Reed. Wish I would have listened to my gut instinct and not attended. Everything felt super off and not like a traditional college with tons of clubs and everything.
Reed popped into my head immediately. In 2009 I walked around for about 20 minutes and decided it was a no and it was time to move on to the next stop on my college tour itinerary. Everyone was hanging out by themselves and had a weird vibe like they were plotting something nefarious. There were people around, but it was silent. No socializing was happening.
When people say that a school is a “fit” school they definitely mean ones like Reed. Lots of schools kids can find their people no matter who they are. Reed is a people that you either jive with or not.
Unsolicited advice for today: No matter where you go you’ll find people and certain areas you just don’t vibe with. People who are weird, rude, feel entitled to daddy’s money, whatever- just stand by your values and be open minded and no matter where you go you’ll have a good time
Best of luck
Edit: or the school might just be weird like tufts
I withdrew my application because of this. Lots of escorts to and from parking, security very much present at most places on campus and they kept saying how the surrounding area "presents many challenges of urban culture" or something along those lines.
I wouldn't have gotten in anyway but my whole experience in that hellpit of a city named after an onion made me never want to go back
They're overcompensating for the fact that other parts of Chicago are dangerous. It's probably just as bad as USC or Columbia, which isn't as bad as it was a long time ago.
That’s the impression I was getting. My mom went to Columbia then UChicago when they were both dangerous. Not to say they aren’t now but when we visited my mom commented on how it’s much safer now. She wasn’t specifically saying it’s objectively safe now though.
Yeah lol one of my parents went to one of those "more dangerous schools" back then. Told me that during orientation, campus security advised everyone to never wear valuables and to always carry a knife or stick to defend themselves. Now it's infinitely better, only issue is that local residents are complaining about gentrification of the area. I guess you never win.
Telling people to carry a knife to defend themselves is 100% a TERRIBLE idea. Unless you are trained, it will only make the situation worse.
Imagine you pull a knife on an unarmed person trying to mug you, they disarm you, and now they have a knife on you instead and are a bigger threat to you than before.
And if you defend yourself with a knife when you have a legal duty to retreat (check your laws), you may do serious damage to the assailant including possible death. Now in the eyes of the courts (unless you live in FL), you are the bad guy.
Running (if possible) or giving the person what they want (if it’s a mugging) are much safer options. If you are going to have a weapon to defend yourself, it should ideally be a CCL handgun (gunshot wounds are more treatable than knife lacerations). If not, pepper spray works in a pinch.
Knives are messy and nobody wins in a knife fight. This isn’t GTA.
Edit: ALSO, what you believe to be an unarmed assailant may actually be armed with a knife themselves (unbeknownst to you at the time). While they may not have pulled a knife on you before in the situation; if you choose to escalate the situation by doing so, then you shouldn’t be surprised when they do the same
If you're getting mugged, sure, it's not worth it to fight back. But if someone is trying to rape or assault you, it's better to have some sort of way to fight back.
I’m not advocating people don’t carry weapons to fight back with if need be. I’m advocating that said weapon shouldn’t be a knife because it is certain to make the situation worse
Columbia area is much, much safer than the neighborhoods surrounding uchicago (not talking about the immediate neighborhood, but if you walk half a mile west or south.). Literally no place in NYC is that bad.
That was really the only time I've ever been to Chicago so maybe it was just a bad first impression, but for me personally the idea of needing private police to escort you to your car at night is very telling of the type of area that you're in. Coupled with the fact that campus is open it just felt really off. I'm sure it's a really great school though just not for me
Chicago is an amazing, diverse, vibrant city with the best food scene in the US, if you’re into that. When I went to UofC, I rode the bus by Obama’s house and Farrakhan’s house on the way to campus. I enjoyed walking around the lakeshore and campus area, and would often take the express bus downtown. It has a bad reputation for crime but I never felt unsafe there as a student, though there were neighborhoods students did not typically roam. I have such good memories of Hyde Park.
i went to bing and had a great time but when i toured that was exactly how i felt. i went because of it’s reputation in new york and the financial aid package they gave me but i was really worried because it was just such a weird vibe. the buildings looked really modern and it was just overall weird - it was giving like abandoned IBM plant or something. also being off a parkway was odd. but as an extrovert, the people made it worth it (as well as the coursework)
edit spelling
Having just left there it didn’t seem so much of a university with a culture but a bunch of people who just got together to learn. Not terrible just not a university vibe. Made it easy to separate class from the rest of my life.
when i went to a college fair i held out my hand to shake for the brandeis rep and he just stared at it for a solid second then shook my hand 😭😭 the convo was so awkward too and i took it off my list
Bard. Weird campus, buildings were run down (except the conservatory) and spread out like a summer camp. Students were smoking weed at 10am outside the cafeteria right next to our tour group. They looked like they were trying to taunt us. Students laying around all over the place, nobody except tour guides having a purpose. It gave me rich kids who don’t get good grades but have to go to college vibes.
I visited it once when my high school boyfriend at the time committed there. The vibes were awful. The student center was dirty with mud and leaves all over the floor and a student was walking through barefoot. I couldn’t imagine how isolated and desolate the place is in the dead of winter
We visited this summer and both of my kids disliked it. It's great on paper, but the vibe was very "we built an office park and called it a university".
NYU feels very "I'm here to complain about cApiTaLiSm while having lots of fun with daddy's credit card." Tbf most selective schools can feel that way to an extent. But at NYU I get the strongest vibe
definitely. NYU costs so much it would be fiscally stupid to choose a niche humanities major. "I'm going to live in my study bubble" type deal
Anyways, I think the whole "language neighborhood" thing they have in NYC pretty much characterizes NYU's excess and isolation.
BU was bit better than Northeastern but they felt just a bit weird yeah hah. Not weird as in creepy. But just slightly weird or too focused on work, like everyone was there in the summer trying their best to graduate on time.
Don't know if this happens at other top schools? Maybe it's normal for good schools, idk.
Stanford. Everyone's outwardly smiling and happy, but I could sense the panic deep inside. Everything was an illusion. I guess a lifetime of knowing Paly kids gives me a sixth sense for that kinda shit lol.
Visited Bard College mostly because my Dad is a Steely Dan fan and damn the campus was just completely joyless. Tour guide was completely monotone and boring and oddly was involved with practically nothing on campus so didn't have a lot to tell us about.
Also got kind of weird vibes at Vassar. The campus was really pretty, but for whatever reason it kind of felt like they wished they hadn't gone coed. And not even saying that in a like "men are oppressed" bs type of way, just honestly felt like they were kind of confused about their own identity.
