@OCDaddy I’m guessing a current college student isn’t going to get your Stripes reference 
@OHMomof2 You’re telling me kids today don’t know Francis “my friends call me psycho” Sawyer? Well that’s just sad.
@OCDaddy Fortunately we toured William and Mary on the way to Virginia Beach!
I have 2 kids a year apart, and when they were early in high school they both decided what part of the country they wanted to go to college in: one in the Northeast, one in the Southeast. So during multiple vacation road trips we often stopped and looked around colleges (never taking the official tour).
By the time they applied to colleges, we’d checked out somewhere around 60 colleges, mostly in the Northeast (where you can glimpse 5 or 6 in a day without much trouble) and the Southeast (schools are farther apart, but you can still hit a significant # of Southeast Conference schools in one day if you don’t dawdle). However, the big $ came from schools in the heart of the Midwest, and that’s where they both ended up–happily and inexpensively. Trips were not a waste though–great memories, and both will probably go to grad school in the Southeast. Sorry if anybody is offended or nauseated by a story with a happy ending @-)
Unexpectedly didn’t like? Duke. I expected to like it but didn’t like the area, the endless construction, the tiny little visitor’s building with no parking. I did like the free bottle of water on a day that was 1000 degrees.
Unexpectedly didn’t like? Smith. Didn’t like the cute little town trying too hard to be a cute little town, didn’t like the tour guide, didn’t like the in-your-face attitude they all had. Expected to like it but didn’t.
I can understand why a lot of people do like these schools and that’s fine, but this thread is about unexpectedly not liking a school, and it’s implied that you thought you would like it before you visited. There are tons of schools I never expected to like and either didn’t visit or was correct that I didn’t like them upon visiting.
re # 1241. Nor do many of us old folks. Haven’t a clue, nor care.
@OCDaddy “I think that we owe a big round of applause to our newest, bestest buddy, and big toe…” =))
@OCDaddy- It is inconsequential what that person thinks of the campus or the city. It’s no loss to Stevens not having him/her as an applicant.
Hey hey now @Engineer80 - Hoboken is cool. If it was good enough for Frank Sinatra…
OK…everyone is on a 10 minute time out. And don’t make me come in here again. 
I’m enjoying the classic Stripes movie references and wishing, as a lifelong NJ resident, that I had seen Stevens campus when I visited my brother in Hoboken! Haven’t been there since he lived there in the 80s.
I love college tours with my sons, would visit even more if the budget allowed. Swarthmore, which I thought was a beautiful, small campus, they said no. Small colleges were discounted and that was the smallest school we visited.
I went to grad school at Boston University and while my middle kid has spent plenty of time there for her sport, I can’t imagine any of my kids would love the campus, if that’s what you could even call it. But then again they might want to follow the money and consider it if it’s an option when the time rolls around.
I’m still licking the wounds inflicted by @cleoforshort and his/her college counselor in # 1098 (Princeton soulless) and thinking I should stop by Hoboken as well to see what I’m missing at Stevens. Apparently there’s a lot of hate focused on New Jersey.
@OCDaddy Thank you, thank you for making me laugh out loud tonight!
@GnocchiB “Hate”? I don’t recall saying my daughter or I hated it. But there are reasons people vibe with a place or they don’t, and fit is subjective and personal. If you went to Princeton and you loved it, then great.
@GnocchiB I notice USNews has Stevens tied with the other much-maligned NJ U.
Maybe Stevens new slogan can be “Better than Baylor”? Has a nicer sound to it than “We’re almost as high as Pitt”.
@OCDaddy – If I catch any of you guys dissing my college, I’ll kill ya.
@cleoforshort I’m fine with ppl hating and agree it’s all subjective. Not every thing is for every body.
I enjoy this thread precisely because it’s interesting to me how different people’s reactions can be.
But I truly am curious about what you meant by “soulless”? Did you feel like it was cold? Haughty? Snotty? Elitist? Evil? I’ve heard all of those terms (well, except for evil) used to describe Princeton and I’m interested in your subjective experiences that prompted that adjective.
I tend to apply “soulless” to something shiny and new - a school that doesn’t seem to have traditions, that is just a group of buildings, like an instant college. I don’t know that I’ve seen one like that, but I think the one in NC that has the ice cream truck and all new buildings (is it High Point or Elon, maybe?) would seem “soulless.”
@GnocchiB , without even talking about its educational institutions, there is a lot of hate focused on NJ…
I’m going to New Jersey on two separate trips this May (I have meetings in Princeton and Atlantic City). I didn’t have Stevens on my visit list, but I may have to add it now! My curiosity is piqued.