…was surprisingly NOT at the University of Michigan yesterday when the temperature reached -25. It was at Northwestern on a 47 degree day. At Michigan they hustled us from one building to another reserving their talking to when we were cozily nestled well inside a building, stopping for hot chocolate at one point, and making stops at the sun drenched atrium of the Chemistry building just because it was nice and warm. At Northwestern we had stood outside almost every building while the tour guide told us about rather than showed us the interesting things that went on inside. All while the winds off Lake Michigan made it feel raw and highly unpleasant.
I had been dreading the U Mich tour given the forecast but they did a great job thinking about what would make it as pleasent as possible. Would that all other schools use the same consideration.
To be clear it was -25 real temperature at the beginning of the day yesterday in Ann Arbor. The temperature did rise during the day but was below zero for most of the tour. Our northwestern tour was a few years ago with my older daughter. It was 47 degrees which would have been nice ennough for a building to building tour if we’d gone inside a good deal but was highly unpleasant when the tour involved mostly standing outside of buildings listening to the guide talk about things rather than show us!
We were in Ann Arbor yesterday as well. I agree. They did a wonderful job under difficult conditions.
We were very impressed with our Campus Day tour guides. They were sensitive to our comfort, while still being informative. We left with a very favorable impression…not including the dorms.
When we toured Williams many moons ago, it was 4 below and the car door locks froze. Compared to some temps today, it sounds like we had a virtual heat wave. Som kid was out in shorts and a t shirt— later for class.
@88jm19. We thought the dorm room was really good. Much bigger than some we’ve seen! Where r u comparing it to? I’m sure others are nicer but compared to what I’ve seen at Pitt and Minnesota this wasn’t too bad. Of course compared to Wash U it wasn’t too great.
@88jm19 I guess you went for the engineering campus day. The good news is, they are probably showing you the worse instead of the best dorm and dinning hall. Bursley is among the few dorms that did not have major renovation within the last few years. Their dining hall is also the more classical one. You will fall in love with the dorm and dining hall if you visit one of the recently renovated dorms in Hill area or Central Campus.
I’m at Penn State for a postdoc. It was below zero the other day and I was hustling from the student center for lunch back to my office when I saw a tour group all bundled up walk by, shivering. The Lion Ambassadors were as perky as ever, though, and seemed considerably less bundled up than the rest of the people. I felt pity. No way I’d be taking a tour with how cold it’s been here in the past couple weeks! I barely want to leave my office to get food.
It’s called good studying weather, I guess. Wonder if some of the same people check out U of Wisconsin -Madison that visit U of Michigan. My experience has been few from either state bother with the other one. Hills are good for traying but not necessarily walking…
@bjkmom. Lol. I would never have done it if we didn’t have to. But DD is a senior and this was an admitted students day. It really wasn’t bad. Like I said I had a way worse experience when it was in the high 40’s and Northwestern made us stand outside building after building listening to the tour guide drone on when all we could think about was how nice and warm it would be inside the building we were standing outside of.
