Clearly some of you have not bought a new home since the advent of “online” access to listing…what you see in a photo and what something looks like IRL are often two very different things, creative framing, angles and staging hide a multitude of flaws. Absolutely am.convinced what may be a good thing on paper isn’t necessarily a good fit in reality. No way I would choose a school, or let my kids choose a school, without visiting it first, be it before applying or waiting until an accepted student visit before commitment.
@labegg exactly!! Those photos of listings can make a tiny room look huge and you don’t see what it really looks like until you’re standing in it. At the very least, kids should not ED without being on campus or (better yet) spending the night.
That was my S that visited BU and didn’t like it. 
Well, FWIW, we live on the north shore of Massachusetts and BU is only like 30 miles away from us. So, visiting BU is not a big hassle. This is also the 2nd school we visited, so we didn’t really have a good idea how urban is ‘too’ urban. Also, not all urban settings are the same. S loved Pitt visit.
S flew to Virginia Tech for a visit yesterday. The campus was gorgeous and he loved it. However, dorm was not part of the tour. How odd. This is the first time a dorm was not offered on the tour. Was it the tour guide? Anyone else experienced the same thing?
@MomtoAndrew2018 we were not shown dorm rooms at Loyola Marymount or Boston College but did see dorm rooms at every other school we visited.
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UPenn said their policy was not to show dorm rooms because of the variety and inability to accurately represent what any particular room would be like - I don’t know if that’s true, but that’s what we were told while touring there. UC Berkeley, Occidental, Swarthmore, and University of Oregon also didn’t show us dorm rooms on their standard official tours.
We did see dorm rooms at UCLA (optional additional tour), Fordham Lincoln Center (amazing rooms/views!), Lewis and Clark, Reed, and probably some others that I’m forgetting right now. We kind of snuck into the freshman dorms at Macalester (they were vacant); I really liked the Macalester campus, but the dorms were nothing to write home about.
Columbia and Princeton didn’t show dorm rooms. Seems they save this for revisit day for admitted students only. This may be a newer trend.
We’ve been on more tours without dorms than with. The tours that did show dorms either showed unoccupied model rooms (UPitt, UCN, Vandy) or were at small schools where the tour guide basically just showed us his room (Amherst, F&M).
The schools that have really good dorms are going to show them, its good marketing.
@NEPatsGirl That is my worry.
I’d say we have seen dorms about 1/2 the time. I will say that NOT seeing the dorms is a huge turn off for my kid (and me).
Our Dorm experience.
BU - Yes. They probably shouldn’t have . Old and very tired. Obviously not spending money on dorms
Wash U - Yes. beautiful dorms
Wake- Yes… Very nice dorms
Tufts - No . I’ve heard they’re very average
Northeastern - Yes. Nothing spectacular but not bad
GW- No
Rice - Yes . Decent.
Lehigh - Yes. Very generic. Nothing fancy. Not terrible
Florida - No
Regarding dorms - I always like to see them too. But you have to take any dorm tour with a huge grain if salt -
- you may see a typical average freshman dorm, but not see how the dorms get better for upperclassmen -you may see a bright new shiny dorm, that very few or no freshman actually get to live in -you may see a double but in reality at certain schools, a large % of frosh get triples
- you may see the apartments, that look like good space, but are reserved for juniors/seniors
- you may see a dorm because it is on the 'tour route' - easy in and out, vs seeing dorms in other areas of campus that may be more representative of what your kid is likely to get -you may see a staged room or you may see an actual room that kids are currently inhabiting - very different experiences there!
Just a reminder that what you see is not what you may get, and if dorms are a key issue for you, then you need to do more research on them at the schools you are considering
We’ve done 22 tours between our two oldest kids so far. Most showed dorms. Though our sample skewed heavily toward LAC’s so perhaps it’s more common for smaller schools to show dorms than larger universities? And what they showed varied widely, from completely bare dorms that look like they would the moment a new student showed up first day to the actual dorm of the tour guy replete with mess and roommates actively working to fully “staged” dorms clearly setup for the tour that are manicured with tasteful bedding, desk supplies and posters of the school, etc. And few places showed us into the dorm complex and common areas but not an actual room. I also think some of this may vary on the time of year of the tour. Many of the tours were when kids were not in session because there are very few opportunities to travel on college tours during the school year.
My memory is incomplete, but off the top of my head here’s some results, in random order:
Williams — showed a dorm room, total bare and very depressing looking. I’ve read others say they have some good dorms so they definitely were not putting their best foot forward.
