Pardon my asking but even though they stayed steady, can you elaborate on both WashU and HMC?
@CroissantMiser , I actually really liked Ursinus and kids didn’t dislike…just knew they wouldn’t find a lot of their people there. It looks like a great school for the right student.
@skyii558 I can understand CofC being too urban as a reason for dropping down on the list, but my son attends CofC and there are standard text books , not just online texts. I felt the need to clarify in case other potential students are reading these posts .
Hmm-the admissions person doing the info session said that they were very proud of the fact that they no longer use textbooks so students don’t have to lug around heavy backpacks. Sounds like they need to add “for some classes” or that there are exceptions because obviously a current student knows.
Most classes do offer online options @skyii558 , but my son has not run into a class where there wasn’t any print options. Sounds like there was some miscommunication . My son wouldn’t like that either. He doesn’t even like to use a Kindle. His goal is to get a good job so he can have a “library” in his house.
I just went on my last college tour yesterday, and here are all my thoughts
UP-
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UPenn: My number one school. The admissions session was very good, and I liked how they talked about the application of a UPenn education after college. My tour guide was amazing, and it helped that we were very similar(black girls interested in engineering). I love the city, the students were very nice, the freshman dorms looked magical, no negatives!
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VCU: I didn’t really have any expectations going in, but I ended up loving it. I liked the urban feel of Richmond, and the diversity of the school. The engineering department really took the time to answer all my questions, which made me feel really secure. The students were really helpful as well.
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UMD: Great engineering department, beautiful campus, great location.
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Stanford: I loved the architecture and the vibe of the school. The Northern California weather didn’t hurt either. Its proximity so San Fransisco was also a plus.
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Yale: This campus left me speechless. Awestruck. It looked like something out of a fairy tale. The admissions session was run by a senior who was very relatable and did her best to both inform and connect with everyone in the room. My tour guide was also really great, and he talked extensively about research which is very important to me. The housing system is probably my favorite thing about Yale, and the school’s emphasis on creating a sense of community was great.
SAME-
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Harvard: I think I visited on a day with too many tourists because it was during spring break time. Didn’t hate it, but didn’t love it.
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Brown: I went on a regular school day, and I got to see the hustle and bustle of the campus which was great. My tour guide was really nice and helpful, but the information session was pretty rushed.
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Princeton: My tour guide was a history major, and as a result all she talked about was the history of the buildings, campus, ect. I did not really gain a lot of information about student life. During the admissions session, they talked about “food clubs” for a solid half hour. However, the campus was really really beautiful.
DOWN-
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MIT: It was raining really hard during the tour, and the tour guide wasn’t the best. I also did not like the buildings at all. Top notch academics though.
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UVA: This school had been by dream school since I was 10 years old. I think I had some pretty unrealistic expectations and the tour gave me a reality that didn’t match. However, the tour guide was AMAZING. Best tour guide I have ever had. He went above and beyond for our group. He addressed sexual assault on campus without brushing it off at all, he brought us into a conference room to talk about the application experience more in depth, and he was super honest about the struggles of college.
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Virginia Tech: If you are someone who loves the outdoors and engineering, this school is definitely for you. However, I realized that I like urban schools a lot more, and the fact that Tech was the complete opposite threw me off. The lack of diversity on campus was also a bit of an issue for me, and the engineering students were very dismissive of other majors.
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UC Berkeley: If I had a dollar for every time they mentioned Stanford I would be a rich girl. “This is better than Stanford”. “We have more ____ than Stanford”. Stanford, Stanford, Stanford. I left knowing what Stanford did and did not have, but now what Berkeley could offer me. I also did not like the area Berkeley was in. The admissions session was also rough. The lady basically said, if you have not taken ___ classes, don’t even try.
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So far no college has moved off the list! But we have visited only 6 so far. 6 more coming up over spring break! And more after that, including during the summer. Eventually he will pick between 8 and 10 to apply to, but there is plenty of time to think about his observations and research, and decide where to apply, between now and November.
I actually am glad that my son can see how might he might be happy at many different places. Maybe it will make the process at least a teensy bit less stressful???!!!
