<p>“I had a child go for an overnight at a top 10 LAC. After being offered alcohol and drugs,”</p>
<p>We had same experience at number one LAC, on a Thursday - all the students were plastered. (After she was accepted with a very large financial aid offer, received calls from the head of her department and three recent alums, and turned them down, I wrote a letter to the college pres., and received a thoughtful, handwritten letter back.)</p>
<p>You SHOULD name names, and then folks who decide to visit and compare experiences. That’s how learning takes place.</p>
<p>Also, note that a positive review of Union has already appeared. If you write a negative sounding review, it is bound to spur others to post the positives. It will balance out.</p>
<p>Please name the school. It’s very helpful to read first hand experiences, good or bad. The reader can assess whether they have similar points of concern or if they look at things from another point of view. </p>
<p>After reading more than a few people say that their kids were offered drugs and alcohol I have to wonder if that’s become a marketing point. Perhaps yield goes up if visiting kids have a fun time and administration doesn’t worry about losing a few teatotallers in the process.</p>
<p>I’ll post a negative to kid, positive to another kid situation. DS visited Gettysburg College back in the late 90’s, for an arranged overnight. The guest host was wearing a turtleneck with Republican elephants all over it, and had a giant blown-up photo of himself with Pres. H.w Bush. Liberal DS not thrilled- did not apply.
Friend’s DD just graduated and LOVED every second. Her dad says they are more Republican leaning, and that suited her fine.</p>
<p>There are positives and negatives of every single school in the United States. Depending on where and when you land on any campus, you can almost always find someone doing drugs, drinking, discussing books, writing poetry, or having sex. :)</p>
<p>Therefore, I honestly don’t think anyone is served by hearing that “Gee, when we visited so-and-so there were drunk kids in the dorm lobby so it’s obvious that it’s a party school” or “we met someone in the library dressed in black who was reciting ancient Greek so it’s obviously an intellectual place.” </p>
<p>What does serve people, however, is a review that presents both the positives and negatives that are inherent in EVERY school, along with some objective data, and it wasn’t a fit for you or your kid, but another person’s mileage may vary. That’s what the best guidebooks do.</p>
<p>Three Sons, it’s too bad that this thread degenerated (albeit briefly) into a trashing of Union. My oldest graduated from Union almost three years ago (in engineering) and got a fine education and made some very good friends. He’s not the wild, “preppy,” partying type whatsoever. He was at the top of their applicant pool, in the Union Scholar group. There are plenty of preppy (whatever that means these days) partiers at pretty much every single expensive private college you can name, no matter the ranking, as has been pointed out here already. (Sometimes the only difference is that the kids at certain schools are more likely to be smoking dope in their spare time as opposed to drinking–which, admittedly, some parents may prefer.) </p>
<p>Having a good college experience anywhere requires finding a school that has the academics and EC’s you are looking for, then taking the initiative to find your niche and your friends, and taking a positive attitude toward your four years. The outcome and overall experience are entirely up to the individual student. </p>
<p>WRT the original subject of this thread, I agree with the suggestion that it’s very possible to write an objective report on a particular college visit without being unnecessarily harsh. Just be fair and honest. I have, however, noticed the wide range of schools to which CC kids seem to be applying, and it really is hard to see that there is a stereotypical “CC type.” It looks to me as though there are many “types” of students represented here. </p>
<p>But, I do think that any college whose president literally uttered the words that the OP quoted deserves to be named. (And–to Art who wrote the original negative post about Union–I can’t imagine Union College’s president as being one to do so. He’s newly appointed and I heard him speak last summer. Nor its prior president, Roger Hull, for that matter. And, just for the record, Union does not straddle the Mohawk–which, btw, ought to be a river that most people ~have~ heard of, if they’ve studied any American history and geography at all.)</p>
<p>Thanks to everyone who provided constructive advice on this topic. I think a fair synthesis of this advice is “an adverse report based on first hand observations is valuable input for the thoughtful individuals that make up CC, even if another visitor would have a different take on the visit. Withholding information leaves everyone in the dark.” I find this synthesis compelling, and I hope the two visit reports just posted are helpful to all who read them.</p>
<p>Also, just to clear up what may be a misperception in one of my early posts, I didn’t mean to imply that UoP’s President had admitted a lack of intellectual curiosity. While he may be aware of the issue, I think he’d be very reluctant to publicly comment on it. That was one reason I was reluctant to “bring it up” so to speak. I apologize for the confusion.</p>
<p>Newhope-
A quick suggestion-
Why dont you post your experiences in the “college visits” section rather than in the parent forum. I think most of us want to hear the good and the bad… not just the “PR spin” the schools put out. The new College visits section can be very helpful in this regard, and your experieces are as valid as the next persons… good or bad. YOur opinions are honest. Yo re not tryingto “trash” the place- just giving your opinion. I encourage you to do so.</p>
<p>N.E.Mom (and others) -
my apologies, as in rereading my prior post now, I realize it was in poor taste and added nothing of constructive value to the thread. I understand that we all have different priorities and preferences in searching for and selecting schools; heavily Greek atmospheres - which Union was back in the pre-Minerva day - have always tended to rub me the wrong way, and I should not have let that cloud my judgment in posting. Chalk it up as a lesson learned for a new poster re: sticking my foot in my mouth and regretting it soon thereafter.</p>
