<p>I know it’s something that’s highly personal, but it’s been interesting reading what peoples’ requirements are for colleges. Personally, the schools I crossed right off last and this year were:</p>
<p>Georgetown - too Catholic/spiritual, the dorm rooms were in bad shape, too far away from a major city.
University of Pennsylvania - waaaaaay too snooty and a very poor tour. Ironically, I loved Drexel when I visited that the next day infinitely more.
Washington in St. Louis - not much going on in St. Louis and the school didn’t have a huge social scene either.
Northwestern - too liberal arts, preferred a science-based school.
RPI - too many engineering geeks, too many guys, no city around it.
University of Albany (I live in NY) - the science program was nice, but like all the SUNY schools it was in the middle of nowhere.
Tufts - school was awkwardly laid out and I didn’t like the amenities. </p>
<p>I did have a list of about ten other schools that I liked (including Drexel, Carnegie Mellon, and NYU), and am glad to say I’m going to my first love, JHU!</p>
<p>Noticed a definite intellectually elitist vibe at Swarthmore, and an intellectually elitist/geeky vibe at William and Mary, but at least Swarthmore’s buildings were in good repair, which can’t be said for the general dilapidation rampant in the older, non-science buildings at William and Mary.</p>
<p>My daughter thought she would love Clark or Holy Cross. She’s a huge Sharks fan, and loves the AHL Sharks. But Clark was too small, in too scary of a neighborhood for her, and Holy Cross looked too religious. Having myself spent 12 years in Catholic education, I personally had no idea where she got that impression, but okay.</p>
<p>My S crossed off all of the liberal arts colleges – too small for him. I think he was influenced by 9 yrs in a small private school. He’s looking for more action at this point, and I can’t say I blame him. Still, there’s something nice about the level of personal attention at the LACs, IMO at least.</p>
<p>College of Chareston: Just did a drive-by as I didn’t see any point in getting out to walk around. We wwere there on a Sat just to look around, so we didn’t have a tour or info session. The school looks to be plopped right in the “city” of Chareston with no real grounds. Bordered by city streets instead of having a true campus. Maybe there was more to it that I didn’t see. Anyway, we just looked since we were in town. </p>
<p>Charleston Southern: My mom always told me if I didn’t have something nice to say then say nothing at all.</p>
<p>Have taken S to 3 trips to the northeast since December
He has taken off the list:
UPenn - did not like the congested surrounding Phili area, very noisy, lots of city traffic through campus
Tufts - we all agreed , wrong feel, worst information session ever ( very dull), an overall full of itself feel
Yale - noisy , congested surrounding area
BC - nothing special, lack of guaranteed housing fir 4 years and forced triples a real turnoff
Amherst - on the "possible list " , only one dining hall, just not as good a feel as Williams</p>
<p>Still many great schools on the list:
Connecticut college, Princeton,Harvard, Brown, Williams,Hamilton, Bowdoin,
? Middlebury…more to come I’m sure</p>
<p>He liked many great schools: Connecticut college, Princeton, Harvard, Williams</p>
<p>Sorry, my iPad won’t allow me to edit out last repeat sentence…kind of new with this
Good luck to everyone, it will be a busy coming year, really appreciate cc</p>
<p>Lafayette - Ds crossed it off immediately - too many cars lined up on all of the streets. Not kidding! He couldn’t figure out why a campus so gorgeous would allow cars to be parallel parked throughout. Way too fratty for him, too.</p>
<p>The moment we drove onto Haverford’s campus, he sighed and said, “See, no cars. This is the way it should be!”</p>
<p>Denison - Much to my dismay D has crossed this one off. She didn’t like the hill. She didn’t like tour guide. She didn’t like the interviewer. Sigh. I’m pretty . She would have been an excellent candidate for their generous merit aid. Alas, she just can’t see herself there.</p>
<p>We were so disappointed by Denison. Everyone had said how beautiful it was but we thought it was so homely. PLUS they didn’t show us the Library and the tourguide lost the key to the dorm room so we didn’t see one of those, either. The reception woman at Admissions was borderline rude which didn’t help matters, either! We were out of there fast.</p>