Hamilton — showed a dorm suite.
Colgate — Showed inside a dorm complex, but I have no memory if we saw a room.
Wesleyan — Showed a dorm room after some trouble (guide’s card key didn’t work in the complex because each is coded uniquely so had to wait for someone to let us in).
Cornell — No memory of seeing a dorm, but I may be recalling wrong.
Middlebury — Definitely showed a dorm.
Bowdoin — Didn’t show a dorm either time we toured which also goes against the thesis that they put their best foot forward since the Freshman dorms may have been the best of any school we saw (which we saw when moving son in as a Freshman).
Davidson — Showed a dorm
William & Mary — No memory whether we saw a dorm. I want to say we didn’t as most were a hike up the hill, but may recall incorrectly.
Rutgers — Saw a dorm room. But the tour was so epically awful that we recall nothing specific about it, just that the dorm tour was the only time they let us off the Coach bus to actually walk somewhere.
UCLA — Saw a dorm. Common areas were amazing, room was okay.
Pomona — Saw a dorm common area; they encourages us to freely roam the hallways to see if we could peak into any open doors to see a room which there were none; very odd.
Stanford — Don’t recall
Yale — Definitely visited a dorm common area and courtyard and got a long speech about how the organize into houses, but don’t recall if we saw an actual room
Dickinson — Saw a dorm
Franklin & Marshall — Saw a dorm
Lafayette — Saw a dorm
Haverford — Saw multiple dorm rooms; emphasized that they provide a lot of singles even for Freshmen
Swarthmore — Saw a dorm; some of their housing is actually in their main building that also houses school administration and classrooms.
Vassar — Saw a dorm
Princeton — Didn’t see a dorm. Most of the tour is outside.
Brown — Don’t recall
Eldest didn’t really care about the dorm. For youngest, dorms seem to be the straw.
Drexel - nice enough.
U of SC - no dorm tour available during our visit - I suspect this is one reason USC fell off DD list a good one may have kept in on the list.
LSU - (had to book a separate tour) some dorms were nice, others were abysmal.
Case, Ohio U- (husband’s alma, my alma) it’s like a time warp I swear NOTHING has changed since we attended in the 1980s.
Marquette - fine. We did not see a room before committing. DD’s room at MU last year was nice, this year just ok.
Auburn - only saw a dorm in the “Quad”, pretty awful, but DD really likes the school so she is willing to suck it up.
Clemson - no tour of dorm - but that didn’t seem to change “the list”.
College of Charleston - went inside one, but not into a room…weird.
Baldwin Wallace - nice. DD really liked the dorm, the school was not a good fit.
Loyola Chicago - I thought the dorm was fine, DD thought the room felt claustrophobic because the ceiling was too low…she is 5’3.
SFA - the dorm they showed us was AWESOME, the dorm DD’s 2017 friends got…definitely NOT awesome.
Pitt - fine
Wooster - fine
Kent State - fine, if dated (but it’s been 4 years since that visit)
St Edwards - fine
A&M - DD stayed in Calhoun for a cheer camp, Fine.
High Point - ok, so I doubt there is another school in this country that comes close to the dorms at High Point. The whole physical plant at High Point is simply unbelievable. But when 80% of a campus has been built in the past 10 years you expect it to be an ideal environment. Will be interesting to see if they are able to maintain it. If you have a chance to visit, go, you will not be disappointed. However do not take your kid here first, no dorm will ever measure up after this, lol.
Let’s see…Reaching back into memory for my D17’s tours, all of which were summer tours, and including a few we did when we were on holiday before her freshman year to get her used to the idea:
[ul][]Drake University: no dorm [but we had to bail early for a lab visit]
[li]Muhlenberg College: no dorm [but it sounded like they usually show one?][/li][li]University of Kansas: no dorm[/li][]Colgate University: dorm
[]Earlham College: dorm [the tour guide’s room!]
[li]George Mason University: dorm[/li][]Macalester College: dorm [rather a hole of a dorm, at that]
[]Mt Holyoke College: dorm
[]Ohio State University: dorm
[]University of Minnesota: dorm
[]University of St Thomas [Minnesota]: dorm
[li]University of Utah: dorm [more a palace, really][/li][li]Westminster College [Utah]: dorm[/ul][/li]She didn’t take any of these as a positive or as a negative, though, except maybe Macalester’s, which was a weird positive because of the degree of self-confidence on the part of the school that showing such a horrible building and room showed.
