I guess that sometimes families tour a college without researching it first. Still, it seems like a lot of potentially wasted effort to make a trip to a college your child has not read up on at all beforehand. On a recent tour of Amherst, the tour guide invited the prospective students to name their planned majors. A large percentage of people on the tour said, “Business.” The very polite tour guide just smiled and nodded or said “Cool.” But there is no business major at Amherst!
We saw the same thing. One funny scene was when one visiting potential applicant stormed out of an information session in a huff after finding the college did not offer his intended major. It shocks me that some people don’t even do basic research on the school website before undertaking a visit.
Or on a Boston College tour a student asked where the engineering school is located. BC does not offer engineering.
of course you should know in advance if they have the major you desire but, visiting a school IMO is 1000x more valuable than reading about it and listening to your great aunt marie whose neighbors daughter went to the school in 1972 and says the food is terrible. research or no research …you get a feel for the school (not 100% accurate) by being there …what ever triggers in your mind even after a 3-4 hour visit is super valuable.
At Amherst College there are likely some tour participants who were in the area to tour UMass Amherst and decided at the last minute to tour Amherst College. That said, I hope they know that they are different schools!
Better to find it out on the tour then after enrolling. We know someone that accepted an athletic scholarship to a school only to find out after being on campus for a few weeks that the school didn’t offer what they wanted to major in. So focused on the scholarship they forgot to ask about the academic programs and just assumed the school offered the program. Some people don’t realize that not all schools offer the same programs, no matter how popular they may be.
That should be where parental guidance comes in. One would think that if a family is spending the time and money to visit a college that the parents would at least check what programs are offered. As much as I love my D’s alma mater, I am not encouraging S17 to apply because it doesn’t offer his major. We never visited a college that didn’t offer what my child wanted to study.
Many students don’t have a firm major in mind, but say ‘business’ or ‘finance’ when they’d be just as happy in economic or mathematics. One of my daughter’s teammate listed her major as Pre-law and humanities-- at an engineering school. No such major. She’s now in something else, I don’t know what but still likes the school, the team, and it’s close to home.
I think there are many high school students who would happily adjust a major to go to Amherst.
Yes, better to find out on a tour than not at all. I know someone who applied, was accepted and offered a scholarship, enrolled and moved into the dorm before finding out the school was a Christian college.
@TomSrOfBostonOr on a Boston College tour a student asked where the engineering school is located. BC does not offer engineering.
or touring BC and not realizing it is a Catholic college until on the tour! lol
And then complain that all the buildings have crucifixes. 
We toured Amherst early in the game (and before there was so much info available online). We were travelling in the area, and DH had seen a TV program mentioning it. This trip was part of “initial sampling” time. It was a lovely campus, My memory academically (my own overly simplistic summary) was “take 8 courses in your major, then have fun with the rest of the course choices”. It was as good a place to start as any. We learned a lot about college admissions etc (before I knew about this website.)
Some students and parents still confuse Boston College and Boston University.
There is 2 reasons to visit a university. Get the vibe of the campus and meet with professors/admissions of your particular college. So yes planning and setting up meetings with the correct people in advance of visiting. The group tours have interesting history information, but don’t offer anything in the decision making. IMO.
Arizona website on engineering was interesting so did a visit there. In the first 30 minutes on campus I loved it and was becoming my #1. During the meeting with Dean of Engineering and quizzing him on the curriculum and research facilities it fell off my list. It was the weakest of the 16 I visited.
Another reason for visits is to get a sense of types of schools: big, small, urban, rural, private, state flagship, religious, etc.
Sorry, everything you list is info I can easily get online. Visits are to interact with students and college personnel, and to see the facilities up-close. Also, as others have said, to get the “vibe” both on and off campus.
Why do you care why other families are on a tour? They aren’t wasting your time. Perhaps the kid is interested in business in general. Certainly, there are majors at Amherst that lead to a career in business and finance. People that are touring a lot of different schools may also get confused and forget that BC has no engineering school. Kids often tour early (junior yr in HS) and really don’t know what they want to major in. Families also tour to get a sense of different campuses - big vs small, LAC vs Uni etc.
No, this is not confusion but rather a lack of preparedness and a waste of time. How can you “forget” something you didn’t bother to learn?
I agree. We live in an area where there are many college and early on we toured schools more for getting a feel for the different types of schools. Because of this, we didn’t feel the need to do major research before attending a tour, we were just getting our feet wet.
Sometimes I ask questions I already know the answer to because I want my kid to hear them. Hearing things from someone other than mom (this school doesn’t have business but you can still have a career in business by going here?) will sink in whereas I’m viewed as yammering on about it …