<p>haha !!
do you think we will have the same competition that this years seniors are having ? Will I have to show all of my ECs ?
I hope I don’t have to take a test… can you imagine what THAT would be ?
One could devote a thread just to that.</p>
<p>At U of Wisconsin, the tour guide stopped to give her spiel next to a man using a jack hammer. Then when asked about engineering, she vaguely waved a hand and said that the engineering building is over there somewhere. I was already irritated that I had to pay for parking.</p>
<p>At the University of Virginia, during a freak snowstorm in March, the two tour guides continued on their predetermined rounds even though all of us were blinded by the snow. They had us stop outside so they could tell us corny jokes and at one spot, pointed to something on the ground. None of us could see what it was because it was covered with snow.</p>
<p>University of Iowa- couldn’t see any dorms in the summer because they were cleaning them…all of them???</p>
<p>But where one of my d’s ended up, had the tour we really laughed at: I asked what kids did there on the weekend and this boy who was on the tour spoke up and told everyone all about the crazy parties he had been to the night before. The tour guide just about died on the spot.</p>
<p>As a parent I have loved everywhere we’ve visited,
However, at Haverford (beautiful campus) the president of the college stopped by and said hello-and then a group of students dressed as pirates "ambushed’ us. I thought it was funny-my sons thought they were weird.</p>
<p>At Pomona (gorgeous place) a student dressed as a leprechaun ran about campus pursued by other students. I thought it was funny, my sons thought it was peculiar. </p>
<p>At University of Chicago my son who had already been accepted with a very substantial merit scholarship was sitting in the admissions office waiting for a tour-a rather funny looking student assigned to the room asked my son what he hoped to major in. My son said economics and the student very arrogantly ridiculed him for not knowing exactly what type of economics he hoped to specialize in. After that all of us decided he would not go there.</p>
<p>A few years ago on a Saturday we attended an open house for the Harvard summer program for high school students. Afterward, DS and I were taken on a group tour.</p>
<p>We were brought into the hall where the famous dining room is located (Memorial Hall, I think). Our student tour guide told us we would go upstairs where we could look out over the dining room, but that we would need to be quiet. We did go upstairs and were very quiet, and saw no students in the room, only staff readying the room for the next meal. Nevertheless, a staff person came running up the stairs and chided us “you should not be here, you’re making too much noise.” This scolding made me feel like a small child.</p>
<p>The second instance occurred when we were taken into the lobby of the library. We were a large group, but were off to one side while the tour guide spoke (not blocking traffic at all), yet a staff person came over and told us we were “in the way” and needed to move.</p>
<p>DS and I concluded that this was not just an isolated incident or two, but reflected a pattern or general attitude of unfriendliness on the part of staff. We visited several other colleges during his later college search, and never encountered the same “hostilitality” (hostility + hospitality) directed toward what was obviously a tour group of interested students and their parents. </p>
<p>What was it Lily Tomlin used to say? “We don’t care. We don’t have to. We’re the phone company.” [SNL</a> Transcripts: Lily Tomlin: 09/18/76: The Phone Company](<a href=“http://snltranscripts.jt.org/76/76aphonecompany.phtml]SNL”>SNL Transcripts: Lily Tomlin: 09/18/76: The Phone Company - SNL Transcripts Tonight)</p>
<p>Wesleyan in Connecticut in early autumn, there were outdoor games of baseball and other team sports on most every greenspace between main buildings.</p>
<p>Some would embrace this, but my D kept ducking around flying objects trying to get between buildings. I silently remembered the final episode of the Bob Newhart show where he meets his doom getting hit by a random golf ball as he walks onto his back porch. We both remembered her history with team sports ending at age 7 when she didn’t run from second base to third. She preferred to stop and chat with the shortstop, “Nice shoes. Where’d ya get those shoes?” </p>
<p>Despite all the fine things she discovered about Wesleyan, including an ethnomusicology gong and great film studies department, D knew she didn’t fit there and went happily elsewhere. Her 5’ frame took better to yoga, circus skills (stilting), swing dancing.</p>
<p>Hopefully there’s a right place for everyone.</p>
<p>paying3tuitions–your daughter sounds exactly like my 6 year old, had to comment. The precise same behavior on the sports field (chats about hair ties, holding hands w/new friends, examining the colorful decals on the soccer balls…). We’re keeping her in though, because she seems to like it, though I see her likely more comfortable in the gymnastics/cheerleading/tumbling mode. </p>
<p>Funny how those tendencies are there from the start. :-)</p>
<p>My daughter used to dress up her soccer uniform with a pink belt worn over the jersey. She did not prefer team sports. She’s a distance runner now.</p>
<p>On a tour, one school kept mentioning how they always are rivaling with another school. I also saw three people get arrested on the campus (I’ve never seen anyone get arrested before). And then the tour guide kept talking about how nothing there is easy and even to get something like movie tickets you have to submit your name, walk to the admin. building, and wait in line to see if you were one of the first 100 or so to see the screening.<br>
And then we visited the “rival” and they mentioned nothing about the first school. It was pretty funny…</p>
<p>icinnamon - nothing irrational about being turned off by the first school…lol.</p>
<p>When the tour guide at Northwestern said their campus was very diverse…they even had someone from Wyoming there. Then proceded to say, “I was like, you mean people actually live in Wyoming?!” While I have driven thru Wyoming and get what she is saying…many areas as wide open as can be, it just struck me as odd that Wyoming was adding the diviersity.</p>
<p>Some of these are too funny…</p>
<p>On one tour the guide kept saying ‘at this point in time’; for example “at this point in time this is the freshman dining hall at this point in time”. Towards the end I was counting the times he said it, and every time it came out I’d be shaking trying to contain my laughter. I couldn’t even look at my daughter…</p>
<p>My daughter disliked one school because the waiting room was too hot, and then she got the hiccups and was embarrassed because people kept looking at her… THEN the tour guide came into the room and called out a bunch of names and all those people left the building to start the tour and she and I looked at each other and said ‘uh, are we supposed to go with that group?’. Yup, we were supposed to, they forgot her.</p>
<p>I liked almost every college I saw, but my son took a strong dislike to Indiana University of Pennsylvania. First, you had to pass a metal junkyard on the outskirts of the campus. Then they made a point of showing us the worst classroom building, which was in a old high school building, and it really looked like it. I don’t know why they would showcase that. Then our tour guide repeatedly twirled her key lanyard around and around. It was so distracting. We actually snuck out of the tour before they were finished.</p>
<p>Son also did not like TCNJ (College of NJ). The campus was really dead on the weekend. We saw very few students walking around.</p>
<br>
<br>
<p>When we toured Princeton the guide kept mentioning and throwing digs at Yale. At Yale they kept mentioning Harvard. At Harvard they never mentioned any other schools. They focused on telling us about Harvard.</p>
<p>A nude male student ran out alongside our tour to do cartwheels. I don’t know how to express this, but, ahem-- his body did “2 cartwheels” each time he flipped.</p>
<p>This has got to be the funniest thread on CC. I can’t wait to hear the next bizarre story!</p>
<p>p3t - I think your story wins! It sounds like we’re in for an adventure this year.</p>
<p>When we toured Columbia, many years ago, the tour guide came up to us looking like he had just fallen out of bed. In a barely perceptable voice (and with very bad breath) looked at his feet and welcomed us to Columbia. This was my son’s first visit to any school. I took one look at my son and knew right then that he hated the place. We never made it to the tour.</p>
<p>Wow, paying3tuitions! Talk about getting a full picture of the student body…!</p>
<p>JolynneS - LOL.</p>
<p>Can you say “fraternity dare”?</p>