<p>Campcampcamp, I never thought about American that way, but when I envision it now, it does resemble a prison somewhat. DD and I still liked it though. </p>
<p>As for Temple, I grew up in the area and have taken numerous classes and performed at Temple but never cared for it (and was sure that snooty suburban DD wouldn’t care for it either).</p>
<p>Imagine my surprise when we both liked it during a tour! She will be applying as it is an academic and financial match.</p>
<p>Is it the dorms at American? PR could feature a new category, “Dorms that are like prisons.”</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Amen. Sometimes it just amazes me how parents/students lose the “big picture” here.</p>
<p>I remember awhile back a HS senior posted his list of schools that he would like to attend (in order) and he had U. of Wisconson ahead of Harvard. I replied that is he really telling us that if he was admitted to both schools he’s pick Wisconson over Harvard?</p>
<p>His response: “Yes. Wisconson has some clubs that interest me.”</p>
<p>You’ve got to be kidding me.</p>
<p>Soze, I do agree that it can seem weird that someone could eliminate an entire school because of two students there, but I can understand why someone would choose a school that has more of the things that interest them than an Ivy League school. </p>
<p>I spoke withy daughter’s friend who attends an Ivy. She is quite bright, of course, but is also extremely gifted in musical theatre. She said that she wishes that she had explored the social environment of the school a little bit more because she would probably have chosen a different school that had kids more like her. </p>
<p>Not sure if she meant another Ivy or not, but it goes to show that just because its an Ivy doesn’t mean it’s the right school for you. Not everyone wants to attend a college just for its reputation and name, especially if its not an overall good match.</p>
<p>Well over 2 million HS seniors didn’t even apply to Harvard last year, including many who could have filed competitive applications. What the hell is wrong with these people?</p>
<p>/ end CC mode</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Realize that this type of comment is likely a proxy for, “I felt like I would fit in at Wisconsin.”</p>
<p>I fail to see the problem here. My son has the grades and scores for a top school…not Harvard, maybe Caltech. He won’t even be applying. He would be miserable in a highly competitive academic environment including all of the Ivies.</p>
<p>Believe it or not, not everyone wants to go to Harvard.</p>
<p>American U’s dorms do have a bad reputation. I’m not sure of their status of renovation projects. They didn’t show us any of the dorms during the open house I attended. </p>
<p>They have been trying to build new housing on the parking lot on the south side of their campus for years, but were delayed by the neighborhood organization. The rest of the campus was very pleasant and definitely not “prison-like.” However, they did a problem several years ago from unexploded artillery shells from when it was a WWI training camp.</p>
<hr>
<p>I can imagine some students from the midwest wouldn’t want to travel to the Boston area to go to college, simply because it is too far away.</p>
<p>My D found Baldwin Wallace’s campus to be very odd. The stretch of the buildings is very long and it’s very residential. It was as if the buildings were dropped in the median. Very hard to describe.</p>
<p>dudedad, PR already has a category: “Dorms like Dungeons.”</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Agreed, but if the best reason you can come up with as to why you’d rather go to Wisconsin than Harvard is that there are some clubs that interest you, I’m just not sure that the bigger picture is being seen.</p>
<p>McDaniel College.</p>
<p>Strike 1 - We’d like to see the pool.
It’s in another building [that’s not on the tour].</p>
<p>Strike 2 - We’d like to see a residence room.
Sorry, the students are moving in today.
Echoing the thoughts of the other families, "You’re @$#%ing kidding me –
we drove/flew hundreds/thousands of miles to visit your school, and you’re
not gonna show us a residence room on the tour?</p>
<p>Strike3 - The line-up for the cafeteria was 30-40 folks deep at 11:30 –
and, to all intents & purposes, it’s the only cafeteria.</p>
<p>Moving smartly along … .</p>
<p>For security reasons, many colleges do not show visitors the inside of residence halls during the initial tours that are open to the public. After all, any schmuck can show up for the tour. They only take you into the residence halls during the accepted student events.</p>
<p>I agree with charlieschm. Also, the students were moving in that day. No need to have random tourists taking up space while students are moving in and out with all of their things. They most likely will have their doors wide open too. </p>
<p>My school has a strict no tourists inside buildings policy. Mainly because we don’t have a central student center that most colleges have, so we ONLY have residence halls and academic buildings. Tours inside might be able to work, except we have thousands of tourists a day, almost 24/7. If it was a smaller school, not in a city, and/or not such a tourist attraction for the sake of being a tourist attraction, it would work. I bet we have more tourists than prospective families (the multitude of parents who bring their</p>
<p>Not ‘tourists’. Four prospective students and their families. Visits booked well in advance. Students interviewed. A school of ~1600 in a small town.</p>
<p>I dare say that they could have made something happen. Certainly, every other school that we’ve visited has done so.</p>
<p>Given CPUscientist3000’s school, they get a lot of tourists. Not having tours inside buildings hasn’t effected their applications or yield. But not everyone is Harvard.</p>
<p>Many schools set aside a vacant dorm room to show prospective students and their families what a typical room looks like.</p>
<p>But I have also been deep into a dorm (upper floor, way down a long hall) on a residence hall tour at a public flagship, and no one seemed anxious. Of course, this was in the trusting midwest. :)</p>
<p>For DD, the dorm room was the last thing she cared about seeing. She knew she would live in one and didn’t care a bit about what it looked like.</p>
<p>We don’t care what they look like. But we do care about room height, what it smells like, and the state of the bathrooms.</p>
<p>Many of the schools we visited had a few model rooms, set up (courtesy of Target or BedBathBeyond) as if someone lived there, strictly for tours.</p>
<p>I’ve toured a lot of smaller, “out of the way” schools (LACs like Smith, Wellesley, etc)) too and I only saw one room, and it was at Northeastern (not small nor out of the way). I didn’t think it was odd, then again I didn’t have much hope for college housing anyway :)</p>