<p>I loved the stuffed penguin and the comfy “sleeping couches” in the Carleton library.</p>
<p>Grinnell has the most wonderful student center I’ve seen anywhere and funny treehouse-like lofts in the library.</p>
<p>My kids loved the pizza at Chandler at Caltech.</p>
<p>It was a lovely spring day at Barnard and an African dance class was taking place on the grass outside the student center. The young women (a racial mix) wore colorful skirts and were very un-self-consciously dancing, accompanied by an African man playing the drums. It was a vibrant, beautiful scene that still makes me smile two years later.</p>
<p>I just love the fact that dogs are allowed almost anywhere (some restrictions in food prep areas) at Dartmouth. Went up these old wooden grand staircase type stairs in one of the science(physics) bldg (I forget- it was a few yesrs back). Anyway, as we went up, a golder retreiver was ambling down… How cool is that.</p>
<p>At Oberlin, the tourguide passed by an outdoor table where some student organization was preparing peanut butter sandwiches to bring to a homeless shelter.
“Excuse me a moment,” she said, then she smeared a few sandwiches while still giving the tour. Walking on from there, she said quietly, “Couldn’t not.”</p>
<p>Not irrational: When the Linguistics professor couldn’t make it to our lunch appointment, the chairperson came instead. She later gave D and I a tour of the department. The Linguistics department at Ohio State is very highly ranked. The level of personalized attention was astonishing.</p>
<p>Irrational: During a welcome breakfast for a scholarship competition, they had Brutus the mascot there to try and get the kids to relax. (Didn’t work). Then they had a contingent from the marching band march in and play 3 songs. It was a wonderful taste of the fun atmosphere D will experience.</p>
<p>Pomona gave all tour attendees free lunch at their gorgeous dining hall (Hogwarts style). Food was first rate!! Sold me on Pomona–unfortunately, D didn’t share my love–so no more Pomona lunches for me (unless D2 will take a Pomona tour).</p>
<p>The photo captions.
<a href=“yaleherald.com”>yaleherald.com;
<p>Worst part being, I am not even kidding.</p>
<p>The Brand New, Spanking Clean, Super-Duper athletic center that just opened at Dartmouth.</p>
<p>Hearing on our tour at Dartmouth that many of the Presidential Hopefuls appear on campus, since New Hampshire is the first primary. Knowing that my kid would have an opportunity to see them all in person.</p>
<p>(Who pays attention to the academics when you’re touring??!)</p>
<p>The stained glass mural in the library at Vassar, showing the first woman (I believe in America) to receive a Ph.D.</p>
<p>And speaking of captions, I understand that the kids at University of Rochester call the stately dome on top of the library “the Nipple of Knowledge.”</p>
<p>Ice cream in the admissions office at Colgate for all visiting students and parents. Even though we were there in the snow, it was a nice touch.</p>
<p>Ice cream in the admissions office at Colgate for all visiting students and parents.
My sister and her kids didn’t visit before they attended, but now I am getting more of a sense of the appeal of Colgate for them.
( when good Mormons go on dates- they go to ice cream parlors)</p>
<p>D started to become intriqued with Reed when she saw they had a cat dorm. ( one cat per floor- like you could stop them)</p>
<p>I liked it when we visited because it looked like the college in my minds eye , they had great dal in the cafeteria & I loved the swing set and the drinking fountains for dogs</p>
<p>( the ancient mac classics in the cafeteria to check your email didn’t hurt either)</p>
<ol>
<li><p>All the chalk messages at Wesleyan, and the utter seriousness with which everyone treated the free speech vs. cleanliness and order issues involved. Also the fact that it was GBLT Arab and Arab-American Week when we visited.</p></li>
<li><p>24-hour plays at Dartmouth.</p></li>
<li><p>Son: The cute girls from India he met on his Harvard tour. (He still corresponds with some of them.)</p></li>
<li><p>Rational: At Yale, our tour guide, a 19-year-old Pakistani engineering student, had exactly – I mean exactly – the same things to say about his experience that my wife and I say close to 30 years out.</p></li>
<li><p>NYU: The unbelievably cool library, and the unbelievably cool feeling you get when you step outside of the administration building and you’re in the absolute center of the world.</p></li>
<li><p>Chicago: Scav Hunt!</p></li>
<li><p>Princeton: It is my sad fate only to have visited it on absolutely gorgeous spring days when the only possible reaction is “This is what Heaven looks like.”</p></li>
<li><p>Cornell: We had breakfast at the farmer’s market down by the lake. A busker was playing an actual hurdy-gurdy. We adopted our dog.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Funny how so many of these posts involve food! </p>
<p>I knew my son was smitten with his school after he’d been on campus for a week or so, when he fondly told us of Pomona’s tradition of evening “snack.” Apparently, most kids in his dorm dropped their week-night studying at 10:00pm to gather in the dining hall for milk, cookies and conversation.</p>
<p>Cornell: The dairy where one can get homemade ice cream at unreal prices (85 cents for the same size you’d pay $3.50 for at Ben & Jerry’s).</p>
<p>S’s school, North Carolina State University, a couple of things,</p>
<p>A)the Brickyard, in a world full of grassy college quads lies the NCSU Brickyard, a huge expanse of patterned brick, student gathering spot in the heart of the campus. Outsiders say it’s ugly but it’s near and dear to every Wolfpacker.</p>
<p>B) Free Expression Tunnel connects (running under train tracks) residential side to academic side of campus. Students are encouraged to paint anything and everything there. It changes almost daily and some of the artwork is incredible, just really cool. </p>
<p>C) Since it is an Ag. school they have their own dairy producing NC State homemade ice cream to all the cafeterias daily . All you can eat ice cream 3 meals (yes, even breakfast) a day! Irrational but irresistable,lol</p>
<p>Cross posted with Chedva. Lol, gotta love those schools with cows.</p>
<p>Dartmouth: Driving into town on a summer evening while a fabulous jazz band played at the outdoor restaurant and filled the quad.</p>
<p>Barnard: August 31, air conditioned admissions office with gorgeous live flowers.</p>
<p>Bennington: Being told all acceptees get a large, cafeteria-baked chocolate chip cookie in their acceptance packet.</p>
<p>Smith: Shakespeare garden.</p>
<p>Williams: Getting fringe from Jewish prayer shawls in our face when we walked into info. session. It was unpretentious, and as very lapsed Jews made us feel at home. </p>
<p>Vassar: The most perfect weather, boys playing frisbee. The music faculty member who took time to show my S (who was sophomore, D was the senior)
the music library, the organ and some of their Steinways. And the music building itself.</p>
<p>Bowdoin: The interviewer was reading GRAVITY’S RAINBOW, the book I did my dissertation on.</p>
<p>Barnard: Student interviewer was reading same book as D.: VANITY FAIR before movie came out.</p>
<p>U of Florida- walking through campus and watching the alligators sun themselves on the sides of ponds.</p>
<p>Son was fascinated the other day watching an alligator go after a turtle in the lake near his dorm. (Turtle won, gator tried and tried to do something with it in his jaws, but just couldn’t.)</p>
<p>UF again- Football Saturdays.</p>
<p>LOL! That’s what turned Dd OFF of U of Florida. She did NOT like those alligators!</p>