1. Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton. We stopped here as much to get coffee as anything. But he knows some people and was interested. It's kind of a giant high school, or a 2 year school that offers bachelor degrees. Nice people, though, good coffee.

2. University of Florida. School colors are orange and blue, so maybe that colors my recollection, but the whole place felt kind of misty orange. Sprawling southern campus, in brick. Mossy and misty. In Miami we have sufficient hot girls, but in Gainesville we moved into a different class of hot girls. This was the school with the skimpiest outfits, the shortest short shorts, and the most legit 9s we would see on the trip. My son is interested in greek life and we wandered down some street of big victorian frat houses. Bros were out on the patios, drinking beer or chilling. Our tour guide shared the average admissions numbers are like 3.9/1450 or something, which really surprised me. I think acceptance rate is around 20%, but cannot remember. Seems a bit too exclusive for a university of florida.

3. University of Georgia, Athens. Athens the town is grungy and verdant and I like it a lot. The record store where REM met and began is still operating, selling vinyl and staffed by know-it-all hipsters. Campus lines up directly against the town in one long line of scrimmage. Another beautiful brick, southern campus. Didnt see tons of FL gear on students in Gainesville, but at UGA everyone wore red. Sweaty nervous tour guide in a blazer and red and black tie showed us around. Tried to prompt our group to shout "GO DAWGS", and the mostly female visitors all just giggled. The football stadium is practically open to campus, right in the middle of everything, and you can get great pictures. I liked UGA, but my kid didnt.

4. Univ South Carolina, Colombia. We skipped Auburn. The frattiest of frat schools we saw. Smaller campus and built on a hill. Im old as fuck and was thinking I would not like to constantly be hiking hills between every building. The main quad, though, was the most beautiful of all the schools we saw. Smelled like flowers. It was graduation week, so there were maybe a few dozen southern belles in white dresses all posing for photogs with like bottles of champagne or bouquets of flowers. In the admissions office, the shrew was explaining that you must apply to a college based on your major, and some are more difficult. "Could he just apply as like a modern dance major and then transfer colleges?" I asked. She got irate and said, "we have a prestigious dance program."

We ate at a burger place nearby and maybe 12 frat bros sat along the bar. I wished I could have taken a picture, because they each wore the silky polyester college golf shirt, khaki shorts, loafers, had feathered hair and sunglasses pushed up. They looked 180 and were ignoring the girls at the tables behind them.

5. East Carolina University, Greenville NC. No-name school I discovered once on a surfing trip to the outer banks. It charmed me then, but it looked trashy this time. It was thursday night before a long weekend, so downtown was full of partying college kids. Very loud and drunk. Looked fun, but the school was unimpressive.

6. North Carolina State. Had not planned on stopping here, but were passing it on the way to Chapel Hill. Not a pretty campus, even though it has 1000000000 acres, but not ugly. It felt like a hollywood movie scene, because every single student was out sunbathing or playing beach volleyball or doing the ice bucket challenge or whatever. We lingered around a basketball court and a black dude came over and, unprompted, gave a sales pitch for the school.

7. UNC. Misfortunate of visiting on Good Friday and it was pretty dead, apart from grads taking their pictures in front of landmarks. The bookstore windows featured a line of shirts that read "BEAT DUKE", which I thought was declasse. Pretty campus, but empty. Neither of us liked it. 16% admission rate.

We stopped overnight in Asheville, which somehow is still doing the grungy hippie thing I saw when I last visited 5 and 8 years ago. Drum circles and twirling dancers.

Was looking forward to driving over Blue Ridge Parkway, but it was shut I guess from that hurricane.

8. Tennessee, Knoxville. Also empty because Holy Saturday. Hilly as fuck, spread out. Smattering of pajeets gave me bad directions to the bookstore, which was closed. Seemed really shitty and Knoxville seemed shitty.

9. Tuscaloosa, Alabama. We had planned to go to Ole Miss, but were pretty tired of driving so cut it from the itinerary.

Bama was 180000 in every way. Beautiful photogenic campus, with pristine grounds. Manicured quads, leafy oak trees, old collegiate architecture. The rec centers were squeaky clean with brand new gear. The sorority row, right next to the stadium, was a few blocks of immaculate victorian mansions. It was Easter weekend, but nonetheless nearly every girl was blonde in a flowery dress. Many dudes wore blazers. Everyone was clear-eyed and friendly. When I asked kids how they liked Bama, multiple people responded, "Im blessed to be here."

Seemed the top tier SEC school and miles ahead of anywhere else.

Town was tiny, of course. There is a strip they call "the strip" with maybe 6 or 7 bars or restaurants, and I suppose one knock on Bama is that there is no city. We had overnighted in Birmingham, an hour away, which was completely black.