I especially am glad that some schools with higher admissions percentages left such a positive impression. (I do not want to call them safeties, because they are not last resorts; they are real considerations.) I want him to love going wherever he ends up going. If he loved only schools that admit less than thirty percent, I would be concerned.
Certain aspects of some schools, however, clearly attract or concern him.
What he is discovering is the qualities he is looking for in a college.
For example, he likes hearing when students are excited about their classes and about learning, more than just focused on what they will do after college. He prefers a preponderance of students to have a ‘life of the mind’ outlook as opposed to a ‘preprofessional’ bent. (Not that he doesn’t also think about an eventual career! He does.) And he likes evidence of a feeling of ‘community’ within the college.
Aren’t campus visits fun? We are really enjoying this part of the process.
@exlibris97 Not so fast ruling out the 5 C’s (Claremont Colleges). You can take the train (stop right there) into LA. It’s very convenient. Have to say UCLA though is sedutively wonderful. Too bad you can’t get the classes you want without a Regents cause its so big.
@TheGreyKing (I’m lurking again) Our S19 has exactly the same criteria so far as your S18. Do you mind sharing the schools that he’s likes thus far? S19 completely against going to a school where things feel too pre-professional. And wants to have a good shot at knowing his professors. He also wants a place that feels more collaborative than his high-stress competitive public high school.
^^^True, Berkeley takes its rivalry with Stanford seriously. But hey, its Stanford/Berkeley archrivalry. BTW, Berkeley is in a nice town. It’s so much like its other rival in the East Coast located in Cambridge (Harvard). Both towns are earthy, crunchy. The view from Berkeley’s bell tower overlooking San Francisco Bay and the GG Bridge is breathtaking. And if you can, take a 20 minute ride up the road to Tiburon. Most beautiful place on earth.
The rivalry thing in tours can go to far and get annoying like the UCB tour mentioned above. One or two mentions is ok and it would show more character to actually compare rather than downgrade. It is always the wannabe school doing the trash talk. Same thing happened to us on a UCLA tour - they go on and on comparing themselves with the school across town - USC - to the point you would rather find out more about USC because UCLA seems very insecure by bringing them up and bashing them so much.
I loved the following USCs tour because they didn’t mention UCLA at all, and if someone bought them up, it was usually “UCLA is just not significant enough/doesn’t compare” kind of response. Much cooler. My guess is Stanford isn’t too worried about the competition from UCB either, I didn’t hear them mentioned on the Stanford tour at all.
@CroissantMiser I am LOL at the “Avis” comment. But I agree in many ways. We had low expectations going in to Ursinus and it really exceeded on every level, especially the faculty meeting. Happy engaged and diverse students who really truly seemed to love their school. It moved significantly up and we are grateful we gave it a chance as it was almost cut without ever visiting.
Berkeley is cool. I don’t know about the other school. 
@prepparent I might have been a bit biased because I have family that goes to Stanford and I visited there first lol. We did not have a lot of time to visit the town, so if I am ever in the area again I will give it another try because I thought Cambridge was better. You are right though, the bell tower was my favorite part of the tour!
@GoodGrief16 Whoa - back up - did you say Baylor has live, caged BEARS on campus???
Caged in the sense that they have a zoo-type habitat, yes.
UF has gators living in the ponds (not caged)!
LSU had a tiger, and is searching for another. The last one died of cancer a few months ago.
UL Lafayette also has gators.
Post #1815 has me puzzled: “Nothing about the [Duke] campus really impressed me…Loved the buildings though.” Wouldn’t the buildings be a significant part of the campus?
Same post has interesting comment on UNC buildings being huge. That is my most prominent recollection of the U of Michigan’s campus…The academic buildings tend to be massive, and dwarf everything around them. So people look insignificant & even trees look pathetically small trying to enhance the look of the bigger buildings. The central part of campus looks compact on a map, but once you are there and realize how big the buildings are, it is different…a building you want to walk to might be just 3 buildings away, but that doesn’t mean it is close.
Rivalries: The Lafayette/Lehigh rivalry was good for a giggle during the first 10 minutes of our Lafayette tour, but after the 15th reference to it, we were ready to bail out…and head over to Lehigh.