Anonymous
Post 10/28/2025 16:26     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.


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.

Thank goodness, lots more to do in Tahoe day and night
Anonymous
Post 10/28/2025 16:17     Subject: Schools you toured that you were surprised you liked or didn’t like?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
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.



Wow, I couldn’t disagree more. Love the stone and the campus itself is quite compact and walkable.
DP


+1 DS loved the "hokie stone" and found the campus well laid out and easy to walk. When we toured VT and JMU he came away thinking JMU was a bigger school because it felt more spread out.
Once he started at VT he said he liked the gothic buildings because it made it feel like a serious place and he should take school seriously.

OTOH DD had zero interest in VT - too big and imposing. Good thing we can all find schools that fit our preferences.
Anonymous
Post 10/28/2025 16:16     Subject: Schools you toured that you were surprised you liked or didn’t like?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I like parts of Nashville, but Vandy is for a very specific kid.


Please describe the specific Vandy type. Thx.


Impressed with oneself type.
Anonymous
Post 10/28/2025 16:15     Subject: Schools you toured that you were surprised you liked or didn’t like?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Most impressed by Colorado State. Great campus, kids seem so happy, pretty town and area plus it just has a fun vibe. I can't explain it but we visited it on vacation randomly and now we compare all schools to CSU.


Love to hear this. My kid wants to apply to CU Boulder and I said only if you also apply to CSU bc that's more in our price range and I have an inkling it's a better fit for her. Already got in and can't wait to visit. (I toured Boulder with my older kid--it is a true country club campus so can see the appeal).


Hope you love it! We had no idea that it was such a gem.
Anonymous
Post 10/28/2025 16:13     Subject: Schools you toured that you were surprised you liked or didn’t like?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Most impressed by Colorado State. Great campus, kids seem so happy, pretty town and area plus it just has a fun vibe. I can't explain it but we visited it on vacation randomly and now we compare all schools to CSU.


Love to hear this. My kid wants to apply to CU Boulder and I said only if you also apply to CSU bc that's more in our price range and I have an inkling it's a better fit for her. Already got in and can't wait to visit. (I toured Boulder with my older kid--it is a true country club campus so can see the appeal).


Is CSU full of weed like CU? I thought Boulder was the quintessential mountain college town, but the SMELL.


CSU is not as hippie as Boulder. I didn't notice the weed smell.
Anonymous
Post 10/28/2025 16:07     Subject: Schools you toured that you were surprised you liked or didn’t like?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
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!



BRAVA! Especially true re UVA bashing .. no surprise.


Why are criticisms of other schools valid but criticisms of UVA are bashing? It's ok that not everyone likes every school.


Baffled with this too. People are different. For example, my 10th grader really liked UVA and my 12th grader wasn't crazy about it.


To DD, UVA just gave off this creepy party-school vibe, which she didn’t get from her other top choices we toured (Michigan, Carnegie-Mellon, Case Western, and Pitt.
Anonymous
Post 10/28/2025 16:07     Subject: Schools you toured that you were surprised you liked or didn’t like?
Anonymous wrote:
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.



Wow, I couldn’t disagree more. Love the stone and the campus itself is quite compact and walkable.
DP
Anonymous
Post 10/28/2025 15:59     Subject: Schools you toured that you were surprised you liked or didn’t like?
Anonymous wrote:I like parts of Nashville, but Vandy is for a very specific kid.


Please describe the specific Vandy type. Thx.
Anonymous
Post 10/28/2025 15:38     Subject: Schools you toured that you were surprised you liked or didn’t like?
Surprised by how impressed we all were with Northeastern. Great info session and dynamic tour guide.

Unimpressed with Boston College. Info session was not coherent and jumped all over the place. Tour guide was a very boring kid who didn't seem to think we needed to know anything beyond the business school buildings.
Anonymous
Post 10/28/2025 15:16     Subject: Schools you toured that you were surprised you liked or didn’t like?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Brown - we didn’t like it.

Wesleyan. Assumed it would be too woke for dc, but dc loved it


Too woke? your DC wouldn’t have been accepted to Brown anyway.


Dc is a recruited athlete, sorry
Anonymous
Post 10/28/2025 15:14     Subject: Schools you toured that you were surprised you liked or didn’t like?
Anonymous wrote: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).


At many campuses, it is a paid student position. My daughter is a paid tour guide at Penn State.
Anonymous
Post 10/28/2025 15:07     Subject: Schools you toured that you were surprised you liked or didn’t like?
Anonymous wrote: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).


I think all tour guides are paid now - it's a campus job. It's not the 90s anymore; students are paid for their work.
Anonymous
Post 10/28/2025 14:36     Subject: Schools you toured that you were surprised you liked or didn’t like?
Loved Michigan state more than Michigan.
Loved Hobart
Disliked BC
Anonymous
Post 10/28/2025 14:13     Subject: Schools you toured that you were surprised you liked or didn’t like?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Most impressed by Colorado State. Great campus, kids seem so happy, pretty town and area plus it just has a fun vibe. I can't explain it but we visited it on vacation randomly and now we compare all schools to CSU.


Love to hear this. My kid wants to apply to CU Boulder and I said only if you also apply to CSU bc that's more in our price range and I have an inkling it's a better fit for her. Already got in and can't wait to visit. (I toured Boulder with my older kid--it is a true country club campus so can see the appeal).


Is CSU full of weed like CU? I thought Boulder was the quintessential mountain college town, but the SMELL.
Anonymous
Post 10/28/2025 14:10     Subject: Schools you toured that you were surprised you liked or didn’t like?
Anonymous wrote:Most impressed by Colorado State. Great campus, kids seem so happy, pretty town and area plus it just has a fun vibe. I can't explain it but we visited it on vacation randomly and now we compare all schools to CSU.


Love to hear this. My kid wants to apply to CU Boulder and I said only if you also apply to CSU bc that's more in our price range and I have an inkling it's a better fit for her. Already got in and can't wait to visit. (I toured Boulder with my older kid--it is a true country club campus so can see the appeal).