Anonymous
10/29/2025 07:39
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: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.
Omg. Same! I thought my boys would love it. They both hated it. We were there on a Thursday-Friday in April admitted day (not spring break) and our hotel had a pre-sorority mixer going on and everyone was sh@tfaced. The corner was a mess. Now, personally, I loved the vibe (lol) and I’m a Hokie. But- my kids did not. They preferred the mid-size schools in Urban areas.
Anonymous
10/29/2025 07:33
Subject: Schools you toured that you were surprised you liked or didn’t like?
Anonymous wrote:We are only considering Harvard, Yale, MIT and Stanford. Of the 4, surprisingly, Yale's campus stood out. Not enough to win our business, but we will see.
Surprisingly? wtf? Yale has always been known to be absolutely stunning. It’s New Haven that people don’t like. And my mom is from New Haven. It got hit hard in the 80s crack epidemic and never really recovered to its former glory—-everyone left at that point.
Anonymous
10/29/2025 07:29
Subject: Schools you toured that you were surprised you liked or didn’t like?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:
I'll never understand why people put so much weight on the quality of the tour guide. Why would you assume that the tour guide is representative of the school? Or that a poor tour guide means that the school must be poor.
Because these are the students that the Admissions Office picked hopefully as being excellent representatives of the school. If this is the caliber they put forward, maybe it's a one-off but it makes you think.
IMO this is why if it's possible it can be good to visit twice or find ways to engage with other students during your own wandering around campus. Sit in the cafeteria. Maybe stop a student and ask them for directions, see how they react to you. Get other perspectives, because if that tour guide is your only impression of the student body it can say something.
For my kid's top schools, she reached out to the leadership of clubs she was interested in and arranged to have coffee with them when she visited. Those conversations were a great complement to the official line.
Anonymous
10/29/2025 07:27
Subject: Schools you toured that you were surprised you liked or didn’t like?
I’m sure it’s changed, my sister went there in the 80’s. We grew up in a Boston suburb. She hated it. Turns out, northern girls hated Vanderbilt for the same reason that northern boys loved it.Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:I like parts of Nashville, but Vandy is for a very specific kid.
Please describe the specific Vandy type. Thx.
Anonymous
10/29/2025 07:21
Subject: Schools you toured that you were surprised you liked or didn’t like?
Anonymous wrote:
I'll never understand why people put so much weight on the quality of the tour guide. Why would you assume that the tour guide is representative of the school? Or that a poor tour guide means that the school must be poor.
Because these are the students that the Admissions Office picked hopefully as being excellent representatives of the school. If this is the caliber they put forward, maybe it's a one-off but it makes you think.
IMO this is why if it's possible it can be good to visit twice or find ways to engage with other students during your own wandering around campus. Sit in the cafeteria. Maybe stop a student and ask them for directions, see how they react to you. Get other perspectives, because if that tour guide is your only impression of the student body it can say something.
Anonymous
10/29/2025 06:29
Subject: Schools you toured that you were surprised you liked or didn’t like?
Anonymous wrote: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.
Some student tour guides are not paid, our vanderbilt tour guide specifically said it was a volunteer position. It is a contentious topic at universities where tour guides are not paid and I think they absolutely should be. Definitely notice a difference in the quality of paid/unpaid.
https://georgetownvoice.com/2023/02/18/increasing-equity-at-georgetown-begins-with-reforming-blue-gray/
Anonymous
10/29/2025 01:50
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.
I loved that school, too. I wish one of my kids had attended. Do you see the aquatic center?
Anonymous
10/28/2025 22:11
Subject: Schools you toured that you were surprised you liked or didn’t like?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:We are looking only at rural/suburban SLACs, but we were just blown away by Sewanee. Beautiful and great vibes, great tour.
I went there and loved it. It was a wonderful place to spend 4 years.
+1 i have several wonderful friends who are Sewanee grads.
I do too, and I'm not sure there's a college or university in America that is as loved by its alums.
PP here. I think Davidson does, but I know Sewanee is very special and beautiful with great alums! Have been there many times to visit friends who have a cottage there.
Anonymous
10/28/2025 22:10
Subject: Schools you toured that you were surprised you liked or didn’t like?
Anonymous wrote:We are only considering Harvard, Yale, MIT and Stanford. Of the 4, surprisingly, Yale's campus stood out. Not enough to win our business, but we will see.
I guess you don't subscribe to the whole Reach, Match, Safety philosophy of college applications.
Anonymous
10/28/2025 22:03
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: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.
You should do another visit. My DD's first visit at UVA went poorly but it was because it was summer, hot, few students and the tour guide was having an off day. Second visit was the opposite. She loves it there.
I'll never understand why people put so much weight on the quality of the tour guide. Why would you assume that the tour guide is representative of the school? Or that a poor tour guide means that the school must be poor.
Anonymous
10/28/2025 21:53
Subject: Schools you toured that you were surprised you liked or didn’t like?
Anonymous wrote: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
oh lol, yes that is pretty bad. We had a guy who was the perfect blend of nerdy and super cool. By the end of the tour all the guys wanted to be him and all the girls wanted to date him and everyone wanted to attend Dartmouth. My kid ended up matriculating there and at the parents' weekend this year we took another tour as my husband had never seen the campus. Our tour guide this time was a guy who mentioned how he chose it over Yale and then went off on this for awhile and I tuned him out. It's never great to mention another college when you're a tour guide.
Our all-time worst tour (2 kids, 2 admissions seasons) was Swarthmore. The student actually told us all she that was only there for the financial aid money and really didn't like the school. Great.
My experience visiting Swarthmore was awful ages ago. I guess they're consistent. I couldn't make the trip (from CA) for their accepted students' weekend but visited shortly thereafter. I remember going to a reception for admitted students with my host and an admissions officer. I actually really enjoyed meeting potential classmates. Then, on the drive back to campus, they spent the whole time badmouthing every. single. student. they met. Sent in my "thanks but no thanks" card as soon as I got back home.
Anonymous
10/28/2025 18:48
Subject: Schools you toured that you were surprised you liked or didn’t like?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:We are only considering Harvard, Yale, MIT and Stanford. Of the 4, surprisingly, Yale's campus stood out. Not enough to
win our business, but we will see.
But are they considering you?
Seriously. Posts like that crack me up.
Anonymous
10/28/2025 18:25
Subject: Schools you toured that you were surprised you liked or didn’t like?
Anonymous wrote: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.
We disagree too. Loved the hokie stone and the campus. Kid picked UVA instead, but I still have fond memories of our day at VT.
Anonymous
10/28/2025 18:24
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: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.
You should do another visit. My DD's first visit at UVA went poorly but it was because it was summer, hot, few students and the tour guide was having an off day. Second visit was the opposite. She loves it there.
Anonymous
10/28/2025 18:09
Subject: Schools you toured that you were surprised you liked or didn’t like?
Anonymous wrote: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.
In that case, the Penn students need some adult oversight in the selection process.