<p>I'm touring the campus next week -- any certain site I don't want to miss?</p>
<p>The tour just offers a small slice of the total acampus which is unfortunate. Actually I hope they redesign it because I think it misses too much and wastes time on some things. I’d almost suggest getting a map and doing your own tour. There is nothing on it you could not see yourself on any weekday.</p>
<p>Sit on the terrace overlooking Lake Mendota behind the Union with a cola drink (I’m assuming you are not of age) & just listen to everything around you. Maybe a band’s playing or summer school students are getting together after a day of classes. Order a brat. Read the latest Onion (founders are Badgers BTW).</p>
<p>You’ll find yourself asking, “what do I have to do to be admitted here?”, and you’ll be hooked…:)</p>
<p>My suggetsed tour–start at Library Mall and visit reading room in State History Library, go south on Park to intersection with University Ave. View southeast dorms and Business School, if interested in business go into that building. Take park back north a block to foot of bascom and walk up it . Stop at top to view capitol building from Abe Lincoln. Walk around Bascom past carillon tower and on to Observatory Drive–look out form top of hill over Lake Mendota and Lakeshore dorms. Proceed down hill and past Steenbock Library to Babcock Ice cream store. View WARF and Medical complex in distance on way to Steenbock and be wowed at size of it all. Head to Ag Hall and look at it, then head down toward University Ave past Biocehem complex and cross. Look over at new Institute for Discovery Building and Union South under construction while heading toward Engineering campus. Head to outside football stadium and imagine area with 80,000 fans in the Fall. Head back toward Memorial Union and sit on Terrace with a big cold Coke and take in the scene. Then go explore State Street and the Capitol.</p>
<p>If you have a car drive around campus again and out to Picnic Pt. parking lot. Take a stroll out to end of point and view campus and city from there. Awesome.</p>
<p>Barrons makes some good points. As a student that is just starting his/her search, I would advise that you take Barron’s suggestions. The school has a lot to offer a wide range of students. If you have a clear picture of what you want to study, then you should make it a point to visit that department as well. </p>
<p>It is a shame that the typical tour does not include a visit to the football stadium. Not all students care about football, but the size and grandeur of the stadium makes any high schooler understand that he/she is becoming a part of something truly grand.</p>
<p>barrons has great suggestions.</p>
<p>Just one note to add: most letters & sciences classes will be along Charter Street near the intersections of Linden/University Ave (just south of the Liz Waters dorms). It’s not the most exciting part of campus, but if you’re not planning a specific agricultural/engineering track, then it might be nice to see where most of your classes will be the first couple semesters. </p>
<p>That area of campus houses van hise (lit/foreign languages), van vleck (math), chamberlin (physics), chemistry, psychology, medical sciences center (stats), social sciences, and others. You might want to check out those buildings–you’ll probably be spending a lot of time around that area of campus during the academic day. It’s near Bascom Hill so it won’t even be much of a detour on your trip.</p>
<p>If you go M-TR, you can even ask some of the summer session students some questions–how they like the campus, etc. Note that most classes have off on Fridays during summer, so it’ll be pretty vacant Fri-Sun.</p>