<p>Better question: How many of you go on college tours with your parents?</p>
<p>I want to go check out the campuses with my friends, but my mom insists that she wants to come with me. And yes, she is helping me pay, and I know I sound spoiled, but if I go with her I know she'll constantly nag me (shes the kind of mom that would keep telling me to ask the tour guide a question, rather than just do it herself). My dad doesn't care either way.</p>
<p>Just go with your mom. It'll be embarrassing, but you'll live. Trust me, my mom told an interviewer about the time when she spent a week at a topless pool in Switzerland during college. She said she wasn't topless, still ranked as the most embarrassing moment of my life. She was annoying, but it was nice that she got to see the schools, and I even got into the school where she told the pool story. It's worth asking, do you and your friends even have the same interests? Are they really the people you should be visiting with. Crazy or not your mom probably knows you better anyway, and she may have surprisingly helpful feedback.
Just a thought.</p>
<p>I agree with ferris. Go with your mom anyway. Chances are you'll never meet these people again anyway and most of the tour guides are used to naggy parents. </p>
<p>Mine like to converse with my tour guide. My dad had a huge conversation with my tour guide at both Columbia and Caltech. It wasn't really about the school either, it was about the person, what they majored in, where they're going to grad school, and other things about their lives. Thankfully at harvard they left the tour guide alone so I was able to converse with him. He was so cute. </p>
<p>Okay now to stop sounding like a five year old, just go with your parents. You can also go with your friends. I would actually suggest doing both, at least to the schools that are close to your house. I've been to visit columbia and nyu with my parents but I go there all the time with my friends. getting both perspectives is the best because you see it from an academic standpoint and a social life standpoint. When with your friends you can check out all the local hot spots that you couldn't with your parents. </p>
<p>Don't worry about it, everyone is there with their parents! Everyone..I think out of all the tours I went on, only one didn't have their parents with them</p>
<p>Don't worry about your parents--just about everyone will have at least one parent along, and everyone else will feel their parents are just as embarrassing. And remember that the tour guide has absolutely no influence on your chance of getting in or not...so the tour guide's opionion of you and/or your parent is completely irrelevant anyone....at least that's what I told my kids!</p>
<p>Honestly, I only saw one student who didn't have at least one parent along in my 17 (!) college visits, and she was a transfer. I thought my parents and sister would be really embarrassing, but I actually really enjoyed the conversations we had about our impressions of each school. Try not to worry about it too much.</p>
<p>Your parents are forking out the big bucks for you to go to school, so they should at least get a chance to see what they are buying. Maybe you can go on an overnight visit without them after you've been accepted?</p>
<p>Doesn't really matter. If the college is far away, you might want to wait till after, so you're not shelling out money for the trip when you've not even been accepted. But if you've applied to a lot of schools, you might as well get started on taking tours, etc. now. Especially if there are some in your area that wouldn't cost too much to visit.</p>
<p>If you're a junior, visits can help you decide where to apply. If you're a senior, you've already applied so you may as well wait and save some money.</p>