I just realized that I’ve never visited a school that didn’t leave me feeling all warm and fuzzy, and nostalgic, even if I didn’t like the school for my daughter.
I know… completely against the rules of this thread 
Don’t kill me though. I think I’ve already posted up thread about how disappointed I was in Lehigh.
That dreadful place, with that dreadful Hill. Depressing town. Out of control, drunk jocks. I hate that place.
But if they’d admit me, I think I could spend 4 years living there
Horrible food, horrible people, horrible town, horrible hill, horrible weather. But the thing I hate most about it is I can only stay there for 4 years. :((
Michigan was horrible tour for us too, and I work there which made it even more challenging. My D hated the tour, the guide spent the entire time talking about parties and how her grandma puts $500 a month in her checking account for incidentals. My D still applied, but she isn’t going there and is relieved.
I was born in Terre Haute. I’m completely lost why it’s being referred to as the “upper Midwest”. Huh? At any rate, Rose-Hulman has a super duper reputation, and I’m pretty confident no one is there because of the town. Based on our 4 visits/over-nights and some past/present students, I’m also confident in saying the students are studying most all of the hours, and not all that worried about what does or doesn’t occur in Terre Haute. I’ve toured a lot of schools, and never seen that type of studying on weekends.
Back to the thread, I dislike any $55,000+ school that has peeling paint on exteriors, trash and flyers strewn about, and unkempt lawns.
We did attend a Ball State student day, where those presenting (students/admin/profs) repeatedly used incorrect grammar (no, they weren’t making a point), they mentioned David Letterman a bazillion times, and S2 said of the dorm tour, “I’m not about to live anywhere that smells like a__.” Off the list it went.
Yeah, I really wanted to like U of MIchigan, but our tour guide was going over how hard English majors work, and how its better than any other public program, and it felt very snobby, as well as kind of too spread out. One cannot easily walk from North Campus, which is Musical Theatre and Engineering, to the main campus, its about three to four miles each way. And, they told us freshmen get housed with grad students on occasion, they have no rules about freshmen dorms as most schools like Purdue, Georgia Tech and U of Colorado have. So that kind of freaked us out, to think of our young freshman possibly having to room with a 25 year old. Its rare maybe, but some kids got stuck with grad students and some got stuck up on North Campus but all their classes are on the main campus for freshman year. Its not really very easy to get around. Purdue on the other hand is compact and walkable and half the OOS price, plus many merit scholarships for Colorado kids, so it remained on the list longer.
Boston College. As a kid going to a Catholic School in the area, it had always been a school on my radar. When I visited, all the students at the talk were poly sci majors who, quite frankly, clearly had no idea what they were doing with their lives. Our tour guide was unexperienced, the campus was tiny compared to the 9,000 kids they are trying to accommodate, and nothing was that nice. Also there were lots of girls there, and while I know the school is slightly more female than male, walking around campus felt like it could have been 70-30 female. Overall just disappointing from a school that I only had moderate expectations for.
Tie between Amherst: tour guide lost my D when he said “the food won’t kill you” and Williams as I was driving out I thought about how horrible it would be in winter trying to get to airport. The tour guide was sweet but even the prospect of a hike with donuts in October couldn’t overcome remote location.
^^^ lol, we had the same reaction to the donut hike when it was mentioned during our tour at Williams. My DD feels that hikes are to be endured, not enjoyed…and our tour guide was selling the hike as the most exciting and fun part of the semester. We couldn’t get out of there fast enough.
Oddly enough, I happen to be extremely familiar with 3 of the latest targets here, and would like to respond to the slams (or at least 'splain the flawrs…as they might say in Mass).
Ok, one day, one hike, one donut…THOSE are going to make u ignore a school that probably offers one of the top few undergrad educations in the world?
Berkeley & Ann Arbor are similar in a lot of ways, including that their many flaws are not considered flaws by many of those who attend them. Once you get into the spirit of each place, you are apparently so proud to be there that the various flaws are accepted & even embraced as part of the overall UM or UCB experience. Reminds me of that theory of film that proposes that everything a certain director has done is interesting & significant, not because it is good, but because that director did it. So a shabby off-campus house isn’t so bad; how could it be? It’s in Ann Arbor!
And BC…its campus is divided up into 5 sections, only one of which is not geographically adjacent to another. If you survey each section by itself, it might seem tiny. But taken as a whole, it is compact, but certainly big enough. As for all the poli sci majors…BC has a long history of producing a slew of lawyers & politicians, so a lot of students enter as poli sci majors. And it has a slight majority of females because that’s who applies to its excellent & relatively large (compared to peer schools) schools of education & nursing.