10. LSU. It's frustrating to drive down to New Orleans and then have to go another hour west to Baton Rouge, but that's the only road there. We got to campus in the evening. It was big and humid. It was the first school that did not feel majority white. I looked online and it says LSU is 16% black, but I guarantee 50% of the students we saw were black. Ate in the dining hall. Friendly, but diverse. We left for New Orleans.

11. Tulane. I don't know how this school got on my kid's list, but I suspect Tiktok. I had never really heard of a Tulane when I was in college. I see Newt Gingrich went there, along with some Biden kids. My kid talked about it like it was some famous place. If admin officers are not investing heavily in tiktok and instagram stories, theyre retarded bc that is how all these high school kids learn about schools now. I suspect Tulane must have hot girls on their IG.

I loved it. It felt decrepit after Bama, but in a New Orleans way. Charmingly falling apart. Its about 15 from downtown, french quarter etc. Surrounded by the old mansions of the garden district and uptown. None of the architecture matched, and there was little "school spirit", but the girls were hot and people seemed very chill. It is infected, though, and for the first time on the entire trip we heard about housing for "female identifying" students. The tour guide also said, "that was our office of diversity, equity, inclusion. We simply changed the name." So shitlib as fuck, but I liked it anyway.

As a political aside, it was funny that as we came into Athens, Asheville, and New Orleans we would see all these Teslas with stickers like "I BOUGHT THIS BEFORE ELON WENT CRAZY". You dont see any of that shit in Florida, or elsewhere. Zero. But they are all over these particular cities.

Loyola New Orleans is literally adjacent, so we stopped in, but it just felt like a big gothic high school.

12. FSU. Long ass drive back to Florida. The panhandle is never-ending. We got to FSU about a week after the shooting. There are flowers and letters and signs etc around the area, and the student union is shut still. Lots of chalked bible verses, and there was a solemn mood.

At night, just down the hill from campus, we passed some block of bars. There must have been 3000 students jammed in. Overflowing onto the street. I liked FSU, and I bet its a fun school. UF is prettier and feels more prestigious, but FSU felt a little sluttier and less pretentious.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5715554&forum_id=2#48876826)

i think his list is Bama, UF, Tulane, FSU. UGA and UNC were on it, but not anymore

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5715554&forum_id=2#48876843)

Where would u want ur kid to go? Are y’all Southernmos?

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5715554&forum_id=2#48876909)

im a yankee living in florida, but he has zero connection to the northeast and I hope he never does.

north carolina is about as far north as our country goes subjectively, and even that felt a little too close. im pretty sure he will live his life in a confederate state

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5715554&forum_id=2#48876933)

kind of a new orleans tufts or something. i think i just like NO

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5715554&forum_id=2#48876960)

Needs better sportball

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5715554&forum_id=2#48877005)

unreal.

i guess I did get the shitlib vibes as I mentioned above, but in general they hide VERY WELL

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5715554&forum_id=2#48877823)

Surprised he didn’t like UGA. It’s a wonderful place and have rarely met anyone who didn’t like.

UF and in-state tuition seems like an ideal outcome for both of you.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5715554&forum_id=2#48877851)

I think that he needs to give UGA another shake, its a really great place (it has the same hilly features as Knoxville). Same with UNC. Perhaps overrated Bama a tad, although its a great town (they really upgraded the town after Saban got there and a tornado tore up the entire main drag of town, way nicer now). Knoxville is a little better than you probably give it credit for, and its actually a pretty decent small city outside of campus.

Also maybe he should have given Auburn a "gander" too - its one of those places that looks like shit when you drive through it, seems small and boring, etc, but everyone who goes there is absolutely crazy about it and the grads tend to be pretty nice people.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5715554&forum_id=2#48877864)

15th street was fucked up in the tornado but I wouldn’t consider it the “main drag” just a commercial area with lots of apartments

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5715554&forum_id=2#48879500)

I remember my college tour with my mom in her 90s Oldsmobile Bravada. We visited faggy New England LACs and lower Ivies. Good memories. Has to be tough: oblivious kids are so excited about the future and can’t wait to gtfo; parents are keeping it bottled up and trying to hang on to every last minute. My oldest is approaching middle school, so we still have some time.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5715554&forum_id=2#48878206)

- UGA

- Furman (although didn't want to go)

- Davidson

- UNC

- Duke

- UVA

- William and Mary

- Washington and Lee

so not too far off from the OP other than the florida schools. was a great memory

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5715554&forum_id=2#48878228)

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5715554&forum_id=2#48879266)

How bad are the LACs? Lost entirely to the woke virus?

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5715554&forum_id=2#48878340)

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5715554&forum_id=2#48879268)

Disappointed

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5715554&forum_id=2#48879279)

I still wear this now though…

Also you missed out on not visiting Ole Miss. Oxford is a great college town.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5715554&forum_id=2#48879490)