<p>Our collge student tour guide who must have been earning points for taking us around had no clue as to what to tell us…all we heard from him was,“ummmmm”…“yeah well”…“can’t go in there cause doors are locked”…“sorry can’t go in there either cause I forgot my key”…“plenty of places to get coffee on campus”…“I chose this college cause it is close to my hometown”. We aren’t going to judge the school based on this airhead but are planning to go back and speak with an actual admissions counselor.</p>
<p>It didn’t keep me from applying (and almost going), but touring Penn, I couldn’t believe that the very best housing on campus – gorgeous mansions right in the heart of the campus where everyone walks every day – belonged to fraternities. So not only were those stunning palaces reserved exclusively for males, but students had the exclusive power to decide which fellow (male) classmates were fit to live there. And we’re talking about official, University-sanctioned, on-campus housing. Like I said, I almost went there … but I knew on the tour that it would bug me every single day when I walked past those mansions that they were the best Penn had to offer and I’d never have a chance to live there.</p>
<p>I didn’t go to West Point with the kids this year, but did the first year, or was it the first two years? They’ve qualified for states ever since my son and his friends joined the team. In fact they were all put on the B Team as freshmen and the B team qualified for states at the regional tournament! They haven’t ever made it to Nationals - they finished in the middle of the pack this year.</p>
<p>I was turned off by the schools that didn’t offer a glimpse of a dorm room.</p>
<p>My d and I were both bothered by this group of parents on the tour at one school. They kept talking among themselves about how their students had more than what was required for this college (AP, GPA, SAT). </p>
<p>At another school, the admissions director told the parents and students they shouldn’t even be there if the students weren’t “serious about their studies.” I thought that comment was rude and unnecessary. </p>
<p>On the other hand, we visited a lower tier school that had the best presentation and tour. The students and admissions staff were friendly and the campus, although not scenic, was not too spread out. She felt comfortable there. My d received a full tuition scholarship, but decided to study engineering instead of actuarial science, so she is not going to that school as they have “pre-engineering” (?) only.</p>
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<p>After she was accepted to a selective women’s LAC, D got a hand-written recruitment letter, personal letter from a current student, that included several spelling errors. She was not impressed.</p>
<p>We visited one small school that is supposedly known for its friendly students. When we visited, we observed most students walking alone across campus … not looking up to say hi to those they passed. Instant turn-off, no matter what the reputation for friendliness was.</p>
<p>D wouldn’t even look at schools with recruiting literature that was too “cluttered.” Of course, she won’t shop at stores like that, either!</p>
<p>At one LAC in Pennsylvania (which was very pretty, might I add) the entire info session was about sports. The officer leading the discussion had been a baseball player there, his roommate a wrestler, and nearly every prospective student there played sports in HS. Didn’t fare too well for me as a music person. When we went on a tour of a dorm room, the tourguide took us to HER dorm room, which was messy and had a rommate that looked extremely disgruntled that we would dare go in there. I also didn’t like that there was a “lunchtime”- a time where no on had class and they all congregated at the dining hall. It seemed too much like HS to me.</p>
<p>I was going to try to do this post without mentioning names, but I have to about UChicago. My tour there was terrible. The info session started off with “Some say the motto of our school is ‘Where fun comes to die,’ but I can assure you that is not true.” I didn’t listen to another word they said. Terrible pitch. Also, they seemed like they had a huge chip on their shoulder about Northwestern, since we were at a morning tour and many were asking how to get to NW. At Northwestern later that day, it seemed like they didn’t care one bit about UC. I also have to say that I was totally turned off (again) by UC’s “uncommon application” which struck me as pretentious.</p>
<p>On a college tour two years ago, a prospective parent asked the guide why she choose the college. Her response…“well, I didn’t get in my first choice…and I didn’t get in my second choice…and I didn’t get in my third choice…” Needless to say, no application was sent there!</p>
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<p>The United States Naval Academy?</p>
<p>Is this irrational? We were on a tour, walking through a dorm, being shown a girl’s floor. Something smells vaguely sour. My nose is twitching, sniffing, trying to identify that odor… oh, now I remember… vomit.</p>
<p>Another school, during the introductory info session, the admissions guy is telling us what makes this school sooooo special. One of the mostest specialist things about this school is the honor code (Well, virtually every school we visited has an honor code, many have it posted over every classroom, so I didn’t see how an honor code distinguishes a school) But this school has an honor code that is “single sanction” which as was explained to us, if you are convicted of an honor code violation, whether it is murder or stealing a stick of gum, the sanction is expulsion from school. To me, this was an immediate turnoff. Seemed stupid and problematic.</p>
