<p>Caltech. I was admitted and didn’t attend way back in the dark ages, didn’t even get to visit, so I was very curious. We were there on a beautiful sunny day, and not a soul was outside. Nobody studying outdoors, no one walking, no one playing tennis. Where were all the students?</p>
<p>Ducked into a Starbucks for an iced coffee and there they were. Every table taken by a student with his laptop open, the place was completely silent.</p>
<p>Bucknell university. </p>
<p>We had a huge info session that emphasized what you as a student had to be like in order for the admissions office to even read your application.
Too much khaki and white and blue in combination with popped collars in the audience. </p>
<p>We had a great tour guide, but all of the other students seemed disengaged and exclusively the parents were asking questions. </p>
<p>Today was their freshman orientation, and most freshman we passed seemed really immature and only stood around in little groups as if afraid of talking to other people. Whereas I can understand shyness, it appeared more like they had accidentally been dropped off by their parents and now didn’t know what to do with themselves. </p>
<p>Most of the older students we passed were extremely sporty/preppy and hyper super friendly, to the point of it being superficial and not genuine. </p>
<p>Our lovely tour guide in the end admitted to feeling left out as a freshman because of the dominating Greek life and a lack of alternatives which she accepted. She emphasized career preparation throughout the tour, but not once mentioned the intellectual position of the school. </p>
<p>I can see how a certain type of student could be very happy at bucknell. But it was just not for me; I much prefer the quirky, intellectual, nerdy, artsy, scatterbrained to dominate my future school. </p>
<p>During the tour, my tour guide and everyone except for me laughed about how some people don’t know what a Vera Garrett (??) or so brand item is. I don’t know and don’t feel a need to, so that somewhat sealed the deal that bucknell is not for me :)</p>
<p>Vera Bradley? If that is what the guide meant it’s chintzy, floral, quilted handbags/satchels that look like the cosmetic cases my mom used in the 80s. Sold at Hallmark stores. Hardly haute couture but for some reason the college kids love it. </p>
<p>In any case, you have completely captured what I imagined Bucknell to be like and confirmed my suspicion that it would not be a good fit for my kids.</p>
<p>Stanford. Felt like a cross between Vulcan and Beijing. UVA. Felt like you needed to have Thomas Jefferson in your pedigree and a working knowledge of fox hunting to fit in. Swarthmore. Diversity from preppy to the unshaven bedraggled male sitting near the entrance looking like a roadside bomber from the middle east. Didn’t even get out of the car.</p>
<p>@sally: YES, that was it. </p>
<p>I am one of those people who does not know a thing about brand clothing. I jus but good quality clothing and very standard stuff at stores that I like including thrift shops 
I’m glad I could be of assistance.</p>
<p>
I like your description of the Stanford campus. Our Stanford tour guide was borderline pretentious, which was off-putting. S applied anyway, was denied, but was not disappointed.</p>
<p>Notre Dame: Tour guide placed way to much emphasis on football for my S and the school seemed too religious (this from my altar server son who attends Mass most weeks). It’s a shame because he really enjoyed the classes he attended. Stayed on the list as a maybe for a while but recently got cut.</p>
<p>CMU: Information session was a turn-off. Very cold and impersonal. We had just visited several other schools who all stressed how easy it wS to change majors or double major in different departments / schools within the university. The woman who gave the CMU info session stressed how difficult it was to double major or change to a major in a different school. When 2 students showed up to take the well over a hundred people present on the tour, S decided it was time leave.</p>
<p>Collage1 - we were on that Lehigh tour as well. We didn’t take them seriously. The same thing happened to us at Georgia Tech. Lehigh has a beautiful campus, I want to go there. S1 liked it but it’s not at the top of his list.</p>
<p>GraniteStateMom - it’s a shame you didn’t have the same guy we had for the information session. He was very funny and engaged the students throughout the session. My S1 and I went to a CMU session outside of Boston. The same admissions guy was presenting with another admissions guy. They were very entertaining. We now compare all other info sessions to CMU. Excellent tour guide, as well. S2 kept commenting how much he like the school for S3 (not on the tour and only in 8th grade, ok sure?).</p>
<p>I have have to say that Pitt really surprised me. Very well organized, very efficient and the free stuff didn’t hurt. Loved Pittsburgh as a college town. My niece arranged an engineering tour for us, nice to be able to sit and talk one on one with our tour guide. Pitt definitely moved up on the list.</p>
<p>So, unfortunately, my S1 can’t seem to find a school that he doesn’t like. The closest we come to taking schools off the list are Penn and Yale. It was raining for our Penn visit and our tour guide wasn’t loud enough and didn’t exude much personality. S1 deemed the school too Hogwartsy. Not sure why Yale has moved to the bottom of the list. I have a feeling that Penn and Yale are at the bottom of the list purely because they are Ivy League.</p>
<p>I think I need to start a thread for the kids that never met a school they didn’t like. He even liked Temple which we were visiting for S2.</p>
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<p>I’m right there with you! 
