Anonymous
Post 10/30/2025 10:35     Subject: Schools you toured that you were surprised you liked or didn’t like?
Anonymous wrote:UCLA and USC tours on the same day.

Expected to prefer USC but UCLA was more impressive in every way. Blew past expectations


Did you go inside any buildings? That’s where UCLA fell apart for us, beautiful on the outside, government quality on the inside.
Anonymous
Post 10/30/2025 10:26     Subject: Schools you toured that you were surprised you liked or didn’t like?
Anonymous wrote:I posted above about wake. Yes, the students are more “religious” than I was used to (and I attended a parochial HS), but unless it has changed a ton since the 90s, it doesn’t really permeate. It is still a work hard, play hard school. And the actual “churchy” kids do their own thing. Most talk a big game at first, but they are likely sleeping off a hangover on a Sunday morning.


I think Wake is very different now with NY, MA, NJ and CA sending lots of kids. Just as Duke and Vanderbilt are much less southern than a few decades ago.
Anonymous
Post 10/30/2025 10:24     Subject: Schools you toured that you were surprised you liked or didn’t like?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Really wanted to love USC.. such great cali weather. The campus was ugly and looked like an "institution". All that $$ and no charm.


Wow, we thought the campus was beautiful. This was a school that we liked much more than we expected to.


We loved USC as well and had an awesome tour guide. Institutional is one’s idea of an institution is a country club. Both my kids applied.
Anonymous
Post 10/30/2025 10:07     Subject: Schools you toured that you were surprised you liked or didn’t like?
I posted above about wake. Yes, the students are more “religious” than I was used to (and I attended a parochial HS), but unless it has changed a ton since the 90s, it doesn’t really permeate. It is still a work hard, play hard school. And the actual “churchy” kids do their own thing. Most talk a big game at first, but they are likely sleeping off a hangover on a Sunday morning.
Anonymous
Post 10/30/2025 09:34     Subject: Schools you toured that you were surprised you liked or didn’t like?
Driving up to Notre Dame was like visiting Vatican. Very Catholic, but excellent school.

W&M is also an excellent school, but Williamsburg is very small and geriatric.

Wake Forest had white southerns Christian vibes.
Anonymous
Post 10/30/2025 09:05     Subject: Schools you toured that you were surprised you liked or didn’t like?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Really wanted to love USC.. such great [b]cali [url]weather. The campus was ugly and looked like an "institution". All that $$ and no charm.



Please. Native Californians hate that term. Google it


Californian here. Everytime I heard “Cali”, my geography-nerd mind would instantly think, “Like, Cali, Colombia?”


It's the same losers that use "DMV"
Anonymous
Post 10/30/2025 09:03     Subject: Schools you toured that you were surprised you liked or didn’t like?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Really wanted to love USC.. such great [b]cali [url]weather. The campus was ugly and looked like an "institution". All that $$ and no charm.



Please. Native Californians hate that term. Google it


Californian here. Everytime I heard “Cali”, my geography-nerd mind would instantly think, “Like, Cali, Colombia?”
Anonymous
Post 10/30/2025 08:58     Subject: Schools you toured that you were surprised you liked or didn’t like?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I went to a campus that is frequently on the most beautiful lists, and it absolutely made a difference to me. It felt safe and comfortable, and I felt so lucky to get to walk around that place daily.



Where?


It was Wake. Even though I am not religious, Wait Chapel at night all lit up is so gorgeous. And I lived on the quad 3 out of my 4 years, so it was one of the first things I saw every day and last things I saw at night. I loved that it was the Goldilocks size and that it was exactly what I thought college should look like.


Love this!
Anonymous
Post 10/30/2025 08:52     Subject: Schools you toured that you were surprised you liked or didn’t like?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:We no longer live in DC, but when our daughter was contemplating going back for college, we were surprised at how much she liked American.

The admissions’ presentation was just the right length, and the AO gave subtle tips for getting in. We were randomly split into tour groups, so it would have been nice to have been with a guide who was in the same school or program that DC was interested in, but the guide we ended up with was terrific. She was enthusiastic and involved and had taken full advantage of her time at American and in DC. The tour covered most of campus, and our daughter walked with her several times to ask questions in between formal stops.

My husband and I are both Georgetown grads, and our daughter had been on campus multiple times, but it just never grabbed her the way it did us. We did the formal tour during a week when many East Coast high schools were on spring break, so the entire ICC auditorium was full. The presentation was fine, and the tour guides were also fine, but our group was really too large to get a very intimate tour experience, which didn’t help our cause. Both my husband and I knew the moment we stepped onto campus (many years ago) that Georgetown was “our” school, but it just wasn’t the right fit for our daughter.

The school she hated was GW. Boring presentation, and the school was just too urban and lacking a campus for her taste. A totally checked out (second semester senior) tour guide sealed the deal, and we bailed on the tour before it was finished. I thought she might like the fact that GW is right in the heart of everything, but boy, she did not.


I felt the exact same way about our visits to GWU, Georgetown and American. I didn’t expect to like American as much as I did.


We were very put off at GW when someone asked a financial aid question and the AO seemed flustered or like it wasn’t a legitimate question. We won’t get aid but it really rubbed me the wrong way at one of the most expensive schools in the country.
Anonymous
Post 10/30/2025 08:47     Subject: Schools you toured that you were surprised you liked or didn’t like?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I went to a campus that is frequently on the most beautiful lists, and it absolutely made a difference to me. It felt safe and comfortable, and I felt so lucky to get to walk around that place daily.



Where?


It was Wake. Even though I am not religious, Wait Chapel at night all lit up is so gorgeous. And I lived on the quad 3 out of my 4 years, so it was one of the first things I saw every day and last things I saw at night. I loved that it was the Goldilocks size and that it was exactly what I thought college should look like.
Anonymous
Post 10/30/2025 08:14     Subject: Schools you toured that you were surprised you liked or didn’t like?
UCLA and USC tours on the same day.

Expected to prefer USC but UCLA was more impressive in every way. Blew past expectations
Anonymous
Post 10/30/2025 08:01     Subject: Schools you toured that you were surprised you liked or didn’t like?
Anonymous wrote:Really wanted to love USC.. such great cali weather. The campus was ugly and looked like an "institution". All that $$ and no charm.


Wow, we thought the campus was beautiful. This was a school that we liked much more than we expected to.
Anonymous
Post 10/30/2025 07:55     Subject: Schools you toured that you were surprised you liked or didn’t like?
Anonymous wrote:Didn’t like - Duke, everyone seemed to be depressed, Penn, annoying tour guide did not help school, BC, underwhelming in so many ways.

Liked - Wake Forest, great tour, upgrading campus facilities, North Carolina, wonderful people, wonderful campus, Vanderbilt. Great city and campus.



How not to use commas…
Anonymous
Post 10/30/2025 07:50     Subject: Schools you toured that you were surprised you liked or didn’t like?
Anonymous wrote:I went to a campus that is frequently on the most beautiful lists, and it absolutely made a difference to me. It felt safe and comfortable, and I felt so lucky to get to walk around that place daily.[/quo


Where?
Anonymous
Post 10/30/2025 07:41     Subject: Schools you toured that you were surprised you liked or didn’t like?
I went to a campus that is frequently on the most beautiful lists, and it absolutely made a difference to me. It felt safe and comfortable, and I felt so lucky to get to walk around that place daily.