<p>We visited Tufts, where the tours were led by students majoring in religion, dance, women’s studies, and one I think in chemistry. My son said sotto voce, “I guess one of them will have a job after they graduate.” He was considering Tufts because of one of it’s sports teams but the liberal arts atmosphere was too much for him. He crossed it off the list.</p>
<p>I thought it was nice, smaller, and the cafeteria food was very good. </p>
<p>Maybe the one with the job post-graduation was Tracy Chapman. </p>
<p>@Jara123, sorry to hear that you had that problem with Rice. My S only had great experiences with Rice and, in part because of that, will be a freshman there this Fall. We had an experience with Caltech that was slightly similar to yours with Rice, though not nearly as bad. We registered for a tour on a particular day, then bought our plane tickets based on that, only to hear back from Caltech that they had decided not to give a tour that day but would keep a spot open for us on the next day if we wanted it. We already were registered for tours at Harvey Mudd and Pomona on that next day, which we couldn’t change, and so we ended up not doing the formal tour at Caltech, though we did do our own informal self-tour. That experience probably did contribute to Caltech dropping off of S’s list, but he wasn’t that sure about applying there anyway. He isn’t afraid of hard work, but stories about Caltech’s notorious extremely rigorous workload had him a bit unsure about it already.</p>
<p>ARGGGG!!! Rice is such an amazing school, and I had both kids attend and LOVE their time there. Unfortunately, their admissions department sucks and has for the last ten years that I know about!!! The thing about colleges, is that once you are admitted you have absolutely no contact with the admissions office; but a bad admissions office can keep kids from wanting to apply. I would encourage those of you who have had bad experience with the admissions office at any school to try to look beyond it. My daughter almost didn’t apply to Rice due to how awful our experience was with them, but I pushed and pushed and she applied, attended and loved it. They were very generous, and she ended up getting a post-grad scholarship and now attends an ivy-league school for a fully-funded master’s degree… So glad that the attitudes of the admissions department didn’t cause her to go elsewhere.</p>
<p>Eating crow is not for everyone.</p>
<p>^^WHAT? I never applied to Princeton (got lazy in the middle of essay writing 
) but I visited a friend there several times while attending a different college, and the food made me regret my decision!</p>
<p>I know the BC discussion was a few posts back, but my experience was much the same there. I absolutely hated everything about it. I go to a Catholic high school and BC reeks of the elitist nonsense that many Catholic schools feel they deserve. BC wants to be Notre Dame or Georgetown, but it has neither the prestige, intellectual atmosphere or even sports teams of UND. It was just a really obnoxious school where everything from the tour guides and information session to the actual school itself (let’s throw freshman 15 minutes off campus) was just basically a complete turnoff.</p>
<p>Also, when they broke out their special acronym for minorities… I knew it was the wrong place for me. I am by no means someone who is overly liberal/socially active, but that was just ridiculous. If you have to have a special hall dedicated to minorities you’re probably doing something wrong. There were other things I couldn’t stand about it (their core curriculum is pretty stupid, much more restrictive than a lot of other schools), but I feel like if you can’t even stand going on the tour, it’s probably the wrong school.</p>
<p>I also crossed off BU from my list pretty quickly, and was pretty sure Stony Brook is not where I want to spend 4 years. I didn’t cross Johns Hopkins off my list after visiting it, but I felt very disappointed by it. Terrible information session (both of my parents fell asleep, no one in the audience was mildly interested, annoying family who wouldn’t shut up behind me, disgusting auditorium that had garbage and dirt on the floor), and the tour itself was a bit uninspired. Seemed like they just assume that their name will carry them. I’ll still apply, but I certainly won’t be devastated if I don’t get in.</p>
<p>At Manhattanville and SUNY Purchase, there was no school spirit, no one interacting on campus, it was eerily quiet, and extremely underwhelming. </p>
<p>I love this thread, keep posting!</p>
<p>@micmatt513–we found the Hopkins info session to be one of the best attended, and I think I attended 20. Excellent Ad Com and extremely impressive student. I thought the room was lovely and saw no evidence of garbage.</p>
<p>We did not like BC as it felt as though they truly did not care if we were there. Further, the tour guide asked the families if anyone planned to apply to Nursing or Education and even though no one did, she continued to drag us (in the 95 degree heat) to the Nursing & Education buildings, telling us about those majors. </p>
<p>I was also unimpressed by the student panel at the Info Session. </p>
<p>We visited TCU and it quickly came off the list. The school has a great reputation and it started among the top 3 for us. Unfortunately, the admissions rep spent more time telling the group how competitive admissions are and comparing the school to Rice than she spent telling us about the school, opportunities, campus life, etc. </p>
<p>Upon leaving the presentation, we went on a campus tour. The campus is very nice, and while our guide was very sweet, she didn’t have much of a personality. We left feeling unwanted. It was as if we should feel privileged to have had the opportunity to walk onto the campus rather than them feel that way about our interest.</p>