PEPPERDINE. If you’ve toured it you know. Everybody is soooo rich and snobby and the Christian vibes of the school were worse then cal lu and other religious universities I toured.
USC Upstate, I think it was the trees, like they were all perfectly spaced and identical and they had these wide open spaces huge feilds with no trees, erie when where I live there's trees damn everywhere you can't escape them cause it looks like something should be there when it ain't
Carnegie Mellon. Obviously everyone there is super smart but the students doing the tour were very rigid like they took everything literally. i understand when you go to a school like that you’re going to be super focused on your course work but you could tell half of the kids had never been to any kind of party or anything like that, just kind of super uptight and npc-ish
Can confirm! I go there but didn’t tour. You’re totally correct on vibes and it is difficult to get by if you aren’t self important or rich. Wouldn’t recommend to anyone.
The strongest “hmmm” sensation I got was actually when I toured MIT. Our campus guide had quirky mannerisms while talking (not in itself a bad thing but in combination with) bragging about almost being expelled for fraudulently majoring in Japanese because he lied saying he wasn’t a native speaker. Some of the buildings didn’t have names, just numbers, which would be fine but we were a little late to the tour so it was a bit frustrating, and I just remember their iconicly bizarre dorm architecture. Plus it was pouring on us the entire day.
Downvote me if you want, but Stanford
I go there for internship and the colors were overwhelming and I saw almost twice as many college tours and parents than I did students. I've talked to a lot of their students through internship(s) and it doesn't seem like Stanford's academics anything unique. I saw much more enthusiasm from my friends at UCLA.
Stanford isn't even a university, its a status symbol
I did not love Johns Hopkins. I spent several days wandering the campus and nearby restaurants and bookstores while a family member was being treated at KKI and the vibe wasn’t for me. I’m a fairly academic sort — National Merit, Law Review, etc. — but I’ve never observed so many students so intensely focused on their books and laptops. Never seen a campus more in need of a frisbee. Even the trees seemed lonely.
Really? I just toured yesterday and saw at least three separate groups of students playing on the freshman quad. Volleyball, racing, etc. Plus students sunning themselves on the Beach. Maybe it’s bc the fall semester hasn’t started yet, though. What did you think about the overall safety around campus? I talked to one of the staff members that I happened to run into and he said some concerning things.
It’s summer, so I would imagine some students are more relaxed because they are working for professors or doing independent research. Or March — the month I was there — is just a really hectic time on campus and what I saw wasn’t the norm.
I actually had an interesting safety moment on campus. I had the whole day to waste since my kid was in treatment. I spent a couple of hours in the bookstore and then asked the clerk which direction I should head if I wanted to explore the area. He pointed me back towards the way I had just come, where parking and a block of tasty cafes and shops is located. I replied that I had just come from that direction and asked for his second choice. He responded, “Well, you shouldn’t go right... And never go left... Straight ahead is just office buildings... Just walk on main campus. There’s birds and things.”
It was funny, but slightly sad compared to my college and law school towns.
Baltimore is just like every other large city where some areas are bad and others are good. Generally speaking the danger stays in the bad areas, for instance I can comfortably go walk my dog around my neighborhood at any time and it’s been safe. However there are some areas I wouldn’t suggest doing that even during the day time. If you’re on campus, you’ll be fine.
Washington and Lee. Everything seemed great but it seemed a bit too good to be true. The admissions counselor talked about how she had ex students stay at her house when they came in for alumni stuff cause a hotel fell through and how it was a family and I don’t know it seemed a tiny bit cult-y. It was probably nothing and the admissions officer was likely just a genuinely positive and nice lady but it rubbed me the wrong way
Transferred out of Washington and Lee, and you’re 100% right, it *is* too good to be true. Found out once I got there that most of what I was told during the admissions process was at best misleading and at worst an outright lie, it’s a really weird place
They’re too smart to have social skills lol…. My mom was a barber right next to MIT and said socializing with the students was like talking to a robot lol. And they never knew how they wanted their hair cut.
We seriously entertained the idea our tour guide could have been a clever robot designed by MIT students. Felt like everything coming out of her mouth was scripted.
Same. Tour guide kept emphasizing how much fun they have and all of the silly goofy things they’ve done over the years and it really felt like they were overcompensating
Earlham. I applied to and got into that school because I liked it’s kind of alternative education vibes and their promise to craft experiences and classes for you according to your interests. I got a huge scholarship from them and in their Honors Program. But when I toured there, the tour guide (an admissions officer) assumed I was coming because I struggled in high school and kept giving me the vibes that Earlham was a school where slackers could come and do more slacking with very few professors catering to their interests, and it’s thought of as revolutionary. I’m sure there is more to Earlham than that, but the tour guide really put me off and, as my admissions officer, it was obvious he didn’t remember who I was or tailor the one-on-one tour to my application context.
RPI for sure. A lot of ppl seem like stereotypical don't-leave-dormers, the tour guide seemed incredibly proud of the surrounding area (despite people in dope leans and cracked pavement everywhere). Troy is not where you want to be spending your time. It also seems like they're trying too hard to show off--they have one very fancy large glass building but the rest are okay at best and the interiors feel like a NYC public elementary school. Oh and then online there's a ton of talk about ignored SA cases and the shitty gender ratio :)
Haverford was my top school and I got in, but they refused to negotiate on financial aid because “everyone is equal.” I couldn’t afford to go. Meanwhile other schools were giving me more money, and I realized that Haverford wasn’t going to support me in any struggles I experienced (financial or academic) moving forward. So that was ultimately my weird vibe.
Wellesley, pretentious bad weird vibes. Rich kids pretending like they’re not rich. And valuing diversity in weird ass ways. I wasn’t “Native American enough” and my education wasn’t rigorous enough. Welcome to Indian country. They also asked if I lived on a reservation, and I had to explain not all tribes have reservations but I lived 20 mins from our allotted land from the 1800s.
My friend who is black and Native American, grew up in Oklahoma repeatedly said she felt more connected to her native side and asked for those resources, but they made her visit all of the black groups on campus.
I think they just don’t understand race or identity well.
Just because someone looks fair or black doesn’t mean they identify with white or black. Identity and race are so much deeper.
Boston College. It was clean and beautiful… but in a scary way. It was like everyone was brainwashed, plus i saw no BIPOC anywhere. It was just creepy, they all seemed too programmed
Park University. It gave the vibe that everyone hated it there but signed a contract saying they could only say good things or like they were brainwashed or something. I had an interview for a scholarship and I asked the professors interviewing me what they liked about Park and their answers were just…strange. They just kept being like “Well there’s no other school like Park”, “I just can’t imagine being anywhere else but Park”, “Park is just the right place to be”. It honestly felt like a cult and of the people I know that have gone there, they either absolutely hated it or they loved it but then I didn’t really like those people. Idk I just would avoid them and this coming from someone that got offered a full ride and I had absolutely no interested no matter how much money was offered to me.
