<p>Mythmom has it exactly right. What I don’t like about Stone in general is that his buildings don’t look substantial. They look like models or cartoons of buildings. And to make matters worse in the case of Beckman auditorium circles are absolutely the worst shape for a room from an acoustic point of view. My acoustics teacher in architecture schools had a number of fights with Stone regarding optimal room shapes. I really, really love the old part of the Caltech campus. It’s too bad so many of the new buildings are sympathetic to it. I do like the new Broad Institute though.</p>
<p>My D didn’t cross off the entire school but did eliminate a degree program after meeting the head of the dept and taking a tour of the dept’s building. I completely supported her decision. This guy is the head of a very top ranked dept in a very competitive field which requires licensing and yet is not licensed. He refused to speak above a whisper despite needing to address well over 50 people - not sick just rude. He was dressed in an unstructured suit with t-shirt and converse sneakers - something that was cool for a teenager in the early 90s, not a professional in 2010. Talked primarily about himself. His education, his wife, his kids. Spoke about a career fair that he apparently organized and the number of firms that participated but then went on to say that the students had to be convinced to attend and few had resumes prepared. None were hired to his great surprise. Chalked it up to the economy, not that his students weren’t prepared. Clearly uninterested in any of the students taking the tour.</p>
<p>Contrast to head of another slightly less highly ranked dept. (11th vs 4th) Well dressed, clean, interesting to listen to and interested in talking to prosepective students. Answered questions honestly and without attitude. Mentioned nothing about himself - but I did learn that he was Ivy League educated, licensed in the profession, and highly regarded in the field not only for his leadership of dept but also his own work. Talked about his career fair, how well attended by hiring firms and students alike and the significant number of jobs and internships that resulted, despite the economy. In his presentation he mentioned the ranking of the dept - but it was several pegs lower than what it should have been. It was pointed out to him and he modestly shrugged and said that while he was happy that parents were aware of the current ranking, he asked that we judge the department not by the ranking but by what we heard and learned ourselves.</p>
<p>D has still applied to school 1 but in a different field. Also applied to school 2 and has been accepted, also in a different but closesly related field.</p>
<p>I love mid-century modern, but I could be in the minority there. 
Course, I love a lot of architectural styles.</p>
<p>Middlebury: it was just way too rural/isolated–to the point where it freaked me out and scared me a bit.</p>
<p>Plus my tour guide was weird and was a guy wearing overalls. Ummm…
Plus they have great languages–but discriminate against dead ones!
Also there was like a group of potential soccer players/recruits in my info session and I didn’t really like the huge sporty emphasis/vibes.</p>
<p>Also crossed off Brown–to me their open system seemed less like “you are free to explore” and more like “we don’t really give a crap what you do.” It just felt too unstructured and uninterested in the welfare of the students.</p>
<p>No offense to anyone who likes these schools; just my personal opinions and perceptions.</p>
<p>I didn’t like UT Austin when I visited. It wasn’t too high on my list to begin with, but my mom was in Austin for some work-related stuff and I figured it would be a good idea to tag along and at least give it a look. The tour guides were actually very sharp and interesting people, and it seemed like an academically fine school, but we spent FAR too much time at Longhorn Stadium for my liking. The other families on the tour session did not seem like my kind of people–too many business types and kids who looked like their parents were dictating their futures for them. Also, that burnt-orange color (and EVERYTHING in Austin is burnt-orange) really gets in your eyes after a while.</p>
<p>It didn’t help that my mom got into a conversation with some Austin police who complained that alcohol poisoning was a huuuuuge problem (not a concern of mine, but definitely moved it down on her list).</p>
<p>Austin was interesting (and the food was amazing), but it seemed in many ways like a real 21+ city (the kind where the only fun things to do involve bar-hopping). I didn’t care much about the huge homeless population at first, being a New Yorker, but after a while it seemed like a lot of them (not all, to be fair) were the same breed of not-actually-homeless crust-punks with actual families to go home to, who just decided it would be cool to try the hobo thing for a while.</p>
<p>The 75% in-state population wasn’t really my thing, either.</p>
<p>Okay, well… first off, I’m a “child” not a parent. But I feel like I can go ahead and speak for myself on this one.</p>
<p>I LOVED Carnegie Mellon University when I visited. I wasn’t expecting to, but the campus was so alive. And Pittsburgh is awesome! </p>
