Boston is referred to as the Hub of New England. My father’s license plate is Hubsox, as Red Sox wasn’t available.
D and I ditched the tour at Dartmouth. Tour guide started by talking about how much she loves to nap and “majoring in Flim Studies and minoring in disappointing my parents”. The tour continued with annoying phrases.
We visited Ohio University for an Honors & Scholars tour one day & Ohio State on a Scarlet & Gray exploration day the next. Tale of two colleges, with enough shade at each to find a place on this thread.
Ohio University was a beautiful campus, students and staff were friendly and helpful, & the panel discussion made you feel right at home. We were given meal vouchers and enjoyed a very good lunch at a newly renovated dining hall. I was surprised at how impressed and excited I was about OU the first half of the day. However, the engineering presentation immediately sunk my spirits. The engineering projects described seemed high school level at best, and I could see my S19 withdraw with each outdated slide. He could not overcome the party reputation and the seemingly lower caliber engineering program. He did not apply. I’m still a little torn about this, especially since the Honors Tutorial College sounds so appealing.
At Ohio State we were herded like cattle into a huge room with 3 screens to project the live admissions presentation. We had the slick car salesman type talk, including the “O-H-I-O” at the beginning, middle, and end. And many stories of wherever you are in the world, you will find someone to finish your “OH”. I almost threw up in my mouth and wanted to leave. I also have a hard time including “the” in the official name. I’m from a family of 5 kids, all who attended Ohio public colleges (including OU), but none Ohio State. So I guess this does not follow the “unexpected” theme. However, after leaving the Buckeye propaganda machine, we attended the engineering panel. Great facilities, opportunities, Co Ops. He has submitted application.
I so wish I could mash the best parts of both schools into one picturesque, in-state tuition eligible, merit generous, friendly yet grounded, top-tier engineering university. I guess that may be a bit too much to ask for.
And now back to the queston posed by the post please…
MODERATOR’S NOTE: @happy1’s post wasn’t a suggestion, but an instruction. Stick to the topic, please. I had to delete a few posts.
My choices of colleges were limited because I was going to stay pretty close to my home being that I was only going to be 16 when I was going to be entering college and living on campus. One of my top choices at the time was The University of Delaware. Once I got there I found the college was quite confusing and also on my overnight many of the students were rather rude. The two girls that were with me were great and very helpful and the classes I sat in were fine, but after I left the school dropped to the bottom of my short list. I also got the worst scholarship offer from there as well later so I wouldn’t have gone there anyway.
More posts deleted…CC is not a debate society. This thread is about SCHOOLS THAT WERE UNEXPECTEDLY YOUR LEAST FAVORITE.
My D20 says Villanova. It’s basically on a highway. Crossed it off immediately.
For my D it was Swarthmore. She loved it on paper, and even more after a summer visit. Went back in the fall, and everyone seemed stressed and unhappy, and not very friendly. She went from having it at number one to off the list.
Interesting take on Villanova. Lancaster Ave borders one edge of campus but I think the speed limit is 25. They have a large building effort on the other side of Lancaster on what used to be parking lot but there is a pedestrian bridge over the road. The campus is self contained with virtually no roads running through it.
Swarthmore would also be on my list too. Good friend went back in the day and said it was super clique-y and everyone tried very hard to stand out – emphasizing their eccentricities which made it odd and uncomfortable from a social perspective. She loved the learning part and her profs, but hated the social scene and was mostly miserable there. I don’t know much about it today except for the reputation of being intense.
My kid’s was USC. On paper it looked good, but the overall perkiness of the tour guide seemed overdone and fake, there was too much emphasis on “School Spirit”, especially as it relates to sports, and too little emphasis on academics. On top of this, my kid felt that the entire school had a feeling of overemphasis on appearances over content. So it was dropped off of his list.
That’s funny because I’m in Boston/Cambridge a lot the past few years and almost every train that goes by seems to have “Alewife” on the front. It became a bit of a joke and one time I passed the Alewife station and literally yelled out loud “Now I know where all those trains are going!”
@Hanna I’ve been to/near Harvard several times but always walk or take a taxi/rideshare. And taking the T is perhaps a bit much for people not from a city, or even that particular city, so I’d probably suggest a sure-shot parking lot + Uber/Lyft or taxi. Guessing you haven’t had to answer the phone in Harvard admissions for awhile though 
I’d edit that if I could but got called away, sorry.
BU was unexpectedly my least favorite. I expected, based on the gorgeous admissions office on the river with the cute brownstones all around, to like it all.
Then i saw the twin dorm towers!
Hope that helps make up for my off-track and very late previous post 
@OHMomof2 Her time in the area was before the Red Line was extended to Alewife; the terminus whilst she lived here was Harvard Square.
“whilst”???
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“@OHMomof2 Her time in the area was before the Red Line was extended to Alewife; the terminus whilst she lived here was Harvard Square.”
I’m not THAT old! The Alewife extension opened in 1985, when I was in elementary school. But this was definitely before rideshare, and there weren’t many places in town where you could park cheaply and count on finding a taxi.
@Hanna, I think that was directed at @QuantMech, who apparently is that old. ;))
For D,Franklin and Marshall and Denison. It’s unfortunate, since both are good schools. Denison seen in the summer when students weren’t back yet and Franklin and Marshall was seen after a holiday and many weren’t back yet. She was looking for a certain energy. D applied to Skidmore, but saw it officially afterwards, and didn’t like the architecture. Saw it a couple of yrs ago and liked it. This yr it was all wrong. Smh
It’s a perfectly acceptable synonym for “during the time.” Not all of us learned English in America. 