Anonymous
Post 10/28/2025 13:32     Subject: Schools you toured that you were surprised you liked or didn’t like?
Anonymous wrote:Daughter wants to go out west. Visited Arizona and ASU first. She had thought she wanted ASU, but hated how spread out the campus was. She loved Arizona because it was a small and very pretty campus. I was surprised at how much I liked it, too.

In Cali, for the colleges she could get into, none made her jump for joy. So overall, we were very surprised that she left with Arizona as her favorite (and where we expect her to enroll).


That campus spread at ASU is no joke. When it gets oppressively hot (not just like 95 degree normal hot), it feels even worse. I remember toting a quart size bottle of water around and downing the whole thing just on the walk from dorm to class.

I have several friends who went to Arizona and they all loved it. Good luck to your daughter.
Anonymous
Post 10/28/2025 13:28     Subject: Re:Schools you toured that you were surprised you liked or didn’t like?
Anonymous wrote:My daughter was pretty much convinced she was going to go to ED to Williams…until the tour.

The horrible weather that day and a very stressed out tour guide talking about how intense the school was did a double whammy on her. I know that both of those factors were random fate, and who knows, if she would’ve had a beautiful spring day and an upbeat tour guide, maybe she would have applied.

A week later, we found ourselves touring. Davidson on a warm day with a lovely guide, and that’s where she is now.

Sounds like you got an accurate portrayal of Williams: the weather sucks and the school is very intense.
Anonymous
Post 10/28/2025 13:24     Subject: Re:Schools you toured that you were surprised you liked or didn’t like?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
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.

The tour guides at Penn State did the tour entirely walking backwards while speaking to us, except when crossing the street. Impressive.

But, yea, agree, some of the tours were annoying because I couldn't hear. They need to have a mic or something.


One of the tours - Wesleyan? - wouldn't talk at all between stops because they weren't allowed to talk walking backwards. It was so odd.
Anonymous
Post 10/28/2025 13:23     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.


Lol Hardly Tahoe


And Tahoe is no Utah.

I haven't skied Dartmouth's hill, but there is decent skiing in the Northeast within 4 hours of many top universities.
Anonymous
Post 10/28/2025 13:21     Subject: Schools you toured that you were surprised you liked or didn’t like?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:“ VT has a hulking fortresssy military vibe.”

Yes! We felt that way about it too. We were shocked because we went in expecting to love it and because DD wants a STEM major. Nope. I felt like we were crossing Tiananmen Square when we had to cross that big military quad.


I felt the same! We left early.


+1

The stone is fug and everything is too spread out.

Not an attractive campus, but that won't stop my kid from applying.

Anonymous
Post 10/28/2025 13:16     Subject: Schools you toured that you were surprised you liked or didn’t like?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Takeaways from this- (have just seen multiple people report in this thread)

Schools that surprised people in a positive way:
Pitt
UMD
Columbia

Schools that surprised people in a negative way:
Tufts
Carnegie Mellon
Duke

Schools that went both ways- both exceeding expectations and falling short for different families:
Chicago
Northwestern
VTech
William and Mary


Takeaways from this

1. Schools that spurned my kid were much worse than we thought when we toured.
2. Schools that admitted my kid were just wonederful and much better than anticipated. Kid loved it!


Most people tour before acceptances


+1
Anonymous
Post 10/28/2025 13:14     Subject: Schools you toured that you were surprised you liked or didn’t like?
Anonymous wrote:Duke has 4% acceptance rate with 60,000 kids applying for 1,700 spots. It is a very hot school and has been for a while.


And???
Anonymous
Post 10/28/2025 12:59     Subject: Schools you toured that you were surprised you liked or didn’t like?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Just got back from a tour. We had a bunch of one on ones set up as my daughter is applying for a pretty niche major.

Vanderbilt - really meh. Didn't like Nashville at all and didn't feel like anyone we talked to had any enthusiasm about the school or my daughter.

