<p>I fell in love with Lawrence and Appleton Wisconsin when I researched colleges for my D. She would not even humor me and visit.</p>
<p>I also thought Macalester seemed like a great place to go to school</p>
<p>Interesting replies, everyone. :)</p>
<p>As a hiring manager I can tell you flat out that an applicant with a degree from a for-profit school goes to the absolute bottom of the pile. The admissions requirement for these schools seems to be the ability to fog a mirror and write a check. </p>
<p>These schools prey on the poor and make students take out huge loans. The vast majority never graduate and those that do have have a mountain of debt and a worthless degree.</p>
<p>Loving all the love for our son’s new school and our backyard neighbor, the University of Michigan (Go Blue!).</p>
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<p>I’ll forgive your lack of love for UM because I totally agree with you about Miami. I’m from Cincinnati and attended UC, but only because that’s all we could afford. I would have been so much happier at Miami.</p>
<p>I’m fond of Penn State because that’s where hubby went to grad school and we were married in State College.</p>
<p>And even though we’re a Wolverine family, we’re also Catholic so there is a place in my heart for Notre Dame.</p>
<p>I’ve never been crazy about Stanford, which is strange for a native Californian. Seems to lack personality.
I love UCLA, though. Gorgeous campus, especially at night, and a fun surrounding town, although expensive. It’s “old L.A.,” I guess, which I’m partial to. My MIL is the only one in my family to attend. She graduated with Jackie Robinson.</p>
<p>Warning: all of my loathings are irrational. I accept this :)</p>
<p>I dislike Notre Dame because I’m sick of hearing it called “God’s Team” by some select people in my life. It really rubs me the wrong way. I think God has better things to do than personally sponsor a team. </p>
<p>Loathing OSU runs in my blood. Sorry 
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<p>I have a very love/hate relationship with Michigan. I am excited to be attending there this fall and have had GREAT experiences with upper level undergrad and grad students but there are some immature undergrads and “die-hard” Michigan fans that just make me hate the school (irrationally). For example, this morning after getting about 4 hours of sleep and catching the red eye back to Michigan, I had the TSA agent at the plane give me a hard time about wearing an MSU shirt and even went as far as to pick up his little speaker thingy and ask whether or not I should be allowed on the flight with a “Go Blue”. It’s 4 AM. I’m tired. Let me on the plane >.< (This is just fresh on my mind… even growing up as a blue baby, the obsession that people were I’m from have with U of M always bugged me… and I came home in a Michigan onesie (sp?)). There is a poster that portrays every single negative stereotype you’ve ever heard about U of M. Luckily, he’s the extreme minority but it’s still pretty impressive.</p>
<p>I have a soft spot for Northwestern, Kzoo, and Wake Forest. Their campuses are just beautiful. I also fell in love with William & Mary when I visited. Brown’s got a soft spot in my heart because of their lack of a core.</p>
<p>And of course, I have a soft spot for Michigan State ;).</p>
<p>What I truly have a soft spot for is residential colleges within large universities. They have my heart.</p>
<p>moonchild, I have a totally irrational dislike of Stanford too. That doesn’t mean I didn’t suggest it to my son as a place he should apply. Happily he didn’t get in. :D</p>
<p>Romani, ugh, I’d be annoyed by the TSA agent, too. I enjoy a healthy rivalry come game day but I’ll always recognize that there are many great schools, in Michigan and elsewhere. Heck, my son just got an Associate’s Degree from community college. Talk about getting no respect!</p>
<p>But I do suspect that our new baby will come home from UM hospital in a UM onesie. :)</p>
<p>I don’t have a strong opinion one way or another about Michigan, but romanigypsyeyes, your post reminded me of my dentist. Nearly 10,000 miles away from Ann Arbor, her dental practice is called Ann Arbor Dental Clinic, and her clinic is chock full of Michigan paraphernalia: maps of the campus, posters of football players, pennants, banners, the works. She got her DDS there. Michigan obsession aside, she’s also a bit of a creepy dentist.</p>
<p>When I was 10, I wanted to go to dartMOUTH. I’d never been to New Hampshire. And I had no idea what they studied there.</p>
<p>Still don’t. ;)</p>
<p>I didn’t want to go to Columbia. Most of my friends went there. (60 students from my high school class went there.) I was desperate (at the time) to get out of the city. </p>
<p>My guidance counselor used to threaten us with Middlebury. None of us knew where it was, but we were sure it was some kind of prison in a rural hovel. We studied hard, and no one from my high school was ever banished there. 18 to Harvard, none to Middlebury. (I was the only Williams - long story.)</p>
<p>We pitied the kids who had to go to NYU. It meant they hadn’t gotten into City College, and now they’d have to pay, and go to school with students from Missouri. Better C.W. Post.</p>
<p>Stony Brook was a new thing, and we didn’t know what to make of it.</p>
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<p>Of these only Mudd bothers me. But the worst, by far, is Tufts (“now, 30% softer!”). It’s a great school in a great location but the name is really off-putting to me.</p>
<p>On the other extreme are the schools with beautiful, musical names: Santa Clara, Sewanee, Sweet Briar…</p>
<p>My “fan favorite” overall is University of Chicago. I spent a lot of time in and around the campus after college and then visited a few years ago with my son. To me it is exactly how a college should look and feel. It just breathes intellectual curiosity to me.</p>
<p>Put this thread in a forum frequented by high school and college students and the answers may be significantly different. For example, the students might love NYU and hate Rutgers.</p>
<p>pelicularities, that’s very funny lol. I too have a rather creepy dentist… he went to Albion though. :p</p>
<p>VM- I understand that. CCs get no respect and it’s unfortunate. I love the rivalry. I dislike the people that go too far with it. (As I hypocritically do with OSU. Guilty!)</p>
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<p>True. God doesn’t care who wins the game.
