What second stop?

We went on two more college tours recently for our son who is entering his senior year of high school.

Both are highly rated private colleges with a tuition in the $50,000/year range.

Both had an information session, by an admissions counselor, prior to the tour.

At the first stop, the admissions counselor made a comment along the lines of, "from the minute your child steps foot on this campus, he/she will have a faculty adviser assigned to assist in helping your child determine an area of interest, through course analysis and personality testing, so that he/she will have a career path in mind after the first year of study and to make sure he/she will graduate within 4 years."

At the second stop, the admissions counselor made a comment along the lines of, "we're a liberal arts college. Students need to explore their inner feelings here in depth. We encourage them to take a smattering of courses, take reduced hours if stressed-out, take a semester off if needed, experiment with different paths of study, take a broad spectrum of courses for the joy of learning...most will not graduate within 4 years, but that's OK. They should take as long as they need to find themselves."

On returning home, my wife and I made a pact to never mention the second school out loud ever again. We will also be keeping an eye out to get rid of any correspondence (snail mail or e-mails) from the school who must not be named (for the Harry Potter fans).