<p>suny albany: too much cement
nyu: lack of campus
suny buffalo, umass amherst: way too big
columbia: looked like very bad neighborhood
rutgers: rainy day, bad tour guide</p>
<p>Mike, just wonderingâwhere did your kid like? (Mine will be visiting many of these so Iâd love to know!)</p>
<p>We just got back from a short trip to visit colleges with our HS junior daughter, who is interested in studying theater and film. She was all fired up to visit Johns Hopkins (a huge reach) but was totally turned off by the visit. While she thought the campus was attractive she didnât get a good vibe from the students she encountered, as they appeared âunhappyâ or overly intense to her. She was also unimpressed with the theater facilities; she knew theater was not a major but had hoped it played a somewhat more prominent role in campus life than what she found.</p>
<p>Daughter also took an instant dislike for Goucher. Her negative reaction revolved around two issues: the architecture and location next to the Towson Towne Center. Neither of my daughters are big shoppers, but when they do shop they prefer unique, sole-proprietor stores to the usual mall fare. Going to college next to a mall probably would appeal to the vast majority of 17-year olds but not my kid.</p>
<p>She did end up liking McDaniel and Franklin & Marshall so at least 2 out of 4 have made the cut for now.</p>
<p>When I visisted Northwestern, I crossed it off my list. 0 students said hi, the place felt like death, it was very ugly (compared to Uchicago where wed been 2 weeks before, i guess), and we were walking around then randomly we were in like suburban houses; the place isnt like closed off, it was weird.Anywho, just didnt really like the atmosphere, maybe it was b/c it was summer.</p>
<p>hudson, my D got the same âintense and unhappyâ vibe at Georgetown. Oh, and, we live about 12 miles from McDaniel. Let me know if you have any questions about the area.</p>
<p>Weâve had so many tour guides who were either theater majors or heavily involved in theater that we got the impression theater is a big part of every campus!</p>
<p>Crossed off Penn state up</p>
<p>mathmom â A good tour is a performance so to speak. Certainly many of the skills one hones in theater classes can be put to effective use on the usual college tour. Our experience has been similar to yours. While weâve rarely had a theater major lead a tour, Iâd say a majority of our tour guides have been heavily involved in theater or one of the other performing arts. Daughter #1 has been giving tours at her college for the last couple of years, and while she is a biology/history double major she is involved in both theater and music on campus.</p>
<p>DougBetsy â Do you live 12 miles closer to Baltimore than McDaniel or in a different direction? We were curious how frequently the Baltimore Metro ran from Owings Mills on weekends when McDaniel runs a shuttle to that Metro stop but didnât have the opportunity to ask that question. Also wondered if there is a shortcut through Baltimore County from I-95 to Westminster or is the Beltway to I-795 to Route 140 the faster way to get to Westminster from points north? Although I lived in Timonium for a couple years when I was much younger I wasnât driving back then so I didnât pay too much attention as to where we were going when my dad took us out on Sunday drives into hunt country.</p>
<p>You can get there if you take I-70 West from the Beltway (or Rt. 100 West to Rt. 29 N to I-70 W) and then take Rt. 97 North, a straight shot to Westminster. Maybe not as direct as Rt. 140 but a good alternative.</p>
<p>hudson, I live due south of Westminster. Owings Mills and Baltimore are more like southwest. rmac399âs suggestion about I-70 or rt 100 is good if youâre coming from south of Baltimore. </p>
<p>If youâre coming from north of Baltimore, thereâs really no advantage to cutting through horse country (other than the scenery). 95 -> 695 -> 795 -> 140 is swiftest. </p>
<p>The metro runs 6am to midnight on weekends. But, the trains are much less frequent than weekdays. Much less frequent. They might add some trains when the Ravens or Orioles are home, but Iâm not sure about that.</p>
<p>(Iâm not a parent but stillâŠ)</p>
<p>UChicago - The professor I met with could not have been nicer, and the German program could not have been better. However - The students! I ate in this cafe on campus and everyone (aside from 5ish people being glared at for noise) was sitting alone with their laptops. Not a single one said hi. The class I sat in on was made up of students who felt the urge to impress me. I was 16 - any college student would have been impressive.</p>
<p>Middlebury. Ew. I got carsick on the way there. It killed the school for me. Itâs also preppy preppy preppy and exactly like my high school. </p>
<p>Note: A school I would have crossed off after the tour (but I was lucky enough to know some students and so stayed a whole weekend and ended up loving it) was Stanford. Worst tour ever (given by a theater major, interestingly) - he knew nothing about the programs that were not theater/music (his other major). The other kids on the tour looked positively miserable.</p>
<p>I found theater tour guides to be somewhat off-putting to my sons. Their focus seemed to be more on the social aspect and the arts programs, which makes sense. The best tours we had at any college were very small group tours that were done by major.</p>
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<p>We liked Princeton the bestâŠthey had about 4-5 tour guides that told a little about themselves and you could pick the one you wanted to go with. That way you get someone you can identify with.</p>
<p>^Thatâs a great idea, but in our experience, there never was one that lined up at all with either of my kidâs interests. </p>
<p>Carnegie Mellon had a great system at Accepted Students weekend. We did an all over the campus tour with a drama student and then a Comp Sci specific tour separately.</p>
<p>littledot, itâs interesting you say Middlebury was preppy because my daughter thought it was too- granola and birkenstock! She ended up at Colgate which is certainly more prep then there- at least in her mind!
