<p>Hmmm… I knew the Marquis got abused, never heard about the Leopard though. What will those pesky Lehigh kids think of next?</p>
<p>My son will be a frosh at Lafayette next fall, he has a friend going to Lehigh. The other kid is already trash-talking my son on Facebook, he left him a message that said, “Lafayette sucks.” My son responded with the scores of the last 3 Lafayette-Lehigh football games (all 3 victories for the Pards, of course). He hasn’t heard anything back…</p>
<p>I’m going to answer for my D (Penn State)
(1) school spirit - that one’s pretty obvious
(2) newspaper readership program
(3) The Creamery (ice cream)
(4) they have both a Starbucks AND a Panera Bread just off campus</p>
<p>UNC and Chapel Hill are just gorgeous. But the ‘seemingly irrational thing’ that got me were all the low stone walls along every street and path. Charming and historic… and useful. You get tired of climbing up and down the hills… and you just plop down on the nearest low stone wall for a rest and a chance to enjoy the view.</p>
<p>UVA
<p>Let’s see… irrationality basically summed up my college process so this could be interesting.</p>
<ol>
<li>Vassar College: the guy who started the whistling a capella group had lunch with me</li>
<li>Amherst College: it was Hawaiian shirt day in the admissions office</li>
<li>Swarthmore College: the tourguide had a sick accent.</li>
<li>University of Pennsylvania: the tourguide reminded me of my then-boyfriend crossed with my school’s valedictorian of that year.</li>
</ol>
<p>Liked:</p>
<p>Relatively noisy students unions, quads and cafeterias, indicating a large percentage of extroverts and a large percentage of engaged students.</p>
<p>Beautiful quadrangles or forecourts that seemed to inspire a casual friendliness amongst different groups of students.</p>
<p>Disliked;</p>
<p>Filthy admissions hall and visitor toilets</p>
<p>Filthy, window-less fast-food oriented student unions</p>
<p>Unkempt grounds at schools with enormous endowments. They can’t afford a decent landscape crew? What else do they skimp on?</p>
<p>Overly formal quadrangles</p>
<p>Hushed, anxious voices as the prevailing tone on campus. Mostly isolated individuals sitting in the cafeteria. I didn’t want my extrovert or my introvert to go to a school full of people living primarily in their own heads.</p>
<p>*Note: we toured the schools without our boys which meant that my preferences were raised without them in the vicinity. Had they been in the vicinity, I’m sure they would have labelled my preferences with a roll of their eyes as: "More of Mum’s Crazy Theories’. :eek:</p>