What school was unexpectedly your least favorite when you visited?

Parents Forum
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@porcupine98 I did not do a tour at CU-Boulder with my D, but I work there, and I am LOL at how you nailed it. They are working hard to get off all the “top party school” lists but the campus is just too… pretty.

For me, well, I just spent almost a week in Western Massachusetts because D wanted to attend a couple of accepted student days each at Mt. Holyoke and Smith. Much to our surprise, even after a nice walk around the campus the day before, she lasted 1/2 a day at the Mt. Holyoke event. It seems like a great school, the students look healthy and happy, and it’s pretty and out in the woods – maybe a little bit too out in the woods. When they explained that they have been over capacity and are putting first year students in quads, I saw the color draining from her face. And when they wouldn’t let her take a dance class, after earlier saying they would (she’s a potential dance major/minor), and the dance professor never answered an email, she was just sad. And then she committed to Smith the next day. End of story.

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On paper, Lehigh was a fit for D. In real life, after driving through a run-down area to get to the campus, one look at the dark, hilly, squashed-in feeling campus was enough. We never even parked the car.

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@Lindagraf Seriously…did you miss the fact that Army WON the Army-Navy game in 2016. i.e., the most recent game!!!

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@timekeeper

We had a bad Macalester experience at a college fair. Until then I was charmed by the whole idea of the LAc in a city and bagpipes and so on. The rep flipped me the other way when I asked about taking a gap year before applying. He said that it wold be okay if they did something worthwhile “not work at McDonalds” or anything like that. I felt smacked. What’s wrong with working at McDonald’s? If that’s not a great place to learn skills and time management and abuot people, what is? Walked away and never looked back.

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I haven’t been to Bethlehem for many years (family there) but I recall it being absolutely adorable with cute shops and the lavish Hotel Bethlehem really amazing my 12 year old self. We were there at Christmas most often, and the family either lived right in town in super cool old mansions, sometimes divided, or way out in the country with lots of land and barns and stuff. As a NYC kid, I thought both were great. Has it changed a lot since the 80’s? I thought Bethlehem Steel was already basically gone then.

OK, I just checked a map. Lehigh is not actually IN Bethlehem. It’s across the river. Maybe it’s funky over there.

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@pauler80020 Thanks for validating… :wink:

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LOL Lindagf. Re West Point. Neither of my kids would look at it, although they know it is a terrific school. H, his father and uncle are all grads .

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@OHMomof2 You visited the nice side of Bethlehem; it is exactly as you described it. If I recall, the side butting up against Lehigh–not so much.

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ollie113 - sorry but a town full of 55k undergrads is never boring. Its only boring if you make it boring.

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oHMomof2 - I grew up in Bethlehem and had family there until recently. The “south side” of Bethlehem, where Lehigh is, was known as the bad part of town when I grew up. It was much worse then. It has actually improved a lot with a real effort to develop the area. (To some this might seem like faint praise!). There are now some popular clubs and venues over there, there is a casino, and the last standing steel mill is now a sort of outdoor museum. That said, I wouldn’t want to move back there, but I also wouldn’t dismiss Lehigh because of the town.

Oh, and Lehigh has earned its smart-kids-who-party-hard reputation over many decades. As a local whose college started later, I would go enjoy the significant number of parties in late August. We would start at the bottom of That Hill and drink our way to the top. Not sure how we got back down. Ahhh youth.

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Many of you diss brutalist architecture- usually correct in my view. But- those referenced libraries are fantastic! Especially in comparison to the old ugly brick (often red) buildings so many think are beautiful. Too many traditional looks that have outlived their usefulness. Depressing. Reason alone to ignore otherwise probably excellent schools, including Stanford’s taco Bell boring architecture.

There. A different opinion.

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I like the brutalist stuff. Sure it’s not always pretty, but at least it’s “honest” in that the architects built what they thought was best. To return to the topic of the thread, when on tours with my D I was surprised at how much I hated the cringey Disneyish fake-old buildings at places like Duke. This may be because I grew up in Europe and so have more experience with genuinely old academic buildings. They’re not plastic-looking and shiny like Duke.

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@chzbrgr I read that when the “Gothic” buildings at Yale were built they were sprayed with some kind or acid to give them the appearance of being centuries old.

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For the record, my D thinks the brutalist Robarts Library at U of Toronto is “SO COOL.” It doesn’t pretend to be anything it’s not.

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It’s cool to be ugly? :smiley:

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Oh, and if you notice the well-worn-down stone steps/stairs around the Yale campus buildings that were constructed in the '20s and '30s–the construction workers at that time purposely ground-down the stone steps to give them the appearance of having been worn down for centuries by the shoes of scholars making their way to class. They thought of everything! Walt Disney wasn’t the first.

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@doschicos Back in the 90s I thought the brutalist library at UCSD was so cool, so it must be a genetic flaw. :stuck_out_tongue:

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We Toured 4 schools in the Midwest for my rising senior. All of these schools are what we considered Safety school with a chance for Merit. We have learned so so much from CC to the point that we will not waste our time applying to schools for the sake of trying to see if she can get accepted, but not able to pay for it. Might as well spend our time and resources to what makes the most sense.

