<p>“New Haven does have the BEST pizza”</p>
<p>Hands down. I’m a Sally’s person. :)</p>
<p>“I hate to see the prospective students gather around some of the tour guides while the other tour guides who might not be as good looking or have an accent or something get no one or just 1 - 2 people.”</p>
<p>Fair enough, but from the perspective of the guides, they may be happy to have a smaller group! We did it this way at Harvard, and while I was flattered when 30 families chose me, giving that tour is a royal pain.</p>
<p>I guess if I were left out altogether, that would bug me, but that never happened because in every info session there were at least a couple of families whose main criterion for picking a tour guide was to be in a smaller group. When I was the “last one picked” the family would often say things like “This is great! We get a private tour!”</p>
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<p>Gourmetmon, you might want to send your daugther on a visit to Pepperdine and USC - she might like the “look” of the students so much that she might not come back.</p>
<p>Goodness, very surprised regarding impressions of the Wesleyan info session!</p>
<p>Our experience was quite different…in fact, just the day before we had attended the Connecticut College info session which we found condescending (basically, at that info session we were told if your child is at an unknown public school and not at the very top of the class, don’t bother to apply). So, my son who fits that description, didn’t (that school was one we did cross off our list after visiting).</p>
<p>We found the Wesleyan info session no different from most of the other info sessions we attended at other LACs (although perhaps more crowded).</p>
<p>As for looks…my son could not care less about people’s looks…so for him (attending Wesleyan in the fall; admitted ED) that didn’t make his radar (or mine) when visiting. What did make our radar on the tour was the amazing science department, the great theater department and fascinating array of performing arts always happening on campus, the fantastic library…</p>
<p>Two schools which we toured & attended info sessions told us point blank that kids who are not in one of the top %s of their class will not be considered for merit aid. Our S, who was a NMF, was about the middle of his class, so we crossed those schools off his list (he wasn’t all that thrilled about either U anyway, & that dropped them off his list).</p>
<p>Regarding New Haven’s Pizza Reputation: Frank Pepe’s was amazing! From what I understand it is just one of many fantastic pizza joints in the New Haven area. Sally’s has a great reputation too…maybe next time :)!</p>
<p>Wesleyan: Part of our disappointment was that we really wanted to like the school. I am glad to hear that others have had a great experience with Wesleyan. Our visit to Wesleyan showed us the importance of visiting a school. Some places will “speak” to you while others will not. It is not for my child but I still think it is a solid academic school!</p>
<p>That is true, sometimes it just doesn’t feel right (to you) which is a good thing, imagine if everyone liked only the same things. </p>
<p>Sally’s is fantastic, Modern Pizza (a little less busy) is also very good.
My daughters almost feel ill when college students order "Dominos"s or “Pizza Hut”, they would rather not have it at all and pity them for thinking that is pizza lol</p>
<p>Our second tour at Tufts was with a young woman from China. I felt sorry for her as only other internationals were in her group (and us). She had a much smaller group than every one else and we figured it didn’t matter if she was a little harder to understand since we’d already been on a tour once and I was curious if she’d have a different point of view. </p>
<p>We’ve never had a bad tour, but have had info sessions that we didn’t care for. Interestingly, one was a the school my son ultimately chose. He figured the guy running the info session was not likely to be one he would see again. (And it wasn’t the admissions guy who posts here either.)</p>
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<p>I definitely didn’t hear that during my info session. I’m surprised that they would state things like that, considering that they talk about how they’re highly selective. It doesn’t seem like they would want to discourage anyone from applying.</p>
<p>I know, SaintSaens; and we actually went to visit the school because we had a family friend who went there and said we’d like it.</p>
<p>So much of this stuff does depend on who you get for the info session or tour (sometimes maybe even what their day was like…)</p>
<p>My son and I learned very quickly in the college search process to NOT attend the informational sessions. For us they were simply a marketing ploy and we all know how much marketing material we receive from colleges already! Because of our experiences, I have since recommended to others on college searches to skip these time-wasters. If we had time before or after a tour we preferred to walk the campus or, even better, hang out at the student center for a bit to get a sense of the school’s “vibe”. Asking questions to the tour guide, or even students or faculty we met, and later researching questions at the school’s website worked better for us as a way to gather info.</p>
<p>Perhaps a new thread on informational sessions would be a good idea.</p>
<p>My husband found Conn College to be the most condescending of his visits and the staff was rude to him, but that was his only bad experience in many tours/trips.
