RIT It just seemed a little drab and dingy for my tastes. Also, we went during an Open House and were looking at their special services for autism spectrum kids and the presentation did not give us comfort. We have a friend there who likes it, but was disappointed in her particular program (not the one that son is looking at). Then we went to UCONN, that I wasn’t sure about and LOVED it. My perspective may be skewed by going to a women’s college that was good, but didn’t have much of a school spirit. It had a vibrant community, or so it looked like it.
I think I may have posted some months ago to this thread about Cal Berkeley, but I’ll add George Washington University (GW) in D.C. to the list.
First, the tour guide was a freshman. Why would you have a student ambassador who has only attended the school for a few months? Seemed to not know the answer to many questions asked. Second, he appeared to be a bit arrogant in his manner, overdressed, and generally full of himself.
Finally, the GW campus was too urban. Actually did not really seem like a campus at all. No dining halls, just a dining card to use at nearby restaurants. GW might be ok for grad school, but not ideal for undergrad experience in my view. Yea, they have the Mt. Vernon campus about a twenty minute bus ride away, but seems like a hassle to shuttle back and forth. Also, it seemed noisy with lots of traffic and sirens no doubt in the middle of the night.
I love it when I can cross a school off our list just from reading a hate-filled review on this thread. I know it’s probably not a good idea, but the list is too long anyway.
“he was more of a Flounder than an Otter or Boon”
:))
Very evocative.
@CADREAMIN I’ve already mentioned UCLA’s bathrooms on this thread. Sad to find out it wasn’t a fluke 
The UVA scene seemed to drip of classist elitism, cookie-cutter students. I worried their brand was more snobby and look down on others. But maybe students who don’t want to fit in the popular Greek, party scene maybe still like it there?
Agree with UVa, beautiful campus and history. Could not stand the constant reference to ‘TJ’ (Thomas Jefferson). Our tour guide even told us the reason he chose UVa was he was a bit snobby and wanted to impress people with where he went to school.
Rhode Island College. My school sends its sophomores on a trip to visit RI colleges every year, and we went to visit RIC, which not only had an unexciting environment, but it was easy to tell the tour guide hated going there, and complained about how awful his major was (he was a math major). One of the students even skateboarded by some of my friends and, in a serious tone, said, “You do not want to come here.” When talking with students in the grade above us at my high school, they said a student encouraged them to go elsewhere last year as well. The man who gave us a private information session mentioned in his presentation, and I quote, that before he came to Rhode Island he “had never seen a Puerto Rican before.” This comment did not rest well with my mainly-hispanic class nor our guidance counselors. Needless to say, the sophomores are no longer brought to see RIC.
Visited the bathrooms above the bookstore (or in that same building) and have to agree that they were very much just as clean as those at a rock concert. It was awful.
Definitely not a fluke.
We self-toured UC Santa Barbara and drove through Isla Vista about 9am on a Sunday morning. Isla Vista is the student ghetto (can’t really call it a town) near the campus where most of the houses and apartments are stuffed with students. Saturday night is apparently party night because Sunday morning the streets and yards were littered with liquor bottles and red cups. I spotted a few pairs of abandoned shoes and a guy crawling out from under a bush. The only people we saw out walking on the streets looked like leftovers from the zombie apocalypse. We turned around and rapidly drove away.
@bopambo That is so funny I literally LOL at your post. We did an official tour but didn’t stop in Isla Vista. We loves the campus but I wasn’t too sure I was impressed by the tour guide. Total surfer dude.
I feel terrible saying it, but Notre Dame. What are they thinking? The admissions building is stunning but the dog and pony show was a lot of video and the rest was “we are truly truly Catholic but we really aren’t that Catholic, except we are. Unless you don’t want us to be and then we aren’t so much.” Pick a side, man, just pick a side! We all knew you were Catholic when we drove up.
