At Harvey Mudd, IIRC, the dorm was the tour guides own dorm. Someone mentioned above their kid gets paid to make their dorm available (but also must be there). And, of course, some places have a dorm reserved for this purpose. So, yes, it’s possible.
LOL! The dorms are a bit of an eyesore, especially those old beat up sofas! However, the great thing about the Mudd dorms is not the dorms themselves, but the community and the dorm culture.
Our Rice tour guide showed us her own room and ended up illustrating why dorm tours are not a great idea. As we were filing out of her room, one of her hallmates emerged from the hall bathroom in a towel and had to walk past a group of middle-aged parents (and a few gawking teenaged boys). It was between 10 and 11, so the tour guide could be excused, but I felt like we were being intrusive. We saw 10 schools and the only other room we saw was the “model” room at Emory. Most schools have pictures on the housing website; I think that’s a reasonable alternative.
At many schools, it seems to vary. Not sure if it’s the guide, size of group, time of year or day, or what. In contrast to @Lindagaf , we saw classrooms, library, dining hall, dorm (but not a room) at Bates. When I mentioned to another family who had toured there how brilliant I found their idea of touring parents and students in 2 separate groups, they looked at me like I had 2 heads as that had not been their experience.
@gardenstategal , I have heard they divide parents and kids at Bates, but that didn’t happen for us. In retrospect, I wonder why my D liked it so much, because we hardly saw a thing:-) Oh well, guess the interview was worth it all.
We toured Connecticut College, and they took us absolutely everywhere. No stone was left unturned, and I thought it was really good, with a lot of friendly kids, but it made zero impression on D. There is obviously soemthing intangible that can’t be pinpointed when it comes to these tours.
@ClaremontMom I completely agree, it affected some schools I wanted my kids to love. I’m talking to you, crammed triple straight out of “Lockdown:Renssalear”.
(Just kidding, really, better to see it now than after they enroll)
We toured almost 20 schools and saw a dorm room on all except one, where the tour guide had forgotten the key. Saw a mix of real rooms, show rooms and one very authentic freshman quad inhabited by some very messy male athletes. Ditto on the cafeteria. Saw dining halls at all but one school who then pointed it out and encouraged us to take a look on our own after the tour ended.
We visited 28 colleges with our two kids. The on,y place we saw a real dorm room was Chapman University. We did see a few “model suites” all decked out by Bed Bath and Beyond.
We also are at a dining hall on every campus…but that was separate from a campus tour.
We DID see a classroom at one college that, quite frankly, was the reason our kid did NOT apply there. AT Drew University…in the summer. Curtains and blinds were broken. Furniture was a mess, room looked awful. The would have been better off NOT taking us there.
Our kids saw classrooms on acceoted student visits when they actually sat in on classes.
The library/media centers were a mixed bag. Some places took us into the lobby areas, but only onetook students into the places where students were studying. Santa Clara University built a new library/learning commons, and tour guides did take students into it…it was state of the art.
“Yes, and it makes schools who say they CAN’T show a dorm because of “privacy” seem very silly.”
As a visitor, I love to see dorms, but I don’t think that one school having a stricter policy than another makes them “silly.”
Security risks are not equal in every U.S. location. Nor is dorm architecture. In some buildings, it would be really easy to slip away from the tour and go wherever you wanted in the building; others are secured by floor or wing and you don’t have to worry about that.
Referring to a long-ago post, Harvard offers a whole separate operation of free daily tours just for non-admissions visitors, AND tons of private tour companies operate visits (including a student-run company), and STILL the admissions office is inundated with visitors who likely won’t apply. I can only imagine the howls of condemnation if they tried to screen who was allowed to go on the admissions tour (which, anyway, takes place in public). It’s a good problem to have, but speaking as a former guide, they have unique challenges trying to welcome potential students.
I’'m not aware of any other U.S. school that offers its own non-admissions tours for the general public to try to take pressure off the admissions office. (Oxbridge has many non-admissions tours.) Does anyone know of others?
@Hanna, I know Yale and Harvard have tours for tourist (i.e those that are not prospective students). I imagine there are others.
http://visitorcenter.yale.edu/tours
“I have heard they divide parents and kids at Bates, but that didn’t happen for us. In retrospect, I wonder why my D liked it so much, because we hardly saw a thing:-) Oh well, guess the interview was worth it all.”
We were divided on our tour but I have no idea what my S saw. We went into the library, a classroom building (Pettengill) 280 College (Dorm,) Commons and Olin Atrs Center - where they held the initial talk to both parents and students before we were split up,
I saw inside of classroom building, library, dorm and dining hall on every tour (can’t speak for what H &S saw on the tours they went on without me.) Schools I saw with S were Hobart William Smith, Skidmore, Clark, U of New Hampshire, Hartwick and Bates.
