In December 2008, we toured the U. of Alabama. It was 22 degrees and breezy that day. The student ambassadors and admissions people got a bus for a group of about eight people so we did not have to do too much walking (and because they were so cold, as they were not used to those types of temps). The school was not in session, but we got to see the rec center (my younger son loved it), the libraries (which I loved) and an overall view of the campus. We really loved the place, so much so that our older son decided to go there. He figured that if he loved it when it was cold, he would love it more when it was sunny and 75.
The worst winter weather tour I went on (years ago) was at Bard where they apparently did not believe in clearing out sidewalks. We saw a young woman slip on the ice in front of the library landing flat on her back. Meanwhile 45 minutes away the sidewalks at Vassar were immaculate.
We did visit both campus a couple years ago. Indeed, we live near umich (even inside umich for a few years) but we still did the tour there when my D was senior in high school. When we visited Northwestern, we also had a not so good impression there. First, we need to go to the parking office to buy a parking pass. Other schools offer free parking for registered campus visits. After we parked our car a bit away from the admission building, we walked back half a mile and met in a small room with many rows of chairs and full of people but without air conditioning. Our first impression was really bad. The engineering tour was okay but probably the least appealing among all the other ones we went. The whole campus visit was not planned well by the school. At the end, my D was accepted with pretty good financial aid from them but I think it was the first impression that helped my D declined the admission offer easily.
So, it is not the weather make you feel cold. It is the really the way the organize the visit. We had the same feeling as OP even we went there in summer.
@wis75 - my son did his MyUW visit Friday and his UMich visit two weeks prior. He enjoyed each visit a lot. So some go to both.
We also went to UW right after the visit at Northwestern. It was much better organized and we were really impressed by the theater we met inside. We also enjoyed the free ice cream there particularly after the campus tour in a summer day.
One time we visited Lafayette and Lehigh on the same rainy day. Lehigh had like 15 people per tour guide. He seemed to do his regular tour, not taking into account the rain. Me, person with asthma, was generally at the end of the line of people huffing and puffing up the hills. The only thing I could hear was the rain hitting my umbrella.
Lafayette, its rival, took two families per tour guide. They stopped inside instead of the usual outdoor spots and pointed to items of interest.
Lehigh dropped off our list.
Bopper, we did the same. Lehigh and then Lafayette. Lafayette was the one that fell off the list.
@billcsho. Could not agree more. Northwestern seemed to practically ooze the feeling “we don’t care if you go here” and my daughter took it right off her list.
^ Exactly.
Northwestern had had an awful visitors center building for years. Small, cramped, located off campus with only street parking, in a location that made touring north campus difficult, and thoroughly inadequate for their needs. I can absolutely see why visitors would be unimpressed. Last year they opened a brand spanking new visitors center in a much better location, on the lake, with tons of parking. I have only seen it from the outside but hopefully it is a major improvement from what you all describe.
@Pizzagirl. The issue with Northwestern was really the attitude. Incredibly rude admissions desk staff ( really you need to avoid eye contact and give a huge sigh when people ask where the bathroom is, or for a lunch suggestion or just about anything), making us stand outside of buildings rather than taking us inside, listless and bored info session. In the middle of the whole thing my kid said " this is horrible…let’s get out of here!"
I just wanted to relate my and son’s experience when he was trying to decide which college (Engineering major) to attend. He had already been accepted into and visited a couple of highly ranked engineering east coast schools (no-Ivys since with the exception or Princeton or Cornell none of the is an especially good engineering school) and University of Michigan was his last school to visit. We came to Ann Arbor the day before his scheduled April 18 Campus Day session at which time it was depressingly cloudy with a temperature of 20-25F with 20-30 mph winds. When we got up the next morning there was 4 inches of snow on the ground and still snowing. During the morning session we were taken on a walking tour of the Central Campus during time I asked my kid, “well, what do you think of Michigan?” His response, “it doesn’t look too good right now, dad” We were then bused up to the North Campus, given a tour and lunch at Bursley Hall (good food – important to my kid) and to see a typical dorm room, which simply appeared to be the dorm room of the tour guide – unmade bed, shoes everywhere, etc. The expression of a couple of the moms and dads was “priceless”. One mother remarked that the room was disgusting and a couple of the dads remarked, “pretty typical dorm room to me” We were then taken over to the Chrysler Center for Engineering Day presentations where upon entering the auditorium each kid was given a bright yellow “Michigan Engineering” tee shirt. After presentations by different engineering professors and Q & A, we went on a North Campus Engineering walking tour (now a mixture of rain, sleet, and snow) of the various departmental buildings and facilities – very impressive, at least to me and my son. After the tour was over, my kid asked if we could go back to the auditorium and see if there were any tee-shirts left stating that “I will need something to wear next fall” He will be graduating this spring as a Wolverine computer engineering student.
Conversely, a really hot campus tour can be very off putting. We toured one school with D2 and the temperature was 108 degrees. Two girls were visiting from San Francisco, and their Dad said “No way I’m touring. I’ll sit here and wait for you guys in the visitor’s center.” During the tour the girls kept saying “this is unbelievable. How do people physically survive here?”
That’s unfortunate, maya54. I’m the alum who, if I see someone walking around with a map, I go up to them and ask where they are trying to get to and point them in the right direction! And NU’s campus is not (IMO) an easy campus to navigate just off a map. Here’s hoping that the “makeover” isn’t just cosmetic in nature!
We also had a couple of uncomfortably hot tours. Over 100 degrees the days we toured Bowdoin and Harvey Mudd. Bowdoin sports team coach stood my kid up for a scheduled meeting, I think she just decided it was too hot to show up. The kid on the Mudd tour ended up there, though.
Coldest, temp wise was Syracuse, some years ago. Coldest, in terms of attitude, demeanor was Tufts, again, some years ago.
@PerterW Too bad that they still do not have a better dorm to show in North Campus at UMich. We went to the Campus Day and then the Spring Welcome Day again last year. Since my D was admitted to Engineering, we have to go to the North Campus tour twice. Fortunately the 2 tours were quite different except for seeing the same dorm and eating at the same dining hall at Bursley. I guess that may be one of the reasons many freshmen try to avoid living in the North Campus. By the way, the dorms in the Hill area and Central Campus are much nicer, and their dining halls too.
I have had at least 3 campus tours where we were kept outside freezing inexplicably. I thought it was very inhospitable.
I just love the dorm tours where you see actual rooms where actual kids live with their actual stuff. It give much more of a sense of the place than the staged rooms.
My older son thought all dorm rooms look pretty much the same. Many colleges have 360 views of typical dorm rooms on their websites if you really, really need to see one.
I think you often see the tour guide’s own room, since they know they aren’t disturbing anyone (accept possibly a roommate). I still remember going through Caltech’s dorms to see the guide room and her friends who were sitting around eating pizza in a hall lounge space all told us she had the biggest room in the house! Everyone laughed. (It was still a one room double with very elaborately lofted beds.) BTW going through the Caltech dorms was totally worth it - they have a very laissez-faire attitude about hall decorations.