<p>I get the “too grey”. I felt that way about Middlebury.</p>
<p>D visited Eckerd this morning & crossed it off. The “beach” was a fiction, the buildings felt like summer camp, and the dorm that permits pets really stank (there’s a shocker).</p>
<p>Earlier in her Florida trip she saw the U of Tampa and was delighted. Next trip will hit U of Miami.</p>
<p>^^^ Eckerd does have a waterfront with sand – but perhaps not the kind of beach one finds on a postcard?</p>
<p>Northeastern may be the first casualty on the “reject” list - the tour was horrible, (too many people, one less the stellar tour guide, often way in front of the crowd (of about 40 on the tour…) Had to run to catch up to the front of the pack several times…also glossed over older buildings/dorms (freshman) in older section of campus. Showed the newest, upperclassman triple apts. that no freshman can get into, dodged any question about room/board cost just saying “it varied a lot, the apts. cost more” (thanks)…general waste of time. Gave us the impression school doesn’t care about incoming student applicants - “felt” no passion in the admissions office when we arrived or waited. Didn’t get that feeling at any other college yet - tour should have been broken into smaller groups. (I realize that isn’t the guide’s fault -)</p>
<p>Ace, that sounds terrible!</p>
<p>We had a similar experience at Boston College – tour guide was fine but there were way too many people on the tour. This was the only college we visited where the Admissions Office felt really unwelcoming, including providing filthy bathrooms for visitors. :(</p>
<p>We drove through BC last summer and I was so disappointed! Seemed like a couple of historic buildings but lots of parking lots. I guess I’d just heard so much about it that I had something different in mind.</p>
<p>My daughter is going to Northeastern and BU next Friday with her dad (who is working in Boston this summer), I HATE that I don’t get to be at every one of these tours but will be very interested in how she perceives these two.</p>
<p>Notre Dame - Intro session and tour guide kept stressing how elite the school was and the tradition of football at ND. GD was really turned off by the snob approach. Dropped it from her list and never looked back.</p>
<p>There are 5 sections to the Boston College campus:</p>
<p>Upper campus: red brick dorms
Middle campus: mostly neo-Gothic classroom buildings
Lower campus: mostly athletic facilities and some dorms
Brighton campus: what used to be St. John’s seminary…</p>
<p>Newton campus (a mile or so away from the other 4 contiguous campuses): law school, some dorms, athletic facilities.</p>
<p>Each of the 5 sections has a different feel. DKE, it sounds like maybe you drove around just the Brighton and Lower campuses.</p>
<p>sujormik-I hope your daughter & husband have a better experience at Northeastern - it’s a shame because the newer part of the campus was decent; it looks like thoughtful planning (many comments about having “green space” & a campus center feel in the city)
We haven’t toured officially toured BU yet, but we’ve been around it many times as we live in NE; been in the bookstore & some of the buildings in Kenmore square area.
dke-we bailed on the end of the tour didn’t head back into the lame admissions office - maybe there was a pep rally waiting there, but I doubt it! LOL</p>
<p>My tour guide at northeastern was actually amazing! I’m sorry you’ve had bad experiences… I hope Northeastern will be put back on your lists 
even though that’s not what this thread is for…</p>
<p>Required by parents to visit:
Wofford - too small, would not get out of car
Furman - too conservative, nice campus, though
Clemson - loves it, but class sizes may be too large
USC (Columbia) - hated urban campus
Wake Forest - boring campus with nothing to do (attend tennis camp)</p>
<p>Requested/recruited by daughter
UNC - Chapel Hill - too big, not enough scholars
Duke - hated it
Davidson - may be just right - still on list
Richmond - should have been a keeper, but not the right vibe
Washington & Lee - seems like a good fit, still on list
William & Mary - facilities do not seem up to par with everyone else
USNA (overnight visit with plebe) - honor code without any honor , off the list
Rollins - just not the right vibe
Suwanee - great vibe, beautiful, but too remote, not challenging enough
Presbyterian - nice people, but not challenging enough
High Point - like a country club, but not good enough academically
James Madison -interstate highway cuts it in half - very commuter-type campus
Virginia - feels like Clemson, but not as pretty (daughter probably said for Dad’s benefit)
Haverford - just not exactly right
Swarthmore - quirky, beautiful, still on the list
Bucknell - beautiful, still on the list
Penn - too urban
Princeton - hated the bused-in tourists, hated cattle-call info session, loved the school</p>
<p>Quite a different list, due to daughter’s athletic recruitment. Still in the running:
Swarthmore
Bucknell
Princeton
Washington & Lee </p>
<p>Wife went to Wake, Husband to Clemson, graduate degrees from USC
Looking at the list, we have been to a lot of schools! Daughter cannot make a bad choice out of her list of finalists.</p>
<p>BCWatty…wow, that’s a lot of looking. Lots of good choices.</p>
<p>Had to laugh about Univ of Penn being too urban…it’s one of the many things my DS liked about it. </p>