<p>Approching Amherst we stopped at a Burger King drive thru. When my daughter heard “Welcome to Burger King…” She scrambled from the front seat of the minivan to the back and crouched down on the floor. She would not tell me why. She just wispered her order to me. </p>
<p>The Amherst tour was great. When we left I suggested driving though UMASS. She slouched down low and did not want to stop but agreed to a drive by.</p>
<p>She later told me that a senior boy who now goes to UMASS kept asking her out when she was a sophmore. She was sure that it was his vioce at BK.</p>
<p>I love this thread! Just getting started with our college visits, but the first 3 my DD saw came off the list after the visit: Cincinnati (she hated where it was located, and the campus itself), RIT (best she could say was “its’ just ok”, and Syracuse (no good reason, just “no”. Big trip coming up this summer where we’ll see at least 6 schools in the NE - hope to have better results!</p>
<p>lisabees and 3togo - are you related to Lafayette’s president, Dan Weiss? If he had his way that parallel parking and the frats would be gone. He’s been trying to get that road around the Quad - with its parallel parking - removed for years. Removing that road is now on the college’s Master Plan for the next few years. Problem is, the surrounding neighborhoods are afraid of anything that lowers parking on campus, fearing it will increase cars parking on their streets.</p>
<p>Personally I think the parking is convenient, and Lafayette has a lot of green space. I don’t think I’d let that keep me from attending a college. But to each his own!</p>
<p>BTW, many of those “frat houses” on campus are no longer frats. One is an academic building, one now houses offices, and a couple were turned into dorms. There’s only 4 or 5 frats left on campus (there used to be 17 frats on campus back around 1980!). I think the reputation lags way behind the reality. The sororities are still going strong though, and they have about 4 or 5 houses on campus.</p>
<p>edit - if your kids don’t like cars on campus, look at Union College in Schenectady, NY. I remember wondering how kids moved in and out of dorms because there were so few roads on campus!</p>
<p>My DD did like Lafayette, and it ended up her second choicee. She did not care for University of Alabama. According to her it was “too blonde and too frat and football” for her. I’m glad she visited though. She ended up choosing Rice.</p>
<p>OK, so I’m finally posting here now that my S1 is done with the process :). Over a year, from the summer before junior year through the summer before senior year, we visited 18 schools of which he didn’t apply to 3: Colby, Bates and Northwestern.</p>
<p>After seeing schools in different categories – big state, mid-sized Us and LACs, he decided that he preferred the mid-size urban schools, although he kept 2 LACs on his list (Wesleyan and Bowdoin) because certain attributes of these schools resonated w/ him. </p>
<p>Colby – he just didn’t take to the campus at all. It felt too remote, didn’t like the surrounding area, and didn’t want a campus where many of the students had cars. He thought that meant the students felt it necessary to get off campus.</p>
<p>Bates – he liked this campus and the vibe but simply decided that he rather go to a school w/ about 6000 students in a city. </p>
<p>Northwestern – We visited UChicago the day before for a Preview Day and he fell in love with it. Loved the campus, the proximity to downtown Chicago, the intellectual vibe; in short, he felt like he found his people. When visiting Northwestern the next day, it’s ethos felt entirely different than UChicago’s – more fratty, not as much “learning-for-the-sake-of-learning / life of the mind” vibe. the campus also didn’t strike him as attractive as UChicago’s and it’s in the suburbs which was a bit of turn-off for him. </p>
<p>We have neighbors’ children who are students at all the schools mentioned above and they’re all happy. It really does come down to fit. For my son, the academic and social fit felt best at UPenn, Wash U, UChicago and Brown – particularly the latter two; he’s committed to Brown.</p>
<p>When I was there in the mid 60s, there were 21. Two years in a row, a house had a serious fire. We joked that the administration was implementing its 21-year plan.</p>
. She would have been an excellent candidate for their generous merit aid. Alas, she just can’t see herself there.</p>