<p>No argument here, but I have never, in 30+ years of involvement as a student or alum, felt that UVA was religious in any sense. I’m sorry for the chapel incident since obviously it upset someone, but i really don’t think there is a “religious tone” at UVA.</p>
<p>My D went to a sports camp at VCU (VA Commonwealth) and declared there was no chance she would apply there. There is a certain historic charm to some of the buildings around it, but there is a seedy element too and walking back to the dorm at nice with homeless men in the park on the edge of campus was a bit much for her.</p>
<p>One son ruled out Tufts because he saw some students wearing Harvard and MIT t-shirts on campus. Another son ruled out Washington and Jefferson (where the coach really, really wanted him) because everyone he met was blonde. And one son ruled out any campus where a shuttle was needed to get from one area of campus to another.</p>
<p>^ hehehe thats interesting boysx3.
Our k1 ruled out Tufts because of some housing stuff…
and ruled out Holy Cross because the girl giving the tour said “umm” about every other word and within 3 minutes we were miserable!</p>
<p>My son also crossed off Tufts, after a second visit after being accepted. Although a beautiful campus with much to offer, he felt that the “quirk” factor, which they heavily advertise, just was not there. He was looking for “quirk” as in nerdy, intellectual, but most of the kids appeared wealthy and well-dressed, which was off-putting to him. This is not to criticize Tufts in any way. It seems like a great school. It just wasn’t for him.</p>
<p>@ boys x 3 One son ruled out Tufts because he saw some students wearing Harvard and MIT t-shirts on campus. </p>
<p>That’s funny! Though when we visited Northwestern one parent on the tour asked the guide why the kid he just said hello to was wearing a Stanford shirt and was like “Isn’t that saying something about this place.” And our guide was like “No, its saying he misses his girlfriend.”</p>
<p>I’m just glad I haven’t seen any dorm as bad as the picture my friend put on Facebook of his “elevator single” at NCSSM. As the name may imply, that is an elevator shaft converted into a VERY small dorm. Fortunately, his class was the last to have to live in those conditions. The fire marshal shut them down for having only one exit and no windows, which is a fire safety issue. </p>
<p>The worst dorm I’ve ever experienced was Catawba College. It was an awful college experience overall. I haven’t mentioned my Catawba experience on this thread yet, so I’ll detail it a bit. I was there for a 2 week youth leadership conference the summer before my senior year.</p>
<p>The dorms had a sink and a mirror, closets, and a study lounge that connected to another room. I later learned that these are all luxury items compared to a typical dorm, but none of this mitigated the fact that the furniture all looked as if it was from the 1950s, the mirror was broken, the floors were concrete, and both mattresses in the room were old and sagging. Also the TV in the “lounge” didn’t work, and there wasn’t much else in there. The basement level, where the laundry facilities were, was infested with roaches. </p>
<p>The food was worse than high school quality. Later I was wandering Princeton Review and found Catawba ranked like #5 on the worst food list, which I totally agree with. The only thing we had to look forward to was the ice cream bar. We did a lot of events in their theatres. One day, we came back from lunch and found a dead bat in their studio theatre. And then we were having our midweek “talent show” in the main theatre, and a bat flew out from backstage, circled the house, and flew back. </p>
<p>Only after the conference did I learn they have a really good Theatre program (my major) and I was encouraged to apply. I didn’t care. I was NEVER applying after all of that. Not even for the $5000 a year scholarship they offered all the participants of that conference. It was my first experience staying overnight in a college, and left me very worried about what laid ahead.</p>
<p>As an FYI, my D (not at Tufts) tells me that is “uncool” to wear your own college’s T-shirt around campus. Instead, students wear the T-shirts of colleges they applied to and didn’t attend. So it is very common to see students (who are aware of this “cool” issue, apparently) on campuses wearing other college’s attire.</p>
<p>^ Wow! Then there were hundreds of uncool kids at Va Tech when my S3 and I visited this spring. It was a beautiful, warm day and students all over campus were repping VT attire.</p>
<p>Probably the more elite the school, the more they wear another school’s T-shirts. That’s why it’s so cool because they know their school is the best.</p>
<p>I can see the fun in that.</p>
<p>My D love having her Columbia swain wear Barnard T-shirts. He was happy to oblige. He wasn’t in the picture long though.</p>
<p>Glad DS isn’t going somewhere so elite, cause he had a bonfire of all college related materials and that included all the shirts that I bought him apparently. His chance to be cool is lost to him I guess.</p>
<p>At Wake and UNC, more “elite” colleges, people LOVE wearing the school’s gear around campus. That might be related to the strong athletic programs I guess.</p>
<p>I’ve never heard of not wearing your school gear. A student body that doesn’t support their own school would be a huge turn off personally.</p>
<p>I did tell DS not to wear clothing he got from other schools he is considering to the summer program he is attending next week at one college he is considering. After he gets accepted he can wear that other stuff on campus :D.</p>
<p>Not wearing your own college gear seems to be common with the 5 College Consortium- definitely at Smith and Hampshire anyway. Or maybe it isn’t that you don’t wear your own, but it is cool to wear other schools?</p>
<p>“My big sister interviewed at [Ivy] and all I got was this lousy T-shirt”</p>
<p>Although D liked a lot of things about Wesleyan (the huge ethnomusicology gong, for example), she declined to apply after the campus tour. There seemed to be a pick-up sport happening in every green quad, that took up the entire quad (ultimate frisbee, softball, football toss and others). She had to duck and dodge the balls as she went from buiilding to building. Later she said she didn’t see where she could just relax under a tree with a book. On this site, a loyal Wesleyan alum explained that year was some housing construction near the athletic field, possibly squeezing some activities or practices elsewhere.</p>
<p>Temporary construction can really skew a college tour!</p>