i have to admit that walking into a dorm on an official tour in the middle of the day and running into a group of pot-smoking students might have to get some sort of prize.
Just got back with S from Princeton Preview and UPenn self-tour. Neither of us had been to either of these, so it was really fun visiting the campuses. The moment we set foot on Princeton campus, we were in awe. As a semi-professional photographer, I was in for some sweet treats with visual feast on those collegiate Gothic buildings. The University Chapel, oh my! I felt as if all my sins were washed away as soon as I step inside this breathtaking sanctuary with the hypnotic organ music that soothed my soul. As we toured some of the residential college âdorms,â like Blair Hall, Whitman College and others, I thought for sure these students must live in castles like kings and queens.
All the students that we ran into throughout the day were very helpful and kind. My S was able to sit in on a chemistry class, and the students were intensely focused on the lecture. It only had about 10 students and almost all of them sat in the front row. The whole time we were there, we had never felt even the minutest sense of snobbery from anyone, no boasting or self-aggrandizement of any kind. My S felt at home.
Our UPenn self-tour didnât go very well. We circled around and around and around in finding a parking space. After the visual feast on Gothic buildings at Princeton, everything went downhill really fast at UPenn. There was no sense of campus coherency; everything seemed haphazardly situated. While we loved the sense of the campus being clearly demarcated at Princeton, we felt the âcampusâ at UPenn to be invaded, sort of like the Harvard Yard being invaded that left no privacy for its inner denizens. We only stayed for about 30 minutes, long enough for a photo session with its founder, Ben. When we got back to our rental car, a parking ticket was waiting for us: for expired registration even though the car clearly had the most recent registration sticker!!
@wackymother - Montclair sounds like a winner!
Philly parking enforcement are the worst! When I went to B-school there, the local news consumer affairs reporter (a nebbish looking guy named Herb Denninberg) at least once a year would show on TV that the meters were rigged. Would put a quarter in for 20 min, would start his stop watch and the flag would go up after about seven or eight minutes.
@TiggerDad Thereâs a reason the Philadelphia Parking Authority was the focus of a reality show. Take it from a born and bred Philadelphian, itâs not really âThe city that loves you back.â
Wasnât much Brotherly Love in Philly, thatâs for sure. Not only did I get a wrong parking ticket, but when we visited the Curtis Institute of Music, the receptionist prevented my wife from using its restroom. Paying $28 for 2-hours of garage parking near the Independence Hall wasnât fun, either, especially to find out afterward that there were no tickets left for the Independence Hall even though it was only noon when we visited. At someoneâs suggestion, we did try roasted pork sandwiches, though.
@TiggerDad so did your DS decide on Princeton?
@GnocchiB - Yes, the day following our return, he officially committed. We liked just about everything we saw, heard, and experienced during the Preview events. Pton was the most generous with their FA offer, and that certainly helped!
Yes, Minnesotadadof3. Both Duke and Yale fake it. But Yale pulls it off in a way that I found convincing. And Iâm a historian.
@ShrimpBurrito my daughter loves brutalist architecture so youâre not the only one. I think itâs kind of cool also. We love the UCSD library.
The Roberts library IS trying to be something itâs notâŠItâs trying to look like a turkey or peacock.
Lol @moooop. I forgot about that!
The brutalist buildings at UMass-Amherst that went up in the 60âs and 70âs take a lot of verbal abuse, but architectural experts say that they represent one of the finest assemblies of that kind of architecture in the country, if not the world⊠One manâs trash, another manâs treasure???
@TiggerDad I must say, Iâm very disappointed in your positivity and joy about your Princeton tour; have you not remembered the purpose of this thread? We come here for bile and spite, my man!
In fact, it appears that this thread has gained sentience. It red-quiggly-underlines where I wrote âpositivityâ in the above sentence. Clearly, the threadâs become self-aware and knows there should be no such word here.
@CAtransplant That UCSD library really is something, isnât it? It may actually double as a landing station for the alien fleet when we finally get colonized.
@JenJenJenJen - That positivity was only a prelude to accentuate the contrasting experience of negativity in Philly. 
Okay, @TiggerDad , youâre excused this time. Just watch your tone from now on.
:-j
Rigged parking meters, ticket even though registration wasnât out of date, canât use the ladiesâ room, no tickets for Independence Hall, $14/hour parking? All a small price to pay to have the honor of being in a city where occasionally MEN WEAR SEQUINS.
I love the comments about âbrutalistâ architecture. We visited Notre Dame a couple years ago, and my D. remarked that if they were to remove âTouchdown Jesusâ from the library, it would be one of the ugliest buildings in the world. Zero architectural merit, but they managed to turn that into a virtue.
On the other hand, when we were visiting colleges, my D. and N. loved buildings and bustle but objected to huge green spaces. I recall pulling into the parking lot at Bowdoin and having me D say âno, go. Itâs not for meâ. I was only irritated because we wereâŠin the middle of nowhere.
And what is it about libraries that architects so hate? Georgetown put a hideous library next to a gorgeous neo-Gothic one. Michigan has UGLi, itâs undergraduate library. Harvardâs Lamont Library is fortunately mostly hidden. Hampshire hides it brutalist library amongst a campus full of other brutalist buildings. By way of comparison, the Reg at University of Chicago is positively beautiful as it at least has some interesting features.
Stop posting stuff you liked, people! If you like it, post it in the colleges that move up and down the list thread. Super annoyed! (Only partly joking, too.)