The Official Harvard tour departs from the Harvard Information Center, in the Smith Campus Center. The tour is student-led and comprises an outdoor walk (please dress appropriately) through Harvard Yard, providing a history of the university, general information, and a unique view on the student’s individual experience…Please note: The Harvard College Admissions & Financial Aid Office offers another guided tour of the undergraduate campus. This student-led tour of Harvard Yard is designed for prospective students and those visitors wishing to learn more about student life.
^ FWIW – we did know this about Harvard and had talked to an AO prior to our trip to Boston— we were not visiting Harvard as tourists- it was a miserablely hot Boston day and no one would be crazy enough to stroll outside for hours for fun. We saw nothing and learned just a bit more from the student conducting the tour. The information session was only mildly better - but with people streaming in and sitting down during the entire time then asking questions that were previously covered. We did expect to see more of the campus then we did and it left a sour taste. It was very, very difficult to get a feel for the place behind the PR and prestige curtain with what we were provided. We were trying to determine if it was worth it to purchase the lottery ticket of Harvard admissions (both with time and $ of apps). I don’t know how people say that this is the ‘dream school’ just based on what they have read and heard – without ever meeting any staff, speaking with actual students - beyond the tour guide, touring the facilities, ect… Like I said before — no one at Harvard really cares if my child applies or if we have a favorable view of their institution and we are fine not waiting with unrealistic “dreams” for Ivy day to seen if my child has been granted the golden ticket.
I know that there are those here that think that tours are not important, but that has not been the case for us. We have found them invaluable. A few top contenders that looked perfect on paper dropped off after a dismal 2 day visit to campus and several merit safeties surprisingly rose to the top of the list after very positive first hand experiences. YMMV
I’ve had the same experience in that most tours have been from the “outside.” A few were able to take us through the dining hall or library. However, I don’t think anyone has mentioned that’s why many of the same colleges have Open House weekends which open up classrooms/dorms etc. It’s a more focused, limited time and less disruption for current attendees. Unfortunately, many of the open houses can fall on the same weekend so you have to pick and choose!
USC and Princeton no dorm tour which surprised me Rutgers, Seton Hall, Belmont, Stockton , Ryder let us in.
Our state flagship offers non-admissions tours to the general public. Alumni and kids younger than high school age are their primary audiences.
I’ve had the interesting perspective of being a student in class this year while tours are going on, and also being a parent going on tours.
From the student perspective, the herds of high schoolers and their parents are somewhat annoying and distracting. They get in my way when I’m trying to get a coffee at Starbucks for my precious 30 minutes of downtime between studios. Most of the professors don’t let the tours into the studios, but you can hear them buffaloing past the doors occasionally.
From the parent perspective (I’ve done one with D17), the model dorm we toured was interesting, the rec center was interesting, but we didn’t see classes in session and we didn’t go into the library (which I was fine with, I didn’t want to be bugging students).
She also did several tours over the summer with her dad, and reports that she did get to see more of the actual places she’d go, albeit without any students in them. So, they may change the tours depending on if class is in session.
Yes, I found these much more useful. Much more is available to the prospective students – not just tours but also talks from departments and other activities/lectures to learn about the school. Very much like the admitted student days but you don’t have to wait until you are admitted. But unfortunately, they are usually offered on one specific day (some schools had two) and if you can’t make that day then you miss out.
Can’t link to it but a very good college parent blog, just included a great post on the type of guides you might find o tours.
Worth the google time to find it
My son just did a visit to Tufts, and he didn’t visit inside any buildings while on the campus tour. Based on the location of the information session, perhaps Tufts was doing him a favor? Tufts appears to have many beautiful buildings, yet the info session met in a windowless basement classroom which was sweltering hot (the heat was blasting), and the room desperately needed a good paint job. There were two clocks on the wall, and neither of them was working. Not the atmosphere one would expect from a University with Tufts reputation. The icing on the cake was that there was a concert in the room above us so we couldn’t hear. It was so awful we joked that they were trying to decrease the application pool by turning up the heat and playing loud music during the session. Sadly, Tufts was one of my son’s top choices, and now I am trying to decide if we should ‘revisit.’
^my son did an overnight at Tufts for admitted students’ weekend and got bedbugs 
Re: going inside dorms, I was just at Swarthmore for parents’ weekend (same son) and spent some time in the dorm lounge in the afternoon while kiddo did some homework. You can see up into the 1st floor hallway from there. Saw a couple of kids in towels come out of the bathroom after taking a shower. Just making the point that this is the students’ home and I doubt they really want strangers wandering through at all hours. Privacy, you know?
oh.my.god.
Yeah, that’d be a dealbreaker.