<p>I love this thread, but I’m beginning to wonder if a tour would sway my opinion too much – I think when it comes time for my son to start seriours touring, I should just stay out of the picture.</p>
<p>These were not actual visits, but college nights. Our worst was a presentation by Harvard, Princeton and UVA last fall in downtown Pittsburgh. The presentations were too long and were presented by recent grads who spoke too fast. The main complaint was that their power point presentations didn’t tell a person anything the web site didn’t already say. Although they were recent grads (all within the last 5 years), none showed any passion or even fond emotion for their school. No one even came close to saying anything like, “I loved the time I spent here.” UVA was at least funny once in a while. More than half of the room left before the question and answer session started.</p>
<p>The best was 8 LAC- “Some of the best 8” or something like that. They were all the Directors of Admissions. They were informative, fun to listen to and had a great time together. It made my D want to seriously consider all the schools presented!</p>
<p>Best Goody Bag - Mizzou with free lunch after tour - YAY! </p>
<p>Worst Speaker- U of I UC - Left during The World’s Most Boring Speaker’ welcome speech. </p>
<p>Worst / Funniest experience - Purdue “Women In Engineering Overnight” - My D’s mentors cut class - my daughter was NOT amused. We drove a long way to experience what a college class might be like.</p>
<p>Coolest time - Rose Hulman - My daughter’s name in lights at the welcome center, the softball coach talked to her right away, and the pre super bowl Indy Colts were on campus for training camp. We ate breakfast 5 feet from Tony Dungy.</p>
<p>Most fun before and after visit - USC - It’s California dude. It was sunny and 72. We drove up and down the coast for a week. </p>
<p>Final decision - Northwestern - Tour good, engineering tour excellent, campus beautiful. A perfect fit.</p>
<p>Someone mentioned the Trinity U dorms and I agree that they are very nice . (I lived in several many, many years ago). But when we toured, I was very turned off. There were too many people crammed into the group, for one thing. And the tour guide did not show any of the academic or fine arts features. We saw a closed cafeteria, a bookstore, a great dorm room, an empty gym and a lot of workers making the lawns look pretty. I was very disappointed that we did not see a lab, a lecture hall, a theater or even inside of the library. Eggson was totally uninterested. Bleh</p>
<p>Best tour overall - Penn State Main Campus. I’ve done the tour twice and both times the guides impressed me with their friendly personalities but businesslike manner. Great combination.</p>
<p>Best freebies and welcome - High Point University - designated parking spot with son’s name up in lights, snacks and beverages before the tour, tour via golf carts and a free t-shirt for son and a metal water bottle for me! Son also got a free lunch pass.</p>
<p>Best way to do the tours - Guilford College in North Carolina - Joint info session for everyone and then separate tours for kids and parents.</p>
<p>Best personalized tours - Principia College (daughter’s alma mater) Principia has the kids come in on a Thursday afternoon and sit at dinner in the dining hall with Professors in their intended major. Friday they attend a full days worth of classes of their choice and meet with their adviser and then hang out with hospitality students that night on campus. Saturday they take the kids into St. Louis for a movie and/or shopping. Not sure what they do at night. Sunday they go to church (Christian School) and then home. All three of my kids did this and all three applied or will apply.</p>
<p>
I’m with you, laffter.</p>
<p>The topic of dorms, eating/common areas is a whole subject unto itself. Maybe we should start a thread.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, Knox’s dorms were horrible (at least the one they chose to show over 30 families at an open-house day. I can’t imagine what the not-so-good ones looked like.</p>
<p>Lawrence told us they weren’t prepared to show us a dorm…even though we had booked the visit, including tour, a month in advance and had driven 4 hrs. Not amused.</p>
<p>
Agree completely. I don’t have to be IN the room, but I want to see it. Online photos/videos would be fine.</p>
<p>Btw…one tour guide had to practically beg someone to open the door and show us the room.</p>
<p>After knocking on numerous doors, one accommodating pair of roommates said, “well, you can come in, but it’s a pit.”</p>
<p>Omg, Moms, how can I describe this to you? You know how your house was that one time when you had a newborn, went back to work, and were sleeping about 3 hours a night? Or that time when the Christmas-decorating mess was in half-up/half-down mode, and then the whole family got the flu?<br>
Ok…picture that scene multiplied by about 50. We could hardly walk in the room. There literally wasn’t space on the floor to put our feet. And the other surfaces…well, I won’t go on. We really didn’t know a room could look like that and still sustain human life.</p>
<p>Out in the car, my D said, "OK, if you close your eyes and focus really hard, and imagine it without all that … STUFF …it really wouldn’t be a bad room. Then we cracked up. It was just so unbelievable.</p>
<p>
Oh, how I pray my D will be matched with a roommate like your D a year from now!</p>
<p>This thread really highlights something that amazes parents of hs students, that apparently is not well managed or monitored by the colleges being visited-just like in retail your last impression is how you are treated when you are checked out, the lasting impression of a school is often created by either the tour guide or the info session moderator.<br>
We have now visited 21 colleges, with 8 to go, and have done tours at all but 2, but skipped about half the info sessions.<br>
With all the technology out there, Info Sessions need to use multi-media to engage the prospective students. Best by far-William and Mary with their funny, engaging video of the kid on the moped all through the campus. 2nd place-Marist.
Offer Treats-Colgate ice cream sandwiches, which didn’t overcome their boring info session and very poor meandering tour. My DD really doesn’t want to apply based on her negative impressions.