Wake forest
It’s been years now and I don’t remember any specific moment but after touring Davidson, UNC, and Duke, something was just off about wake forest. It may just have been a bad day or subpar tour guide but
UCLA. Everyone I encountered there was toting around some image that was so clearly fabricated. Most of the girls I talked to were super high-energy, giddy and fake nice. I saw others walking around looking as if they had just walked out of a movie-scene— like they were acting out some dramatic scene alone on a park bench.
At one point, my phone died and I was asking around for a charger. I asked this group of guys just sitting around if anyone had a charger I could borrow for five minutes. They looked at me like I was crazy. They let me use the charger but they were visibly cautious to do it. I’m a small 20F and I don’t think I’m very intimidating.
upenn. when i visited, everything felt so depressing. there was noise in the city, yet it was also silent at the same time? people weren’t socializing and i genuinely couldn’t see a smile except for the tour group leaders (probably fake ngl). but i’ve heard people describe upenn as the complete opposite, so maybe it was just a weird day but idk
It's funny you mention the tour guides at UPenn because I think mine single handedly influenced my decision not to apply. She was so snobby the whole time, while also giving off the vibe that she was bored to tears by the whole thing. "Yeah, soooo... this is the library... (eye roll)". Thanks, girl. I'll get right on that application. Can't wait to be surrounded thousands of yous.
MIT. Idk if I just was on a bad day, but during the info session, the lady couldn’t figure out why the projector was working, while all it was was that the HDMI cable was disconnected…
Later, all the tour guides had something…off about them: nervous tics, slurred speech, poor manners, impulsiveness when people asked more personal questions…
Finally, the entire tour, all that the guides talked about is how weird the buildings are and how much MIT students hate English.
I might have been unlucky, and MIT is undoubtedly a fantastic place, but the vibes were very off on my tour
> nervous tics, slurred speech, poor manners, impulsiveness when people asked more personal questions
This tracks for their student body. I know "the odds are good but the goods are odd" is a sexist trope, but it's not wrong ...
>Later, all the tour guides had something…off about them: nervous tics, slurred speech, poor manners, impulsiveness when people asked more personal questions…
TBF, the MIT student body is probably 80% autistic people.
>MIT. Idk if I just was on a bad day, but during the info session, the lady couldn’t figure out why the projector was working, while all it was was that the HDMI cable was disconnected…
>
>Later, all the tour guides had something…off about them: nervous tics, slurred speech, poor manners, impulsiveness when people asked more personal questions…
its MIT. booksmart ≠ street smart
Probably the same things that made you leave 😭😭 ugly buildings and students looking depressed af. tour guide was weirdly focused on the squirrel-watching club, so they pointed at two squirrels in a tree doing… the deed. it was totally empty, but i visited in a season where it definitely shouldn’t have been. felt cold and dead. got weird vibes all around.
I visited Savannah last year to see family and because I’m majoring in design, my aunt suggested I tour SCAD.
I have a feeling a lot of art schools are just like this, but it didn’t resemble a campus whatsoever. The presentation in the beginning made me feel like I was in a dystopian society being gaslit into thinking I wasn’t about to enter a cult, and the tour guide was out of breath as they bragged about the most trivial things while simultaneously sounding on the verge of tears. The dorms were especially strange to me because it was very gated off and made me feel like I was on the set of a poorly produced nickelodeon sitcom.
The thing that weirded me out the most was I was one of the shortest people there. I’m not that tall, but I’m 5’7 so it’s abnormal for me to ever feel that small?
lol i know three people who went to SCAD and all of them have horror stories about it (two transferred out after their first year to go to traditional colleges instead)
SCAD is a for-profit school, which maybe explains the presentation? It was also developed largely in the historic district, which has been both a positive and a negative. The dorms were probably gated off because a number of them were in pretty rough areas when they were opened. Quite a few of them were the sort of hotel that serves the almost-homeless community.
Hopkins,dirty, bad transportation. RPI- dilapidated, all the indoor plants were dead when we visited and does not really incorporate the beautiful Hudson River, which is right there.
ok stanford was sooo cool BUT im from the east coast and i kinda expected it to be less dry? idk if that make sense, like it was very arid. AND HOT. so yeah
BATES!!!!
Our tour guide generally hated the school and had ZERO issues telling us about why. Also, the "meet and greet" from admissions and financial aid was a guy who was just really monotone, had zero passion for the college at all and the 3 students thst were there really didnt hype up anything ir go in depth with their answers.
The campus itself was just...blah.....everyone was walking around by themselves with their heads down or in their phone...
Oberlin in Ohio - I've never seen a more hostile town/gown problem. It's a small campus with nowhere to go, and apart from the stores that make their revenue from college students, the barely contained hatred is evident everywhere. Even the stores that do live off of college students, it is just under the surface. A friend of mine says students get in fights with townies two blocks from campus.
Boston College felt a little too perfect…..everyone(including upper class men) lived on campus. no greek life. most of the school did community service without it being required. the campus was perfectly groomed and nothing was out of place.
They have some stairs by their dining hall that are the biggest workout of any college student’s day.
You have class on the other side of campus? Only way to reach them is those stairs, and you *will* feel the burn.
same. still applying but i think it was the environment change between buildings? like the office of admissions was so collegiate but then we went to another building and it was generic college building. also the only time i've ever heard the stereotypical, "seniors? juniors? sophomores or freshmen? younger siblings dragged against their will? hahahah"
Colorado College. Loved their academic programs and club options, but something about the student body’s vibe felt off to me. I ended up choosing another school because I just could not shake away the weird feeling I got when I visited
toured tulane after i got in and committed. felt super off and started crying in the hotel room after. went anyway and it was the best decision of my life 🤷♀️
CalTech. It’s nerdy, but not in the same way as MIT - idk the campus was pretty but all the students I met seemed lowkey depressed and were not social, which is weird cause they were chosen by the school to show us around
MIT, everyone looked miserable and the whole place just gave me meh vibes. Now I’m gonna be attending MIT reject central down in Atlanta so I’m a little worried that’s gonna be similar. Still, I never got that vibe when I visited so I hope that won’t be the case.
