Parents, what seemingly irrational thing turned YOU off abt a school on the tour-

Parent Cafe
101

<p>We toured one school that had all the prospies name thier HS and intended major. Most of the kids were from east coast prep schools or Westchester County NY. I felt like the ugly stepsister from public school in the midwest.</p>

<p>They divided us into groups and we were definetly in the “diversity group”. My D, the engineer, with the one hispanic girl and the URM athletic recruit. Felt like we were the uncool kids and all the cool kids were in the other group.</p>

<p>Although like WashDad, we’ve had the “we are with our people moments” at schools.</p>

102

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<p>Like that scene of the fraternity rush in Animal House? That’s terrible!</p>

103

<p>West Point does a good job of blending the new architecture with the old.</p>

104

<p>Davidson gave me the “country club” feel. S did not like the way the students were dressed.</p>

<p>Duke was a big turnoff with the graffiti covered tunnel that divides the quite lovely older part of the campus from the newer campus where the freshmen and all the freshmen class buildings are. The newer part of campus looked like a mental institution - nothing stimulating to see. Oh and the tour completely focused on the older, lovely part with a little aside thrown out - “You can drive over to the other part if you really want, but I wouldn’t bother.”</p>

105

<p>My daughter developed an aversion to any brochure featuring fall leaves on the cover. “Ewww, leaves!” As she was looking in the upper midwest and New England, all campuses seem to be pictured in fall, with swirling leaves. No spring, no dead of winter.</p>

106

<p>New England doesn’t have “spring” - we have “mud season” and “road construction.”</p>

107

<p>I don’t like campuses that have flyers posted anywhere and everywhere. I much prefer them to be on designated bulletin boards.</p>

108

<p>chedva</p>

<p>Here in Vt, we used to have mud season. We seem to have lost it to global warming. Not much of a loss.</p>

109

<p>No corn fields for DD??</p>

110

<p>I know someone whose kid didn’t like the school colors. Maybe she thought they would clash with her complexion. :rolleyes:</p>

111

<p>My sons have gone to the Science Olympiad state finals at West Point. The campus was much prettier than I expected it to be. (Though I did know that Bertram Goodhue had been involved in designing many buildings - I like his work a lot.)</p>

112

<p>My son was there too! Maybe they saw each other,</p>

113

<p>I don’t think this was an irrational turn-off, but it was a turn-off. My D was accepted into an Honors Program at a small LAC whose welcoming literature had multiple grammatical and spelling errors. It annoyed and turned her off immediately. After she declined admission they sent her a questionaire focusing on how that school compares to the one she’s attending. She felt ridiculously picky commenting on the errors, but since there was a punctuation mistake on the questionaire she rallied and mentioned the errors.</p>

114

<p>Mythmom, they probably did. And if they were there a few years ago, I might have seen him too. :)</p>

115

<p>The failure to clear ice from some pathways, including some that the tour guide took us on, at a Pennsylvania LAC that was not Haverford. The visit coincided with the annual production of The Vagina Monologues (which takes place at many schools and is a praiseworthy project), and it was disconcerting to be worried about slipping on icy tramped-down snow on some uncleared paths while being visually bombarded with chalked announcements of “VAGINA” on paths that had been cleared.</p>

116

<p>BonTon, DS has tossed mail out of hand from schools that have typos and grammatical errors. End of story. That includes Yale.</p>

117

<p>Assume for a moment that my son’s name is Alex Jones. A highly regarded East Coast school (has its own thread here on CC) sends a form letter to my son after we visitied there last week that starts off “Dear Jones” - and yes it was also double spaced between the “Dear” and the “Jones”. My son’s comment to me was “that’s really rough, dad”. </p>

<p>Not a great way to impress prospective families in my opinion.</p>

118

<p>BonTon, spelling and typos on a college brochure would totally turn me off too!</p>

<p>My “irrational” turnoffs:</p>

<ul>
<li><p>a group of kids smoking at one college, as we went by got the distinct impression they were laughing at the tour group. </p></li>
<li><p>Son didn’t like Holy Cross because he couldn’t tell what was the front of the buildings and what was the back. If you haven’t been there, the whole campus is on the side of a STEEP hill, and all the buildings face downhill. Son felt like the front of each building faced the back of the next building. It didn’t have a quad, or any large flat open grassy space, which son apparently decided is a necessity.</p></li>
<li><p>At PC, 3 students told us it was a great place to go because you can take the bus to the Providence Place Mall for free. Not a big turn-on for DS.</p></li>
<li><p>At UMass the visitor’s center is right across from where the busses pull in and out, belching smoke and noise. And the “Student Union” was straight out of a Soviet prison camp - huge cement building with no windows. All the ambiance of an unfinished basement. DS hated it, and we didn’t blame him.</p></li>
</ul>

119

<p>Sorry, mathmom, he went in March. Team won some regional medals but didn’t qualify for Nationals.</p>

120

<p>When I was looking, I would throw out any brochure that included pictures of the campus with snow. It became a huge joke to my parents, but I was serious. I really just hate winter… which is why I go to college in New Orleans.</p>