I wish all campuses planned better for Admissions parking. When the tour is already a ton of walking, it stinks to also have to walk a long ways from parking to admissions buildings. On one tour, an older dad was really struggling with the walk and the heat. The tour guide just left him behind, but it was a situation where someone should have been called to pick him up.
I suggest ample parking or if that is not possible, then a tram or bus from parking lot to Admissions office. That 1/2 mile each way to Admissions office is stressful if running late; and adds a mile to overall walking tour.
@houndmom - Couldnât agree more with you. We were disappointed at UF, but there are 40,000+ people who are happy there! I have come to learn that something like a bad flight in, a less than enthusiastic tour guide, or even parents that take over the tour can really influence your feelings. Doing our best to take this out of the equation, but easier said then done. Like I said in my original post, we have multiple family members that graduated from UF and they all loved it. They are actually disappointed that UF is now choice #4 (assuming my son can get in)
âI wish all campuses planned better for Admissions parking.â
The fact that many car-dependent campuses donât have this reflects the fact that admissions is usually a low-ranking department within the university. To applicants, it looks like Admissions has a lot of power. But compared to academic operations, fundraising, alumni affairs, etc., Admissions is often last in line when it comes to real estate matters like parking.
@Zline â my D. is about to enroll in a college where the first visit was underwhelming b/c of hot weather and tour guide who didât click. She kept it on the list b/c it fit all her criteria and its overall reputation is very good, but it was hanging out in the middle of the pack on the list. After she got in (yay!), she went to accepted students overnight program and did a complete turn around â completely fell for it and just knew it was the place for her. A week later she cancelled her other accepted students days and committed! So it can happen that way!
@Hanna (post #2343), Iâm not sure the scarcity of Admissions parking always reflects a low status for the Admissions department. On many campuses parking is at a premium for everyone, especially for students but sometimes even faculty and staff. This is especially true at schools in dense urban areas and at larger schools that are resisting sprawl in an effort to maintain a compact, walkable campus.
@rednile This is awesome. I missed this thread in July and am just now reading. Loving it. I posted on another thread about the deer and my daughter was so freaked out by the sketchy town and stairs that she wouldnât get out of the car. I wanted to love Lehigh (long story), but was dumbfounded.
@EllieMom Right?? I am Gator grad and no lie they were on campus all the time. I roll my eyes at people who complain about squirrels. Having said that, in NC we have a ton of deer and the deer tick/Lyme disease is concerning.
@cafe9999 really needed that review of U of Richmond. It checks so many boxes, but canât bring myself to have kids tour b/c of 1) spiders and 2) conservative prep school impression. This will save me a day trip.
Re: ParkingâŠif no parking adjacent to Admissions, they just need to provide a shuttle as some schools do. They need to remember not all of the parents are in 18 or 20-yo shape to walk the miles up and down hills and stairs in the heat etc.
An interesting side note to someone strongly disliking a favorite school of ours is that after the initial slight indignation, I then feel a subtle sense of satisfaction that there will be a few less applicants to compete with.
A couple of things I did not like about our Clemson tour:
At beginning of tour, guide ask if anyone had to use restroom, do it now, so D and I used it - then they left without us and we had to search around to find the tour - it was already out the door, down the path, up a large flight of stairs, and inside another building.
There was a family with a family member using a walker, and the tour guide left them behind constantly. The family finally told their D to stay with the tour group while the mom/person with the walker tried to catch up at each stop. By the time they got there, the tour guide was done and ready to move on to the next stop...and left. It annoyed me after awhile so I stayed back with the family and chatted with them to keep them company. At one point we got totally lost and could not find the group. So frustrating! Found another group and stuck with them but had to hear the same stuff over again and was not with our kids. Then D texts me and we work out where we are, so the original tour guide says, "Oh its easy to find your way to her" and gets D lost finding me. Then we try to leave since that tour is done, and get lost again for 20 minutes. Asked for directions twice. Super annoyed by the end.
I tried not to complain to the kiddos too much since I figured this is probably just one of those âtour things.â S19 not applying (I think). D20 applying still.
Also - Furman was bbbeeeaaauuutiful, the people were really nice, and academics sounded good, but it seemed very spread out for the size of the school. I am not sure it was that spacious, but it felt like itâŠmaybe because we took a walking tour and a golf cart tour. It was great to be able to see the totality of the campus, but for our family, it made us feel lonely.
Plus they had some kind of tradition of waking you up on your 21st birthday and throwing you in the lake. Not something my kids thought sounding fun. Maybe they were joking?
@cleoforshort Agree! UCONN made me pay to park and I was so annoyed! The person who took my money when I left the garage (student maybe?) said something snarky like âthatâs what you get at a state schoolâ. Really? A state school in middle of nowhere? They canât build another parking lot dedicated only to Admissions?
Considering it is the first first-hand impression most families have of a school it seems foolish not to make it easy for visitors to park. Easy parking with easy directions to admissions has put us in a good mood on tours. Difficult parking or poor directions to the info session has made the whole family cranky.
We had such a hard time finding the admissions office at one school we almost left. It was behind a newly constructed âyou canât get there from hereâ gate and the signs all pointed us in the wrong direction. If it werenât a school my kid really wanted to see I would have given up. We finally got there but I was left grumpy and this school is my official least favorite.
The information session at another school was not at the admissions office building and because we couldnât find parking we missed the group walk from admissions. We ended up just parking in an illegal on-campus spot and figured paying a fine would be better than circling the parking lot for the first 20 minutes of the info session.
Parking at Brown was the worst (oh yeah, Iâm naming names). Rainy day, confusing directions. Never found the deck so I had to drop the family off and finally found a street spot only to show up for a âphoned inâ info session run by this lady just sitting on the edge of the stage, dangling her legs. âStudent manifesto. . .blah blah . . now we have open curriculum. . . blah blah. . . and optional grades. . . .â Thought bubble floating above my husband and me, the prospective paying parents, âGreat â sounds like optional college!!â
Followed by a tour with odd anecdotes that included a pirate-themed acapella group, outlets on the lampposts and other equally random things. Color me unimpressed. Rain didnât help. Afterwards, found a great lunch spot near campus, the sun came out and the whole family was like, â'So long Brown!â Actually my younger son, 12 at the time, bought a hat â so I guess he liked it, prolly cuz of the pirates
@TwinMom2023 Just a note about Univ of Richmond. I understand people feel different,y about schools but we really liked it and my DD went there last yr. We thought it was gorgeous (& clearly loved the Reserved for Future Soiders sign, lol) My DD is a big liberal & she found the campus very left leaning in every aspect. Not sure what the other poster meant by saying it was conservative unless she meant how some kids dress? There are some preppy kids but DD did not feel they were mean or anything like that. She does not dress preppy, is very nerdy & an introverted history & French double major. The school has an 8:1 teacher to student ratio which is incredible. Anyway, just my 2 cents! My DDâs on,y comp,ainât was that it felt small, and she couldnât walk anywhere. She is leaving to study in the UK but because she always wanted to do so, not due to a flaw in UR.
Tie for second most disliked: Columbia and Penn.
I just hated the urban locations and the students I interacted with seemed jaded and cynical. I have known hundreds of students from both schools since then, and obviously my first impression was way off base, but at that age, a big city wasnât for me.
Most disliked: NYU
I had zero interest in a school without a real campus. I hadnât given it much thought at the time and didnât even know NYU is just a bunch of random buildings scattered around mid-town, but visiting made it abundantly clear.
@TwinMom2023 Agree with the other poster that University of RIchmond is a special place and definitely worth a visit. Not a âconservative prep schoolâ at all.