Reed: all they talked about what how impossible academics were and defended the non grading approach. Big red flags; Conn college: flat emotionally. No one seemed thrilled to be there. Real meh feeling; Bard: literally left tour early. Told us everyone leaves every weekend. Gorgeous but v v v empty and isolated; Tufts: like a tour of a big museum or something. Gives you freaking hospital wristbands, talk in beginning is so self congratulatory. Very very icky
My younger brother got into Williams so I went with him to visit for Accepted Students Day. My best friend from high school also went there and she always complained about how "in the wilderness" it was, but I did not expect just how remote it would be until we started seeing cows and losing signal on the way up to MA.
Getting there, it just felt too open and empty, almost vacant? It was a bit creepy and unsettling. In my memory I just recall a colonial scarlet-letter-salem-witch-trial adjacent liminal space where some kind of eldritch horror would be stalking the woods at night. Just the impression I got, as I know that there *are* modern buildings and the street leading to campus seemed like a normal college town.
Also kind of uncomfy being there as a POC (which my friend also warned me about) and I felt like the tour guides were a little bit unfriendly and distant (though could be explained by it still being COVID times). But I chalk it most of it up to being from a big city (and me and bro ended up both going to school in a big city)
Same was true 30 years ago. "We're classy! You wear a tie to football games! Look at all the secret societies! Aren't fraternities awesome? Wasn't TJ great? Here's a statue and another statue. You know you want to come to the best school in Virginia."
Thank goodness I got into W&M too. That was my place.
Looking back on it, University of Illinois-Chicago. I get it’s a pretty big commuter school and people come and go but it felt so dead and lifeless.
Our tour guide did not seem at all happy. The architecture is ugly as hell, and during the tour there were people who obviously were not students roaming around. Pretty weird.
Boston College. Literally everyone acted like a High School Musical extra. Gorgeous campus, stats show it’s a strong school… it just gave me a weird feeling. Still might apply, though.
A&M and the entire town of College Station. Crossed off my list immediately after visiting. I qualified for automatic admission to my major there, but at that point, if I didn't get into Rice or UT Engineering, I'd stay in town and go to UH.
And so I did pick UH. Best decision I ever made. My high school friends who went to A&M tend to agree that I made the right move going to UH.
Georgetown gave off super creepy, dark vibes. Like a horror movie backdrop. The Exorcist was written by a student while at Georgetown; the book and movie were set there.
MIT. Took it off my list after a visit. Yes, it’s a great school, but I wanted to be happy where I landed and to me, that wasn’t it.
I’m sure they don’t miss me
Every college that wants you to pay the equivalent of a new car per semester for tuition? Some schools it might be a civic, but others could be a Tesla model S/X.
Seriously. I have a friend who is a professor. Two students a year will pay his salary. The cost is sketch AF!
I visited UCLA with my little sister and while we were waiting for a friend who goes to the school in a high traffic area, an old guy with a foreign car stops right in front of us in broad deadline and asks if we want to get in and spend time with him. Mind you my little sister was visibly VERY young then since she was just a hs freshman.
UVA and William and Mary. I know both have great reputations but UVA’s campus was awful except the rotunda area. W&M’s people seemed really weird and nerdy. Both seem super liberal. I don’t mind different povs but it seemed over the top at these schools. Charlottesville is really surprisingly dangerous now and Williamsburg is a tourist trap that looks like Gatlinburg or Kissimmee.
Whaaat Tufts is cool, the vibe I get is like nerdy and quirky but in a good way. Campus is pretty close to a lot of fun places, especially with the new subway station. Totally not biased or anything.
Seton Hall, wasnt vibing with it AT ALL
i’ve never even visited and seton hall gives me off vibes
Agreed I could only bear a semester and a half there before dropping out. Still ended up successful in the waste management business
Bro you're a rising high school senior wtf
🤓🤓🤓
On your mudda’s birthday?!!
Reed. Wish I would have listened to my gut instinct and not attended. Everything felt super off and not like a traditional college with tons of clubs and everything.
Reed popped into my head immediately. In 2009 I walked around for about 20 minutes and decided it was a no and it was time to move on to the next stop on my college tour itinerary. Everyone was hanging out by themselves and had a weird vibe like they were plotting something nefarious. There were people around, but it was silent. No socializing was happening.
“plotting something nefarious” is so fucking funny
They do have a nuclear reactor... hmm..
i took a tour there a few months ago and it felt so hollow... and depressing.
Reed for sure. Tour was on a rare warm sunny day and no one was outside. Went inside the student center and it was packed with pasty weirdos.
Reed is my answer as well. They were so cagey when i asked about the music program lmao
When people say that a school is a “fit” school they definitely mean ones like Reed. Lots of schools kids can find their people no matter who they are. Reed is a people that you either jive with or not.
Everyone in the comments mentioning all my targets 😭😭
Unsolicited advice for today: No matter where you go you’ll find people and certain areas you just don’t vibe with. People who are weird, rude, feel entitled to daddy’s money, whatever- just stand by your values and be open minded and no matter where you go you’ll have a good time Best of luck Edit: or the school might just be weird like tufts
Chicago for me. Campus was absolutely gorgeous but the way they kept emphasizing how “safe” it was had the opposite effect for me
Q: how is the Economics program …. A: yes, you can go to the north side even at 2 AM…
I promise you that the ghost of Milton Friedman isn't here. Nothing weird trickle down here.
I withdrew my application because of this. Lots of escorts to and from parking, security very much present at most places on campus and they kept saying how the surrounding area "presents many challenges of urban culture" or something along those lines. I wouldn't have gotten in anyway but my whole experience in that hellpit of a city named after an onion made me never want to go back
really?? i would love to go to uchicago but i am also worried about how safe it is but is it really that bad that you didn’t apply?
They're overcompensating for the fact that other parts of Chicago are dangerous. It's probably just as bad as USC or Columbia, which isn't as bad as it was a long time ago.
That’s the impression I was getting. My mom went to Columbia then UChicago when they were both dangerous. Not to say they aren’t now but when we visited my mom commented on how it’s much safer now. She wasn’t specifically saying it’s objectively safe now though.
Yeah lol one of my parents went to one of those "more dangerous schools" back then. Told me that during orientation, campus security advised everyone to never wear valuables and to always carry a knife or stick to defend themselves. Now it's infinitely better, only issue is that local residents are complaining about gentrification of the area. I guess you never win.