<p>On the contrary, when we visited Alabama, they rolled the red carpet out for every visiting student. Every prospective student had a personalized itinerary customized to their interests. We visited with a professor in the psychology dept, toured a sorority house and met with a current student, met with campus life and two more students to hear about activities and intramurals on campus, and had lunch with a current student. I saw some students met with Honors and other depts. We felt like Alabama wanted us and they cared about how we left the campus feeling. We received two follow up calls after our visit–one about a week later and another one a few months later. If a school the size of Alabama can provide such personalization, TCU certainly could have put forth more effort.</p>
<p>There are definitely many reasons colleges can - and should - be cut from lists. No one can attend ALL the schools that are good options for them.</p>
<p>But it still surprises me how many cut things solely due to the “sales presentation.” I suppose there’s a reason those free T-shirts and multiple mailings abound.</p>
<p>I crossed Stanford off the list after making the trip to Palo Alto after I got accepted. The campus was large and nice, especially the lake. However, the classrooms were sterile and most of the guys were very nerdy and I didn’t see anyone I’d likely hang out with. I ended up at USC where the kids were more well rounded and I felt was a better fit for me. The tour guide was outstanding and reminded me of the guides who work at Disneyland.</p>
<p>Macalester. While I agree, somewhat, that one should look past the “sales presentation” to other school attributes, there are some that are just so horribly bad, so underwhelming and far below the expectations set by the schools reputation, you cannot get past it. Utter disrespect for ones time and interest can be the only excuse for such an abysmal lack of preparation for a scheduled event.</p>
<p>I’m an adult, who wanted to like Macalester. My S was only curious. If the clumsy execution of a paltry 20 minute power point presentation cannot be made to hold the attention of those with bonafide interest? how in the heck will you contend for 17 and 18 year old’s with casual interest? And many other options!</p>
<p>“The tour guide was outstanding and reminded me of the guides who work at Disneyland” was a negative for us. Impressions can be so different for different people.</p>
<p>Reading some of these posts one wonders if the schools realize just how important these visits are to prospective families. You would think they would hold info sessions in the most impressive room on campus and be more thoughtful about who they select to lead tours. We have visited about 8 colleges and have not had a bad time at any of them, but I do think the tour guides could be more knowledgeable. We have gotten our fair share of “I really don’t know the answer to that question.” I also like the idea of separating the groups by their academic interests if possible. If my child is going to do STEM, she would at least like to see the science buildings. And what is up with so many schools not showing you the dorms? Are they THAT bad that so many schools don’t make them a part of the tour? </p>
<p>D has been to visit 7 schools and attended info sessions for another half dozen or so. Bottom line for her - the impressions generated from initial research generally held when she got on campus. The campus visits, however, were crucial in helping her craft a final list and set of priorities. She was very skeptical about Brandeis - but it would be a safety and had a great program for her - so we kept it on the visit list. Drove up the hill to the parking lot, got out of the car and walked over to admissions. On the way in the door she asked how long we needed to stay. That was the end of that one! She was really excited to see Tufts - was absolutely the WORST info session she’d been to. The woman paced back and forth across the same four feet of floor through the 45 minute talk. Yet - D still absolutely loved the campus and had a great visit. It’s still high on the list. So whoever had said the picky things were simply a surrogate for what their gut feel is - definitely agree. They can garner a lot of information from the web and the various blogs, etc. It really helps to then solidify those gut feels with the visits. </p>
<p>I agree schools should have prospective students hosted in a nice area. They should have a polished admissions professional give a warm, welcoming overview of the university and offer time for questions. Groups should be small enough for everyone to hear and be heard.
Please remember that the tour guides are almost universally students. Quite often, they are young (freshmen and sophomores). Even with fairly extensive training, it is unlikely they could know much beyond their area of study and extracurriculars. The training SHOULD be that, if they have to say “I don’t know,” they follow it with “We’ll be sure to find out when we reach the Relevant Building.” Then a good tour guide would try to get the answer. If it can’t be answered on the tour, the guide should mention the question or concern to the admissions officer as the prospective student is returned. I have heard guides give definitive answers to questions that I know to be incorrect. That is way worse than saying “I don’t know!” They should be trained to find out, not necessarily to know everything! :)</p>
<p>Muhlenberg. Daughter took one look at the kids walking between classes as we drove into campus and said, “Not my people.” I agreed. We parked, made a polite excuse to the admissions office, and went on to the next school.</p>
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<p>Our Conn College tour guide was stumped a couple of times but always said “I will find out and let you know”. They had biz cards with contact info.</p>