<p>At a boarding school, I noticed a couple kids apparently between classes pointing at our tour group and laughing at me or my son or both of us. I’m a large guy and a high school lacrosse coach and I’m more used to kids needlessly clearing the way for me as though they are in fear. Students mocking me? As much as I’m around kids that age, it was an unfamilar feeling. Still, I checked my fly when I turned the corner, just in case! Later, my son said that he noticed the kids. It was weird, but not the deal breaker. That came a few minutes later.</p>
<p>After the tour, the admission office had set up a meeting with a teacher for my son while I met with the admissions officer. When I was done and left the office, I saw my son walking around as if he was dazed. My first thought was that those kids saw him and had been picking on him. No, the students hadn’t done anything rude. It was the teacher. He told my son to wait outside his office for a minute. Then he proceeded to ignore him, at one point coming out and saying, “You’re still here?”</p>
<p>My son refused to say a word to me until we were in the car and off the campus. What a pr!ck.</p>
<p>Here are a couple irrational turnoffs that D experienced:</p>
<p>UChicago … she wouldn’t even go on the tour after seeing the neighborhood on the south side of campus, the busy hospital adjacent to campus, and all the nonstudents hanging around. Many kids love the school & the area, but not D.</p>
<p>I won’t mention the name of this school … we attended a college night presentation for a highly regarded school & D looked around the room. She said, “Mom, I think I’m the coolest kid here. That is NOT a good thing.”</p>
<p>“I won’t mention the name of this school … we attended a college night presentation for a highly regarded school & D looked around the room. She said, “Mom, I think I’m the coolest kid here. That is NOT a good thing.””</p>
<p>Kelsmom, that is NOT an irrational response. I wouldn’t want to go to a place where I was the coolest person either. Would anyone?</p>
<p>BTW, where was this place?</p>
<p>D’yer Maker</p>
<p>That was NOT an irrational response. If anyone dis-respects my kid, that person is history. Ok not literally, but for me.</p>
<p>Doubleplay, D is a bit of a nerd (although not as much as her mom was at her age!) … and “cool” is not a term she would ever use to describe herself! I guess you could say that the school is on the midwest side of a state that seems to be both midwestern & eastern (at least to me). The school is wonderful & so are the kids who go there … but the student body has a science fair feel, rather than the politicians-in-the-making feel we got at a lot of the college nights we attended (D didn’t fit with those either … but that seemed more rational for her!).</p>
<p>D’yer Maker, at least you knew what they were REALLY like BEFORE making the decision to send your kid off to stay at that school. How awful!!! When I was younger, I was very shy & often worried that others thought I was odd. What happened to you was my youthful nightmares come to life … I would run from that place so quickly you’d see flames shooting from my heels!</p>
<p>I didn’t like…</p>
<p>… Ivy League information sessions focused around talking about how and why the school was competitive. That’s just DUMB. OF COURSE the schools are selective! You’re not here to toot your own horn, you’re here to tell me about the school and how to apply to it!</p>
<p>… campuses where students who looked like each other sat with each other. I actually don’t care if schools have an overall “country club” feel, I come from a high school where everybody (but me, I guess) cares very deeply about clothing and I don’t mind hanging out with high-maintenance kids at all… most of the campuses I visited, though, seemed to have cliques of identical twins, rather than valley girls next to geeks next to athletes.</p>
<p>… I hated, hated, hated, hated, Cornell. I wish I could say why. I’ve seen the school about five or six times on visits to see my brother, and every time I see it I want to curl up in a ball and die. Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s a fantastic school, I just… after I visited the school, I was in the car home with my mother, and I started to cry. That’s how much I hated it. I can’t even tell you why I hated it. If that’s not irrational, I don’t know what is!</p>
<p>A small LAC in PA—The tour guide was a Theater major and showed us every theater at the school and when we finally got to the science buildings we asked to go in and she said “Oh there is nothing in there except a bunch of classrooms!” And many of the students on tour were interested in pre-med! Luckily this was a second visit for us so we didn’t eliminate the school due to tour guide.</p>
<p>I recently visited a college in MA and was on a tour with an incredibly obnoxious parent. She dominated the tour and knew nothing about the college she was looking at before she arrived. She asked the male tour guide if the college was still all female. She didn’t let any parents get a word in. The ultimate was at the end when she asked the tour guide if there was a place her daughter could buy condoms on campus since she heard the campus was very conservative. I wanted to die for the daughter but luckily she didn’t hear it as she was way in the back. The good news is that I have now looked really good to my own daughter :)</p>
<p>Then she was worth every penny you paid her…</p>