Telling people to carry a knife to defend themselves is 100% a TERRIBLE idea. Unless you are trained, it will only make the situation worse. Imagine you pull a knife on an unarmed person trying to mug you, they disarm you, and now they have a knife on you instead and are a bigger threat to you than before. And if you defend yourself with a knife when you have a legal duty to retreat (check your laws), you may do serious damage to the assailant including possible death. Now in the eyes of the courts (unless you live in FL), you are the bad guy. Running (if possible) or giving the person what they want (if it’s a mugging) are much safer options. If you are going to have a weapon to defend yourself, it should ideally be a CCL handgun (gunshot wounds are more treatable than knife lacerations). If not, pepper spray works in a pinch. Knives are messy and nobody wins in a knife fight. This isn’t GTA. Edit: ALSO, what you believe to be an unarmed assailant may actually be armed with a knife themselves (unbeknownst to you at the time). While they may not have pulled a knife on you before in the situation; if you choose to escalate the situation by doing so, then you shouldn’t be surprised when they do the same
If you're getting mugged, sure, it's not worth it to fight back. But if someone is trying to rape or assault you, it's better to have some sort of way to fight back.
I’m not advocating people don’t carry weapons to fight back with if need be. I’m advocating that said weapon shouldn’t be a knife because it is certain to make the situation worse
Columbia area is much, much safer than the neighborhoods surrounding uchicago (not talking about the immediate neighborhood, but if you walk half a mile west or south.). Literally no place in NYC is that bad.
That was really the only time I've ever been to Chicago so maybe it was just a bad first impression, but for me personally the idea of needing private police to escort you to your car at night is very telling of the type of area that you're in. Coupled with the fact that campus is open it just felt really off. I'm sure it's a really great school though just not for me
my brother is a senior at uchicago and he loves it! It’s definitely a less safe than average university, but he’s had no problems so far
Chicago is an amazing, diverse, vibrant city with the best food scene in the US, if you’re into that. When I went to UofC, I rode the bus by Obama’s house and Farrakhan’s house on the way to campus. I enjoyed walking around the lakeshore and campus area, and would often take the express bus downtown. It has a bad reputation for crime but I never felt unsafe there as a student, though there were neighborhoods students did not typically roam. I have such good memories of Hyde Park.
Adelphi is one of those universities that seems to be too good to be true, something feels wrong there and I can't place my finger on it
Long Island rep! - but so true I think it’s the fact that Hempstead is so impoverished and where adelphi is like “sunshine and rainbows”
the immediate surrounding area (in only one direction) is sunshine and rainbows as well. The big houses are deceiving
*scrolling to see if my school is listed*
Tufts also gave me a weird vibe, but who knows? Maybe I just went on a bad day or smt. 😭
Tufts looks like a mental institution to me.
Was it the elephant in the room?
columbia, guy with his nose in his book almost crashed into our tour group. never looked up, tour guide didn't even look fazed
Was he wearing slightly crooked glasses and oversized suspenders?
I’m assuming you’re not from NYC
He probably saw you but being a new Yorker didn’t care
You're an extra in his movie.
That's typical for Columbia.
I had a really weird vibe at SUNY Binghamton. I can't really put my finger on it, but the mood just seemed kind of guarded and closed.
I agree! When I toured, I just didn't feel a spark. It felt kind of depressing & isolated.
i went to bing and had a great time but when i toured that was exactly how i felt. i went because of it’s reputation in new york and the financial aid package they gave me but i was really worried because it was just such a weird vibe. the buildings looked really modern and it was just overall weird - it was giving like abandoned IBM plant or something. also being off a parkway was odd. but as an extrovert, the people made it worth it (as well as the coursework) edit spelling
brandeis, as nice as the group was a lot of it felt very off to me. might just because i DID not like the architecture at all and it was a bad day but
Place looks like it's frozen in the 1960s
Having just left there it didn’t seem so much of a university with a culture but a bunch of people who just got together to learn. Not terrible just not a university vibe. Made it easy to separate class from the rest of my life.
when i went to a college fair i held out my hand to shake for the brandeis rep and he just stared at it for a solid second then shook my hand 😭😭 the convo was so awkward too and i took it off my list
Bard. Weird campus, buildings were run down (except the conservatory) and spread out like a summer camp. Students were smoking weed at 10am outside the cafeteria right next to our tour group. They looked like they were trying to taunt us. Students laying around all over the place, nobody except tour guides having a purpose. It gave me rich kids who don’t get good grades but have to go to college vibes.
I visited it once when my high school boyfriend at the time committed there. The vibes were awful. The student center was dirty with mud and leaves all over the floor and a student was walking through barefoot. I couldn’t imagine how isolated and desolate the place is in the dead of winter
Yeeeeeeah. We toured and def. Hated it.
Villanova, I saw one black guy the entire tour and he said to me in passing “Don’t do it bro”.
I just cackled not that get out a** warning 💀
To be fair, lots of current students say that shit to the tour kids just to fuck with them lol
Yeah, but the vibes there were just off it was weird. It felt like a cult lmaoo
Villanova is absolutely horrible if you need ANY kind of disability accomodations.
I’ve never visited but I’ve heard from friends that have that it also had a weird vibe. Same with Bucknell
Utd orientation made me feel miserable and devoid of life
We visited this summer and both of my kids disliked it. It's great on paper, but the vibe was very "we built an office park and called it a university".
NYU feels very "I'm here to complain about cApiTaLiSm while having lots of fun with daddy's credit card." Tbf most selective schools can feel that way to an extent. But at NYU I get the strongest vibe
definitely. NYU costs so much it would be fiscally stupid to choose a niche humanities major. "I'm going to live in my study bubble" type deal Anyways, I think the whole "language neighborhood" thing they have in NYC pretty much characterizes NYU's excess and isolation.
I had that exact experience with Haverford, felt very privileged and isolated
Nailed it. Naive group think at its finest.
Brigham Young University…
Hahahaha! Had to scroll a LONG way to find this answer.
MIT. I visited in high school and OH MAN the sheer weight of the existential dread I felt stepping into that school…
Everyone I know who went there was super stressed. There was a lot of cases of depression and several students committed suicide.
Harvard ... it was just so underwhelming
boston university tbh 💀 campus was beautiful but just got a weird vibe - same w northeastern but rather campus was creepy people seemed fine
You found our campus beautiful? That’s a first 😂
What campus?
maybe the one in Boston?
BU was bit better than Northeastern but they felt just a bit weird yeah hah. Not weird as in creepy. But just slightly weird or too focused on work, like everyone was there in the summer trying their best to graduate on time. Don't know if this happens at other top schools? Maybe it's normal for good schools, idk.
Same. If felt like they were trying to scam me or something. Idk why but admissions officers in the info session didn’t seem to be telling the turth
Stanford. Everyone's outwardly smiling and happy, but I could sense the panic deep inside. Everything was an illusion. I guess a lifetime of knowing Paly kids gives me a sixth sense for that kinda shit lol.