All these schools have decent business schools and were on the radar. We ranked them PRIOR to our visit as follow: Ohio State first. Miami of Ohio second. Indiana Third, and University of Missouri Fourth.

Ohio State was our firs visit.

What we liked: Impressive facilities. Good Business School. Great College name recognition with incredible network. Amazing Tour Guide who was about to graduate from the Fisher business with a job already . Columbus offers lots of options for work and night life. Good diversity. Great Sports

What we did not like: It felt disconnected perhaps due to the fact that it was too large. Campus was just OK. Students of all ages walking around campus not socializing with one another. Did not like the dorms. Neither one of us felt it. She will not be applying

Miami University

What liked: Gorgeous campus. Excellent presentation by admissions officer. Lots of young students walking around and walking in groups. Reputable business school. We spoke to a student coming out of the business school who loved it there and already has a job with Deloitte this summer. Decent Dorms. Within 45 minutes of downtown Cincinnati. Good amount of OOS students. Smallest classes/ Kept emphasizing undergraduate education.

What we did not like. Not a lot of diversity. Have to live in the dorms for two years. Sports not the strongest. Town is too small.

Indiana University:

What we liked: Kelly school of business is one of the best. Beautiful Campus. Decent sports. Typical fun College town not far from a major city.

What we did not like. If you don’t have a direct admit to Kelly, you have very little chance to get into the business school. Dorms are horrible. Campus feels to big and spread out. Tour was terrible by just pointing buildings. 25 people with one guide. It was very impersonal and my daughter could not wait to leave… She will not be applying

University of Missouri,

What we liked. Beautiful Campus. Amazing facilities. Good dorms. Excellent presentation and excellent tour guide (just 6 of us) Decent business school, but top ranked Journalism school just in case. Very nice downtown which flows right into the campus. Good Sports. Good scholarships available for OOS. Friendly campus

What we did not like. Mizzou is the lowest of the school as far as the overall ranking (if paying attention) . Not the most selective. Has had its issues with all the negative press they had a few years ago. Not the easiest to get in an out with St Louis and Kansas City being about 1.45 minutes

By the time we were done with these schools Miami was her number one and Missouri was number two.

One thing that makes a big difference and sometimes these are the little things schools do to attract or create a memory. Missouri was the only school giving out free t shirts to the kids… In addition, she received a personal card from her tour guide thanking her for visiting. This is a big deal. It just makes everything much more personal. To some kids this is what might sell them at the end.

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The one we expected to like, and did not like at all, was Cornell. We’re from NJ and thought it was like Rutgers, only more pretentious. Pervasive attitude of “You should be so lucky to get to go here.” Poor scheduling of activities. Unclear directions. No parking vouchers, as has been discussed here.

Admissions invited daughter to attend a class; she signed up for one, we dropped her off. This was supposed to be a 200- or 300-level class in animal nutrition for 50 minutes. The professor was absent–and he was going to be absent for several weeks, all the students knew he was going to be away. (The school had to have known that the professor would be absent, that a potential applicant would be in that class that day, and they didn’t do anything to contact her in advance and help her move to another class.)

A TA read a PowerPoint aloud. After 30 minutes, she had finished reading the PowerPoint and told the students they could leave. Daughter said the lecture was at the level of “Fun Facts About Animal Snacks.”

It was a cold, miserable day, and we decided to skip the walking tour. Went to admissions and it was such a disorganized mess, and so crowded and confused, that we gave up and went home.

The one we expected to dislike and did was Montclair State. (This was with a different kid.) We got there and everything that could go wrong did. Guide was a freshman who knew nothing about the school.

We went to look at a dorm, we’re about to go in, and a fire truck came blazing up, sirens roaring, and a bunch of firemen ran inside. Guide had to be convinced by parents that we SHOULDN’T GO INTO A BURNING BUILDING!

We went to look at a classroom and crossed the conversation of two kids–one was going into town to get a tattoo, did the other one want to come?

For the capper, we finally we got into a dorm, and there was a bunch of kids smoking weed in the middle of the school day. Really, kids? Really?

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So just returned from a spring break college tour. Of the five colleges we saw, three were just bad. UCONN, was a big disappointment. This school put all their money into their basketball gym and bronze husky sculpture . Speaking of that dog, they expect you to take a picture with that dog & rubbing it’s nose for good luck ! The buildings on campus were large and devoid of any ornamentation. My son said that the school " looked too vanilla"( boring). We noticed that on such a beautiful day that no one was hanging around on the lawn or talking with each other. We felt cheated that we didn’t get to see a dorm room or a class room. People on campus not very friendly. Plus, we had to pay for parking !
The next school that we visited was also disappointing- University of Hartford. The only cute building was admissions. The rest of the buildings looked like ticky tacky lego buildings. Husband commented that school looked like expensive College Prep. School. I thought that the school looked tired and run down and in need of some new landscaping. Colorado University- Boulder was just so huge and spread out. We also thought that the admissions person had the most grating voice, and that she talked so loud and fast. Actually gave me a headache just listening to her spiel ! Son thought that the campus buildings looked to be on steroids! All the students we saw looked like perfect " Stepford Children", probably from all the excess running to get to their classes on time . This school was bigger than my hometown -35 k students ! This school reminded me of a IBM office complex. The Buffalo pool was for their daycare( just kidding !).