<p>Well my S and I went up to the PNW last Spring. It was going to be my S’s first college visits, since even though we live in CA he won’t even look at any CA schools. Our first visit was Reed college, didn’t even think he would like it. Needless to say he feel head over heals for it and was still under their spell when we left there and drove to Willamette. We got out of the car and walked to the admissions office and he said immediately, " I don’t like it,let’s leave". HUH!!! I actually thought he would like Willamette better. I think if you are visiting 2 colleges in one day and they LOVE the first one the second is only going to pale in comparison. The next day we went to Lewis and Clark, he didn’t love it or hate it but at least he was open enough to sit through the session and tour. He said he liked it enough to apply.</p>
<p>This year we have A LOT more schools to look at. It should be interesting.</p>
<p>D2 thought she wanted go to a school in CA. While we were visiting my brother, we took the opportunity to visit Berkeley and Stanford. D2 thought Stanford was too sunny and manicured (they were power washing roof on a building when we visited). She recently thinks she might want to be on the East coast.</p>
<p>jscchai, what post are you referring to? I didn’t see any posts on this thread from Sept. 9, 2010, and the thread was started in Oct. of 2009. (?)</p>
<p>oldfort: Stanford was the first school D crossed off the list for similar non-specific reasons that she hated the topography and trees, or lack therof. She realized she needed the familiar east coast woods and hills.</p>
<p>DS took CalTech off the list - he hated the dorms and thought the way senior guide talked about freshmen amounted to hazing. Amazing programs, facilities, etc., but definitely off the list.</p>
<p>Ha, siemom, GTalum, and oldfort… I thought my son was the only one who felt that way. He took off Stanford because he hated the campus (I didn’t even think that was possible) and vibe. He took off CalTech because he thought it was too small. He ended up at Berkeley and is loving it. Good luck with the search.</p>
<p>Wesleyan. I wanted D to like it; great reputation; actual realistic chance she’d get in; but tour guide (a “too cool for school” Brit with lots of sarcasm) was a turn off, as was housing system as he described it (you’re on your own after freshman year). I’m sure his remarks were played to amuse his audience (he actually said tips were welcome at the end of the tour), but we couldn’t get out of there fast enough.</p>
<p>The whole “liking a school” when you visit is so subjective…they can go from neutral to negative based on the weather, the tour guide, or comparing it to the school they’ve just seen.</p>
<p>Tour guides at Caltech were two young women who did NOT seem happy with attending the school. Dorm we were shown was painted black and seemed pretty depressing. S1 still applied, but it was well down his list after that plus a subsequent visit where he sat in on classes. Did not care for Stanford at all.</p>
<p>S2 expected to love Georgetown (had been there several time for NAIMUN, we live in the general area), but after sitting in on classes, was left cold. Not his vibe.</p>
<p>D, now a junior crossed off a few and the reasons in particular:</p>
<p>1) D visited RPI with my H, campus was “gray”, and oddly, no recycling of anything going on anywhere. Did not apply.</p>
<p>2) D visited Olin with me, D felt it exceedingly too small- 4 buildings at the time and only 300 students total. Did not apply.</p>
<p>3) D visited JHopkins with me, the afternoon tour and info session led by a student-- where were faculty, adcoms?
HOPcops everywhere-- no thanks, appreciated the university’s commitment to safety-- but their presence suggested some serious safety issues to both of us and with the lack of guaranteed on campus housing past first year, neither of us were impressed. We left and didn’t even stay for the evening program to which she was invited and headed off early to visit Princeton - which she loved. </p>
<p>4) D Visited MichiganAnn Arbor with both parents AFTER her acceptance. So much alcohol turned D off. Didn’t surprise us-- it’s a big 10 school. The fact that stickers were available for the dorm door indicating you don’t drink seemed odd to D and she felt she would be in the minority as someone who doesn’t drink. She is still a non-drinker even though friends drink regularly in her presence-- but not at the levels at Michigan.</p>
<p>5) visited Penn State-- felt “institutional” and “cold”. Didn’t apply.</p>
<p>6) Visited Swarthmore-- absolutely beautiful campus, wonderful welcoming faculty and students. didn’t apply b/c the technical facilities just didn’t match up to what were available at other non LAC schools and at the time, D was planning on engineering and/or physics. This was the only LAC she considered given the engineering major-- it was a really nice place-- but lab facilities were second rate.</p>
<p>Son a freshman visited several, and the only two that went off his list after visiting were MIT and Cornell.
He found the students at MIT too cut-throat and didn’t get the same feeling he had from CalTech and CMU: those students appeared to work collaboratively.
So he didn’t apply to MIT.