And it does make this time of year a bit more challenging.</p>
<p>But thank goodness for these kids who will probably be quite content wherever they land. :)</p>
<p>University of Michigan. Couldn’t hear tour guide and the campus is too spread out.</p>
<p>Theretheygo - I totally agree with you about Pitt. We were walking by the admissions office on our way to CMU. S decided to run in for some info and was immediately invited to an info session for the honors college. They were so welcoming; we were both pleasantly surprised by what the school has to offer.</p>
<p>GraniteStateMom - we went to Pitt because my niece wanted S1 to see the school. She is a senior studying chemical engineering. She is very happy and very involved at Pitt. I think S1 now has Pitt as top safety school.</p>
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<p>D attended a week long engineering program there this summer. I thought the campus was quite lovely and everything was quite nice looking and modern (no tour, but I saw the engineering spaces and dining hall and her dorm). The big draw for me though…interesting food trucks everywhere! I wanted to try them all :)</p>
<p>OHMomof2 - yes, I took S2 to look at Temple because of the gymnastics team but the food trucks may be an even bigger draw for him. Did you get any Insomnia Cookies? My nephew graduated from Temple. It holds a special place in his heart, even more than Penn where he got his masters. S2 will most likely be applying there when he is a senior.</p>
<p>No I was there on a Sunday to drop her off and they were all closed but I saw some fantastic ones…Jamaican to cheese steaks to Asian fusion…D will apply to Temple if her SAT/ACT puts her in range of their full tuition scholarship (she is a junior).</p>
<p>ThereTheyGo and dodgersmom, my son is the same. Everywhere we go is “fine”. Hasn’t crossed any schools off yet after 6 visits. I am afraid if he gets accepted to most of them (only one is a big reach), he will have a very hard time elimintating some! </p>
<p>Glad to hear all the positive Pitt comments. It is on our short list of schools to squeeze in a visit before Nov. 1 early deadlines. Everything I hear is always so positive from both students and parents.</p>
<p>DD just graduated from Pitt. For those of you with top-performing kids, the merit money is enticing. </p>
<p>Back to the thread. ;-)</p>
<p>Duke- Over the top. Wouldn’t be fun
FSU- Tallahassee is a dump
Univ. Richmond
Georgia Tech- too many homeless</p>
<p>American University-looks like a huge prison
SUNY Albany-just a dump</p>
<p>incadinca - not everyone loves Pitt with a visit. 
It was one of middle son’s top choices - until he went and saw it. He didn’t cross it off his list as he’s one who could make it anywhere and the finances were definitely good, but he was definitely happy when U Rochester came in as affordable. The difference? Pitt is more urban, larger, and kids (he talked to) were far more focused on sports and “other” things. URoc has its own campus and kids (he talked to) were far more “intellectual.” He felt more in his niche in the latter (excessive talk about sports was a big turn off for other schools too).</p>
<p>It IS good to visit to see if it’s a good fit, or not. For many it is. For others, not so much - pretty much like any other school out there. That’s part of why this thread is so fun to read… ;)</p>