<p>Went on first college visits this week. Wash U was beautiful plus it was a gorgeous day. It was extremely pristine and a smoke-free campus. Loved the old look of Hogwarts on the outside but every space we went into seemed newly remodeled. Student center/dining was great. Very friendly people working there. They really emphasized “study abroad, research, double majoring and taking any class you are interested in”. Not sure how the student presenters were able to do all that they did in 2 years of school-ECs, travel study, etc. Sort of impressive. Next was Northwestern-great location, of course, but I must say the campus looked shabbier than WUSTL even though again it was a beautiful day. Funny, but I made a note of lots of cigarette butts on the ground , which I normally wouldn’t have noticed. Cafeteria was more hectic and had an unpleasant fried odor. However, the students seemed somewhat more lively on the whole and we witnessed a a lot of greetings/reunions going on around us. Extremely enthusiastic tour guides and the presenters talked so fast it was mind-boggling. Again, not sure how the students accomplish all of the things they told us with only 24h a day. They emphasized research, the professors and connections and the quarter system. One fellow parent commented on how different things were these days. He thought it was funny that the colleges work so hard to “sell” their schools yet they take such a small percentage of students.</p>
<p>After going to Mizzou, I realized that I wouldn’t fit in that environment very well. It’s so secluded - I learned that I don’t really like college towns. And school spirit/sports interest is to the extreme. The journalism school was impressive but I’m not quite that definite about my field, so it’s off my list.</p>
<p>I wasn’t there, but according to D, Lewis & Clark was gorgeous. On the other hand the Admissions officer was pretentious and seemed to be lying through her teeth. At Evergreen, the tour-guide simply read from the pamphlet.</p>
<p>Interesting thread: One thing I’ve learned is never second-guess your kids. What I thought my D would love is not what she loved:</p>
<p>The first thing is she did not want to leave California which reduced our choices quite a bit. I would have loved for her to try for Reed or Oberlin - She just wasn’t interested at all:
Second thing is I thought she was a natural for any of the Claremonts - 4.0 UW, 2220 SATs, tons of ECs etc. She was lukewarm at best and ended up not applying at any of them. They just didn’t grab her that much. </p>
<p>We visited the following colleges starting in her Jr yr of HS:
Stanford
UCLA
Occidental
UCSD
UCSC
UCB
Chapman
UCSB
Pomona
Scripps
Pitzer</p>
<p>She hated UCSC (too hippy and too much like a camp - her
words! - I though it was beautiful)
She loved UCSB
She thought UCSD was okay (her Dad went there so maybe she was being nice for his sake.)
She was overwhelmed by UCLA - just too big for her taste - same with UCB
She liked Pomona okay but didn’t ‘love’ it - ended up not even applying
She originally liked Scripps - beautiful campus and the dorms were to die for - but ended up not wanted to go to an all-girl’s school - ended up not even applying
She liked Chapman okay because a lot of her HS friends were applying there. (It’s about 10 miles from our house.) Her Dad and I were less enthusiastic - we wanted her to at least experience something that wasn’t ‘next-door’ to us. She did end up applying.
She hated Pitzer (??? no idea why - maybe the ‘hippy’ rep was too much for her?)</p>
<p>She loved, loved, loved Occidental. </p>
<p>She ended up applying to Stanford, Chapman, Occidental, UCSD, UCSB and UCLA.
She was accepted to all of them with exception of Stanford - receiving generous merit awards from both Chapman and Occidental and the Regents award from UCSB.</p>
<p>Occidental was always her absolute first choice. We knew nothing about Oxy until last year but we toured it, visited a few times and she did the overnight there and had a blast. Her attraction was the small intimate campus (a turn-off for many people), the excellent theater program and the fact she could easily double major there - combining her love of theater with a (what I call) ‘reality’ major. She most likely will double major in Mathematics and theater. The day she received her acceptance was one of the happiest days of her life. She rec’d her UCLA acceptance the same day and was pleased she was accepted (bragging rights) but it was really never even a consideration for her.</p>
<p>The Stanford rejection came about a week later and she is probably one of the few people in the world who was actually relieved she was rejected. She would have felt very pressured to choose Stanford over Occidental. </p>
<p>She is an amazing kid and I’ve learned to not second-guess her decisions and so far she hasn’t let me down ever. I’m hoping Oxy is everything she is hoping it is and from what I’ve seen and read it does appear to be.</p>
<p>I imagine you do know that Obama went to Occidental before transferring to Columbia.</p>
<p>I visited Pomona and realized I would be miserable there. The campus atmosphere was honestly depressing. Plus it was just too small and too liberal for somebody who grew up in a Christian conservative home.</p>
<p>My son also hated Pomona (his dad’s alma mater), saying it felt like a high school campus.</p>
<p>On this particular college visit trip we learned that our son does not care for Maine (sorry Maine - I still loveya):</p>
