Anonymous
04/19/2026 13:54
Subject: Schools you toured that you were surprised you liked or didn’t like?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:We loved Virginia Tech. The campus is cohesive and contained, even for a larger school - very walkable and beautiful.
Beautiful but very remote.
Blacksburg is remote? Weird.
You must not get out of the D.C. area much.
There’s much more to Virginia beyond Northern Va and so much more to see past Charlottesville.
It's remote
Ok. I get that you think it’s remote, but thousands of students love Blacksburg. Sometimes getting away from metro DC for four years is really nice.
NP here. Not sure why you're taking offense to someone saying VT is remote. It is remote. It's also a great school. Both can be true.
Some people happen to love that and some do not. My child is one of those and I'm the other. I would never go to her college and she would never go to mine.
Anonymous
04/19/2026 13:46
Subject: Re:Schools you toured that you were surprised you liked or didn’t like?
Anonymous wrote:Toured a lot of schools between all kids and have to say I genuinely liked all. Some had prettier campuses, locations, better tour guides, impressive admissions presentations and the like, but all had something to appreciate. I found that comforting, most kids can be very happy at many places. We’re fortunate to have so many options.
Agree. I also found something to like at every school we toured. Sometimes a friendly admissions staff made the difference!
Anonymous
04/19/2026 13:43
Subject: Schools you toured that you were surprised you liked or didn’t like?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Honestly really hated Columbia. Pretty cramped campus though the buildings looked nice. Vibe was way off - everyone looked like they were dressed for a fashion show and had a stick up their a**. Also a whole group of kids smoking cigarettes and vaping outside of the main library. It just seemed like they were trying to force themselves to be edgy despite being from some suburb.
Same. Did not like Columbia at all. I don't know how a school manages to be both snooty and derelict at the same time, but somehow Columbia manages it. And as a former smoker myself, it was like walking into a bad dream from the 90s. So much smoking.
We also did not Columbia, we left the tour mid way through. The other school that disappointed us was Georgetown. Both my kids thought CMU was too intense after the Schools we really liked from the tours, American, UMD, Pitt, Northwestern, William and Mary
Anonymous
04/19/2026 13:35
Subject: Schools you toured that you were surprised you liked or didn’t like?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:We loved Virginia Tech. The campus is cohesive and contained, even for a larger school - very walkable and beautiful.
Beautiful but very remote.
Blacksburg is remote? Weird.
You must not get out of the D.C. area much.
There’s much more to Virginia beyond Northern Va and so much more to see past Charlottesville.
It's remote
Ok. I get that you think it’s remote, but thousands of students love Blacksburg. Sometimes getting away from metro DC for four years is really nice.
Anonymous
04/19/2026 13:30
Subject: Re:Schools you toured that you were surprised you liked or didn’t like?
Anonymous wrote:Loved UChicago and Northwestern. Two beautiful campuses with Chicago in the middle...now just the weather...UChicago was a mini Oxford and NU just felt like they had it together, Miro sculpture in the Theater impressed my husbandAll around impressed with Chicagoland.
Absolutely agree. Growing up in MA made me think that all the premier academic institutions were right here in the Northeast. I was clearly mistaken after visiting UChicago & NU. Very impressive places.
Anonymous
04/19/2026 13:27
Subject: Re:Schools you toured that you were surprised you liked or didn’t like?
Toured a lot of schools between all kids and have to say I genuinely liked all. Some had prettier campuses, locations, better tour guides, impressive admissions presentations and the like, but all had something to appreciate. I found that comforting, most kids can be very happy at many places. We’re fortunate to have so many options.
Anonymous
04/19/2026 13:23
Subject: Schools you toured that you were surprised you liked or didn’t like?
Anonymous wrote:Admitted student day today at Cornell. DC is completely sold.
Parents love the food here. The dorms are brand new, and have AC. No rodents.
Funny - Cornell was DCs first choice. Went for admitted students day. Hated it and decided to go elsewhere. The campus was beautiful and food good, just the tours and presentations turned DC off.
Anonymous
04/19/2026 13:23
Subject: Schools you toured that you were surprised you liked or didn’t like?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:We loved Virginia Tech. The campus is cohesive and contained, even for a larger school - very walkable and beautiful.
Beautiful but very remote.
Blacksburg is remote? Weird.
You must not get out of the D.C. area much.
There’s much more to Virginia beyond Northern Va and so much more to see past Charlottesville.
It's remote
Anonymous
04/19/2026 13:15
Subject: Re:Schools you toured that you were surprised you liked or didn’t like?
Loved UChicago and Northwestern. Two beautiful campuses with Chicago in the middle...now just the weather...UChicago was a mini Oxford and NU just felt like they had it together, Miro sculpture in the Theater impressed my husband All around impressed with Chicagoland.
All around impressed with Chicagoland.
Anonymous
04/19/2026 13:15
Subject: Schools you toured that you were surprised you liked or didn’t like?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:We loved Virginia Tech. The campus is cohesive and contained, even for a larger school - very walkable and beautiful.
Beautiful but very remote.
Blacksburg is remote? Weird.
You must not get out of the D.C. area much.
There’s much more to Virginia beyond Northern Va and so much more to see past Charlottesville.
Anonymous
04/19/2026 13:10
Subject: Schools you toured that you were surprised you liked or didn’t like?
Anonymous wrote:Carnegie Melon--felt so joyless. It was fall break and so many kids were still there. I felt sorry for them. I had visions of something more inspiring. I mean, Lenny and Squiggy went there.
Clemson--DD fell in love with it. It's not a particularly pretty campus, but everyone seemed so happy. Funny how the feel can overtake the visual.
Huh, I was surprised by CM, I loved the main quad, but I was surprised by Pittsburgh, we felt so claustrophobic, everything squished on the side of a cliff it seemed. Odd feeling from Pitt due to this too.
Anonymous
04/19/2026 12:43
Subject: Re:Schools you toured that you were surprised you liked or didn’t like?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:UVA- all of us did not like it.
Pretty campus- but vibe all wrong and students didn’t seem that intellectual on a whole. The latter really surprised us. We had been to several admitted days from other schools so had a lot to compare.
UVA looks like a red brick prison. Square dull buildings. Very Dreary.
UVA's most famous building is round.
Anonymous
04/19/2026 12:04
Subject: Schools you toured that you were surprised you liked or didn’t like?
Anonymous wrote:We loved Virginia Tech. The campus is cohesive and contained, even for a larger school - very walkable and beautiful.
Beautiful but very remote.
Anonymous
04/19/2026 11:35
Subject: Re:Schools you toured that you were surprised you liked or didn’t like?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:UVA- all of us did not like it.
Pretty campus- but vibe all wrong and students didn’t seem that intellectual on a whole. The latter really surprised us. We had been to several admitted days from other schools so had a lot to compare.
UVA looks like a red brick prison. Square dull buildings. Very Dreary.
Or perhaps like a World UNESCO site?
Anonymous
04/19/2026 00:27
Subject: Schools you toured that you were surprised you liked or didn’t like?
We loved Virginia Tech. The campus is cohesive and contained, even for a larger school - very walkable and beautiful.