Conn College might have said that, but they accept more males than females, being a little lopsided and I’ve seen males with lower stats get in than females, good students, but not top 10% in their schools.</p>
<p>How lucky are we to have these great resources in our college quest?? In my dinosaur daze (1973) I bought a copy of the Yale underground college guide, read it, then my parents said, “so and so from our town went to this college in 1943 and really liked it so that’s probably a good place for you to go to!”. EEK…all I can say is, our kids are very fortunate!!</p>
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<p>She’s now a freshman at Brown, loves it, and she never mentions how people look. I just thought her comment about Wesleyan was funny, and it was probably part of her realization that many college students do just roll out of bed and head to class. I certainly don’t think that she would have been happy on a campus full of Barbie and Kens, either.</p>
<p>Actually, given the rather large contingent of international students @ USC, it’s certainly not a campus full of Barbie and Kens. Even the look of the US contingent has changed a bit over the years. For example, from our local HS (in LA County), of the seven kids from my S’s class who are now matriculating at USC, four are from ethnically diverse backgrounds.</p>
<p>Some of the info sessions we attended were actually quite good–low on marketing, high on useful details that could no doubt have been found on the website, but not necessarily so easily or so well tied together. I’d say Goucher, Skidmore, Clark, Hampshire, Rochester, Brandeis and Tufts all fit that description (and with the exception of Hampshire, our son ended up applying to all of them).</p>
<p>One funny story about ‘looks’ sneaking into a students thoughts when they visit…</p>
<p>We visited a well known school that my son’s had interest in for quite a while. We were walking around campus and saw a girl with a cloak on. Not a short poncho, but more of a full length robe. My son’s not sheltered but I’m not going to lie, this was a first. He grinned and said “Most excellent! Do you think she’s a witch? I’ve never met a witch. That would be brilliant! Put that as a plus”. Cracked me up. He was serious. A couple of months later we were visiting several schools. He commented on the way “Dear god, please no more sundresses. Is it too much to ask for skinny jeans?”. </p>
<p>He looked at many facets of the schools, and has obsessed about research being done and the difference in coursework. I just thought these standouts reminded me that underneath all that I do have a teenager, not a mini-graduate in training.</p>
<p>^^^^ I think I love your son. I hear you about the sundresses which was the standard garb at my school (USC) back in the day. My D really liked Hampshire’s info session and tour- made the school rise in her estmation. But what really made it was the tour guide was wearing leather- which reassured my leather wearing, meat eating (and sometimes hunter) that she would not be killed in her sleep if she matriculated there. ;)</p>
<p>Colleges appeal to different kids for different reasons. The tour guide can make a big impression as can the weather. All my kids tended to enjoy the tours more when the weather was nice. My oldest son loved all the colleges he visited. He is not fussy and is a true learner. DD loved many colleges but crossed Ursinus off the list after visiting. She really does not like smoking and the first thing we saw on the way to admissions was groups of goth looking kids smoking. That was it for her. Second son crossed off College of Charleston because they way the college is set up he would have to take a bus to get to the athletic facilities. This didn’t work for him.</p>
<p>kinderny–you reminded me that one thing we all loved about the Hampshire tour was that the guide was wearing another school’s T-shirt. Talk about your low-marketing approach! (Of course it wasn’t really a competitor school–it was Southern Illinois U. or something like that.)</p>