<p>We visited Auburn and found it to be one of the prettiest college towns I had ever seen. Every house seemed to fly an Auburn flag and really love their college. Other schools sometimes didn’t seem to be as closely connected to the town. You could actually feel the War Eagle spirit at Auburn. Quite a bit of new construction going on on campus. Worth a visit in my opinion if your looking for that type of school. All of the people we met were very cordial and friendly though again we didn’t do the official tour, just are own. I love to check out the bookstores at colleges.</p>
<p>mtnmomma, my S, his best friend and I toured UC Berkeley with the best friend’s mother, an alumna. She completely loved her experience there so she was really chatting it up. It’s huge and S was pretty overwhelmed by the sheer size of it. We sat in on an upper level Psychology class that was very interesting but had about 150 people in a huge hall. It became clear that there is an enormous amount of great stuff available but each student has to pretty much ferret it out for themselves, nobody holds your hand. I think that’s why people join sororities and fraternities, because it gives you a smaller group to help navigate the giant institution. S applied, was accepted, but decided to go to a small LAC with 1,450 people. I can understand that if you are 18 years old UCB can be scary.</p>
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<p>thank you Rodney and Holliesue-- nice there are a few options for Elon.</p>
<p>My son and I looked at many schools and it was amazing why he did not like some schools
Washington & Lee- did not like that you had to say hello to everyone.
UPenn- would not get out of car. Did not like city. Hello he knew it was it Philly.
Would not apply to any schools that do not have a campus with boundaries like stone walls. </p>
<p>Loved
Penn State which was surprising since we are from small HS. Love the school spirit and that everyone seemed happy
JMU-Loved tour guide and campus
UNC Wilmington loved beach town and biology program</p>
<p>Has anyone seen Clemson I have not read anything on this thread pro or con??? or UConn??</p>
<p>^My son wouldn’t even keep his visit plans for Washington & Lee. We attended an admissions road show in our city - the nicest, most upscale part of our city, and my son was thoroughly turned off by all the “upper crust” snob-appeal he detected at the admissions session. It is kind of true – the kids were … well … I guess he had reasons to feel that way.</p>
<p>I was a little disappointed because, on paper, W&L looked like a great fit for him. And I thought, of course the majority of the kids had that “thing” going on that he didn’t like … we were in “that” part of town, and the current W&L student hosting it was from that same part of town – so everybody knew everybody else for the most part (except us). Anyhow, I tried to assure him that just because all of THESE kids were like that didn’t mean that all of the W&L kids were like that … but he was sure I was wrong. (And maybe I was.) At the end of the meeting, a school he loved, on paper, came off his list before we ever set foot on campus.</p>
<p>Clemson is beautiful! It is located in the middle of nowhere.</p>
<p>Aside on Clemson - I’m in a community college non-credit project mgt course with a nice Clemson '10 grad who can’t find a job yet - thought he’d take this course to learn something marketable.</p>
<p>W & L was funny because my younger son also went with us and he fell in love with it. He loved the campus and the tradition. I will say that the informatin session was very intense compared to the other information sessions that we went to. The school was very pretty and very southern. One of my sons friends brother goes their and loves it.<br>
S1 was not into the formality of it all.</p>
<p>My parents lived in Lexington Va for many years. W&L is a fine school for many kids, but it would have been a terrible fit for both of mine. I do think it is wealthier and preppier and far, far, far more Greek than average. The student body tends to be more conservative than the professors.</p>
<p>S2 went to a football camp at Cornell. After ten hours of flight delays (in July – without snow in the equation!) getting out of Ithaca and LGA, a madcap run to Penn Station to catch the last train to DC because there was no guarantee his LGA-BWI flight was getting off the ground, etc., he decided Cornell was out of the question.</p>
<p>Claremont McKenna: As much of a slob as S2 is, he was extremely uncomfortable with the idea of a housekeeper straightening up his mess every week. Tour guide talked about being nice to the housekeepers as “a fun way to interact with other people” and having competitions to “buy the housekeepers the nicest little gifts.” S is reasonably conversant in Spanish and has friends whose parents clean offices and homes for a living. He found the guide’s attitude appalling. Other turnoffs, all provided by the same tour guide: there’s not much in the way of kitchen facilities because “we don’t bother with cooking for ourselves” and very little in the way of traditional campus jobs because “we’re trying to build our resumes here.” Sorry, Xiggi. S2 really liked the Claremont Consortium (S1 had Mudd on the list til the end), but could not get past this stuff.</p>