<p>On the other hand, I had been expecting to love Kenyon College ever since I opened the first brochure. But when I visited, I had a really bad experience and didn’t like it afterwards… surely, it’s great for some students. But something about the atmosphere and, sadly, the student body turned me off. I’m still applying, and if I get accepted, I might give the college a second try. Hopefully I just had a bad first experience, right?</p>
<p>The College of New Jersey …horrible dorms, disgusting… dark dank… The were new when I grad fro HS in the 70’s and they haven’t updated them…</p>
<p>my son said kid was boring giving the tour. NJ state school are NOT a bargain as other state school are so most kids with the best grades leave the state… The midrange kids are stuck in state due to out of state schools limit # of admits from out of state kids.</p>
<p>SUNY’s don’t, and they are a bargain, even for OS students, and privates certainly don’t.</p>
<p>I crossed off Brown, Bowdoin, and Bard after visiting.</p>
<p>Brown had an awful info session run by current students. One girl was from Europe and had an accent that was difficult to understand, and the admissions officer only came in during the last 10 minutes to talk about financial aid. The tour was…meh. I didn’t really like the campus.</p>
<p>My Bowdoin visit was better. The info session was run by a knowledgeable, personable admissions officer. I liked the campus more than Brown’s (but I still didn’t really like it, if that makes any sense), but my tour guide was incredibly unenthusiastic and quiet. He presented everything very blandly and seemed to lack much of a personality. It’s hard to not let the tour guide influence my opinion of the school, but I think he did.</p>
<p>Similarly, my Bard tour guide was…peculiar, “yeh?” He was dressed extra sloppy, and, um, was really enthusiastic about the school, and, um, ended all of his sentences with “yeh?”, yeh? I’ll stop being a jerk now. It was just awful, though. Ten minutes into the tour, I wanted to leave, but stayed because 1) I had stayed for the entirety of my 13 other tours, and 2) my mom wanted the exercise. The tour guide was nice and relaxed, but he shouldn’t be giving tours. The school and campus just didn’t suit me, either. I didn’t like how difficult it was to change and get approved for majors, and I didn’t like the senior project. I also kind of felt like the school was a business of sorts. The president (or owner, or whatever) had a few different Bard schools, if I recall correctly. I don’t know, it was just really, really, really not me. There were half-naked Frisbee players indoors, if that gives any indication of the school. OH. I haven’t even touched upon the admissions officer yet. She was really nice, but very out there. It wasn’t like any of the other 13 info sessions I’ve attended. She was basically a motivational speaker. I don’t even remember anything she was saying, as none of it was relevant to the school and was just all very abstract. I felt awful, but I started cracking up. Hard. While she was talking. I was biting down on my lips insanely hard to prevent any of my laughter from escaping, but then it did, and I tried to pass it off as a cough (like, twice). I started doing math problems to keep my mind off what she was saying. It was a memorable experience, at least.</p>
<p>Funny stories on this thread. My D2 had just about decided on Dickinson despite being admitted elsewhere. We visited on accepted students day, and she had bought a bright red Dickinson hoodie in the campus bookstore. She wore it alll the way home. But when we arrived, there was a huge envelope with an acceptance letter from Oberlin in the mailbox. A four-year, John F. Oberlin Merit Scholarship letter was also in the envelope. Before I could sit down on the couch and ask her anything, the Dickinson sweatshirt was on the floor. Dickinson had offered her equal money, and Amherst and Wesleyan were still in the picture (although she didn’t bother to visit them before applying, so wasn’t really very interested), but it didn’t seem to matter. She’d gotten her REAL first choice. Funny how kids can change their minds (and hearts) in an instant. :)</p>
<p>“funny how kids can change their minds (and hearts) in an instant”…and sweatshirts too!</p>
<p>My son hated SUNY Plattsburgh(horrible tour and very cold)! However since my husband graduated from there, he contacted a former professor who took us out for lunch. Due to the individual attention and large scholarship (and honors program), our son chose to attend and has loved PSUC ever since even staying there for summer classes! </p>
<p>So, with S#2, we are not relying on only the campus tour but are requesting sample or private lessons at each school on his list. This is giving us a much better idea about what he will be encountering should he attend. So far he hasn’t croseed off any school from his list.</p>
<p>“On the other hand, I had been expecting to love Kenyon College ever since I opened the first brochure. But when I visited, I had a really bad experience and didn’t like it afterwards… surely, it’s great for some students. But something about the atmosphere and, sadly, the student body turned me off. I’m still applying, and if I get accepted, I might give the college a second try. Hopefully I just had a bad first experience, right?” </p>
