<p>I’m going to risk sounding very cynical here, but I do want to say that people often have their “friendly face” on during campus visits and auditions. Many kids are strongly influenced by a very welcoming approach to prospective students, and it can be a little rough when you get on campus for real and no one is trying to “woo” you any more. </p>
<p>I definitely agree with vibes - when my D and I were visiting schools, one day she had a horrible cold. It was all she could do to drive into the campus, raise her head and look around. But she got some really great spot impressions, and I’m not sure she would have had any more accurate feelings if she’d taken a tour. There are so many schools out there - why not pick ones where you have a great gut feeling along with everything else? Some of the gut feelings seem a bit irrational, for good or for bad, but that’s just the way people are, and I’d rather my kid had some good emotional traction when starting college. When she was choosing among acceptances, her top 3-4 were schools she had the best vibe about. After that, she scoured the curriculum and other factors.</p>
<p>If my kid’s gut seemed always to pick extremely competitive or prestigious schools, I guess I’d have to have a talk with him/her about expectations. I can forgive a sloppy audition process if it seems only human, not a pervasive negative attitude. I don’t tend to judge a school based on the other applicants we meet, but I do think meeting students who actually go there really helps. I really appreciate great website info, but I’ve decided anyone can have a good website and it really doesn’t reflect the overall quality of the school.</p>
<p>When my D visited her current school (twice) she got to talk to students, and there was a very strong vibe of “these kids are like me” - particularly in the theatre dept. These are very valuable factors in choosing a school.</p>