaluated, interviewed, and selected by other students who already held tour guide positions. And at both places, the application process was lengthy and very competitive.
So if you get one of the pretentious Yale tour guides and are turned off, you should definitely flee, because you know they had the attributes held in high regard by other Yale students.
Anonymous
10/27/2025 16:18
Subject: Schools you toured that you were surprised you liked or didn’t like?
At the schools where my kids attended (Yale and UPenn), the admissions offices weren't directly involved in selecting the tour guides. Applicants for those positions were evaluated, interviewed, and selected by other students who already held tour guide positions. And at both places, the application process was lengthy and very competitive.
Anonymous
10/27/2025 16:09
Subject: Schools you toured that you were surprised you liked or didn’t like?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Absolutely loved Stanford.
-Mediterranean weather
-Spanish architecture
-proximity to San Francisco, Lake Tahoe
-palm trees galore
-non football sports culture
Stanford is very close to SF but not that close to Tahoe. It's 4 hour drive without traffic.
It’s not even that close to SF. It’s like 45 mins if you have a car?
Caltrain goes from Palo Alto to SF in 30 minutes- no need for a car.
As for Tahoe, it’s indeed a 4 hour drive but I can’t think of any peer college that can get you that close to alpine skiing (sorry Vermont doesn’t come close)
um Dartmouth has it own ski area.
Not in the least bit comparable to skiing in the Sierras
DP. Agree Sierra skiing way better than northeast. That doesn't make Stanford a good school for skiing though. Round trip to Tahoe is 7-10 hours on the road depending on traffic. Dartmouth hill is tiny but it's is a 15 minute shuttle ride from campus. It's very easy to ski a couple hours with friends.
Of course best school for skiing is University of Utah.
Anonymous
10/27/2025 16:07
Subject: Schools you toured that you were surprised you liked or didn’t like?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Didn't like--
Duke, UNC or UConn. Too big, too much emphasis on sports.
JHU--I was hoping the rigor would appeal to DC but he just saw stressed out students.
Swarthmore--didn't like anything about the campus, the tour guide. It all felt very forced.
W&L-- I didn't like that it was next to VMI and had to deal with their traffic.
What schools did you like?
LOL
Anonymous
10/27/2025 15:50
Subject: Schools you toured that you were surprised you liked or didn’t like?
Anonymous wrote:Didn't like--
Duke, UNC or UConn. Too big, too much emphasis on sports.
JHU--I was hoping the rigor would appeal to DC but he just saw stressed out students.
Swarthmore--didn't like anything about the campus, the tour guide. It all felt very forced.
W&L-- I didn't like that it was next to VMI and had to deal with their traffic.
What schools did you like?
Anonymous
10/27/2025 15:47
Subject: Schools you toured that you were surprised you liked or didn’t like?
Didn't like--
Duke, UNC or UConn. Too big, too much emphasis on sports.
JHU--I was hoping the rigor would appeal to DC but he just saw stressed out students.
Swarthmore--didn't like anything about the campus, the tour guide. It all felt very forced.
W&L-- I didn't like that it was next to VMI and had to deal with their traffic.
Duke, UNC or UConn. Too big, too much emphasis on sports.
JHU--I was hoping the rigor would appeal to DC but he just saw stressed out students.
Swarthmore--didn't like anything about the campus, the tour guide. It all felt very forced.
W&L-- I didn't like that it was next to VMI and had to deal with their traffic.
Anonymous
10/27/2025 15:43
Subject: Schools you toured that you were surprised you liked or didn’t like?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Absolutely loved Stanford.
-Mediterranean weather
-Spanish architecture
-proximity to San Francisco, Lake Tahoe
-palm trees galore
-non football sports culture
Stanford is very close to SF but not that close to Tahoe. It's 4 hour drive without traffic.
It’s not even that close to SF. It’s like 45 mins if you have a car?
Caltrain goes from Palo Alto to SF in 30 minutes- no need for a car.
As for Tahoe, it’s indeed a 4 hour drive but I can’t think of any peer college that can get you that close to alpine skiing (sorry Vermont doesn’t come close)
um Dartmouth has it own ski area.
