<p>Oh, yikes nursratchet! That’s much worse than the mom who wore a tight miniskirt and tank top to a college visit we did in OH last year! Also a dominating sort; nobody could get a word in edgewise, and definately wanted to bring attention to herself (which she did, just in the way she was dressed)! :rolleyes:</p>
<p>
Since I believe the author of this was referring to UVa, I thought I’d clear up the misconception.</p>
<p>While UVa’s Honor Code has a single sanction, [the</a> “non-triviality” clause](<a href=“http://www.virginia.edu/honor/intro/explain.html]the”>http://www.virginia.edu/honor/intro/explain.html) prevents anything like stealing a stick of gum from getting anywhere close to an honor trial. Most infractions are handled by the [University</a> Judiciary Committee](<a href=“http://www.student.virginia.edu/~judic/]University”>http://www.student.virginia.edu/~judic/) and [the</a> sanctions at that group’s disposal vary](<a href=“http://www.student.virginia.edu/~judic/for_sanctioned.php]the”>http://www.student.virginia.edu/~judic/for_sanctioned.php).</p>
<p>Is having an honor code unique? Of course not. What many see as unique is that the students decided to apply the code to their conduct beyond the classroom without being advised to do so by faculty. [Students</a> still administer the code themselves and debate the “single sanction” each year](<a href=“http://www.cavalierdaily.com/CVArticle.asp?ID=23661&pid=1308]Students”>http://www.cavalierdaily.com/CVArticle.asp?ID=23661&pid=1308).</p>
<p>The attitude of the admissions staff at a relatively prestigious suburban college near Philadelphia. Cocky, not well organized, almost disinterested during our visit there.</p>
<p>D’s (or my) irrational (or not) turnoffs:</p>
<p>The violin teacher whose belly entered a room several seconds before the rest of him. Super nice guy, though. But what a visual. (Definitely irrational, but there it is.)</p>
<p>The school with “Barney colors”.</p>
<p>The school whose colors matched her elementary school’s.</p>
<p>The tourguide who showed us a class in progress, and told us that he would be sleeping in that class as soon as he got off work.</p>
<p>The school with a beautiful lake that is so polluted that it is not used for anything at all except looking at, or for the science classes to take samples of.</p>
<p>The tour guide who bragged that all freshmen dorms were substance free. The school does not take transfers, so I was suprised that only freshmen dorms were.</p>
<p>The school we visited in the rain, where everyone in the Admissions Office seemed upset with us that we had kept our appointment, which meant they had to give us our tour anyway. </p>
<p>The school that had no informed adults in its line-up. Admissions interview was by a student. Teacher we met with was adjunct, and had no information at all about anything. Tour guide was a first semester freshmen who knew nothing beyond her canned speech, and got irritated when we asked questions.</p>
<p>Schools that had only Pepsi products. (D doesn’t even drink much Coke - she’s just loyal.)</p>
<p>One tour I took was dominated by the father of a young woman on the tour. He asked a constant stream of aggressive, obvious questions (e.g., drug and alcohol use) in a stentorian voice, while his daughter (and wife) tried to shrink themselves to the point of invisibility. Everyone else’s eyes were rolling furiously. My kid wanted to stuff him in a garbage can.</p>
<p>He also looked very, very familiar. I couldn’t place him, but I was sure I had met him before. Finally, I went up to him and asked him, “Why do I know you?” . . . . He was prominent, national politician, quite a bit heavier than his file photos, and wearing a polo shirt rather than his usual suit and tie.</p>
<p>I don’t think he turned us off on the college, though. My son was already turned off by 50 other things. If anything, the tour guide got lots of points for handling his questions well and not showing any visible annoyance.</p>
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<p>Sounds like nearly every prominent national politician.</p>
<p>
ROFL. That would be a turn off in this house too, though we also don’t drink many soft drinks.</p>
<p>FYI, if all the soda vending machines you see seem to be from one company, check the bookstore. Many are run by outside groups (Barnes & Noble, for example) that sign contracts apart from the college.</p>
<p>I’ve seen plenty of schools with Pepsi in the dining hall and Coke in the bookstore (or the other way around).</p>