He took Cornell off his list after being accepted b/c he felt that most of the weekend social activities focused on the frats. He attended an accepted students weekend. Greek life wasn’t on his radar. Whether true or not-- that was the impression he got–and it was the year of the large numbers of suicides, this seemed to pop up in the conversations.</p>
<p>Re post by class of 2015 about Wesleyan - Wesleyan University in Middletown, CT guarantees housing for all undergraduates.</p>
<p>Actually I think the housing at Wesleyan is especially appealing, as a large number of upperclassmen live in university owned houses, each with a small number of residents.</p>
<p>Daughter visited MIT. Wasn’t really on her list as it would have been too much of a stretch. But we were in the area, so we went. I figured that since she hadn’t been on any other college tours, it would be useful to do one that should be a good example of the kind of school she was interested and, since it was out of her league, no pressure on her.</p>
<p>It was a grey day with some rain, so it started off kind of somber. We were directed to the cafeteria to have a session with an admission counselor first. Lunch was just getting over and the table we sat at had not been cleaned from lunch and was sticky from food residue. The admission counselor seemed to want to answer every question with a joke (and there were some real “nerdly” questions), not really apprpriate IMHO.</p>
<p>The tour guide we got was in love with himself and what he accomplished at MIT. Half way thur the tour we exited. Even if MIT had been on my daughter’s list, it wasn’t any more.</p>
<p>After we exited the tour, I wanted to stop by and see one of my old friends that teaches there on campus. After our visit and walking back to the car, we went down one of the corridors we had gone on the tour. Lo and behold, there was an exhibit on Apollo 11’s moon landing (this visit was in 2009) just off to the side. It even had Buzz Aldrin’s orriginal thesis on orbitial rendezvous techniques, turned to the title page. Very interesting. Still wonder if our tour guide even knew that exhibit was there. (guessing that he didn’t)</p>
<p>Don’t get me wrong. MIT is a great school. They could just present it in a much better light.</p>
<p>A friend of D1’s was turned off of Carleton because the tourguide apparently spent lots of time talking about how rules about drinking weren’t really enforced. </p>
<p>After talking to her friend, D1 realized that she knew the tourguide, who’d graduated from D1’s school. When I’d mentioned Carleton to D1 earlier, she refused to consider the school, because she knew that this particular student was going to be attending Carleton. So this particular kid is responsible for alienating at least two different prospies, on two different occasions. I sincerely hope the tourguide isn’t considering any kind of career that involved working with the general public. :)</p>
<p>American University- I thought I was really going to like it and it looked great on paper but I found the campus really small and crammed together</p>
<p>It bothers me to see that so many people base their opinion of a college on a single tour guide.</p>
<p>My son recently began giving tours. His first tour was on an Open House day, and it was very large. He told me “I don’t think I’m really loud enough for that large a group.” He felt his second tour went much better. </p>
<p>Some people like a tourguide with a sense of humor, others see that as a turnoff. I’ve read comments that tourguides are dressed to preppy or too casual. They talk too much about themselves, or they give no information about why they like/chose the school. They admit there’s alcohol, or they “quote the school line” about alcohol. It almost seems like no matter what they say or do, someone won’t like it.</p>
<p>Please try to get your kids - and yourselves - to remember that a tour guide is just one person. Yes, admissions should screen them to see that they are someone who can represent the school well. But the truth is most tour guides are either volunteers, or are giving tours as a part time job for minimum wage. Most of them are doing the best they can. </p>
<p>If the atmosphere on a campus is a turnoff - everyone you see is too preppy or too slobby, or looks sad or stressed or hungover - that’s one thing. But to grade an entire college based on the personality of a single tour guide is just lazy and wrong.</p>
<p>^^that was why S1 returned to Caltech later for a second visit. Sat in on a philosophy class and found it “too mathy.” (This is coming from a math major!) Said half the class was asleep. He wanted a more serious emphasis on humanities.</p>
<p>S2: At one LAC, the level of discussion in a soph/junior seminar was a the level level of his then junior-year IB TOK class. At another, the prof gave quizzes on current events in an IR course. Was looking for a higher level of student engagement.</p>
<p>Every tour DS and I went on had terrific tour guides. Articulate and engaging. Can’t speak for the guides at the schools he visited with his dad but wasn’t the reason he didn’t like any school. </p>
<p>Schools crossed off his list:</p>
<p>U of Rochester - I wasn’t there but he didn’t like anything about it. Found it cold. </p>
<p>Syracuse - too big. </p>
<p>Clark - didn’t like Worcester and felt the kids were too “save the world” types for him. </p>
<p>Hamilton - too country club-ish. </p>
<p>NYU - thought he would love it but not campus-y enough. </p>
<p>Fordham - loved the campus, hated where it was in the Bronx. </p>
<p>Skidmore - liked it but too close to home and a bit to artsy for him.</p>
<p>Hartwick: super safety and lots of merit money and rolling admission so he’ll be in somewhere before April. If he had to go would do a 3+3 program with Albany Law School. </p>
<p>At American University, my son liked their “no parents allowed session.” They had a back and forth discussion between applicants and current students with no parents allowed in the room.</p>
Good luck with the search.</p>