Our student tour guides were all fussily dressed and stood at the front having a “I do more volunteer work than you” contest. It was awful to hear them talking about not changing the world or their community or how much they have grown from the experience, but how many hours a week they spend volunteering. We stopped at the grotto first thing and the tour guide said something along the lines of “non-Catholics are going to need to go stand over there and be patient because this isn’t for you” and she walked off. Well, it would have been a great opportunity to talk about the Catholic traditions and why the Mary statue is important or how kids that aren’t Catholic are treated (as if we needed explanation) or anything besides a long sigh and “get out of the way”. Everyone was white. Literally every tour guide and student in our tour group. I think there was one Asian guy in a lab that we passed. Tour guide mostly talked about dorm rules but we were not allowed to go into even the common areas of any dorm. We went into very few buildings and I finally decided that while the outside was beautiful the interiors of the buildings must need updates.
We skipped out of the tour early, the 3rd family to do so. I was incredibly disappointed.
^^^That was fantastic, thanks for the morning dose of hate. “Pick a side, man, just pick a side!”
So good.
Agree with UVA feeling super duper uber preppy and there was just a “cold” vibe – hard to describe but everyone seemed to be trying so hard and the guys all looked douchey (sorry!). The campus was beautiful but it just led to the pretentious air that I didn’t like. My D liked it better tho didn’t apply.
Brown was also a big disappointment when we toured. The info session was totally phoned in – “We’re so cool with optional grades and open curriculum. Just fork over lots and lots of money and hope for the best!” And my D noticed all the cute little anecdotes the tour guide told were very generic and could have been from any college in the USA. The campus felt disjointed and attractive enough but the main quad was just so so. It felt like they barely cared if we were there b/c, after all, “We’re Brown.” Providence is meh. It immediately fell off the list without a second thought.
We visited Clark U with our son, and afterwards were discussing pros and cons with adult niece. We commented that they had no fraternities, and she said, That’s OK, it’s Worcester–he can join a street gang!
We visited Macalester College yesterday. We expected to love it; we were looking at it as a potential ED school for my daughter. I will say, she attended an Intro to Creative Writing class and LOVED everything about it - great professor, only 16 engaged kids supportive of each others work, and super welcoming to the visitor (they had her move her chair to be part of the circle). BUT, too small, too urban, too intense, to focused on mock UN participation for my daughter. Also, they separated the students and the “guests” on to separate tours. Not sure about the other guide, but I could not get our guide to go off script. And, believe me, I tried hard. By contrast, the tour guide at St. Olaf seemed to have no script - just a set path and her insights into the places she showed us and genuine answers to our questions. I had to laugh though. Somewhere way earlier in this thread there was a story about a kid who hated a school because it had a traffic light on campus. My daughter said the same thing yesterday. No campuses with traffic lights. These visits were so valuable though - so important to learn what your student really doesn’t like.
Boston College for me. It had been at the top of my list, but I crossed it completely off after visiting. All of the buildings are made out of grey limestone which, in my opinion, gave the campus a very cold and uninviting feeling. Our tour guide was lackluster and seemed like he just rolled out of bed. The food in the dining hall was mediocre at best. The icing on the cake was the student who told me he was paying almost $70000 a year and had received no merit or financial aid…yikes!
Overall it just felt too “east coast preppy” for me. However, I must say that the library was simply incredible! Felt like I was in Hogwarts.
There’s a fun local joke here about the BC uniform of Ugg’s and North Face jackets - I figured this thread would appreciate that tidbit 
Disclaimer: Despite not attending BC, I do own a North Face jacket lol
UVA- We went a year ago on the day after St. Patrick’s Day. The campus was abandoned except for the empty red solo cups all over the place. The only students we saw were in front of a frat house, still up and playing beer pong from the night before. D got in and we are going back in two weeks. Ugh.
Carnegie Mellon- Went to info session- completely disorganized; they couldn’t get presentation video to work! The campus was pretty but my D couldn’t get over the school mascot: The Scotty Dog, the school color: Tartan plaid, and the size of the sports stadium: half the size of her high school stadium. We snuck out before tour.
Bucknell- The campus was pretty by not much to do except go to parties in the same three small, run down shacks known as frat houses.
@CTinthehouse I know this is the shade thread – but really, disparaging the poor Scotty dog in his plaid jacket!