<p>Babson - DS loved the school (spent 2 days there for scholarship) but thought it was out in the middle of a country club/residential area. I never got to see it.</p>
<p>We felt that we learned more about our son’s personality on these trips than we had in a couple of years! He doesn’t talk to us much these days (starting at about 15) but on these trips we had alot of laughs as a family. We started out with him wanting a school in a rural or at least suburban setting, and as we fine tuned his search turned out he wanted an attractive, natural setting (lawns, trees, etc) within a city where there was access to things to do. I"m not sure he knew himself until he started visiting these colleges.</p>
<p>Interesting. My D visited a number of LACs before applying. Her primary criteria appeared to be small, far away and expensive.</p>
<p>Visited:</p>
<p>Grinnell (applied, accepted)
Carleton (applied, accepted, applied as transfer, accepted, attending))
Amherst (applied, rejected)
Yale (applied, rejected)
Wesleyan (did not apply)
Bard (did not apply)
Skidmore (did not apply)
Oberlin (applied, accepted, attended, transferred out)
Kenyon (applied, accepted)
Macalester (applied as transfer, accepted)
St. Olaf (applied as transfer, accepted)</p>
<p>Applied, but did not visit:</p>
<p>Knox (applied, accepted)
Bowdin (applied, accepted)
Whitman (applied, accepted)</p>
<p>The “reject after visiting” list seemed based more on intangibles than specific features.</p>
<p>Wesleyan just didn’t excite her - thought the school wasn’t very interesting.</p>
<p>Bard was originally a school she thought she would be very interested in (she’s into music and theatre). She thought their program structure was somewhat odd and that it didn’t feel right. Maybe too “East Coast” for her Midwestern tastes - hard to say.</p>
<p>Skidmore was another school she thought she would be very interested in. The tour guide was fairly flat. The main item he showed interest in was their food service (which admittedly was impressive). Again, it didn’t “feel right.”</p>
<p>After all of that, she opted to attend Oberlin - attracted by the arts, music and edgier student body. Ultimately did not end up liking Oberlin and has now transferred to Carleton for her sophomore year. Sigh.</p>
<p>Oberlin>Carleton seesm like an odd transfer. What does she expect at C that is not at O? I have been to both and met grads of both and they seem pretty fungible with C a tad more science heavy and O more artsy/political. Both have awesomely bad weather. Small town locations near big cities etc etc.</p>
<p>Academically, for liberal arts, it is probably a wash. She ultimately felt isolated at Oberlin and was unable to find a group of people to fit in with. She has a few HS friends at Carleton and at St. Olaf (also in Northfield) so she has somewhat of an existing social network there. She also likes singing and theatre and while she is pretty good, was eclipsed by the conservatory students at Oberlin who are destined to be pros. There will likely be more opportunities for her in that regard at Carleton where she won’t be competing with Con voice majors for limited Acapella group slots. Finally, Northfield, while small, is substantially larger than Oberlin. And of course, cough cough, the Twin Cities are a much better metro scene than Cleveland.</p>
<p>DS hasn’t had a “love connection” with any college yet.</p>
<p>Davidson: DS found campus too small and surrrounding town too small. Didn’t get the “eating houses” concept. Will Not Apply.</p>
<p>Wake: DS liked info session, particularly small class size, He didn’t like cigarette butts on campus. Said buildings were nice on the outside, but not so great on the inside. Students were friendly. Could see himself there. Will Apply.</p>
<p>Elon: Quick stop - no time for info session and/or tour. DS didn’t like grid-like layout of campus, but liked how clean it was. All seemed shiny and new, but not a fit. Will Not Apply.</p>
<p>UNC-Chapel Hill - too big, but would like it if he were the “big school type.” Will Not Apply.</p>
<p>Duke - liked architecture, challenging courses, international community…Didn’t like that some freshmen dorms aren’t air-conditioned. Campus seemed spread-out. Could see himself there. Will Apply.</p>
<p>Clemson - liked honors college and info on classes. Thought campus had a small feel for its size. Students were friendly. Could see himself in honors college - but not otherwise. Will Apply. (Financial Safety)</p>
<p>Emory - disliked info session, which was way too long and boring. Tour guide was a “low-talker”, not at all engaging. Campus very clean, but maybe too sterile. Couldn’t really see himself there, but not off list. Will Apply.</p>
<p>Others on DS’s list, but haven’t visited: Vanderbilt,Tulane, W&L, William & Mary, UVA, and University of Richmond.</p>
<p>“Wake: DS liked info session, particularly small class size, He didn’t like cigarette butts on campus.” </p>
<p>With all the money colleges put into physical appearance, it bugs me when they can’t find the money to hire somebody to take care of cigarette butts. Also, boggles my mind that about every square foot of sidewalk on/near Michigan’s main Ann Arbor campus has a black spot about the size of a quarter that is the remains of chewing gum, yet none of the geniuses there know how hire a service or buy a machine that could easily remove the unsightly gum residue.</p>