Structure relaxed and comfortable HALF HOUR sessions. Don’t tell us what is in the book. The pomposity of some of these assistant deans of admissions is amazing-“at T&%$s we abide by the four pillars”. Pillar one tool 22 minutes to explain-by then my daughter had passed out. The tour guide also told us that to study bio you had to either be an engineer or pre-med. Obviously he was wrong but by then my DD had lost interest.
Best tours-Brown, still number one-bright articulate student, Hamilton-engaging and fun, and Wm and Mary-smart, articulate student.</p>
<p>Last point, our list now consists of Brown, Hamilton, Wm and Mary, Lafayette, all had excellent tours and friendly interactions, and displayed a genuine appreciation that we were considering these schools.</p>
<p>Turn-Off: Tour Guides who sound like robots. At URochester tour guide went on and on about how strict the drinking policy was in the dorms; it all sounded a bit forced, especially while walking backwards she tripped over a dozen empty beer cans outside the freshman dorms.</p>
<p>Pet Peeve1: Tour guides who tell you everything at good old Whattsamatta U is “great”. Food - “The Greatest”, Dorms - “The Best”, Profs - “Just So Super”, Student Torture Chamber - “Best in the Country”. There’s no transfer of useful information if everything is “perfect”.</p>
<p>Pet Peeve2: Freshman tour guides. Give me someone who’s been there at least two years, not someone who had to memorize all the building names just so they could get the work-study job in admissions.</p>
<p>Best Tours: Northwestern & USC (Southern Cal)</p>
<p>Worst Tours: URochester & Michigan State</p>
<p>Mot Arrogant Info Sessions: Northwestern & Claremont McKenna - Very “what makes you think you’re good enough to come here”.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Thanks, DougBetsy! Knew how to quote, but hadn’t figured out how to attribute. Neat.</p>
<p>Most Arrogant Info Sessions - William & Mary, RPI
Best Goodie Bags - Allegheny, Missouri S&T
Colleges that put your name on a welcome board - Southwestern, RIT</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I second that pet peeve. I remember a tour at Princeton where the guide was incredibly chipper and kept saying how wonderful everything was. I asked her what had surprised her most about Princeton compared to what she had expected and she said nothing - it was totally as wonderful as she had expected!</p>
<p>My daughter has a “mirror” point of view on showing an occupied dorm room during the tour. She was on campus early for her sport last year. Her room was on the first floor of what is generally regarded as the “best” first year dorm. All of the tours came through her dorm and down her hall so she was often asked if it was okay for the tour to see her room. Except for one time, she agreed-I imagine her room generally looked okay, although probably not “display ready”. The one time she said “No” she was returning from a tough practice and was hot, exhausted, and frustrated-she just wanted to draw the blinds, get undressed, and lie down with the fan on. She said she got a couple of shocked parental looks, but that one dad laughed in sympathy.</p>
<p>St. Lawrence U. Gave us disposable cameras that said “picture yourself here!” and encourged everyone to take pics along the way - thought that was quite clever.</p>
<p>Mizzou: Personalized parking pass in the shape of a Tiger tail, free lunch in any cafeteria, every visiting students’ name on the welcome board, personalized folders for each student with with appointments scheduled in requested majors, campus tour showed a dorm room furnished by the school.</p>
<p>Purdue: Boring general presentation given by boring admissions staffer in a dark room after lunch (had a hard time keeping our son awake), but morning engineering session was great—run by students and involved prospect students, campus tour showed an actual dorm room (students are paid a small stipend for letting their room be on tour). And nearly every building had sign that said: Before Neil Armstrong walked on the moon, he took (fill in the class) in this building.</p>
<p>MIT: No reservations required so group on Presidents’ Day was enormous. Only four of six guides showed up so the tour groups were too big. Group of about 30 Asian students accompanied by one teacher in attendance, some in Harvard sweatshirts they had purchased on morning tour. Tour guide related the history of MIT pranks as they related to each building and introduced us to friends he passed by on the tour. No dorm room tour.</p>
<p>Calvin College (Grand Rapids, MI): Opening informational session included the school’s Improv Comedy Group who got the prospective students involved. Very creative. Professors came to lunch so parents and students could learn about their area of interest.</p>
<p>Gee Yalemom2, that is terrible!</p>
<p>Can you imagine?</p>
<p>A student at a college that is incredibly happy with the school and has had all her expectations met?</p>
<p>no way…</p>
<p>something wrong with this college and its students</p>
<p>shame on them!</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Worst Tour - Texas Christian University. Tour guide told us she was failing multiple classes, was being fined by her sorority, didn’t get along with her roommate…but “she really loved it here”. My D and I had a good laugh about that one. We spoke to other students at the library and heard similar stories, we left repeating to each other “but we really love it here”. YIKES!!! </p>
<p>Best Tour - Texas A&M. Tour guides were knowledgeable, asked upfront what students were interested in seeing. We toured several dorms, ate in the cafeteria, went on department specific tours, found parking with no problem.</p>
<p>Worst Tour: Another vote for Georgetown. Info session was boring and intimidating. They only had 3 tour guides for over 100 people, even though we registered in advance.
Tour guide kept us standing in the freezing cold while she talked and talked about her semester abroad in Chile. Needless to say, my daughter decided not to apply.</p>
<p>Best Tours: We’ve had great tour guides at American, GW, Uconn and BU. My favorite info session was at Umass, where the admissions rep chatted informally with the kids in a beautiful wood paneled room. Favorite treat were the cookies at Uconn.</p>