I know someone who won’t look at Emory because it sounds too similar to her name
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My S wouldn’t even consider Dickinson. I don’t think an explanation is needed.
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Lol. My son wouldn’t apply there for the same reason. We are from FLorida and he is now at school in your state!
My son wouldn’t got to UF for the same reason, although they call it 13th grade.
When my son was in 9th grade, his computer science teacher told the kids about MIT and Stanford. He came home and said that’s where he needed to go. My reply was “how about Berkeley?” He said, “I’ve never heard of it. How good could it be?!” Yes, I laughed at him and set him straight. This year that was one of the schools he applied to.
But that lesson clearly didn’t sink in. This year he was getting spammed by Northeastern to apply. He was getting almost daily emails. He blocked them and said, “they can’t be any good… they’re desperate”
I think back to some of the previous parent comments that the admissions folks might change their campaigns if they read this thread. Daily emails… a bit much! I can only assume there was a glitch and DS’s info wound up on more than one contact list because it really was excessive.
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Most likely a glitch. Northeastern was overenrolled about 800 freshmen this year so they are not lacking for students.
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It’s time to revive this thread, as I think a bit of levity might be nice at this point in the college application season.
I’ll rewind to my childhood, and do my own “stupidest reason I didn’t consider a college”. I had no guidance whatsoever, and having grown up in California, considered all the UCs. Without visiting, without research really at all, here’s how I decided where to apply:
Berkeley–too liberal
Davis–too many cows
Riverside–too smoggy
UCLA–too big
Santa Cruz–no grades? no way!
Santa Barbara–too much of a party school
Irvine–too close to home
So, by process of heresay, I came down to UCSD as my “safety”. So even if my kids make decisions about colleges that befuddle me, I will recall my own wisdom, cough cough, in my college process.
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Best thread ever. Thanks for reviving it!
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For me back in the day . . . Anything near cornfields or in a state known for lots of cornfields. The movie Children of the Corn absolutely terrified me when I was a kid
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Very early on, my kid found a “most haunted campuses” list and decided any ‘haunted campus’ was off the table. We live in NEW ENGLAND, everything is old and probably has a haunting/legend of haunting! (She got over it.)
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Interesting! My D24 wanted a haunted campus in New England! She will be going to Smith college and really hopes to get into a house with a haunted reputation. 
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Maybe it’s from growing up in “derry” and having preschool walk by Stephen King’s house every day when she was little? Most of her schools on her list now have at least one alleged haunting!
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EDIT - just realized how old the OP was - lol! anyway, for others…
He can add CT back to list as many CT residents are NY fans - particularly closer you to get to NY and shore. TV stations in CT also don’t default to Patriots as being “their” team.
VT has a strong % of NY fans, too…and UVM has tons of kids from NY/NJ and the parts of CT that roots for NY…
(Obviously the underlying concern is funny, but even taking it into consideration he might as well be accurate:)
My C25 has eliminated colleges based on a number of criteria. They were trying to explain that there were just too many to choose from and they’d reconsider if I really felt like they should.
I told them that I had suffered the same “too many brochures!” problem way back when, and I had decided that if the college couldn’t even find a cute boy to put on the brochure, I would eliminate them. Sadly, that cut only found 1 fewer brochure in my pile, so I had to find some other criteria to use. But that was definitely the stupidest reason for me.
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Maybe we need a spinoff thread to discuss parents’ stupidest reasons to not choose a school?
(Since this thread is for discussing our children’s reasons)
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I’m sure my kids will have some (not yet, but we’re in early stages). We were just getting close to that dreaded 2 year lock date, so I revived it in the hope that some parents in the thick of it might add to this one. My apologies–I wasn’t trying to take this off topic!
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Well, I mean, your post 12 years after the OP about a neighbor’s kid wasn’t actually about your children’s reason either. But yeah, probably leaving it focused on “current reasons” rather then “our reasons” as parents is a reasonable call.
My stupidest reason was if I did not like the name. Example- Oberlin just made me think of OB tampons. My daughter revived the same stupid reason and senselessly knocked some colleges off her list.
Someone laughed when my kids would not look at VA schools because they are too full of Virginians (our home state). They desired to go to a different state and experience something different. But I don’t think this is a stupid reason. The only kids that I heard that have transferred mainly point to this reason. For example I know someone who went to FSU and did not fit in with the Florida vibe. My kids would not look at State schools in States that they did not fit with that State’s vibe.
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Agree that isn’t a stupid reason! I see social climate is a big part of experience, and though all state schools have a range of opinions and options, certainly IME they are different on average and generally have a very large % of students from that home state and generally attract OOS that like that vibe!
Also, even more pragmatically students often end up with best job opportunities and alum connections near where they go, so if they do not seem themselves in a certain area (for whatever reason!) that seems smart.
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One of my kids noticed most of the fire extinguishers on a campus were expired and the alarm systems were quite old. That coupled with some other obvious upkeep issues (leaky roof on tour we had to dodge) ruled it out for them - thought it spoke of operational issues (and likely right!). Maybe not stupid reason, but not sure how many kids notice fire alarms!
(Note this was a pretty rich, rather selective SLAC).
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