Not in the least bit comparable to skiing in the Sierras
Anonymous
10/27/2025 15:15
Subject: Schools you toured that you were surprised you liked or didn’t like?
Anonymous wrote: DD also had an abysmal tour at Wesleyan, where the guide went on and on about how they were going to "get out in 3 years" and was completely unknowledgeable about basic info. Their student panel was great, however- if we had just done the tour, D26 wouldn't have even bothered applying.
The tour guide mentioned that Lin Manuel Miranda had attended no fewer than four times on our tour. It's a running joke in our family now. She also told us that eer sister had gotten mugged at Yale the day before. The student panel was where we learned that Wesleyan has cheerleaders. Who knew?
Anonymous
10/27/2025 15:02
Subject: Schools you toured that you were surprised you liked or didn’t like?
We are looking only at rural/suburban SLACs, but we were just blown away by Sewanee. Beautiful and great vibes, great tour.
Anonymous
10/27/2025 15:02
Subject: Schools you toured that you were surprised you liked or didn’t like?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Absolutely loved Stanford.
-Mediterranean weather
-Spanish architecture
-proximity to San Francisco, Lake Tahoe
-palm trees galore
-non football sports culture
Stanford is very close to SF but not that close to Tahoe. It's 4 hour drive without traffic.
It’s not even that close to SF. It’s like 45 mins if you have a car?
Caltrain goes from Palo Alto to SF in 30 minutes- no need for a car.
As for Tahoe, it’s indeed a 4 hour drive but I can’t think of any peer college that can get you that close to alpine skiing (sorry Vermont doesn’t come close)
um Dartmouth has it own ski area.
Anonymous
10/27/2025 14:58
Subject: Schools you toured that you were surprised you liked or didn’t like?
I would like to have tours run like our HS has tours -- instead of going with one kid to points on the circuit, have different kids at various points. A STEM kid at that building, a drama kid at the that building, someone at housing, a club athlete at the gym, someone at liberal arts, someone in dining hall. And families can pace yourself. Spend more time at one place or another. Skip whatever you like. And instead of start times at 10 and 11 and 1 just make it open house style from 10;30 to 12;30.
Anonymous
10/27/2025 14:54
Subject: Re:Schools you toured that you were surprised you liked or didn’t like?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:I just wanted to comment that with all these colleges’ marketing budgets, it is baffling that so many can’t get the tour and info session consistently right. Should be such an easy thing to fix.
I have been on several tours where you could not hear the tour guide some or part of the time. Unacceptable.
I have been on tours where the group never enters a university building (this is post-Covid) except the admissions office. Unacceptable.
And on and on…
Same goes for admitted student days. Both parents can’t come because you are all booked up (top SLAC) so the donut-hole family can’t decide together on a 90k investment? Unacceptable.
Stuffing parents into a crowded room where they can barely move and can’t find where the coffee is because they can’t see it (top 20 National university)? Unacceptable.
This little things matter…
I feel the same way. It is like when I go to a hotel and it feels like the person who designed the bathroom has never used a bathroom before.
Tell me what makes you unique.
Train your tour guides.
Make it so we can hear tour guides.
Let us go in buildings.
Tell us how to eat a meal in a dining hall (extra points for a discount!)
Etc.
Huge pet peeve when I can't hear the tour guide because they talk while facing forward and walking. They need to be trained to stop, turn around and face group before starting to talk.
Anonymous
10/27/2025 14:53
Subject: Schools you toured that you were surprised you liked or didn’t like?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Did not like Wisconsin as much as expected. Everyone raves about Madison but it didn't seem all that great and we didn't like how urban the campus felt.
Loved Michigan - I thought Michigan would be more like Wisconsin and vice versa. Loved the campus and loved the town.
UVA - the campus (yes, I called it that) is nice but Charlottesville is way oversold.
. . .
Agreed. Charlottesville where the white-supremacist, “Unite the Right” riot occurred and where they killed an innocent protester:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unite_the_Right_rally
that was mostly out of towners who came for the protests