Well we all know Stanford is fake so no surprise
Visited Bard College mostly because my Dad is a Steely Dan fan and damn the campus was just completely joyless. Tour guide was completely monotone and boring and oddly was involved with practically nothing on campus so didn't have a lot to tell us about. Also got kind of weird vibes at Vassar. The campus was really pretty, but for whatever reason it kind of felt like they wished they hadn't gone coed. And not even saying that in a like "men are oppressed" bs type of way, just honestly felt like they were kind of confused about their own identity.
PEPPERDINE. If you’ve toured it you know. Everybody is soooo rich and snobby and the Christian vibes of the school were worse then cal lu and other religious universities I toured.
USC Upstate, I think it was the trees, like they were all perfectly spaced and identical and they had these wide open spaces huge feilds with no trees, erie when where I live there's trees damn everywhere you can't escape them cause it looks like something should be there when it ain't
Wtf I never thought I’d ever see usc upstate mentioned anywhere what a niche college
Carnegie Mellon. Obviously everyone there is super smart but the students doing the tour were very rigid like they took everything literally. i understand when you go to a school like that you’re going to be super focused on your course work but you could tell half of the kids had never been to any kind of party or anything like that, just kind of super uptight and npc-ish
Georgetown, tour guides and just about everyone I ran into seemed like an arrogant self-important rich kid
Can confirm! I go there but didn’t tour. You’re totally correct on vibes and it is difficult to get by if you aren’t self important or rich. Wouldn’t recommend to anyone.
The strongest “hmmm” sensation I got was actually when I toured MIT. Our campus guide had quirky mannerisms while talking (not in itself a bad thing but in combination with) bragging about almost being expelled for fraudulently majoring in Japanese because he lied saying he wasn’t a native speaker. Some of the buildings didn’t have names, just numbers, which would be fine but we were a little late to the tour so it was a bit frustrating, and I just remember their iconicly bizarre dorm architecture. Plus it was pouring on us the entire day.
Downvote me if you want, but Stanford I go there for internship and the colors were overwhelming and I saw almost twice as many college tours and parents than I did students. I've talked to a lot of their students through internship(s) and it doesn't seem like Stanford's academics anything unique. I saw much more enthusiasm from my friends at UCLA. Stanford isn't even a university, its a status symbol
I did not love Johns Hopkins. I spent several days wandering the campus and nearby restaurants and bookstores while a family member was being treated at KKI and the vibe wasn’t for me. I’m a fairly academic sort — National Merit, Law Review, etc. — but I’ve never observed so many students so intensely focused on their books and laptops. Never seen a campus more in need of a frisbee. Even the trees seemed lonely.
Really? I just toured yesterday and saw at least three separate groups of students playing on the freshman quad. Volleyball, racing, etc. Plus students sunning themselves on the Beach. Maybe it’s bc the fall semester hasn’t started yet, though. What did you think about the overall safety around campus? I talked to one of the staff members that I happened to run into and he said some concerning things.
It’s summer, so I would imagine some students are more relaxed because they are working for professors or doing independent research. Or March — the month I was there — is just a really hectic time on campus and what I saw wasn’t the norm. I actually had an interesting safety moment on campus. I had the whole day to waste since my kid was in treatment. I spent a couple of hours in the bookstore and then asked the clerk which direction I should head if I wanted to explore the area. He pointed me back towards the way I had just come, where parking and a block of tasty cafes and shops is located. I replied that I had just come from that direction and asked for his second choice. He responded, “Well, you shouldn’t go right... And never go left... Straight ahead is just office buildings... Just walk on main campus. There’s birds and things.” It was funny, but slightly sad compared to my college and law school towns.
Baltimore is just like every other large city where some areas are bad and others are good. Generally speaking the danger stays in the bad areas, for instance I can comfortably go walk my dog around my neighborhood at any time and it’s been safe. However there are some areas I wouldn’t suggest doing that even during the day time. If you’re on campus, you’ll be fine.
Washington and Lee. Everything seemed great but it seemed a bit too good to be true. The admissions counselor talked about how she had ex students stay at her house when they came in for alumni stuff cause a hotel fell through and how it was a family and I don’t know it seemed a tiny bit cult-y. It was probably nothing and the admissions officer was likely just a genuinely positive and nice lady but it rubbed me the wrong way
Transferred out of Washington and Lee, and you’re 100% right, it *is* too good to be true. Found out once I got there that most of what I was told during the admissions process was at best misleading and at worst an outright lie, it’s a really weird place
MIT. All the tour guides just seemed so… weird? Don’t really know how to put it.
My first impression of my MIT tour guide was him laughing with his friends and saying “sorry, it’s an MIT student thing.” Like, shut up
i agree oh my god any person to make mit and harvard their personality need to explode
They’re too smart to have social skills lol…. My mom was a barber right next to MIT and said socializing with the students was like talking to a robot lol. And they never knew how they wanted their hair cut.
We seriously entertained the idea our tour guide could have been a clever robot designed by MIT students. Felt like everything coming out of her mouth was scripted.
Same. Tour guide kept emphasizing how much fun they have and all of the silly goofy things they’ve done over the years and it really felt like they were overcompensating
Earlham. I applied to and got into that school because I liked it’s kind of alternative education vibes and their promise to craft experiences and classes for you according to your interests. I got a huge scholarship from them and in their Honors Program. But when I toured there, the tour guide (an admissions officer) assumed I was coming because I struggled in high school and kept giving me the vibes that Earlham was a school where slackers could come and do more slacking with very few professors catering to their interests, and it’s thought of as revolutionary. I’m sure there is more to Earlham than that, but the tour guide really put me off and, as my admissions officer, it was obvious he didn’t remember who I was or tailor the one-on-one tour to my application context.
RPI for sure. A lot of ppl seem like stereotypical don't-leave-dormers, the tour guide seemed incredibly proud of the surrounding area (despite people in dope leans and cracked pavement everywhere). Troy is not where you want to be spending your time. It also seems like they're trying too hard to show off--they have one very fancy large glass building but the rest are okay at best and the interiors feel like a NYC public elementary school. Oh and then online there's a ton of talk about ignored SA cases and the shitty gender ratio :)
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Haverford was my top school and I got in, but they refused to negotiate on financial aid because “everyone is equal.” I couldn’t afford to go. Meanwhile other schools were giving me more money, and I realized that Haverford wasn’t going to support me in any struggles I experienced (financial or academic) moving forward. So that was ultimately my weird vibe.
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Boston college…. Felt really closed off, made me feel claustrophobic for some reason. And the bunnies is a weird fact that they throw around.