I have two current college students, but will base this post on my D18’s search.
Moved down:
Colgate gave her a great feeling, but felt too remote Ran into someone from our HS who chatted for a while. It would be a reach for her too.
Hamilton: She wanted to love it, but it too felt remote and a little stuffy for her tastes.
Syracuse: Too big and too urban
Bucknell: Too traditional
Univ. of Scranton: Okay, but not right.
Susquehanna: End of a 4 day college tour. I think we were to tired to give it a chance.
Catholic: She loved this campus, but realized that she wanted much less of a religious influenc
Elon: I loved the campus. She didn’t like the tour guide. She also didn’t like the “Neighborhoods Idea.”
Wake Forest: A reach for her, but the unfriendly admission staff and self guided tour turned her off.
Fordham: Pretty campus, but she wasn’t feeling it.
Neutral
McDaniel: She said “It was fine, but nothing special.”
Moved up:
Ithaca: She loved it. Loved the campus. We had a great tour guide. Loved the town. Very much what she was looking for in a school. Might be too remote.
U of RIchmond: May be a reach for her. She loved the campus. Enjoyed the people she spoke with. Had an active program of the EC she is very interested in. Worried about no “quirky down town.”
Lafayette: Poor weather day, but great tour guide. Loved the campus and friendly students. Cute downtown.
Muhlenberg: She had ruled this out because of a sibling there. However, ODD hooked her up with friends in her current major interest and she spent hours with them. It moved up high on her list. ODD will be a senior when D18 would be a freshman and she’s decided it’s not that big of a deal. Active program with her EC interest.
Skidmore: Loved the campus. We had a great tour guide–very knowledgeable. Great Arts programs. Loved the dorms. Very active program in the EC she’s interested in. Loved, loved Saratoga Springs.
University of Delaware: Larger than she thought she wanted, but she liked the campus and downtown. Happy kids from our area there. She added it to the list.
Oops. Forgot Georgetown. They definitely walked us through the outside of a dorm complex but I don’t think we saw in a room… I guess we’ve done at least 23 tours then.
@WWC4me Skidmore seems to polarize people based on yours and previous comments here. A lot of people really don’t like the campus and then there are those that love it. We never officially toured. We drive very near it at least half a dozen times a year and sometimes hang out in Saratoga Springs. So I once did a drive-through tour with my whole family, which is the wrong way to tour any campus but particularly wrong for Skidmore where the drive-by gives you most the back of buildings and you see the best stuff walking in the center from what Ive’ heard and seen. But it wasn’t on any kids list so far anyway so I never pressed the issue.
Interesting that you indicate Colgate was reach but not Hamilton. At my kid’s school Colgate is easier to get into the Hamilton, though they aren’t that far apart (statistically or geographically). That reminds me of my biggest college tour mistake, which was doing Cornell, Colgate and Hamilton all in the same day, including the info sessions. It’s actually possible, but not advisable. For us it was logically because it was a big trip to get to any of them and they are all within a couple hours of each other. But my son was seriously burned out by the end of the day and frequently had trouble recalling and differentiating between Colgate and Hamilton because he saw them so close together. We’ve done fewer tours more spaced out with our daughter. I could see doing two in a day if convenient but won’t ever try three again, even if right next to each other (like the Claremont Colleges).
@pantha33m We visited UR in Summer 2015 and WF in Summer 2016. We liked both but probably for different reasons. I am a big fan generally of LACs but both kids seemed to favor urban medium-sized schools that tick a lot of boxes (son is at Miami and daughter is going to Georgetown next year). They were turned off of many New England LACs due to location and weather but both liked Richmond (son was waitlisted and daughter was accepted). I think the attributes of UR are strong (but not tippy-top) academics, the $4k research grant and the Leadership School. The amenities (campus, food and dorms) all seemed above-average.
Wake was a bit of a surprise in a positive way. It just seemed to be stronger academically than we expected and much more diverse geographically and demographically. Campus is a bit spread out and seems large in relation to the undergrad population. My daughter did the interview after the tour and had a good experience. I was a bit annoyed that there was no place to get a coffee on campus during her interview but no big deal, we hit a Starbucks on the way to Durham. She ended up not applying as we thought it would be a hassle to get there from London and we were a bit concerned about the surrounding area. I second the suggestion of visiting the new downtown campus.
Overall, we liked both schools but liked Davidson better than either. Is Davidson on your list?