<p>It’s possible. My niece is a Kenyon grad and she absolutely loved her four years there. </p>
<p>If you get accepted you might want to go back and spend a day.</p>
<p>My husband and I thought our son would love UTexas. Big school, great spirit, academic, college town. He crossed it off his list almost immediately upon stepping on campus. Felt too urban, too big, too diverse… (and this is coming from a kid who lives in L.A.) The flip side is he crossed Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo off his list also. Too small, too slow, too quiet, no spirit. So… we’ll see if he comes up with something in the middle???</p>
<p>I think these sort of questions are helpful only if you can match - or agree - with a like or dislike or two from your own experience. There is no right or wrong, only a good or bad fit. Here is what my students thought:</p>
<h1>1 liked Bucknell, Claremont McKenna, Emory, Wake Forest, Washington St. Louis.</h1>
<h1>1 disliked Northwestern, U of California (except Berkeley), U of Southern California, Vassar.</h1>
<h1>2 liked Columbia, Emory, Northwestern, Penn, Pomona, U of Southern California, Yale.</h1>
<h1>2 disliked Chicago, Harvard, Princeton, Washington St. Louis, Wesleyan.</h1>
<p>Who knows why? that’s just the way they reacted …</p>
<p>To the poster who hates Beckman - I am with you on that! And it isnt great inside - and not enough bathrooms. But, taken with the two long buildings on either side as you face into campus, they make up “The Starship Enterprise”, according to my husband. The library is even uglier. </p>
<p>My daughter started this whole process a couple of years ago in love with Scripps. She also said she would apply to Pomona, because she loves the while Claremont Consortium. Last year I suggested we check out Pitzer, as a safety. She did not want to, because she thought it would be too painful being at a safety that was so close to her #1 choice, but we went anyway. We both loved the schoool. Then after the tour, she met up with a friend who was touring CMC, and I went over to talk to them at Scripps. I was going to let my daughter apply ED, but only if it would not ruin her chances at the merit scholarship. They assured me it would not. On the drive home I gave D the good news. She said “well, now I am not so sure.” </p>
<p>She did overnights at Scripps, Pitzer and Pomona, and Pitzer became her first choice, even though stat-wise she is a better fit at Pomona. I see why she likes Pitzer though.</p>
<p>She really did not like Occidental, and I see why. When we went to their preview day (last year), all they seemed to want to do was convince us how great the social scene is and how cool it is to go to a LAC in a big city (but she lives 10 minutes away, so was not impressed).</p>
<p>She likes Colorado College, but almost passed because of a horrid admissions talk. The adcom said the school was “Very Unique - there are only two of them” that annoyed my little grammar nazi. Also, when the adcom was talking about the advantages of the block system, she used geology field trips as an example, and then said to the group of college bound high schools students “Do you know what geology is?”</p>
<p>Ooh the Brown tour guides were NOT good. I crossed off Sara Lawrence after visiting because the little town depressed me and it was too “out-there” for me anyway. And the admissions officer was intense enough to be creepy. </p>
<p>Umm … crossed off Bryn Mawr - too focused on the women’s college thing (unlike Wellesley, which I loved, where they focused on academics the most).</p>
<p>I was surprisingly apathetic about all my visits though.</p>
<p>Oh - I remembered another thing I didn’t love about Case Western Reserve. We were on a tour and walked by a big lecture hall - the kind that seats over a couple hundred students. The guy teaching seemed young so I asked if he was a prof or a professor. Our tour guide peeked in and then said, “Oh, that’s actually an undergrad.” I didn’t really like that at all, but later when i mentioned it to my son, he just said it didn’t matter - what mattered was if the guy knew his stuff and how to explain it. i guess he’s right, but still…</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Odd. I wonder if this was something other than a regular lecture, like a project presentation.</p>
<p>I have never heard of an undergrad leading a lecture class at any school. Lab assistants and graders, yes, but never even a TA. Often grad student TAs will lead the “recitations” where they go over homework problems on the board, etc. In his 4 years at Case, my S had one math class led by a grad student, which I wasn’t thrilled about given the cost of tuition.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Yeah - I have no idea. It may have been a recitation. The tour guide said maybe he was just filling for someone. It didn’t set my mind about the place - there are lots of possible explanations for it. Actually my immediate thought was, “Oh man, I’ll bet the Dean of Admissions would be crazy about this particular moment on our tour - LOL.” It’s obviously a great school.</p>