We took a bus for the north campus engineering tour at Michigan. I will freely admit that it was a big turn off to my D as well. She couldn’t fathom having to take a bus back and forth for 3-4 semesters. It was probably the main factor in her personally ranking Michigan lower than Purdue.
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Yet another take on campus buildings…
To us, the key variable was how well maintained the buildings were on campus. My wife was accepted at UofM in the late 1980s, but was turned off by the general condition of some classrooms with obvious signs of water leaks, etc. My son did not even apply to Kettering (the old GMI) largely because he toured the campus while there for a HS Robotics Team competition and the place was run down. My son also did not apply to UIUC in part because while there for Science Olympiad in HS the buildings showed signs of forgone maintenance and were generally in poor repair. In contrast, Purdue was impressive because original buildings had been recently renovated. CMU was the all time winner with new labs, new buildings, and recent additions to existing buildings.
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DD is participating in Operation Catapult at Rose-Hulman. We were all surprised at the spacious and beautiful campus full of trees, bushes, flowers and a big lake in the middle. It kind of reminded us of a smaller University of Richmond. Facilites from dorms to academic buildings to the athletic facilities are very nice. I think that the school will ultimately be too small and Terre Haute too remote and lacking a college town feel, but very impressed with the school overall.
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As a family with several grads across the years and a strong knowledge of the multiple campuses, we did the tour a few years ago and were appalled.
Nobody is applying to Rutgers based on the tour.
Rutgers appears to have decided to go all-in on the Big 10 and to compete on size. I believe they are scaring away kids and their parents, by providing a disorganized feel across a massive footprint that goes in and out of New Brunswick. Instead, I would suggest:
- The tour should be College Ave Campus ONLY
- Do the information session somewhere near the Barn (old gym)
- Walk into Brower (dining hall)…through the new academic building where the Seminary used to be…
- through the main quad down to Kirkpatrick chapel… and back… with stops in a lecture hall (Scott?), a smaller classroom (Murray), the art museum…
- back through the Honors College, where you show a new dorm room.
After that, you create individual maps for each of the other campuses and let folks drive themselves in search of the sports facilities, engineering buildings, business school…etc. You highlight the other campuses during the info session.
Small, personal feel for the tour… big facilities and opportunities if you want.
No bus required.
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I’ve known a number of students who take the big campuses that might require taking a bus to class off their lists…especially in cold weather areas. Conversation typically goes, ‘yeah, I know myself, I’m not getting up in the winter to go to a morning class when I have to take a bus’. Certainly a reasonable way to cut the list!
UIUC does not show well, which is too bad because it has so much to offer…academically and socially a great place for many students. The new library should help: Project Details – Campaign to Transform the University Library
I think this is the secret to touring Rutgers - don’t actually take the tour, but do little walking tours yourself of the campuses or departments that are interesting. My D26 (potential astro/physics major) just took the bus from the College Ave campus to Busch and then walked around. She sort of saw College Ave (and was more interested in the proximity to New Brunswick “stuff”), and she did see how Busch was laid out. It was pretty effective even though we haven’t stepped foot on Livi or Cook/Doug. This combined with a virtual info session makes the approach pretty light for what feels like it could be a real drag of a day to see everything.
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Our son is at Operation Catapult right now, as well, and he is loving it. In our case, I think the experience solidified that Rose is the right school for him. I do worry about the size of Terre Haute, but our son seems to think it won’t be an issue.
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No it doesn’t!!! And I was there 30 years apart - It did neither time. My kid had the same reaction - I didn’t share my opinion before hand.
I know there are UIUC lovers.
It’s a polarizing campus I guess 
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Nice to hear from another OC parent! My kiddo has barely texted home so I assume that she is having a great time. We were very uncertain about sending her, as we are a plane ride away, but have been so pleased and impressed with the program, students and faculty. She loved the Virginia Tech campus when we visited last April, so looking at larger schools, but maybe she will have changed her mind by Friday. Looking forward to hearing all about her experience.
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The campus is not really in Terre Haute - it is in the city limits but East of town if I remember correctly. Terre Haute has larger Indiana State.
RHIT is sort of by itself and it is VERY SMALL.
For the right kid, I’m sure it’s a treasure.
If someone loves Va Tech (what’s not to love, nicest campus in America), then RHIT won’t be a fit.
It’s more like a large high school. But it was very nice.
Agreed. Bus creates accessibility for parents/students/siblings with mobility challenges. So, we viewed bus tours as a huge plus.
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Please speak to my son, rising senior, who has decreed that this school - although in state and perfectly fitting everything he has said he wants in a school/program - is “too gray”. 
(And yes, we are going to go back and visit again. Because I can’t not. But for the love of all that is holy, at least find a better reason to reject it, like “too big” other than “too gray”.)
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We wrote “THEY HAVE COOK OUT!” on the PRO side of our “Why/Why Not” list when considering her W&L acceptance.
Emmmm, Cook Out…
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To quote hoopsdad - there’s a Cook Out near VT’s campus 
It is a lot of gray (Hokie Stone), but when set against the green grass in spring, the changing leaves in fall and the sunsets over the mountains, it is a breathtaking campus!
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Yet oddly, the fact that Alabama does its tours on (air conditioned) busses is often given as a plus for that college.
S19 actually had these two as his top 2! He was admitted to VT, but waitlisted at RHIT. Visited VT and other acceptances in mid-April. VT rose to the top. Got off the waitlist for RHIT when he got home. Turned around a few days later to visit RHIT. Really liked both for different reasons. Made his final decision to go to RHIT late in the evening on the last day to commit. I think he would have done fine at either school. He had a great experience at RHIT.
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I spent almost a decade living in C-U, family moved to another state and another college town (my father was faculty) and my folks have been back in C-U for last 23 years (retired faculty/dean few years ago)…there are some charms to the campus but I agree it is so polarizing- you either love it or loathe it 
and I rarely visit since family prefers visits to east coast and Boston where we live!
WVU uses buses. The campus sprawls, and there’s no other way to do it.
The crazy thing about UIUC is that the buildings on the quad look great from the outside. You have to go inside them to see how run down they are. In fairness, we did not go into any of the engineering buildings.
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Our son went to a summer STEM program at Rose Hulman and we were very impressed by the professors. When my son was applying to schools he said, “Rose would be my first choice, hands down, if it were not in the middle of nowhere, Indiana”. He had a point. Rose wasn’t in Terre Haute, IN; it was six miles outside Terre Haute, IN on Rt 40 (or it felt like six miles, at least).
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