Disliked:
Dartmouth, Cornell
Northwestern Williams Amherst Smith

Liked: Penn, Princeton, Yale, Harvard, Duke, Chicago, WashU William&Mary

Anonymous wrote:

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.

We had a disgruntled tour guide at Williams, harped on the social divide between the rich and poor students. Said it was especially hard to be stuck there in the winter with that social dynamic. It also felt generally snobbish and DC decided it was just too remote. Had been very excited about it before visiting.

That’s too bad, we had a wonderful tour guide at Williams. It was interesting to hear his perspective because he was from a city and still loved Williams. Had learned to ski for the first time. And the girl who spoke at our info session was also great. My kid was really intrigued by tutorials about hearing the experiences of the two of them.

Anonymous wrote:

UGA- Exceeded expectations

GO DAWGS!!!

Also Michigan — loved it, but DD did not. Too spread out.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Pleasantly surprised by Carleton. Almost didn't visit because of the location and because DD had several other colleges she liked and felt pretty settled on for ED1 and ED2 after touring colleges all over the country, but Carleton bewitched all of us and shot to her new ED1.

Can you share more what you liked? It's at the top of my junior's list, but we haven't been able to visit yet.

Yes - lovely campus and facilities with beautiful natural surroundings and a great college town, but we were impressed most with the friendly and collaborative student climate alongside rigorous academics. Our tour guides were calling out "hello" to their professors while we walked around, students were studying in groups together everywhere we went on campus and in town coffeeshops, and every student we talked with raved about their professors, their classes, and how challenged but supported they feel. Our DD attended a class and lunch with a student as well as a club sports practice and felt that the rigorous but friendly and collaborative atmosphere was prevalent throughout. I started silently rooting for Carleton halfway through the visit and was thrilled when she announced her decision.

Harvard - great guide and your
MIT - informal visits multiple times; campus looks dead; other kids have had the same impression
Northeastern - great guide and your; pretty campus
BU - informal visit; not for my kid!
Tufts - informal — saw the trailers being used as dorms. No, thank you!
U Iowa - some really cute spots; pretty spread out campus
UT (Austin) - amazing for kids looking for urban campus

We were really hoping to love UPenn. Some of us found it to be too busy and noisy and urban (not surprising, just hoping for more of a green insulated campus). Didn't get the spark that made kid feel fully confident about ED.

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.

We had a disgruntled tour guide at Williams, harped on the social divide between the rich and poor students. Said it was especially hard to be stuck there in the winter with that social dynamic. It also felt generally snobbish and DC decided it was just too remote. Had been very excited about it before visiting.

The University of Chicago tour was horrible. And I was so excited to show my son the campus since I went there. Long, overly general presentation (like, info that is on the homepage of their website) in a dim theater after which the presenter let people ask their specific stupid questions forever! They are resting on their laurels I guess, thinking they didn’t need to impress us. Tour guide was an irritating Econ bro who was so full of himself he put everyone on the tour off- you could see it.

Northwestern was actually great- snappy general presentation at first, well run. Then a tour guide who couldn’t have been more different than my kid but who was so personable and answered the questions easily.

Our takeaways from a trip to Chicago.

I love this thread!

From touring with 3 different kids

Loved Brown and Wesleyan, hated downtown Middletown and surrounding, depressed area so didn't apply to Wesleyan, planned to apply Brown RD, but got in to ED school

Northwestern was gray and depressing, tour guide was awful - only talked about ski club - didn't apply

Michigan was a love fest for our student - great campus, vibe, etc

Vanderbilt- loved the campus and Nashville - talked to a random student who couldn't wait to get out of there, turned our student off

Vermont - great school, beautiful campus, Burlington is adorable but a little small, but after the diversity of Montgomery County, our student felt it was too white

Wisconsin - gorgeous city with lots of water around, was going to be a RD applications, but got in ED elsewhere

Visted Pitt and Penn State on consecutive days (were our child's safetys), kid went into it thinking Penn State ahead of Pitt, came out the other way around - really liked Pitt (surprisingly vibrant campus in a city, with Pitt athletics plus Steelers, Penguins and Pirates available to students) v Penn State (in the middle not nowhere, while students looked happy, we heard to much about the happy cows and ice cream, which turned out kid off)

We visited Wellesley, in Massachusetts with one of our daughters, and we all felt it was by far the most beautiful campus, but, it wasn't in Boston and DD decided all girls wasn't for her

I feel like there were a few years where we spent every long weekend visiting colleges. Am sure I am forgetting some visits (UVA on a really hot day, one kid liked the secret societies, one kid was completely turned off), but above is what I remember

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:UPenn needs to overhaul its presentation and tours. I went to grad school there, so know the school well enough to present it to my kid. The admissions office had about 15 tour guides there and they all looked like they were from the land of misfit toys. Further, the tour guides are instructed to relay personal stories at each stop. So boring and unnecessary.

Isn't this true almost everywhere? I really encouraged my kids not to judge a school based on the tour guides. I'd say 70% of our tour guides would fit this description. Tour guides are generally not reflective of a school's population. The tour guide at the school where my kid ended up was "queen of the land of misfit toys." Yet, my son loves it there and says the tour guide is not at all a good indicator of what students at his school are like. Glad he ignored the annoying tour guide...

Usually it’s a mix, or has been the two dozen or so schools I’ve toured with my kids. Honestly we’ve had mostly good tour guides, charismatic enough that our kids could connect with them even if they would never be friends. The guide we had at USC could easily have a career in entertainment. Penn was off the scales bad.

Disappointing tour but still liked the school
Pomona
Georgetown
USC

Better than expected
Rice
CMC
Northeastern

Could you tell if tour guides were just volunteers or work-study guides? Some of the schools the guides mentioned it being a job and usually weren't as enthusiastic as schools that didn't mention it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:UVA was the #1 choice before starting campus visits and then we didn't even apply.

Looks just like a prison.

I’d turn to a life of crime if prison was like UVA.

We were pleasantly surprised by JMU’s
school of art and design. Absolutely beautiful facilities. Didn’t love the rest of campus so much, though.

We kind of dragged kid to Pitt since we were in town anyway. Didn’t expect much, but she loved it and has applied.

Lafayette was a bust.

+1. Liked Pitt too. Fun city for kids. ( and their parents)

Anonymous wrote:Disliked BC. The admissions presentation wasn’t a presentation, just an hour where 200 people had the opportunity to randomly ask questions that only mattered to them.

Left feeling like BC’s perspective was “if you feel like you deserve a presentation on what makes us interesting or unique we are too good for you.” Blech.

They STILL do this? This was what it was like in the 90s! Back then, they split the students and parents up, but it was just a panel answering questions. It was awkward in the student one and it took a while for people to ask questions. I loved BC and the tour was great, but the info session was odd!