I took D3 to Michigan and Northwestern. She loved Michigan going in and out. Didnât want to see Northwestern and didnât like it any more seeing it. No real answer why - except she really wants a Music Theater program and their version didnât cut it.</p>
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<p>They did this at Lehigh also and it worked out perfectly for DS.</p>
<p>I think I will posting soon about colleges my DS crossed off the list after visiting. We just saw University of Miami last week. Headed to RPI and Union later this month. Not sure that itâs fair to either Schenectady and Troy, NY, after we just came from Coral Gables.</p>
<p>Interesting about the negative takes on Northwestern. I was opposite â loved it the second I stepped on campus (as I sit here in my NU sweatshirt). Good think we donât all like the same college! Canât imagine the class size!</p>
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<p>Best tours: (1) Yale â tour guide managed a huge group very respectfully, inviting those with strollers up to front. Stopped and waited for group to gather before imparting key information or stories. Repeated questions from others so that all could hear. I was disappointed that we couldnât go inside the âcollegesâ and see what dorm rooms looked like. (2) Columbia â tour guide managed the âcrime in NYCâ questions very well, and also made the Core Curriculum seem very attractive (many are wary of it). Dorm and living situtations were explained, and the history of the place came through. (3) USC (Los Angeles) â tour guide was well-spoken, upbeat, presented his facts in detail and painted a great picture of life at the school. Gave impression of depth and quality to the school that, initially, we had thought really wasnât there (being a big football school, etc.).</p>
<p>Mediocre: (1) UNC Chapel Hill â pretty place, but tour guide failed to give enough history of the institution and some helpful geography to orient us. Also, way too much on how Carolina give students money to do stuff. Way too much emphasis on pointing out the âblue lightâ emergency call system for crimes (by contrast, this made Columbia and NYC seem like farms in Idaho, where everyone leaves their doors unlocked); Wake Forest â actually got to go in and see the dorm rooms (unnaturally tiny!!) and some classes in session, but overall impression was of a place that was isolated and without much intrinsic culture (as in, why should there be a Wake Forest?).</p>
<p>Awful: (1) Stanford. We discovered that, after the magnificent drive through a vast grove of palm trees up to campus, the campus itself is pretty disorderly and happenstance. Other than Memorial Church, there are no really impressive buildings â Stanford is just a jumbled up collection of various architechtures juggling for space. A strange feeling. The students seemed normal and happy enought, but our guide spent her time talking about student clubs and about how she really, really, really is looking forward to getting away from Stanford and going to Oxford for some exchange program. Itâs a great name and all, I know, but oddly lacking in spirit. (2) Connecticut College â the tour guide talked WAY TOO FAST and foreigners and parents were stumbling around trying to push up front and listen. The whole concept of âsubstance-freeâ dorms is weird to me, but they have them there. There is still a lingering effect of it having been a girls college, as the guide (a girl) said that you could always find dates at the Merchant Marine Academy down the street. I donât know if that really qualifies as high quality traffic, in my mind. The school itself is quite small and I think you could run out of mental real estate pretty soon.</p>
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Well then.</p>
<p>This thread is such a fun read. I posted nearly a year ago about our two week college tour and it is interesting to read other impressions of the schools we visited. I will also say that my daughterâs thoughts on her college of choice have changed significantly over the past couple of years. She initially felt that she wanted a rural or suburban campus, probably because of her exposure to The University of Florida. She knew she wanted to be somewhere with four distinct seasons and preferred the East coast. I felt that she would be happier at a smaller school. She is an athlete and that played into her decision quite a bit. She ended up signing with a large private, very urban school, Boston University. She has visited three times, the first on our college tour last spring. She spent a weekend up there in the fall, four days last month and absolutely loves it. I think as she has matured, what she wants from her college experience has changed.</p>