<p>Carnegie Mellon: Tour guides were all drama/arts folks, and even the engineering student that swung by was in multiple singing / acting groups. Not S’s cup of tea.</p>
<p>Princeton: S said “I don’t need another 4 years / all my college in a town that’s pretty much like where we live now”. Good for him!</p>
<p>NYU: Was high on the list pre-visit. Now lower on list because of lack of true campus and concerns about “no true campus style life”.</p>
<p>I love this post. We visited 22+ schools, and if colleges only understood that the tour guides can sway a 16-17 y/o’s opinion greatly, they might spend more time training them or at least place them with students from their own majors. We started a tour guide review after quite a few had quirky remarks or habits. One tour guide only spoke about where all the candy on campus was and another cracked gum and swung a giant key chain throughout the entire tour. Another male tour guide, talked exclusively about his sports exploits and knew nothing about the great theater program at the school. Still another spoke about what a giant nerd he was and how much he liked fantasy novels. The most organized open houses we visited were at SUNY Binghamton, Niagara, Hartwick, St John Fisher, and Drexel. The worst visit was at Brown University with 100 people to 1 tour guide and some of the SUNY schools were like…hey, you wanna come here, great…if not, we dunna care either way. Then there are the “other guests” on the tour who can affect the mood of the tour as well as they color the conversation in a certain way. Colleges can’t control the weather, but I eventually realized it affected the mood of the campus so much, that we postponed an out of town visit in April due to gloomy weather forecast. My D actually hated a school and because its name sounded like a bodily function! We still laugh every time we hear the name! There is such a thing as “gut feeling” or intuition factor, so who I am to say what is right for anyone else? I do find this a fascinating post because we obviously have intelligent children and yet that “gut” factor is as basically human as you can get! Logic be gone!</p>
<p>Marybee- Bodily function=Ursinus???</p>
<p>I visited Princeton, Harvard, Yale and unexpectedly UConn west of Hartford, as well as NYU.</p>
<p>I could not stand Harvard, the campus was located right next to a major road, tons of noise and it just spoiled the campus vibe.
The Quad was beautiful, although I did miss a real center on campus.
Cambridge itself was nice, but not outstanding. The prices in surrounding stores reflected what the average student spends - they where horrendous. the admissions office was chaotic and unfriendly. I was not
Impressed. It just did not feel like a great place to spend more than 3 hours. </p>
<p>Yale was amazing - great people, great program, great campus. My tour guide was unfriendly, but she knew a lot. As everyone says - the bad part is New Haven. It’s beautiful on and around campus, but we got lost on our way back to the highway. Especially the harbor area is no place you want to be. </p>
<p>We ended up passing UConn so we stopped there. Beautiful campus! Very widespread, I did not like the airy feeling, but many people do. Rural location, but relatively close to Hartford which I like very much. </p>
<p>Princeton was nice, but not impressive. Campus seemed a little wannabe-old to me (I am European :)) so I did not like that. The town was nice, but rather small. However, I could not picture myself spending more than 2 weeks there. </p>
<p>Did not like NYU whatsoever. Too many people who are too individual and outstanding to talk to you. The dorms did not feel like a home, much rather like a prison. There is no distinctive campus which bothered me as well. </p>
<p>Good luck on all of your tours!</p>
<p>It’s so interesting how various aspects of the school - tour guides, open houses, the weather, etc. have such an influence. We have been to so many schools and I have to say that the tour guide NEVER influenced us in their decisions. I guess we always assumed that they are just kids and never put much stock in what they told us 
</p>
<p>What was more important was the overall impression of the campus, the buildings, the information from the info sessions (some of which were surprisingly unimpressive), the students we saw on campus, and the overall location. We also went back to schools that were on the short list to narrow them down at decision time so my son could sit in on classes. That was EXTREMELY helpful and really critical in making the decision.</p>
<p>As for the weather, I have to say that although it can make a difference, if you like the place, the weather may not make a difference. It was raining the whole time we visited Bucknell with our youngest son and we all thought it was one of the most beautiful campuses we had seen.</p>
<p>If I had to do it over again, I would avoid visiting in the broiling heat of Summer, which made the tours unpleasant, and limited getting a good feel for students at some of the campuses. Unfortunately, travel during the school year is difficult because it often involves missing classes.</p>
<p>Good luck to everyone on your visits.</p>
<p>I mentioned this on another thread, but since we’re talking tours, it fits here: DS was so put off by the tour at CalArts that he couldn’t wait to get away. The guide was a drama major and the tour was truly more “Me Show” than anything else. He made people hold hands and twirl with him. My son was like a bug pinned on a board. </p>
<p>The guide also made us form a Conga line, with hands on hips of the person in front of us. We snaked thusly through dark, subterranean CalArts corridors. The stricken look on my son’s face as we Conga’d past each other in the narrow hallway still haunts me. </p>
<p>Yeah, CalArts came off his list that day.</p>
<p>DS did his best to remain objective, but his ardor for the school just wilted, never to be revived.</p>
<p>^^ that’s too funny…alittle too quirky IMO. My kids would have bolted if they had to form a conga line.</p>
