Just wondering if any parents have limited mobility, and if so, how did you manage college tours?
I would like to take my junior son to see a couple colleges over spring break. From what I am reading, the college tours sound somewhat rigorous with quite a bit of walking. I have arthritis in both knees and feet, and my mobility is quite limited.
What happens in this situation? Are college tours not an option, or do the tours sometimes allow for accommodations…for example, I could walk along for part of it, my son could continue and I could meet up again at another spot.
You could join your son for the admissions talk portion and get that information. Then you could walk a portion of the tour until you can’t anymore and meet up with him later. You might be able to talk to the tour guide and ask for a suggestions on a good place to meet up. If the tour has a loop you might just wait there until they return and then continue a little further from there.
If you do any portion of the tour, don’t be shy about finding a place to sit while they talk. They do make stops and talk for a while at times.
It should be fine for your son to complete the tour without you if that is a concern. While you wait for your son, you could sit in a campus coffee shop or in a busy outdoor space. You might gain a valuable perspective on the college this way that you can share with your son. From my experience, college tours can be long and involve a lot of standing and stair climbing depending on the campus geography.
I’ve seen schools transport disabled visitors (parents or prospective students) in golf carts if requests for accommodation were made ahead of time. I would reach out when registering for tours. If a school doesn’t make accommodations, that tells you something.
At Stanford, where the tour includes a lot of walking, they had a mobile scooter (like those in the supermarket). H had been recovering from surgery when we went, and he initially planned to just wait in the admissions center. This made a great difference to us all, as he was able to hear the Q&A along the tour, to help D think about it afterwards.
Most admissions departments can make some arrangements if there is sufficient notice. Always remember they want you to spend a lot of money there over the next 4 years when you ask for something like this.
My experience is a little different. Both my mom and I (a prospective student) are disabled and have limited mobility. Navigating our first few tours was a disaster, but I think we’ve gotten the hang of it. We try to use golf carts if the school will accommodate us. At some schools, however, there are skinny walkways or other places that a golf cart can’t access easily, and taking a detour would mean we’d miss what the tour guide was saying. In that case, my dad would push one of us in a wheelchair, and the other one would walk (both of us can walk a little). Every stop, we’d switch off who would sitting and who would walk. It’s a cumbersome system, but it works.
You also should ask the tour guide beforehand what they’re going to see in what order. That way, you can pick and choose what’s important for you to see and what you can skip.
Even if you don’t go on the tour with your son, like @txstella said, it’s probably worth your while to sit in a coffee shop, eavesdrop a little, and talk to students.
I would contact the colleges you plan to visit well in advance and see if they can make accommodations for you. Worst case you can go to the information session and let your S go on the tour alone (which wouldn’t be a problem at all).
Both my H and I have bad hips and backs. During the college tours we usually listened to the information sessions and maybe did a little walking just to get a feel for the campus. After that, we usually found somewhere to sit and let her tour with the group. She was the one who had to go there, so it was her impression that was the most important. Some schools like Amherst in Massachusetts have killer hills.
Wheelchair/golf carts/scooters are the way to go. We took grandma along on some tours because we were borrowing her car. At the time, she had a broken foot and was using a walking boot. She could walk, but we really tried to minimize it. We were visiting SLACs and all of them were very accommodating. At one school, because it was summer and we were the only family on the tour, the guide made sure we approached each building on the side that had the wheelchair ramps. One school was very hilly, so grandma sat in the library while we toured. Another school was having a large visit day and had several golf carts for just such a situation. We toured with the families; grandma got her own private tour with an admissions officer including walking into the buildings she was interested in and passing by the exteriors of those she wasn’t. It really wasn’t a problem. If you want to see the school, you should.
We went on a tour where they bused us to the other side of campus and then the tour was designed to end up back at the admissions building. It is a campus built on a hill and involved a lot of up and down walking. About half way around, at the dorms, I wasn’t feeling well and just wanted to bail. They called a golf cart and it fetched me while the others, including my kids, walked on. It was about 100 degrees that day and I just needed to get out of the sun and heat and drink some water. THey were very nice, but daughter did not pick that school.
Thank you very much! I feel much better. I will look into contacting the school when I set up the tours. You all have given me lots of helpful suggestions. Thanks again