<p>Bates - would not even get out of the car -thought it looked like an old run down mental institution in a down & out defunk mill town. Could not in a million years believe that it was considered a good school. </p>
<p>Colby - nice enough looking campus but stuck on a hill in the middle of no where Maine.</p>
<p>Bowdoin - alright but no way am I ever going to school in Maine so the school could be all things perfect and I am not going to like it!</p>
<p>I lost a lot of respect for the following schools after visiting:</p>
<p>U Penn - we have many family ties to this so school so we were really looking forward to the visit. Was very turned off by admissions talk because the admissions person did not seem to know the answers to many of the questions and seemed to be getting frustrated. The final straw was when he answered a student’s question with “If you need to ask that kind of question maybe you are in the wrong place” - I was aghast and embarrassed for Penn! Come on! It was a kid vs. an Ivy league rep - have some composure!</p>
<p>Union - We went for a preview type event. The head of admissions came off as sarcastic, snide, and a bit angry - almost as if he was burned out. Again, we have family ties to this school so maybe my expectations were high but Union really fell short. Plus we had a miserable stay at the local Hampton Inn - none of us ever wanted to have to go back to Schenectedy!</p>
<p>Wesleyan (Ct) - We gritted our teeth through the most obnoxious info session ever. The combination of the condesending admission rep and the flighty student representative was too much. The student had switched majors so many times I am not sure she even knew what her current major was - this is not impressive to a parent who expects a graduation in four years! It is too long a story - just a bad experience. We left - did not want o spend the time to look at the campus.</p>
<p>sportsmom2016–what was the question the kid asked at Penn?? What schools does your son like?</p>
<p>Pepperdine - I’ve heard other kids at school call it Prepperdine, but I wanted to check it out myself, and as soon as the tour was finished it was crossed right off the list. Not for me. The only thing I really liked was the view.</p>
<p>Brown SO doesn’t care about demonstrated interest - PLEASE! They invited my S to an open house for comp sci after he had visited once, then he went for the reps info session at school, and they STILL turned him down. And he applied ED. How much more interest could he have shown?</p>
<p>We were scared away by Hampshire - wouldn’t even get out of the car. It was creepy there. S was thinking of applying to Amherst, but there was a lot of comp sci at Hampshire, and I was afraid to let him go there.</p>
<p>Megan- “scared” and “afraid” of Hampshire? I’ve never been there, but from what I understand, it’s not in a bad neighborhood. Turned off by the liberalness I understand, but why the fear?</p>
<p>Great thread as we start thinking about colleges for D2. D1 didn’t like Fordham but what killed it was the bad bagels they served on orientation day. Come on, you can get great bagels in NYC! She also did not like Barnard in the shadow of Columbia. When we visited, they really did not have much to show us. I don’t even know why they did orientation on that day. Maybe, if the orientation had been better, it would have been on the list. Anyhow, walked onto UNC Chapel Hill, after my urging, and she loved it. Great campus, great school spririt etc…</p>
<p>Well, now that my senior son has decided where to go, I can chime in on this.</p>
<p>Kenyon: too small, like high school with some coffee shops.<br>
Univ Illinois Urbana Champaign: the “micro urban” pitch made him realize he wants actual urban.</p>
<p>Kenyon didn’t stand a fair chance because it was his first ever college visit spring of Junior year. Was helpful to start to get his feedback that he wanted university not LAC.</p>
<p>Similarly, UIUC didn’t stand much chance as he was admitted to Wisconsin right after we scheduled Illinois visit. He went, and thought it was fine, but Wisconsin had already stolen his heart. Of course, it is not like he is going to school in NYC or Chicago, but he does like the capital city vibe. </p>
<p>UW is where he is headed.</p>
<p>Scared because the campus was very strange. The buildings were ugly and run down. It was laid out oddly. There was no one there at the time because everyone was on break, so that made it even creepier. It had a really weird vibe.</p>
<p>I know other people love it there, but we couldn’t wait to leave.</p>
<p>We have a neighbor who had it at the top of her list before visiting and also found it creepy and it dropped completely off.</p>
<p>DS loved Pomona the moment he set foot on campus. Brilliant students, accessible professors – palm trees and Plato – He’s thrilled to be a member of the Class of 2016!</p>
<p>After visiting, he crossed off:</p>
<p>Stanford – lack of accessible professors, not quite enough intellectualism for DS
Princeton – Administration’s war on grade inflation seems to be making students unhappy
Bowdoin – felt too isolated and cloistered to DS (I loved the location!)
U Penn – too urban, much crime in surrounding area</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Was this a different Stanford?</p>
<p>tetrahedrOn - +1</p>
<p>That makes sense Megan. I just never heard of Hampshire described that way.</p>