St. Mary’s College of Maryland. We were there for a swim meet not an actual visit, but what the hell.
My home state so I really wanted to like it. And I appreciate the effort to emulate the early colonial architecture, especially as historic St. Mary’s City is just next door (and very cool). But somehow they’ve managed to get the look without capturing any of the charm. It’s a sea of plain red brick buildings of no apparent differentiation or purpose. ‘Hey there’s the d-hall…or…dorm?” And the potholes. No need for speedbumps when you have craters. Most disappointing was the fact that this waterfront college has very few views of the, you know, water. There’s a small section that capitalizes (including, not coincidentally, the trim little welcome center) but most of campus betrays not even a hint of the nearby (and beautiful) river. The whole enterprise looks sad, crumbling and headed in the wrong direction. Seriously, are we still pretending we’re “The Honors College”? And the town? There is no town. 15 minute drive to the usual collection of fast food joints and box shopping. Downer. I found myself wishing they’d built this place in one of the cute little waterfront towns like Solomon’s or better yet St Michaels. Then they might really have something.
Recent trips to Bryn Mawr and Haverford demonstrated to my daughter the awesome possibilities of a small college. Good thing she didn’t see any of this.
Perhaps it’s transplants from other states who use “California Stop”. When I was 17, I was pulled over in the late 80s by an officer in So. Cal, and he taught me the term “California Roll”. That’s how I learned it.
@vineyardview Long-time socal transplant and I don’t care what it’s called. All I know is that every four-way stop is a game of chicken and pedestrians are never safe with right on red. Come to think of it you non-Californians, don’t send your kids here, it’s not safe. We have rolling stops, electric cars (those silent killers), and (gasp) gun control.
This Masshole attended high school in Southern California a billion years ago (OK…35+ years ago). It was a California stop…you slowed and counted to five like this: onethfive…and then hit the gas…little braking involved.
@SwimmingDad This So Cal native who graduated after you perfected the stop. And with So Cal S15 and D18 kiddos, I can tell you, little braking is still involved.
My daughter ended up crying in the car after our tour at UCB because she wanted so badly to like it there, but our tour guide seemed like a sort of a lunkheaded “bro” and made everything seem “boring.” And the coffee was bad, too, which was a definite point against them.
(It didn’t help that we toured there the day after we saw Stanford, which she described as “something that Disney World planners would come up with if they were asked to design a college.”)
@homerdog It was nothing in particular but just an overall feel. Everyone on campus seemed a little disconnected and the Freshmen are housed in a separate part of campus. The campus itself seemed a little odd and not easy to get around and no single central point. My D was not impressed with the way the curriculum was structured and felt it would limit her ability to pursue all her interests. French, Journalism and Science.
@MayBIvyMomma Yes Please elaborate. I only walked around a little bit around the campus, but wasn’t very impressed especially since it’s considered the “Harvard of the Midwest”.
Vandy’s campus used to be two separate colleges located next to each other. Each campus is pretty on its own, but it doesn’t all come together like it would if it had been integrated from the start. Overall it is still really nice, but maybe doesn’t quite live up to its advanced billing.
The Peabody campus is beautiful – at most schools real estate like the esplanade would be the centerpiece of the whole school. At Vandy, that is the adjacent campus used mostly to house freshmen.
And the main campus suffers a bit from having the sprawling footprint of the Vandy Med Center right there. At many schools the hospital isn’t located on the main undergrad campus.
Adding to earlier post, DS1 and DS2 went on a CSF (Honor Society in CA HS) to Stanford. The tour guide came across as a “surfer dude.” Neither DS put Stanford on the list. UC Berkeley was just too weird for them.