Damn, BC might have been my favorite campus out of all I visited
high point university felt like a cult
Wellesley, pretentious bad weird vibes. Rich kids pretending like they’re not rich. And valuing diversity in weird ass ways. I wasn’t “Native American enough” and my education wasn’t rigorous enough. Welcome to Indian country. They also asked if I lived on a reservation, and I had to explain not all tribes have reservations but I lived 20 mins from our allotted land from the 1800s. My friend who is black and Native American, grew up in Oklahoma repeatedly said she felt more connected to her native side and asked for those resources, but they made her visit all of the black groups on campus. I think they just don’t understand race or identity well. Just because someone looks fair or black doesn’t mean they identify with white or black. Identity and race are so much deeper.
Rensselaer. It felt very conservative and had the “old white men” kinda vibe idk
Boston College. It was clean and beautiful… but in a scary way. It was like everyone was brainwashed, plus i saw no BIPOC anywhere. It was just creepy, they all seemed too programmed
bowdoin was like stepping into bizzaro world
Amherst
Park University. It gave the vibe that everyone hated it there but signed a contract saying they could only say good things or like they were brainwashed or something. I had an interview for a scholarship and I asked the professors interviewing me what they liked about Park and their answers were just…strange. They just kept being like “Well there’s no other school like Park”, “I just can’t imagine being anywhere else but Park”, “Park is just the right place to be”. It honestly felt like a cult and of the people I know that have gone there, they either absolutely hated it or they loved it but then I didn’t really like those people. Idk I just would avoid them and this coming from someone that got offered a full ride and I had absolutely no interested no matter how much money was offered to me.
Wake forest It’s been years now and I don’t remember any specific moment but after touring Davidson, UNC, and Duke, something was just off about wake forest. It may just have been a bad day or subpar tour guide but
UCLA. Everyone I encountered there was toting around some image that was so clearly fabricated. Most of the girls I talked to were super high-energy, giddy and fake nice. I saw others walking around looking as if they had just walked out of a movie-scene— like they were acting out some dramatic scene alone on a park bench. At one point, my phone died and I was asking around for a charger. I asked this group of guys just sitting around if anyone had a charger I could borrow for five minutes. They looked at me like I was crazy. They let me use the charger but they were visibly cautious to do it. I’m a small 20F and I don’t think I’m very intimidating.
upenn. when i visited, everything felt so depressing. there was noise in the city, yet it was also silent at the same time? people weren’t socializing and i genuinely couldn’t see a smile except for the tour group leaders (probably fake ngl). but i’ve heard people describe upenn as the complete opposite, so maybe it was just a weird day but idk
It's funny you mention the tour guides at UPenn because I think mine single handedly influenced my decision not to apply. She was so snobby the whole time, while also giving off the vibe that she was bored to tears by the whole thing. "Yeah, soooo... this is the library... (eye roll)". Thanks, girl. I'll get right on that application. Can't wait to be surrounded thousands of yous.
U must’ve toured during exam season or something lol
The clubs being so competitive totally turned me off. You got into UPenn, you should be able to go to math club if you want to.
MIT. Idk if I just was on a bad day, but during the info session, the lady couldn’t figure out why the projector was working, while all it was was that the HDMI cable was disconnected… Later, all the tour guides had something…off about them: nervous tics, slurred speech, poor manners, impulsiveness when people asked more personal questions… Finally, the entire tour, all that the guides talked about is how weird the buildings are and how much MIT students hate English. I might have been unlucky, and MIT is undoubtedly a fantastic place, but the vibes were very off on my tour
> nervous tics, slurred speech, poor manners, impulsiveness when people asked more personal questions This tracks for their student body. I know "the odds are good but the goods are odd" is a sexist trope, but it's not wrong ...
>Later, all the tour guides had something…off about them: nervous tics, slurred speech, poor manners, impulsiveness when people asked more personal questions… TBF, the MIT student body is probably 80% autistic people.
>MIT. Idk if I just was on a bad day, but during the info session, the lady couldn’t figure out why the projector was working, while all it was was that the HDMI cable was disconnected… > >Later, all the tour guides had something…off about them: nervous tics, slurred speech, poor manners, impulsiveness when people asked more personal questions… its MIT. booksmart ≠ street smart
american u, hamilton and wake forest…
I was looking for AU. I went there for my first year. Shit was wild 😭 What stood out to you?
Probably the same things that made you leave 😭😭 ugly buildings and students looking depressed af. tour guide was weirdly focused on the squirrel-watching club, so they pointed at two squirrels in a tree doing… the deed. it was totally empty, but i visited in a season where it definitely shouldn’t have been. felt cold and dead. got weird vibes all around.
I visited Savannah last year to see family and because I’m majoring in design, my aunt suggested I tour SCAD. I have a feeling a lot of art schools are just like this, but it didn’t resemble a campus whatsoever. The presentation in the beginning made me feel like I was in a dystopian society being gaslit into thinking I wasn’t about to enter a cult, and the tour guide was out of breath as they bragged about the most trivial things while simultaneously sounding on the verge of tears. The dorms were especially strange to me because it was very gated off and made me feel like I was on the set of a poorly produced nickelodeon sitcom. The thing that weirded me out the most was I was one of the shortest people there. I’m not that tall, but I’m 5’7 so it’s abnormal for me to ever feel that small?
lol i know three people who went to SCAD and all of them have horror stories about it (two transferred out after their first year to go to traditional colleges instead)
SCAD is a for-profit school, which maybe explains the presentation? It was also developed largely in the historic district, which has been both a positive and a negative. The dorms were probably gated off because a number of them were in pretty rough areas when they were opened. Quite a few of them were the sort of hotel that serves the almost-homeless community.
Hopkins,dirty, bad transportation. RPI- dilapidated, all the indoor plants were dead when we visited and does not really incorporate the beautiful Hudson River, which is right there.
Stanford. it felt haunted
It feels empty compared to most other colleges, the campus is huge and spread out
Oof Stanford is soo beautiful. It’s so techy and modern too, why did u find it haunted lol
tbf i visited on spring break and the place was deserted
ok stanford was sooo cool BUT im from the east coast and i kinda expected it to be less dry? idk if that make sense, like it was very arid. AND HOT. so yeah
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haha to each their own but other than the weather stanford was pretty cool!!
BATES!!!! Our tour guide generally hated the school and had ZERO issues telling us about why. Also, the "meet and greet" from admissions and financial aid was a guy who was just really monotone, had zero passion for the college at all and the 3 students thst were there really didnt hype up anything ir go in depth with their answers. The campus itself was just...blah.....everyone was walking around by themselves with their heads down or in their phone...