Dennison - Loved it! In contrast to Vandy, everyone we talked to seemed engaged, interested in expressing what made the school special to them, excited to learn about my kid. Plus the campus was really lovely.



I’ve heard lovely things about Denison. Good luck to your daughter!


Nice to see the mention of Denison in Ohio. I get varying reports as the families like the merit aid awards, but many kids complain about cliques & segregation on campus. It's a fairly small environment that works for some and for some it doesn't.
Anonymous
Post 10/28/2025 12:55     Subject: Schools you toured that you were surprised you liked or didn’t like?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:“ VT has a hulking fortresssy military vibe.”

Yes! We felt that way about it too. We were shocked because we went in expecting to love it and because DD wants a STEM major. Nope. I felt like we were crossing Tiananmen Square when we had to cross that big military quad.


Ffs, it’s a big open area! Like big open areas everywhere. No tanks.


+1
I laughed at the PP. What an utterly ridiculous description.
Anonymous
Post 10/28/2025 11:42     Subject: Schools you toured that you were surprised you liked or didn’t like?
Vanderbilt--had high expectations but the information session was terrible. 3rd year did the entire presentation and talked in a robotic voice. Tour was also terrible (even though campus is pretty), tour guide did not seem to know basic things about the campus and we did not go inside any academic buildings.

Duke--we had a picture perfect day and fantastic tour guide and information session. Students hanging out outside, playing frisbee, and just generally being social which my daughter really wants.

Elon--had no idea about the school and visited on a whim but was really impressed with how intentional the information session and tour was . (their tour guides are paid though).
Anonymous
Post 10/28/2025 10:47     Subject: Schools you toured that you were surprised you liked or didn’t like?
Anonymous wrote:Just got back from a tour. We had a bunch of one on ones set up as my daughter is applying for a pretty niche major.

Vanderbilt - really meh. Didn't like Nashville at all and didn't feel like anyone we talked to had any enthusiasm about the school or my daughter.

Dennison - Loved it! In contrast to Vandy, everyone we talked to seemed engaged, interested in expressing what made the school special to them, excited to learn about my kid. Plus the campus was really lovely.



I’ve heard lovely things about Denison. Good luck to your daughter!
Anonymous
Post 10/28/2025 10:42     Subject: Schools you toured that you were surprised you liked or didn’t like?
I like parts of Nashville, but Vandy is for a very specific kid.
Anonymous
Post 10/28/2025 10:35     Subject: Schools you toured that you were surprised you liked or didn’t like?
Just got back from a tour. We had a bunch of one on ones set up as my daughter is applying for a pretty niche major.

Vanderbilt - really meh. Didn't like Nashville at all and didn't feel like anyone we talked to had any enthusiasm about the school or my daughter.

Dennison - Loved it! In contrast to Vandy, everyone we talked to seemed engaged, interested in expressing what made the school special to them, excited to learn about my kid. Plus the campus was really lovely.

Anonymous
Post 10/28/2025 10:33     Subject: Schools you toured that you were surprised you liked or didn’t like?
Anonymous wrote:Takeaways from this- (have just seen multiple people report in this thread)

Schools that surprised people in a positive way:
Pitt
UMD
Columbia

Schools that surprised people in a negative way:
Tufts
Carnegie Mellon
Duke

Schools that went both ways- both exceeding expectations and falling short for different families:
Chicago
Northwestern
VTech
William and Mary


My kid goes to Pitt loves it. For those of you that don't know, Pitt and CMU are very close to each other. My son runs through CMU a lot. He told me last week that he was surprised that CMU actually has a nice campus. I think he thought it would be more like Pitt. Pitt is definitely a city school.

Pitt is a manageable "big school". Everything is close to each other. Dorms are close to academic buildings and are also close to restaurants, etc.

Anonymous
Post 10/28/2025 10:31     Subject: Schools you toured that you were surprised you liked or didn’t like?
Duke has 4% acceptance rate with 60,000 kids applying for 1,700 spots. It is a very hot school and has been for a while.