<p>I just read an old article on USA Today about college visits. It mentioned college tours organized by some company. I went to one particular web site, and the price seems reasonable. I checked out the Southern tour (not that we want to tour the South -- we are here, but that I want to see how "real" it is), it does look good. So my question is, did your child take part in such a tour? What's the student's experience?</p>
<p>I don’t have any experience, but when I see these hoards of kids, my impression is yuck! I much prefer going to the schools on my own: choosing which schools are appropriate, taking the time if it’s a good match, rushing through those that aren’t. Often my son and I will get lunch there, talk to students… Would you do that on a college tour? How individualized is it? How many in the group? My sense is that these programs are just another money-making venture that parents take up because they’re “too busy”.</p>
<p>My son took a whirlwind tour of Southern California colleges organized by our local YMCA. 8 colleges in 4 days, plus a stop at Santa Monica Pier and a half day at Magic Mountain. It was a little crazy - I think they ended up spending 2-3 hours on each college campus. </p>
<p>One advantage of it was that the Y had arranged for alums of my son’s high schools to do the campus tours at a couple of the colleges. Another positive was that my son got the flavor of a lot of schools in a short time. But the downside was that there really wasn’t much big-picture discussion of what each college was about and what made it different from the others on the tour.</p>
<p>Overall I’d say it was worth it, but then again it was quite inexpensive.</p>