Hi College Confidential,
Are any top colleges offering official campus tours or information sessions in March? If not, am I welcome to walk on most college campuses without signing up for a tour? I am not sure if driving many hours just to walk around the college is worth it and informative enough to make the trip. Still deciding between big and small school so it would be nice to narrow down the college list.
Personally, The waking tours are pretty much all the same. We did lots of them and seeing every bodies 3D printer or the Chem lab over and over was kinda boring. Honestly after going though this with 2 kids… Do your own walking tour. We actually did part of the tours and left during them (prearranged) since my kids had set up meetings with professors. That was way more useful…
Also… Most of the presentations were actually the same. Rah, Rah this or that school and did you know theirs a group that watches squirrels and another that watches that group… Lol… By the time the 4th college told us that we were done.
So to me having the information speeches online then doing your own tours is more then perfect. Lots of schools now you can’t even go inside to see the buildings or dorms anyway… Then if you get the really hyper kid vs the sedate kid that you can’t hear a word their saying kid can change your view of the entire college itself.
But every college we walked around. Checked out some hot places to go to like the pizza place or whatever… BUT… we actually stopped a few students while walking and just asked… “Why this school”… They were all generous with their time but sadly… They all loved their school choices so that didn’t even really help… Lol… 
You are going to have to go to each college’s website and look for this info, if it’s not there call and ask. Some colleges are conducting in person tours, many campuses are open for a walk around (but no building entry), and some colleges are completely gated off and not even open for a walk around, like LMU.
If there are specific colleges you are thinking about, post here to see if anyone knows the current situation.
Also, you can give yourself your own tour. We visited a campus over the summer and did the virtual tour on a phone as we stood outside each building. Not the same as an official tour, but better than nothing. You should still double-check before visiting a school, though, as some are not allowing anyone outside the community on campus.
1 Like
For specifics, we are from central connecticut and have already toured Northeastern, BU, and Wesleyan prior to the pandemic. We could go south and visit some colleges in NY or PA but not sure what we would tour. This trip would be good to narrow it down between small, medium, and big colleges.
I see Union and Manhattan are open for tours.
1 Like
Agree with the other posters that you have to dig through the individual school websites to determine your options.
We have experienced the gambit from virtual tours to in-person going into buildings and everything in between.
My D finds just at least visiting the campus/area is helpful to get a sense of the vibe, but does prefer a scheduled tour to self-tour if the tour guide is good. Went on one where guide for general tour was not engaging at all* and others where guide shared their personal experiences that D found insightful. *Found a video from same school that was just as good.
We recently did a virtual tour of one that was very well done. Basically same as in-person inside buildings including dorm rooms just through the lens of a camera (i.e. camera person would have you taking the tour) + extra student hosts sharing personal insights while student and camera person walked between stops. I think part of the feeling of it being good was that we had visited exterior in person on our own, so had some context if that makes sense.
Good luck and happy touring!
1 Like
FWIW here is a link. The information is limited to the schools on the list but it’s helpful for those colleges at least. Not sure how often they update the list so one would want to double check via the website before visiting.
1 Like