We toured UCDavis, which was where I graduated from law school decades ago. It is massively larger now than back in the day. I honestly barely recognized the undergrad campus, tho the law school still looked similar to how I remembered it. The school was just much, much larger than it was back in the day and seemed a lot less “friendly.”
Due to the huge premium OOS students pay to attend, S did NOT apply there or to any UCs. He just didn’t love any of them that much and they were all so massive.
I have a few schools I’d like to rag on. Reading this thread is totally cathartic after the application process.
Wesleyan: Perhaps my pettiest elimination. Two things: I went on a the campus tour with a guy who was a “triple major.” Stunning, right? The only requirement was 9 classes. Somehow, after seeing schools that required a senior thesis or some sort of capstone, it didn’t impress me. Especially when my mom pointed out his tour guide profile (they were hung up in admissions) had spelling errors in it. (I’ll grant, I don’t think one of his majors was english–but maybe he could’ve grabbed a minor). Also, the ugliest buildings on campus are the art ones. They look like concrete blobs. After however long they existed, no art student said “Hey let’s each decorate a block so it doesn’t look like concrete threw up on our campus.”
Middlebury: I like dogs a lot. I dislike people who don’t pick up after their dogs perhaps to the same magnitude. Now, I’ll grant they told us the campus was “fully integrated” with the town it may not have been one of the school’s people, but when two off-leash labs pooped on the quad within a minute of each other and the woman walking them made no move to pick up… yuck. My mom had a whole other issue with someone nearly running over our dog pulling into the admissions parking lot obvious. Endear themselves, they did not.
Princeton: My mom had a big complaint: not one student held the door for anyone else or made a move to offer help. Also, nothing endears students like being told “none of you will get in.”
Harvard: I didn’t expect to like, so it was expected. But there were two nitpicks. One, when on the “hahvahd” tour the guide spends their time ragging on other schools (a concept I would never partake in!) instead of actually selling me on the school in addition to telling us students pee on the statue people like to touch… no thank you.
Brown: I liked this tour guide the best. She was funny and really knowledgeable. But the campus looked absolutely dreary.
Bryn Mawr: I was already on the fence with this one, but the fact that the whole “hell week” thing was so sweetly glazed over as “we have traditions” (and only when prompted by a parent asking if they existed). Plus the whole “praying to Athena” thing was… weird.
There’s probably more but that’s all that I have off the top of my head.
I was going to suggest we all go back to hating on Notre Dame, but @Seniors.yikes.us just saved the day! Well done! I love pettiness, and dog poo definitely fits the bill for petty reasons to hate a college.
With that, we hate the SMELL of U of Northern Colorado in Greeley, CO . To find Greeley: Go north until you smell it and east until you step in it. Lots of feed lots near U of N. Colorado. its a great teachers and nursing college tho.
We had a negative reaction to American. One event for prospective/incoming students was like a silly Saturday morning children’s show. The students also seemed like groupies or wannabees, not particularly independent or analytical. Put another way, they just seemed young. I had a bad feeling about it. I think if the vibe at a school doesn’t feel right for your kid, it’s best to stay away, because at the end of the day, I think vibe matters as much as prestige / offerings.
LOL. I think we can lock this thread now. Won’t get any better replies than this one!
Catholic university of America- uninspired tour by the admissions staff. Did not tour any labs or highlight any technology resources. Gave the impression of four more years of catholic high school.
U of Wyoming: if you get there , you must be traveling in July when the roads finally open. Its a great school if you like snow, wind and cold. Its located in Laramie at 7000 feet above sea level, and the scholarships are truly wonderful! I was on a trip to Wyoming and they said to me, The W is our way to talk about wind, we just cannot say wind, so we say W. So for those that like W, I recommend U of Wyoming.
Late to this thread, and enjoyed your post! Where did you end up going to school?
@Seniors.yikes.us Funny and well written! I bet that some admissions officer enjoyed reading your essays.
@labrad00dle
If you’re addressing me. My daughter is at a large California University where she daily has to sidestep panhandling junkies, right wing crazies ( who would do her harm or inspire others to do her harm if they knew her religious affiliation) invited to the university in the name of free speech by the well meaning administration, and the occasional animal rights activist armed with a bullhorn and naked, smeared with blood and folded into a locked into a dog kennel. She still thinks she’s at the best school in the country