<p>Swarthmore got rid of Coke products this year because of alleged human rights abuses, and now serves Pepsi. <a href=“http://www.swarthmore.edu/x8347.xml[/url]”>http://www.swarthmore.edu/x8347.xml</a>
My daughter (a student there) was not real happy, as she prefers Coke to Pepsi, even though she does not drink a tremendous amount of soda in general.</p>
<p>Thing(s) that turned me off about an ACC school:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>A “Keep of the grass, keep this area fresh for graduation” sign.</p></li>
<li><p>Students looking way too serious.</p></li>
<li><p>No frisbees.</p></li>
<li><p>A music performance area with a door in serious need of WD-40.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Dean J, It wasn’t UVA!! lol (Your PM box is full) </p>
<p>A “non triviality” clause sounds like a good thing, because this school has had expulsions for seemingly trivial infractions. But the details of both sides of these cases are not public, so I am not in a position to judge what goes on at that school.</p>
<p>1- tour guide not knowing what the motto translated was that was on the floor of the school. We got the traditions about it but who knows what it meant? He also talked about how he could barely pass the non-science major science class
2- the two girls who were tour guides together giggling over the fact that they had just gotten a panini machine in the cafeteria and they had never heard of a panini before (this was in the last 18 months)
3- not seeing a real dorm room
4- a LAC saying how they were different than any other school we visited because they had the LAC approach- not knowing that that was the only type of school we had seen</p>
<p>I am going out on a limb here - but I had the same country club reaction to University of Richmond. I thought it was gorgeous and the admissions people were terrific, but it did look like a private country club. There’s nothing wrong with that but my D wasn’t sure she would fit in. She was a Richmond Scholar, but decided to attend another school.</p>
<p>“Is having an honor code unique? Of course not. What many see as unique is that the students decided to apply the code to their conduct beyond the classroom without being advised to do so by faculty. Students still administer the code themselves and debate the “single sanction” each year.”</p>
<p>Honor codes turn students into a cross between capos and stooges. More commonly, students ignore them, which I think is for the most part a good thing, especially as so many schools seem to have 'em.</p>
<p>What I’m more interested in is seeing whether schools have required “Good Samaritan” clauses (a student who sees another in trouble - say, from alcohol - is required to call for help or is guilty of an infraction greater than the one applied for alcohol use.)</p>
<p>My irrational turn-off were the two tour guides at one school that kept giggling with each other. The school is highly selective, but I kept thinking my D seemed more mature than the guides. </p>
<p>Also - the 70’s buildings in the middle of otherwise beautiful campus. This happened too often to eliminate schools, but they sure are an eyesore. On the other hand (no offense to a great school) but the entire MIT campus was an eyesore.</p>
<p>Totally turned off by USC when, every few minutes the tour guide mentioned the “Trojan Family” and held up 2 fingers and said “Fight On!” Yikes!</p>
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</p>
<p>Sounds like Nova to me 
btw, I used to belong to RVCC.</p>
<p>My worst was Northeastern–Our tour guide was an overweight, bordering on obese hispanic girl. She proceeded to ask us to dance and she started to. Wasted a good 10 minutes just dancing. Completely unprofessional and unnecessary. Only school I walked out of.</p>
<p>Tour guide at Cal Tech stopped in a bright, sunny spot and gave a l-o-n-g spiel about school. Many people in the group were melting from the August heat but stuck close to the guide in order to hear her talk. After a few minutes, I decided to forgo the talk and moved to the shade just a few steps away (the shady area would have accommodated the entire group had the tour guide stopped there instead). This irrational thought crossed my mind: the students here may be smart, they have no common sense!</p>
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<p>Actually, it’s a panino; panini is plural. (Sorry about that; I have a a tad of both copy editor and linguist in me :))</p>
<p>getting a parking ticket (Cal)!</p>