<p>I have to say, if I was the one choosing where D would go, it would be Hampshire first, with SUNY New Paltz a close second and UAlbany a distant last (we think the other admits are non starters). At this moment this is the exact opposite of D’s list. Go figure.</p>
<p>OUr son took note of campuses where there were smokers. I was surprised by this, but realise that he doesn’t really see/know people who smoke. (I’m a former three packer which horrifies him) If he saw them on a campus it didn’t completely turn him off, but he did mention it.</p>
<p>My D crossed off SUNY Geneseo partly due to all the smokers she noticed while we were there.</p>
<p>kinderny - I think you should start a new thread “parent list vs. kid list” I think many would be quite intersting!</p>
<p>Digression re: Wesleyan and bad looking students - My S is there and I confess we never did the tour or info session because we generally hate tours. But we were petrified when he moved in because all the upperclasspeople we saw were attractive, buff and affluent looking and it didn’t seem natural. Turns out they recruited the athletes to help with the freshman move-in and that explained a lot. Still, whenever I go there I’m struck with how many attractive students there are. No accounting for taste I guess.</p>
<p>We ruled out Berkeley because the info session we went to exemplified everything we heard about a bureaucracy run amok. They double-booked the room, so people kept coming in for a study session. The focus of the talk was on trying to coordinate different departments, which they were clearly not able to do.</p>
<p>cerulean2 – Your experience with Geneseo reminds my of our younger daughter. She tagged along four years ago when her sister was looking at colleges. D1 was seriously thinking about a LAC in Maryland but D2 took an instant dislike for the school because she saw a group of students congregated outside a residence hall smoking. From that point on she remarked on every cigarette butt she saw on the ground (or in an ashtray). At the end of the tour she told her sister “You can do what you want but I would NEVER apply to this school!” </p>
<p>Four years later and D2 hasn’t changed her stance. She has also added Bard to the list of “no go’s” because of the smoking issue.</p>
<p>My D was not in a good mood the day we went to the info session/tour at Brandeis (actually there were only 2 schools that we visited out of 12 in the last year that she was happy about–Hampshire and Smith). The number one thing that turned her off was that the admissions reps were wearing coats and ties (sport coats). “Not friendly.” But she got in with a very good finaid pkg. and scholarship and it’s looking better to her now.</p>
<p>Two years ago D1 visited Purdue but said it was “too big” She ended up enrolling at University of Minnesota :)</p>
<p>Purdue has about 39,000 students
Minnesota has about 50,000 students</p>
<p>Ha, Nocash! That’s like my d. She is only starting to tour colleges, but her absolute, definite, one and only “must” was a '“real campus with a bucolic feel.” Didn’t like Yale, Wesleyan or Carnegie Mellon – but when I dragged her there, kicking and screaming, was absolutely crazy about NYU.</p>
<p>I think some kids really don’t know what’s up until they start walking around these campuses. Our son was a die hard “I want green grass and no traffic!!” kid, so we started off looking at places in rural settings with good academics. He looked around and said, “There’s nothing going on here. We’re in the middle of nowhere!” so we kept going and tried some better located colleges. What he found was a beautiful campus (yes green grass!) in a vibrant city…for him the best of both…with plenty to “do”.</p>
<p>Where did your son find? That’s probably ideal for my daughter!</p>
<p>He hasn’t officially committed but he’s telling everyone: Trinity U. in San Antonio.</p>
<p>Every summer we visit family in the Boston area and stay in Cambridge. My husband would take him through Harvard yard, show him his dorm, and say, " Isn’t this beautiful? Don’t you love this?" and our son would say, " I can’t breathe." In that we both grew up 20 miles from midtown Manhattan we cracked up , but realised that this isn’t OUR search, its HIS.</p>
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<p>I am convinced that D took Mt Holyoke off her list because she really didn’t like the outfit of the tour guide. The tour guide was Preppy McPrepster (no objection to that, she was a great tour guide and a clear leader in school and athletic activities, and very well spoken) but she was wearing one of those handkerchief skirts with the uneven hem; it reminded D of someone she knows / doesn’t like who wears those skirts, and I seriously think it turned her off. OTOH, the other tour guide at the time appeared to have been a real oddball - like “is there something wrong with her?” type of weird so that wouldn’t have been any better.</p>
<p>OTOH, our Bryn Mawr tour guide with the purple streak in her hair was awesome. She made the purple work for her.</p>
<p>It’s not just the kids who get turned off by smokers - when we toured campuses and I saw groups of kids smoking, it felt like a turn-off to me. </p>
<p>And you really can’t tell if you’ll like a campus till you get there. D initially loved Northeastern. Then I took her to UMass - on the drive there, she said, “This is really rural… there’s cows… and trees… I really liked the city, you know.” But when we got there and she saw the 20 story library she said, “That’s cool.” The cement Student Union “felt urban” to her. And the 20,000 kids on campus gave it the energy of a small city. In the end, her opinion completely changed.</p>
<p>Fast-forward a year, she’s a freshman at a lovely and very suburban campus (not UMass). Trees, grass, ponds, etc. Went to visit a friend at Northeastern - HATED it. Too noisy, too stressful, too much security (signing in every time she, as a visitor, entered the dorm). She found it “unrelenting.” The same things she loved as a prospective student - the energy and urban vibe - totally turned her off a year later. Which is why it’s important to visit a VARIETY of campuses - urban, rural, suburban.</p>
<p>Other funny story - while D loved UMass’s 20 story library and cement Student Center, S thought the library was “stupid - why build a sky-scraper surrounded by cow fields?” and hated the “dungeon-like” student center. So it depends on the kid. What is a positive for one kid is a big negative for another.</p>
<p>I have to say that, IMHO, UMass-Amherst has ZERO curb appeal.</p>
<p>Lafalum, where is your d’s “lovely suburban campus”?</p>
<p>We visited UCONN last summer. My younger daughter liked it but my older D did not. Big school in the middle of nowhere. Older D liked Penn State better because it seemed that everyone had more school spirit. However, we visited Penn State in 2/11 with classes in session (I really liked Penn State too).</p>
<p>My D is driving me crazy but after reading several of these posts, I can see that I’m not the only parent going through this. We visited several schools already.</p>
<p>Quinnipiac- D hated it because people were not friendly?</p>
<p>Sacred Heart - Was OK but not wowed by it plus they require 9 credits in religious ed which she had enough of already all through grade school.</p>
<p>Penn State (Main Campus) - liked it but felt a little too overpowering and too far away from home to come home on a weekend or two. Drove down to Altoona campus which she thought was too small with all Main Campus rejections going there.</p>
<p>UCONN - Too big and in the middle of nowhere. People not as friendly as Penn State.</p>
<p>Towson - Too many of her friends transferred out after 1st semester. Big commuter school for locals?</p>
<p>UMASS-visiting in early April…TBD</p>
<p>The wife and I liked all the above but we’re not the ones who will be there for 4 years!</p>
<p>Penn State is the middle of nowhere too. (not trying to defend UCONN)</p>