<p>Alright, I take back what I said about tour guides not mattering in the process! That CalArts story is horrifying! Unless they want to frighten away the entire male population, they need to set this tour guide in a different direction.</p>
<p>We had a variety of tour guides along the way and the ones that we could relate to the most, were the most enjoyable. But in the end even a great guide didn’t matter if my DS didn’t think the school was a good fit. </p>
<p>Our most notable tour was in Auburn. Our guide did the entire tour walking backwards! Up steps, through the quads and the bookstore he walked backwwards. Only walked into one trash can in an hour and a half. We still crack up about the backwards tour guide. :)</p>
<p>Almost every school we visited my D crossed it off the list. Most of the schools on her list, she has not visited and we refuse to visit anymore out of fear she’ll cross more off her list. Yale and UPenn were both visited and made the cut.</p>
<p>We toured Rutgers with our oldest child and loved it. Actually the tour guide made it sound great and did an awesome job. We toured it later with the younger and it was awful. Tour guides make a difference.</p>
<p>The same thing happened at Princeton. On the second visit, the tour guide couldn’t answer what they do for fun. She was asked 3 times and treated it like a really hard SAT question, she tried to answer, realized she might get it wrong then skipped over it and moved on to the next question. Her fun is either non-existent or too X-rated to tell the high schoolers or too bad to tell the parents. I think it was nonexistent.</p>
<p>(Fortunately or unfortunately) my daughter just never found a favorite school…(except the school which is 1200 miles away and we have not yet visited) which the college planner said was good because then we can wait and see how much merit aid we will be offered, and go from there. BUT, I also know this will mean some overnights and more travel to see if it’s REALLY a good fit! After applying to 15+ schools, D decided that the mailer from University of SF would be perfect, just from the beautiful brochure mailed to our home. I said no more applications to schools requiring air travel. I could just cry because after all of this research and work, I am worried she won’t like the school she chooses anyway and maybe will even decide she wants another major! (trying to stay in the moment) Can’t wait until we know for sure. That tour guide conga line story is hilarious! That will be one, you talk about for years to come!</p>
<p>^15+ apps?! I’d wait for the acceptances/rejections to start pouring in, before scheduling visits. You might find a number of schools take themselves off the table.</p>
<p>2 of our kids ruled out Carolina (UNC Chapel Hill) after their tour. For one, he did not like the size of it and so much preferred Davidson that UNC, NC State and Duke all left his radar given their size. </p>
<p>Our other just did not ‘feel’ the whole UNC thing, especially since it seems that every person in her high school wants to go there. But, she fell in love with Duke after the tour. She also liked the feel of NC State in terms of the diversity and friendly people.</p>
<p>Both liked William and Mary after the tour…the campus, the surrounding area and the friendly students…but did hesitate at the tone of ‘we work ALL the time…we are very high achievers’; Oh, and William and Mary also had the backward walking tour guide someone else mentioned for another school. It IS impressive to have the student facing your group, talking with enthusiams and answering questions, all while walking backward!</p>
<p>Neither liked Old Dominion at all (campus). </p>
<p>One liked Campbell University because it was small and friendly; the other did not because it was too small and not diverse enough.</p>
<p>At this point, we just go to various tours as time and location permit so that they can get a feel for what is out there (university, colleges, large, small, diverse or not, artst, sporty, etc.). In a general sense, it makes all visits somewhat helpful so that we then can narrow down things and really look at target schools.</p>
<p>T</p>
<p>We have only visited a few schools, but each time the tour guide conducted the tour walking backwards. I thought that was the norm.</p>
<p>only school tour D didn’t enjoy was Rutgers. School was too disjointed with multiple campus sites connected by busses. She much preferred small LACs Lafayette, Dickinson, Ursinus, Hobart & William Smith and Muhlenberg</p>
<p>My impression of the various schools I’ve visited:</p>
<p>American: Really liked the political feel of the campus and how focused it was on internships and study abroad. I heard it wasn’t urban. Wrong. The buildings, which are new but trying to look old, are really squished together. Rather small amount of grass, which I really didn’t like. I swear the tour guide was on drugs; she was hyper and excessively loud. She also kept yelling at us to keep up with her. Was my first choice before I visited, but not anymore. Probably will still apply though.</p>
<p>Kenyon:
AMAZING campus. Only complaint is the dorms; they could be a little nicer.</p>
<p>Penn State
Pretty campus, just too big for me.</p>
<p>re the conga line. NO WAY would we have participated- H, S or me. Independent thinkers, not followers.</p>
<p>a conga line?!? LOL!!! trying to imagine how my son would’ve reacted to something like that. that’s the funniest thing i’ve read on this site. truly laugh-out-loud hilarious!</p>
<p>“Our other just did not ‘feel’ the whole UNC thing, especially since it seems that every person in her high school wants to go there.”</p>
<p>My kids were prepared to love UNC, but were turned off by the cult-like obsession the whole town has with the school (seemed like everything was painted Carolina blue). I thought the “nightlife” area just off campus was overrated. Campus has one really nice old section; the rest seemed a bit uninspired. Overall it seemed fine, but not spectacular.</p>
<p>I thought U of Richmond was beautiful – maybe even perfect – but the spider mascot images that are everywhere were a deal-breaker for daughters.</p>