<p>You actually cited one of the two reasons I seriously looked at Union back in the day: the strong engineering program, rare amongst LACs and small Unis (with hockey being my other criterion). I’m sure your son received an excellent, personalized engineering education at UC and is well prepared for the future.</p>
<p>Oh, and evidently I didn’t pay enough attention in history classes, since I had to refer to Wikipedia to recall the significance of the Mohawk River!</p>
<p>No need to apologize to me, Art. Frankly, I find personal opinions useful information. I was only commenting on their financial aid and the COA (WOW)!</p>
<p>College visits are one-time snapshots that may or may not be representive of the school’s typical environment. And, of course, they are filtered through the preferences and biases of the visitor. One person’s “laid back and relaxed” is another person’s “highly disorganized and unmotivated”.</p>
<p>I think visits are important, but you can put too much weight on them. Most of our visits were fine, but we had one absolute disaster. My student was abandoned in the dorm when everyone left to attend a party, staff seemed indifferent throughout, students screamed “go home - it sucks here!” during our tour, and due to awful weather the campus was drab and ugly. Based on that visit, it would be reasonable to conclude that the school was quite awful. In fact, I know that most students there are happy, it’s considered one of the nations more beautiful campuses, etc. Our visit was simply not representative of the campus. Still, had I had CC’s [visit</a> report](<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/visits/]visit”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/visits/) feature available way back then, I would have written it up. One bummer of a visit doesn’t mean much. If half the people report bad experiences, it’s something to be concerned about.</p>
<p>I agree that writing it up is okay. I read your write-up & I think you did a nice job of presenting the facts. If I were looking at that school for my D, your comments wouldn’t sway me one way or another. The things that stood out for you wouldn’t matter to us. However … they may well stand out for another reader, and that is why it’s important to share! D visited a very highly-regarded LAC & was completely turned off by her campus tour. While the campus is widely considered very nice, she didn’t share that view. In addition, she found the students to be what she perceived as unfriendly (not to us, but to each other). Believe me, many people would disagree with her assessment. However, when I described D’s view of that school, I simply shared her observations that led to those opinions — I don’t expect everyone to agree, but for some, it may be valuable info. It is very helpful to get people’s honest opinions, and we shouldn’t be personally offended if someone doesn’t share our views about a place near & dear to us … but it IS appropriate to share why WE love it in response!</p>
<p>If you do post a negative report on this forum, you will likely regret it. Even if your information has been documented and can be verified, you are likely to be personally attacked. You will be called a liar with a hidden agenda. Different colleges do fit different types of students and some of our impressions may not be entirely accurate. Even more than this, it seems that negative information is not tolerated on this forum.</p>
<p>On the parent’s forum we spend a great deal of time discussing financial concerns and the value of the high costs of college education. On the general forums, we see kids wondering if the 790 SAT score is too low. We see lots of agruments about the relative ranking of the Ivies. There is very little information that would be useful for someone selecting colleges. There is a forum for describing college visits. Compared with the large numbers of colleges, there are very few entries. It is rare to find one that is specific or detailed. Most of the visit reports look like they were based on a 2 hour tour and visit and provide very little information.</p>
<p>I think edad’s comments are a little strong. I don’t think a poster should worry about “regretting” posting a negative experience about a school. I really don’t think most posters will personally attack other posters for sharing their opinion about, or experiences at a school. We have had several threads on the topic “dumb reasons not to like a school” or “the worst tourguide exeriences” or “why my kid did a driveby at a certain school” etc. By and large postes were not attacked for reporting negative experieces. It is what it is. Yes, people are loyal to their schools and might be sensitive to negative commetary about a school (case in point the short exchange about Union) but there were no personal attacks on or by the posters who wrote these comments. They were both appropriate and congenial.</p>
<p>I for one would like to know what school Roger had the negative experience at, as it is all data, and the more the merrier, in my book. I think most of us can still form our own opinions, and will not overinterpret comments made here as gospel. We all do our homework, and this i just one pieceof research. There are other websites where students post comments about their schools, and while it is interesting to read them, there are students who purposely post bad things there about differing schools just to throw off the numbers. Again, read these with the apropriate grain of salt. </p>
<p>Lastly, if someone personally attacks another poster, the mods are here to help ameliorate that. Thats what the “report problem post” link is for. I really think most of us are civil and understand differences of opinion about schools. I for one encourage posters to write negative as well as positive experiences about a school-- I want to hear it all. Now, if you want to get personally attacked… go post in one of the political threads. Don your armor first. Some posters can be particularly unkind.</p>
<p>Simply amazing – daughter’s words, or father’s typical distortion?</p>
<p>If the daughter’s, she definitely saw 2,000 students in one night. More likely the father’s, who knows for a fact that all 2,000 were – as always.</p>