Colleges you/child crossed off the list after visiting

[4gsmom]

"Funny, people's different reactions. Lot of people seem not to have liked NYU, but after I toured it with my daughter both of us were ready to register then and there."

I absolutely agree. We were both so impressed by NYU. Gotta love that neighborhood. My d would be applying there ED, but she feels that you only have 4 years of your life to live on a traditional college campus and she'd like to do that while she has the chance. She has the rest of her life to live in the Village.

[nepop]

One thing I learned from visits is how important visits are--my kid has had very strong reaction to most of the schools visited, for reasons that I do not always understand, resulting in some schools shooting up the list, others being crossed off. I think you do get a vibe from a school, I think this can be important for a kid to try to decide whether they will be comfortable there.

Goucher--absolutely loved it, even though info session and tour so-so--loved the campus, loved the class he went to

Earlham--loved it--campus, kids met--tour, class attended, interview all terrific, town around it a pleasant surprise

Lawrence--same as Earlham in terms of reaction to all

Beloit--so-so--not sure why not a more positive reaction, I thought the campus was beautiful, tour fine, people very nice

Ursinus--did not like

Cornell--off the list--really isolated and town tiny (have to visit it to understand how isolated and tiny), one course at a time seems very intense

Knox--off the list--left after tour without doing other planned activities (interview, info session, class)--just did not like the campus or the town

[Keilexandra]

My extreme impressions:

Cornell - Beautiful but wayyyyy too big.
Conn College - UGH. The campus felt like a prison with all the matching square buildings. Abundance of bees around walkways didn't help.
Wesleyan - Nice enough looking with colonial architecture, but felt too "cold."
Rochester - Surprised by how pretty and compact the campus was.
Scripps - So-so before I visited, now I LOVE the atmosphere. Campus feels like one big meditation garden.

[gabby1116]

I definitely agree about the importance of visiting the schools. As I stated before, the ones that I was POSITIVE that I would like, I didn't. Some of the ones that I wasn't too sure about even visiting, I loved. As I started my search I was more leaning towards large schools, such as NYU, UVA, UNC, U Penn, etc. Although many were intellectually and aesthetically pleasing, I realized big schools are not for me.

[BengalMom]

Campus feels like one big meditation garden.

I know Keil! Isn't it wonderful? I could just hang out at Pomona and Scripps and drink Margaritas while wearing shorts and flip flops and be totally content!

[Futureholds]

Everyone will have a different opinion that's what is so great. Son's opinion not mine.
UC Berkeley too many homeless, too many grad students
UC Davis- too rural, smelled like cow poop (daughter loved it)
UC Santa Cruz-buildings too far apart, too many drugs
Santa Clara U-too small, nothing to do, CS dept 6 offices in basement of building (later found c engineering which was nicer)
Cal Poly SLO-teacher taught with overhead projector and grease pencil (had just left USC where everything was on Magic Board, high tech, new)
UCLA-too crowded, three in a room for 2, huge classes, left halfway after walking from class to dorms
CAL TECH-loved everything about it
UCSD-loved everything about it
U Wash Seattle-loved campus and atmosphere
UCSB-loved the bikes, afraid of the drug pressure
USC-loved the campus and engineering people, special program for CS video games, (I hated the campus, food and cost) after seeing place never wanted to go anywhere else
MIT-loved program, afraid of suicide rate, decided against any place cold
UC Irvine-both tour guides kept saying the two science professors who won the nobel prize (buildings across from each other) had won the nobel peace prize, even after we corrected them they kept insisting the chem and bio professors won the peace prize, he hated living in freshman Lord of the Rings dorms one summer, went to classes one summer and could not understand professors english

[TheGFG]

S--eliminated Swarthmore immediately. Did not see a single male student whom he'd like to befriend (too artsy/alternative in dress I think.) Also, we and other parents got parking tickets and we all swore there was no sign or indication we shouldn't have parked there. Also crossed off Brown. Ditzy tour guide and a too-laid back vibe which failed to dispel his suspicion it was a great school for hippies, pot smokers, and rich kids who don't need to actually find a real job after graduation. Cornell he kept on the list, but we did think it felt really big and spread out. Also, too much talk about their architecture program to the exclusion of other offerings.

D--UNC Chapel Hill. Uninspiring tour guide, and coach who was the ONLY one D contacted about an upcoming campus visit who never bothered to respond to her e-mail before her arrival (when similar strength or better programs all did). D liked Brown, but we parents didn't like it any better the second time around.

