<p>William and Mary - the capitalists have destroyed the quaint feel of old Williamsburg</p>
<p>Washington University at St. Louis.</p>
<p>CheckYourHead and RobD-Can you elaborate???</p>
<p>Washington University at St. Louis was very nice; as a matter of fact they talked about their ânice factorâ during both the tour and admissions session. Campus buildings are all pretty new, and impressive (you can tell theyâve made a lot of capital improvements.) So nothing bad to say, but it just seemed very bland and vanilla to us. Had a similar feel to Emory & Vanderbilt (which D2 also doesnât care for) but the kids seemed a little less label conscious (didnât see any Tory Burch or Louis Vuitton.) We wondered if we were picking up on a midwest vibe, which weâre not familiar with (and I donât mean that as a bad thing.)</p>
<p>When we got in the car and did our ârack and stackâ rating, it was hard to come up with anything meaningful that any of us liked. We couldnât come up with any real negatives either, but D decided there was nothing there that made her want to go through the admissions drama and/or potentially have a $50,000+bill.</p>
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<p>W&M. The most beautiful campus I have ever seen, and we visited at it height of full bloom. Just about killed my son who has severe pollen allergies.</p>
<p>I donât even want to list any others because my kids were not rational. Some of the stupidest things threw them off about schools that should have never made any difference. One of the problems with visiting is that some of these kids donât get it that the visit is just one small component and what to examine during the visit. The looks of the tour guide, for example, is not something that should be on your list, or âŠwell, I donât even want to go into it.</p>
<p>U penn. the attitude of You would be lucky to be here , ticked her off. sighâŠ</p>
<p>Our family was totally turned off by our Brown tourguides. Both young women spent a large portion of the tour talking with oneanother and telling inside jokes. Also, one of them was âtotallyâ into acting and her presentation was painful, truly a drama queen. Itâs amazing Brown, and many other top schools, donât pay closer attention to the details and quality of the tours.</p>
<p>Brooktrout â we had an amazing tour guide at Brown a few years ago. I fell in love with the school on that tour, and walking around campus afterward. My daughter didnât apply there, though, in spite of the lovely selling job the tour guide did. Nor did she apply to Wellesley, which we also visited. I guess she just didnât want to apply to amazing, beautiful places? LOL.</p>
<p>We attended on a September Saturday and there were alot of kids and parents present. That day, they had three or four pairs of tour guides who each introduced themselves to the whole group. Then we were asked to just join the guides of our choice. I felt a little bad for the pair that had noticeably fewer people joing them; âinterestingâ system! Our duo was fantastic and, yes, it does make a difference.</p>
<p>Just wanted to note that Brown was the only school of two dozen visited that did NOT note attendance in any way; show up or not, theyâd never know. Okay, fine, but whatâs weirder is that Brown is one of the few schools whose Common Data Set puts âDemonstrated Interestâ in the âMost Importantâ category. Really? Do they want kids to harangue their area reps or what?</p>
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<p>Since Brown draws from much larger than regional, and wants to do that, as part of being needs blind, they donât want students that they have to visit the school to get a fair chance of admissions. (and donât want to have students visit just to put that on their âadmission pointsâ) And feel it really does help students when they are visiting ask very open questions and not the âtry to impressâ questions. (I hate those when I go on campus tours with my kids and nieces/nephews. There ought to be a penalty for students who do that!) Also, many students donât decide for financial reasons, etc to visit campuses until after applications are in.
Of course, nothing prevents a student for mentioning their visit in their app if pertinent!</p>
<p>Weâre visiting Brown on next Tuesday, so this has all been helpful; I was wondering about the disconnect between âdemonstrated interestâ and lack of ability to register for a tour myself.</p>
<p>Crossed off Syracuse. I was so excited about the university and it sounded like a perfect fit for me on paper, but once I visited I knew that I couldnât spend my 4 years there. It is surrounded by a very small town, which is not the ideal location for me, and not to mention it is blistering cold for several months (and Iâm from Florida). However, both of those aspects could have been overlooked.</p>
<p>The one thing that really turned me off was the student body. Everyone walked with their heads down and didnât seem to engage in conversation with each other. Even as I say in the lunch room, I did not hear one person laugh and it was fairly quite. I want to be in a lively and vibrant student body! I even felt my smile start to fade and my head start to droop towards the end of the tour!</p>
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THIS is a valid thing to notice. THIS is exactly why I wanted my kids to tour colleges before applying. We purposely ate in dining halls - not to check the food, but to see how the kids interacted. I wanted to see some kids laughing in groups, and a few sitting alone with laptops and working. I wanted to see friendly people walking between classes. Lots of enthusiastic posters for a variety of student groups on bulletin boards.</p>
<p>My only question, Mango, is what time of year did you tour? Was it maybe just before finals?</p>
<p>I went a few weeks ago, and some of the classes were having their mid-terms. But when I went to UM during finals, they had a tent full of hammocks for kids to relax and not to let the finals take a toll on them.</p>
<p>I understand a serious vibe in the library, but during lunchtime while the students were sitting next to each other with no notes or books (clearly not studying) and students walking to class side by side without even talking? It struck me as odd, even if it was during midterms.</p>
<p>U Illinois Chicago - Too urban
U of Chicago - Too âHarry Potterâ
St. Olaf - Too isolated
Carleton - see above
Gustavus - Too 70âs style, dingy
Winona State - Eh?
Wheaton, ILL - Too âin your faceâ religious
U of M Twin Cities - Too Huge, too urban, no boundaries
St. Lawrence - Too small
UW Madison - Too big</p>
<p>Clemson tour in 2010- too far to walk.
UVA in 2011- too cold and the buildings are too old.
W&M in 2011- the campus isnât separate enough from the city and itâs not far enough away.</p>
<p>So, guess what three schools are now her top 3 in 2012 despite not going back to any of them since writing them off. LOL.</p>
<p>I posted this in another thread, but weâve crossed off UCSB after a mediocre presentation and a clueless administration counselor.</p>
<p>In response to the comment above about buildings at UVa being âtoo oldâ, that student should have walked 400 feet back from each of the main roads, and they would see lots of large new buildings.</p>
<p>UC Irvine â âtoo much cement and parking lotsâ
Cal Poly â âsmells like cowsâ (he was right though, it DID smell like cattle; there was a breeze that day and everywhere on campus you could smell manure)</p>
<p>Occidental â âway too hilly and sketchy neighborhood.â</p>