“Tufts. Nice school, nothing wrong with it, but to me it just had a Generic University feel. Our tour guide spent the bulk of the time talking about painting the cannon and where they keep Jumbo’s ashes. Could not care less.”
" I wanted to love Wesleyan - but I’m not loving the modern buildings. I know its just aesthetics, but that’s just me. It doesn’t matter though, my kid loves it. Top of the list so far. Go figure."
I loved it, too, and it wasn’t for the campus which isn’t special compared to other LACs of its caliber. What makes Wesleyan special isn’t bricks and mortar.
I remember the art center at Amherst (the LAC, not UMass) being a real disappointment. It sits behind an old church spire (not the whole church - just the spire) and nothing about it says, “this is an arts center.” A lot of the campus has a kind of generic feel to it. OTOH, there’s no mistaking the science center for anything else. It looks like an auto assembly plant.
MODERATOR’S NOTE:
OK, let’s move on from the Amherst Science Center. The opinion was expressed, and it falls within the thread topic, but no need to belabor/debate the point.
“Tufts. Nice school, nothing wrong with it, but to me it just had a Generic University feel. Our tour guide spent the bulk of the time talking about painting the cannon and where they keep Jumbo’s ashes. Could not care less.”
“@northwesty Tufts Syndrome is the practice of denying very high stat applicants they deem not likely to enroll if accepted, aka yield protection.”
Come on Tom. Tufts Syndrome only exists because, for certain applicants, Tufts is the quintessential meh/back up school. Which is EXACTLY how the poster described Tufts.
MIT. Was staying there for a few days. Walked past a greek house and saw students hovered around a table studying…during the summer. Just seemed depressing.
“Can you expand on why you loved Wes and what makes it ‘special’?”
Lots of things - the mix of students, diversity of all kinds, a student body that is active - both politically and otherwise, strong arts focus yet strong in sciences as well, good music scene, just to name a few. The young people who I know who have gone there have been very happy. I’ve always liked all the Wesleyan students I’ve met - articulate, balanced, engaged, down to earth - just really interesting people. Stuff not reflected in buildings.
I really wasn’t impressed with Davidson. It was what I was originally looking for in a school (before I visited Lehigh somewhat accidentally). It was a small southern liberal arts school. Perfect, except it wasn’t. Bland tour, generic introduction, it turned me off of liberal arts schools in general.
^ My son loved Lehigh. He ultimately went with Wake Forest and thought there were a lot of similarities (size, beauty, great academics, very smart student body, resources, business school, very strong alumni base). He opted for less snow.