Our son felt tours were unnecessary as websites could give him all the info he needed—did they have the major(s) he was interested in (and tanks would be nice). He said, “It’s only four years, what else matters?”
OTOH, I don’t understand how anyone could tour a service academy and not cross it off the list.
There was once a thread here on CC entitled “Dumbest reason for not attending a certain college” or something to that effect.
Among the less rational reasons were:
*I saw a nun walking across campus! (It was a Catholic college.)
*The campus was hilly. (Student did not have a disability.)
*Train tracks run through the campus. (Northeastern and Boston University.)
*It was too urban. (BU and NYU) What did they expect there?
*The school color is orange. I don’t look good wearing orange. (Syracuse.)
Mine had a very similar experience. She didn’t feel like the others interested were the peers she wanted.
Ha! My D25 at the beginning of the college search process:
“I am not even going to look at Skidmark!” And then her friend visited and loved Skidmore. My D applied and I think it’s actually one of her favorites.
Yep…my son said the same. Ruled out even looking at Dickinson for a similar reason.
My son had zero interest in applying to where he went but friends invited him to go on a visit on job shadow or college visit day. Once there, his top two choices were out. He came home. Applied. Game over for the other 14 apps.
One never knows how it will end up.
Skidmark. That’s funny.
On that thread, one kid passed on Michigan because “too many squirrels.” Still laugh at that one.
Similarly, one student dropped Lehigh from the list because there were deer roaming campus.
My son almost applied BECAUSE of the deer!
As someone who lives in a house with hordes of squirrels inhabiting a huge oak tree in our yard and deer passing through regularly, these are funny. Coyotes and mountain lions on the other hand being a worry I could understand.
But all valid enough, even so!
Those aren’t silly reasons for crossing a campus off the list, they’re rational reasons that the poster didn’t like.
Here it is - it was a great thread! Stupidest reason child won't look at a college - #2040 by Snowball2
Never saw a skunk up close in my entire life until walking after hours on a Middletown side street.
None of those sound irrational (well, maybe the last one). In fact they sound like very rational reasons to not attend a school - maybe you could argue they could have been discerned without a visit, but that is true of most of the positive reports that come from visits too… This seems more like you don’t like the reasons than them being dumb.
I agree! My D24 toured Colgate and couldn’t imagine going up that hill every day. Because of that, she decided not to apply. As good a reason to not choose a college when there’s dozens of schools just like it.
I have a child at SLO, we had heard complaints about food, but she has said she doesn’t really understand the hate on the food. They don’t have all you can eat dining halls, so I can understand that some kids do want that. They are more like restaurant stations - like a salad restaurant, Mediterranean, pizza, etc. There are also food trucks on the meal plan, Indian and a few others. It’s not gourmet food, but it’s not bad - pretty typical campus dining food. She does get tired of it by the end of quarter I think, but she’s doing fine and feels like she gets enough to eat and isn’t unhappy. Just wanted to offer a positive on the SLO food,and there are also really good restaurants in town!
Thanks for the perspective.
I think kids at most schools get tired of dining plan food, regardless of how good tasting it is.
Yeah, my kids get tired of the dining hall offerings, complain about them … then come home over winter break and complain that we don’t offer hot food with options 3X a day, and sometimes eat the same meal two days in a row as LEFTOVERS. As one said, “God, was it always this bad growing up?!?”
Ha ha, I now pretend that bad food and bad housing and bad yard care were deliberate parenting choices rather than pure laziness on my part.
My kid attends a school that has made national Worst 10 lists for food. The parent Facebook group is full of freak-outs with moms driving down from Connecticut to deliver home-cooked meals so their kids won’t starve. My S22’s verdict?-- “Not bad. Better than the food at home.”
And I remember a review here on CC of a school that was otherwise a good fit but was rejected due to dirty windows that became apparent on the tour when light hit them in a certain way. Let’s just say that light doesn’t have to hit my windows in a “certain way” for anybody to realize they are dirty.
And weeds? And dead grass? I doubt there is a single campus in the US (and I include abandoned ones) that can match what my kids are exposed to at home.
You’ve prepared them well!