<p>Brandeis, NYU, Syracuse, BU – thought he’d get a better education at UMCP and it would cost a lot less.</p>
<p>Gwen, it is not a major highway. You do need to cross a busy street, but it did not bother me at all. The campus is lovely.</p>
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<p>Never been to Clemson and certainly don’t have any interest in the Clemson, plus or minus, but in their defense, I’ve got to think this comment could apply to students in the 2010 graduating class of ANY school in the country.</p>
<p>Just a commercial break here - I would really like to encourage everyone to take the time to do a visit report here [CampusVibe</a> - Recent College Videos, Photos, and Visit Reports](<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/vibe/]CampusVibe”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/vibe/) for any college you visit. Some parents think that the reports are supposed to be done by students - not so! Every report is helpful, no matter who is writing it. If you’ve already done a quickie report on this or another thread, just cut and paste it into a real report.</p>
<p>I agree-I’ve done at least a dozen reports.</p>
<p>Clemson was nice but the rabid football culture turned D off</p>
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<p>I loved my four years at UVa, but I recognize that people can have different views of the same situations. At the same time, that comment makes no sense, as Jefferson had no surviving legitimate male children (his unnamed son died in infancy) and females were not admitted to either W&M or UVa until the 1900s.</p>
<p>Gwen F–just another opinion of OWU. DS#1 looked there, plus Denison, Kenyon, and Wooster. After initial visits he liked OWU the best of those. The other three are in teeny tiny towns (well–maybe Wooster not so much), but definitely have a campus that’s distinct from the town. Delaware is not much bigger (~20,000, I believe), and there is a street that you cross to get from some of the admin/academic buildings to the rest of the academic buildings/dorms, but on that street is a CVS, Pizza Hut, . . . . DS thought it was a little bit of civilization/home. He also really liked the kids there–very down-to-earth, normal, friendly, and <em>loved</em> the class he sat in on during a second visit. It ended up being his second choice (he’s a junior at Denison), but I’m sure he would have been happy there too. (BTW, DS#2 got deferred at Elon, but it’s really high on his list!)</p>
<p>Crossed USC for sure. Still no answer from them and they say it may still be 2 or 3 more months before we know. Sure glad we paid $75 for the application fee.</p>
<p>Iowa state off the list not enough merit aid. Didn’t visit.</p>
<p>Alabama off the list </p>
<p>Truman state off the list not enough aid either</p>
<p>Ohio State off the list to much garbage all over. pretty dilapidated</p>
<p>Arkansas off the list, accepted but still waiting on aid as if they are looking under the beds for money. 4 months now.</p>
<p>LSU off the list to many post that say state high school clicks hard to meet people.</p>
<p>Still in the hunt </p>
<p>Southern Illinois University
Kentucky
Mississippi
Grand Valley state
University of Illinois
Indiana university</p>
<p>oos1stchoice: We visited UConn last spring. It has a large, pretty campus and nice facilities. The students seemed friendly and happy. The downside is that the school is in the middle of corn fields. There is nothing for the students in walking distance. There are a few strip shopping centers 5-10 minutes away, and then it’s about 30 mintues to Harford. The tour guide stressed that they have everything you need right on campus, but the setting was a deal breaker for my daughter. </p>
<p>For the record, JHU is NOT in the inner city. It is in the outskirts of Baltimore, surrounded by mostly upscale neigborhoods. There are some sketchier neighborhoods about 10 minutes away. The campus is set apart and beautiful, with Georgian architecture, large grassy quads, and lots of plants and trees.</p>
<p>^Interesting. I’m from Maryland originally (no longer live there), and I’ve visited JHU twice in the past 3 years. I would pretty much say it’s in the inner city. I guess it’s all a matter of perspective. Living in the suburbs as we always have, we call that kind of area “inner city,” or at the very least, “in the city.” (We DID like JHU a lot, though! Weren’t bothered by the city. In fact, thought it seemed like an exciting place to live. Only problem we found with JHU is that they’re not known for their merit scholarships, and we rely on merit scholarships in our household. 
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<p>^^^colldad1, why was Alabama off the list? Curious.</p>