[emeraldkity4]

There wasn't really any we crossed off our list- we visited a few- just cause we were in the area, Seattle University, UNiversity of Portland, University of Oregon, that weren't appealing enough to make them serious choices-

Evergreen State College- which I liked, my younger daughter didn't like ( we were there for a rugby tournament, so it wasn't an official school visit), my older daughter also liked it & for a while it was her first choice, until she saw Reed

Reed is gorgeous, but I have a feeling if I went there myself- even though it is in a city, I would feel smothered by the bubble in a few months. D though loved it so much she still lives in the neighborhood three years after graduation.

Younger daughter also really did like Lewis and Clark, but something about it I didn't like- although she decided not to apply.

I also like the UW, but OMG huge- I still barely know my way around and I have lived in Seattle all my life!
Probably great for grad school though.

[fendrock]

The schools we visited:

University of Miami (Florida) - campus is very separate from the city. Modern buildings. Students milling about (it was a Sunday) ran the gamut. D liked it fine, as did I. (Stayed on list)

Eckerd College - campus is the collegiate equivalent to a gated community. Modern buildings. Slightly funky vibe. D didn't like (too small), I thought is was fine. (Crossed off list)

University of South Florida - Enormous 1960s campus off a divided highway. Neighborhood has absolutely nothing to recommend it. Plenty of parking lots. D liked it, I thought she could do better. (D would have kept on list, I crossed it off.)

College of Charleston - Charming although slightly shabby campus. In the midst of Charleston. Very artsy feel. (Both of us liked it. D did overnight with student. Stayed on list.)

University of South Carolina - Fits the bill of the bustling state university campus. University town feel, with shops and restaurants around the fringe. Enough historic buildings to exude a sense of charm. (Both of us liked it. D was sold on it and now attends.)

[vicariousparent]

D had some major shifts in preference after visits. Most of her impressions were based on observing classes, students, and tour guides. The physical campus doesn't do much for her. The info sessions all seem to be the same everywhere. I don't even know why they bother nowadays, everything is on the website anyway.

Brown had been intereresing before, scratched off the list after the visit.
She really wanted to love Penn and thought she would love it, but came away hating it.
She really wanted to hate Harvard and thought she would hate it, but fell in love.
She was very ambivalent about Northwestern but fell in love.

[bluebayou]

Brown: "too artsy"
Hamilton: too ugly, too small
Northwestern: too ugly
Yale: "fake gothic" (yup, that was the real reason)
Claremont Colleges: too Southern-Cal like
UCLA: forced triples for all Frosh

Cornell--off the list--really isolated and town tiny (have to visit it to understand how isolated and tiny), one course at a time seems very intense

Cornell College in Iowa, I assume, as opposed to Cornell University in New York?

[garland]

D--JHU, as others said, sterile; students at info session were one-upping on who had the most research experience (one was wearing a periodic table t-shirt.)

BU--same, no there there problem mentioned above, though she did apply.

S--Cornell, by far the worst info session. I think they found some random lady on the street and told her to pretend she knew something about the college. Tour went by all seven schools, never entered any.

Haverford--too quiet. Felt like an historic national park on a day it was closed.

[oceansaway]

I don't understand the point of this thread. It seems like a long list of college-bashing, based on a hours-long visit and the opinions of 18-year olds. While the students in question obviously need to include their "gut" reactions in their decision-making process, how does this often-arbitrary reaction help anyone else? Every poster on CC could give one sentence, negative comments about colleges they visited. So?
One student's hell is another student's Hogwarts.

[dt123]

DS2:
Texas A&M (did not like the extreme rah-rah)
U Texas at Dallas ("Dad, this one is Plan Z.")

I knew he would not be impressed with UTD, but I had an ulterior motive. He had a free tuition offer and it is close enough he could live at home and commute. So as far as I was concerned it was going to be Plan A unless he obtained something better through his own efforts. He was motivated. All I had to do is write checks for the application fees. Easiest application cycle ever.

[oldfort]

The only one D1 crossed off after the visit was BU. She didn't like the campus, it wasn't traditional.

D1 loved Tufts after the first tour. She really liked the school's mission and the tour guide. After acceptance, I visited with her. I was the one that pointed out on the first nice spring day they had there was no one out on the quad, no music blasting.

Had no interest in Cornell initially, but liked the size and students she saw in the dining hall. She felt they looked like kids from her high school, she felt she could fit in easily.