But his mother does, and her name is Notre Dame! ;)</p>
<p>Haha, sorry, couldn’t resist!</p>
<p>My dislike of schools is based on the kinds of alums I’ve met. It’s irrational and unfair but… </p>
<p>Not a fan of Dartmouth or Princeton. The former seem to attract well-to-do conservative jerks; the Princeton grads I know all seem alike: good looking, country clubby and conformist in a bland trust-funder kind of way. </p>
<p>OTOH, Amherst and Williams seem to attract really smart, creative, intellectual types who escape that Stepford-Child-from-Princeton mold. The Yalies I know all are multifaceted and interesting. </p>
<p>I have a weakness for the UCs and all big state flagships because they they’re usually good/very good and quite democratic. </p>
<p>And I’m a Cal grad who doesn’t hate Stanford because its campus is just so… California: the golden hills, the olive trees, the Mexican architecture.</p>
<p>I grew up in East Lansing so MSU was an integral part of my childhood; such a beautiful campus. I still call mallards “Michigan State ducks” because I spent so much time down by the river feeding them when I was a kid. And they have green necks! Then I went to college at Michigan and therefore have partiality for them too. I’m happy if either team wins games and don’t really care who beats whom when they play each other. I know the MSU alma mater much better than Michigan’s, but get more fired up by the Michigan fight song. Although either make me feel good!</p>
<p>Due to my upbringing I have a vague distaste for Notre Dame and a distinct dislike for Ohio State. DH is a big fan of OSU and has a good friend who’s an alumni. Once this friend called in the fall and started his conversation by saying “I’m so sorry.” I was thinking OMG who died when I finally remembered it was football season and apparently OSU had beaten U-M. I don’t really understand keeping that fervor for 40 years but whatever!</p>
<p>Perhaps Harvey Mudd students could just say they attend the Clairemont College consortium - much prettier name!</p>
<p>I have a dislike for the Oregon Ducks. When I was going to school at UW, there was no 30-second shot clock in college basketball, and the Ducks’ big strategy for winning was getting a one-point lead and then running out the clock. I was at one game when they didn’t take a single shot in the final 7 minutes, just foul shots. It was infuriating. And they’d do this laughable psych-out routine during warmup by lining up at half-court, arms crossed, and watching the other team warm up. Oooooooooo, terrifying. Plus their cheerleaders were simply ridiculous. They came to one game wearing wooden-platform shoes. Seriously?</p>
<p>Besides my own alma maters and D’s school, I have a soft spot for Stanford. The campus is simply stunning, in a very California way.</p>
<p>I visited penn last month and after expecting to feel nonchalant about before I went, I absolutely fell in love with it.</p>
<p>Now, Columbia- I’ve thought for a while it would be my top choice but after visiting penn I’ve gained a new perspective on how I think of different colleges so now that I think about it, Columbia kind of annoys me even though I guess I’ll apply since it is one of my top choice. What annoys me is that compared to penn, which stresses educational excellence with the purpose of contributing to the world, it seems that columbia’s only concern is providing an “intellectually rigorous core” to stimulate your <em>knowledge</em>, first and foremost. Heck, learning is about being able to help the world through your knowledge, not to have your head in the clouds in Greek-philosophy land.</p>
<p>Anyone with experience with columbia- is this a true generalization I’m making?</p>
<p>It didn’t take me too long to fall in love with Swarthmore. First, we pull up and there are amazing blooming pink magnolias everywhere. We get into the halls amidst the students, and I perceive a clarity of mind rarely found on even a college campus. Finally, the students and professors were so bloomin’ nice to my son, that it made me tear up.</p>
<p>Loathe? I’m sure there’s one out there, but I’m not sure which, at this point.</p>
<p>Lots of soft spots for schools that accepted my kids along the way and schools I learned about here: Vassar, Hamilton, Colby. I don’t get all the NYU dislike I see here. From my youth, I loved Yale and Brown. Schools I loathe? Sweet Briar-- back in the 80s, when I applied there as a safety, they rejected me and the admissions officer told me (a Hispanic) they had enough of my kind.</p>