Often times you don’t know what you like - or don’t - until you visit first hand. It’s all part of the process and kicking schools off the list is as helpful as finding ones you want to keep on.
So, too urban, too Catholic, too big, too small, too whatever… are all fair, helpful, and logical reactions IMO.
Well I guess my D proves YMMV on Lewis & Clark, she hated it. So many things went wrong on her visit that she found she couldn’t overlook them all. I think it gets stated a lot, but the tour guide, for better or worse, can make or break a visit. This one broke it big time. A freshman, who was sick, and who peppered her commentary with how great athletes were (they throw the best parties, they live in the best dorms, they get extra food?!), needless to say my D is not an athlete and was not impressed. Same guide severely shushed the group before they entered an academic building. It was empty, it was Saturday. 8-| In sum, I think there were very few if any on her tour who left with a positive impression. Unfortunately for L&C, the guide was merely the straw that broke the camel’s back in D’s eyes. She found the architecture (other than the lovely house where admissions is housed) mis-matched and ugly, she found the campus too remote (Portland is a bus-ride away, but nothing is nearby, nothing), and the deal-breaker: there was no food to be had anywhere on or near campus at 10am on a Saturday :-< Of course that is her particular idiosyncrasy, and believe me we’ve talked to her about college and sleeping in and stocking food in her room, etc, but the huge line of students waiting to get into the dining hall when it finally opened wasn’t a good look (tour walked right through it).
Those were the big things, but after that there were suddenly countless little things that loomed large and negative, things that would easily be dismissed on a more positive visit. I wasn’t personally on that visit with D, and I still have a pretty good impression of the school. I think she just caught it on an off day. But the list needed to be trimmed so off it went and I didn’t push for her to give it another chance.
It’s a month at most into the academic year. Why would a college have a freshman tour a group?!
Sorry I should have specified when the tour took place. This was in February.
@1822mom, my S18 had a similar reaction to Lewis & Clark when we toured last year - the tour guide seemed like a nice enough kid but was not able to answer many questions and was also an underclassman. The admissions building is beautiful, but the rest of the campus was pretty spread out and the distance from Portland proper was a negative for my son. He decided not to apply.
Freshmen do serve as tour guides. They often can identify best with prospectives. They have to co-lead groups at first, then when the college feels the frosh is well prepared they solo with supervision, then they can lead. It’s a step process.
Our Lewis and Clark tour guide was a sophomore theater major. We went in late Fall actually the day after the general election which was a pretty interesting time to be in Portland!
@barrons Hilarious!!!
@TomSrOfBoston , why would the fact that being able to view a college in Google Maps, Street View be a reason not to visit in person? Simply looking at the outside (or even inside) of buildings isn’t going to give me or my kids enough of an idea whether or not they like it enough to apply.
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naw, I don’t believe that. Lots of research does help you know what you’re looking for in a school. Then you can think about urban vs. rural and what size school you want.
Believe it or don’t, as you like. It’s true for many kids. It was definitely true for mine. Some surprises too - good fit on paper, poor fit in person.
@4kids4us That parent did not like Boston University because there is no real campus and all the buildings are along a couple of city streets. That can be seen from Google maps.
Maybe the kid didn’t know it would bother them so much until they actually saw it first hand. My kids work like that. Tons of kids do. They are 16/17/18 years old. My daughter was convinced she wouldn’t like women’s colleges until I dragged her to one that was close to another college we visited. She wound up with 2 on her final list.
And, yes, some schools seemed perfect on paper but were not in person for a variety of reasons.
Part of the process of college visits is exactly to get some sense for what feels right and seems like a good fit. There’s lots of stuff you can research and that’s an important part of the process but nothing like visiting a campus in person when school is in session, IMO.
@TomSrOfBoston, I suppose that could work for some people and perhaps for that kid looking at BU, it would’ve helped. My D was interested in urban campuses and while some she really liked, others she didn’t. She loved Northeastern as well as Fordham, two very different urban campuses. However, she did not like College of Charleston’s campus at all. Funny, b/c she loves the city of Charleston, and assumed she’d like CofCharleston but after touring it, despite being an open campus like Northeastern, she did not care for it. She never would’ve realized that simply by viewing online, especially since we’d been to Charleston before and walked right through the campus w/o realizing it. Maybe some who think they want urban might discount it after seeing a street map view, but for someone who truly is interested urban may really need to visit it to see what it’s all about.
@1822mom I think we were on the same tour. Sick tour guide, also on a Saturday in February, walked past the long line at the cafeteria. L&C came off my D’s list too.
Two extremes:
“TO find his perfect-fit college, Dan Shi traveled East Coast to West and crossed two borders (into Canada, for the University of Toronto, and England, for Cambridge). He visited 55 campuses and submitted 24 applications, including 22 to large engineering powerhouses.”
“Skipping the College Tour
… insights from research in psychology and behavioral economics suggest a counterintuitive reason to skip them: College tours may hinder students’ ability to pick a college that will further their interests and goals.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/26/well/family/skipping-the-college-tour.html?mcubz=1
TomSrOFBoston, so no longer any need for college tours? Everything can be learned online? We visited many colleges, I never looked at them on Google maps before hand. I could imagine different views of Yale, some you would love it, some you would hate it.
If you truly believe that google can provide all the answers, @TomSrOfBoston, I’m surprised you even haunt this thread since it’s all about visits. 
@PetulaClark, we toured both University of San Diego and Santa Clara. I will start by saying that USD was never really in contention because we live in San Diego, and D17 wanted to go away. Nevertheless, we toured for her to get an idea of what a mid-size university with an undergrad business school felt like. We left there saying how it would be the perfect school for her, if only it wasn’t so close to home. The students seemed very happy, the campus is walkable and in a great location with beautiful views. She didn’t apply. Santa Clara we visited twice, once before applying and then on an overnight for admitted student. Again, a beautiful, immaculately groomed campus with nice Spanish architecture. Super convenient to get to, less than 10 minutes from San Jose airport. Well run information session with AdCom giving good pointers on what he wanted to see in an application. Nice Q and A with students, and then enthusiastic, friendly tour guide. We like it when students give polite, friendly greetings to the tour guides. Makes you feel that the campus isn’t too big. Santa Clara ended up being one of D17s final two, but she chose Fordham instead.