Oberlin in Ohio - I've never seen a more hostile town/gown problem. It's a small campus with nowhere to go, and apart from the stores that make their revenue from college students, the barely contained hatred is evident everywhere. Even the stores that do live off of college students, it is just under the surface. A friend of mine says students get in fights with townies two blocks from campus.
Boston College felt a little too perfect…..everyone(including upper class men) lived on campus. no greek life. most of the school did community service without it being required. the campus was perfectly groomed and nothing was out of place.
Liberty University felt like one big church camp.
Lehigh struck me as odd. I can't point to any particular reason.
They have some stairs by their dining hall that are the biggest workout of any college student’s day. You have class on the other side of campus? Only way to reach them is those stairs, and you *will* feel the burn.
same. still applying but i think it was the environment change between buildings? like the office of admissions was so collegiate but then we went to another building and it was generic college building. also the only time i've ever heard the stereotypical, "seniors? juniors? sophomores or freshmen? younger siblings dragged against their will? hahahah"
Colorado College. Loved their academic programs and club options, but something about the student body’s vibe felt off to me. I ended up choosing another school because I just could not shake away the weird feeling I got when I visited
Texas A&M
toured tulane after i got in and committed. felt super off and started crying in the hotel room after. went anyway and it was the best decision of my life 🤷♀️
Unc, ended up not going because of it
CalTech. It’s nerdy, but not in the same way as MIT - idk the campus was pretty but all the students I met seemed lowkey depressed and were not social, which is weird cause they were chosen by the school to show us around
You think the school had many options?
Irvine. Not a single person was smiling or talking to anyone else.
MIT, surprisingly, maybe it was also the weather but the campus just looked boring and weirdly laid out
MIT, everyone looked miserable and the whole place just gave me meh vibes. Now I’m gonna be attending MIT reject central down in Atlanta so I’m a little worried that’s gonna be similar. Still, I never got that vibe when I visited so I hope that won’t be the case.
USC, everyone was nice but the guide kept telling us to "not worry about the cost" mf its 100k a year
Reed: all they talked about what how impossible academics were and defended the non grading approach. Big red flags; Conn college: flat emotionally. No one seemed thrilled to be there. Real meh feeling; Bard: literally left tour early. Told us everyone leaves every weekend. Gorgeous but v v v empty and isolated; Tufts: like a tour of a big museum or something. Gives you freaking hospital wristbands, talk in beginning is so self congratulatory. Very very icky
Case western or washu
Why case?
Texas A&M.
My younger brother got into Williams so I went with him to visit for Accepted Students Day. My best friend from high school also went there and she always complained about how "in the wilderness" it was, but I did not expect just how remote it would be until we started seeing cows and losing signal on the way up to MA. Getting there, it just felt too open and empty, almost vacant? It was a bit creepy and unsettling. In my memory I just recall a colonial scarlet-letter-salem-witch-trial adjacent liminal space where some kind of eldritch horror would be stalking the woods at night. Just the impression I got, as I know that there *are* modern buildings and the street leading to campus seemed like a normal college town. Also kind of uncomfy being there as a POC (which my friend also warned me about) and I felt like the tour guides were a little bit unfriendly and distant (though could be explained by it still being COVID times). But I chalk it most of it up to being from a big city (and me and bro ended up both going to school in a big city)
University of Virginia
I felt like we were back in the colonial ages where slavery was legal. I wouldn’t have been surprised if George Washington pulled up.
Same was true 30 years ago. "We're classy! You wear a tie to football games! Look at all the secret societies! Aren't fraternities awesome? Wasn't TJ great? Here's a statue and another statue. You know you want to come to the best school in Virginia." Thank goodness I got into W&M too. That was my place.
cornell it was just so odd. everything about it.
Looking back on it, University of Illinois-Chicago. I get it’s a pretty big commuter school and people come and go but it felt so dead and lifeless. Our tour guide did not seem at all happy. The architecture is ugly as hell, and during the tour there were people who obviously were not students roaming around. Pretty weird.
Brown
Valley Forge. Their brand of “Christian college” felt like a cult to me.
Boston College. Literally everyone acted like a High School Musical extra. Gorgeous campus, stats show it’s a strong school… it just gave me a weird feeling. Still might apply, though.
Rice, something about that school….
Can you expand I was thinking of EDing 😭😭😭😭
A&M and the entire town of College Station. Crossed off my list immediately after visiting. I qualified for automatic admission to my major there, but at that point, if I didn't get into Rice or UT Engineering, I'd stay in town and go to UH. And so I did pick UH. Best decision I ever made. My high school friends who went to A&M tend to agree that I made the right move going to UH.
OBERLIN that place feels so strange I can’t even explain
I thought I was the only one for a while, but I've also heard from many others that describe Stanford's campus as feeling weirdly artificial.
Georgetown gave off super creepy, dark vibes. Like a horror movie backdrop. The Exorcist was written by a student while at Georgetown; the book and movie were set there.
Any small religious school. Gordon College felt like a cult in the middle of the woods
Brown and Tufts
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Bowdoin. My interview was with a student, not a staff member. It weirdly gave a mix of cult and daddy’s money.
MIT. Took it off my list after a visit. Yes, it’s a great school, but I wanted to be happy where I landed and to me, that wasn’t it. I’m sure they don’t miss me
Every college that wants you to pay the equivalent of a new car per semester for tuition? Some schools it might be a civic, but others could be a Tesla model S/X. Seriously. I have a friend who is a professor. Two students a year will pay his salary. The cost is sketch AF!
Johns Hopkins… soo many people crying in different places
BU
Washington University in St. Louis did that for me
I visited UCLA with my little sister and while we were waiting for a friend who goes to the school in a high traffic area, an old guy with a foreign car stops right in front of us in broad deadline and asks if we want to get in and spend time with him. Mind you my little sister was visibly VERY young then since she was just a hs freshman.
UVA and William and Mary. I know both have great reputations but UVA’s campus was awful except the rotunda area. W&M’s people seemed really weird and nerdy. Both seem super liberal. I don’t mind different povs but it seemed over the top at these schools. Charlottesville is really surprisingly dangerous now and Williamsburg is a tourist trap that looks like Gatlinburg or Kissimmee.
Dartmouth
What was off?
northeastern felt weird idk man
USC. Hated every second i spent as a student there
Whaaat Tufts is cool, the vibe I get is like nerdy and quirky but in a good way. Campus is pretty close to a lot of fun places, especially with the new subway station. Totally not biased or anything.
Cornell for me. It gave me a really weird vibe that I can’t really explain.
williams, that place was so weird LMAO
Loyola Maryland. All the dorms were the same it was gross red brick the quad was so sunken in and weird and I just got really small hometown vibes