<p>My D was impressed by the personal touch taken at the smaller schools which preferred appointments for tour and info sessions. This generally was found on the west coast and in the midwest. The east coast schools were a free-for-all, evidenced anecdotally by the Vasser rep who began her presentation with “it’s Tuesday, and you’re at Vassar”.</p>
<p>Experience is 3 years old. Based upon tour, info session, and welcoming atmosphere upon first impression:</p>
<p>EXCELLENT - Whitman and Carleton (Both had individualized materials pertaining to D’s previously stated interests ready for her), Middlebury, Smith, Scipps (They went out of their way to provide us with our own tour guide and info person, since we just missed the session)
GOOD - Haverford (only tour, they did not have info sessions), WashU, Vassar, CMC, Vanderbilt, Tufts
ALOOF (“you need us more than we need you, and we have too many of you” came across loud and clear) - Pomona (agree with others here), Dartmouth, Swarthmore, Wellesley, Northwestern
VERY ALOOF (“we aren’t too interested today in working”) - Brandeis, Conn. College, Oberlin</p>
<p>The University of Notre Dame. I have yet to speak to an unpleasant or unhelpful staff person, the campus is stunningly beautiful, and they all mean it when they talk about the Notre Dame Family. You can just <em>feel</em> that they care about their students as individuals, and I’m glad for that, as my son will be attending there come August. I think I love the school as much as he does. :)</p>
<p>The Good</p>
<p>Ohio University. The campus is wonderful, the people friendly. It’s a good size, too, and the financial aid they offered was excellent. However, Athens, Ohio is in the middle of nowhere, and though the administration is working on the problem, it seemed to me that Ohio earns it’s reputation as a party school honestly.</p>
<p>The Distasteful</p>
<p>Michigan at Ann Arbor. The information session wasn’t very, and the tour was led by a student with little factual knowledge of the programs offered there. I am biased, however, by being a fan of the U of M’s two main rivals, Ohio State and Notre Dame. It wasn’t hard for me to dislike the school, but they didn’t do much to persuade me otherwise. :)</p>
<p>Aloof: Rice (well we gave you the admission, but you are from Houston so come if you wish. We would have liked you more if you were from North Dakota).</p>
<p>Grinnell - the hands down winner for old-fashioned mid-western niceness. They practically scooped us up the minute we walked through the door and wanted to make sure everything was perfect for visit, without knowing anything about my D’s qualifications.</p>
<p>Amherst - cooly friendly. Informative but a bit brisk. They lost test scores, and we had to resend. Coach was great, though.</p>
<p>Yale - admissions was pretty off-putting ( but that was with the previous director). They lost my D’s rec (had to be sent 3 times). The junior officer was kind of snooty when I asked about sending extra material and could barely give me the time of day, even though we had flown out from California for an interview. The tour guide was a gem, however, and the students around campus were the friendliest on any of our tours.</p>
<p>Pomona - our experiences differ with some on the thread, I guess, as we had nothing but pleasant contacts. We mistakenly paid our app fee twice, and they returned it within a week. Son’s interviewer was a doll, very helpful, professional and friendly. Tour guides seemed to really enjoy their role, were down to earth and articulate. Great lunch - no compaints.
My son wanted to attend afterward, so it must have been good enough.</p>
<p>Willamette, Puget Sound were amazing, same with Scripps,
Willamette and Puget Sound : phone calls from the rep, e-mails, handwritten notes, lots of extra personalized touches</p>
<p>Agree with person above about Reed: crazy nice student tour guide, nice student interviewed me, lovely lady helped me with financial questions, reasoanbly nice lady helped with general admissions stuff. BUT id say reed was my bottom place as it took so LONG for people to reply by email - i live at boarding school in England. a bit hard for me to phone translatlantic from a payphone.</p>
<p>Haverford - the admissions head Jess Lord (new) is amazing. very friendly and quick to reply to emails. does exactly what he says he will. BEST place</p>
<p>Kenyon - very friendly students and staff. a bit put off by the campus (are they a transplanted village from medieval england or what?) MIDDLE</p>
<p>Whitman - very good overnight stay. helped me make up my mind against them, even though everything was great. MIDDLE</p>
<p>Oberlin - good tour guide, nice admissions person. well organised. MIDDLE</p>
<p>Pomona-visit was amazing, president spoke individually with students, lunch with many professors at our table so opportunity to talk in depth with them, great student guides and overnight hosts. Very personalized. The interviewer I heard was very personable and casual . Not a lot of contact from the office during the waiting period but that is to be expected. </p>
<p>Pepperdine- not a great experience, same with Tulane(lost materials, didn’t respond to 2 week application until 2 months later, didn’t respond to e-mails, still gave great scholarship however)</p>
<p>I was impressed with the efficiency and “niceness” of both Indiana and Georgia. For being such large machines, they really seemed to have it together. We had a question about S’s direct admission to Kelley (IU) and it was answered immediately and handled. When he turned down Georgia after his ED acceptance to Penn, he got a nice email back.</p>
<p>st marys of MD- friendly tours, just unorganized
loyola MD- friendly guides, easy to deal with
fordham- nightmare with financial aid, claimed to never get the fax of all my documents even though we have a confirmation, requested a ridiculous amount of letters (which had to be noterized) to confirm i received no child support & have no contact… THEN claimed i must submit the non-custodial b/c i had gotten $400 in support over a 17 year period…i was just put off by their lack of common sense
gw- cold tour guide, but kind admissions staff
BU- rejection letter was awful, admissions staff unhelpful, impossible to get tours at times you actually requested
emerson- friendliest school i’ve dealt with, tour guide enthusiastic and warm, sends notes, magazines & letters once accepted
suny new paltz- applied as a safety- but once accepted, they send helpful info, broucheres, generally very nice
mcdaniels- bizarre tour guide but a nice school
goucher- kind staff to deal with on the phone, but never visited
quinnipiac- open house was insane and a mess, but the tour guide was trying so overall it was fine
eugene lang (the new school in nyc)- friendly tour guide and very accomidating</p>