Honest thoughts on making most of college tours

If you can pick your tour guide let your kid pick somebody that they think they may relate to. We have quietly switched groups on more than one occasion.

Have done many tours with both Ds. Mostly got personal tours . Lots of pre -work involved. Need to research school, know exactly why your looking at it, and know exactly when your going to be there. Mostly got hooked up by coach of sport. Several times when coach (4 times) was not going to be on campus D simply called admissions and asked for personal tour with someone who had interest in X (Debate, zebra fish research, odd state(Utah) etc) Told admissions we were totally comfortable to let D go on her own without family ( thats the way it went). Both Ds had remarkable experiences and definitely believe it helped both Ds pick correct schools. Will help tremendously if you have some hook for school and if your statistics are interesting to them.

I think of the campus tour as an aside to the most informative parts of the visit which would be attending information sessions. Some of the information sessions we went to were led by students and some were led by admissions staff or faculty. At larger universities, we had a choice of college specific information sessions. For us, the walk about tour did give a feel for the campus and the opportunity to ask questions that wouldn’t feel right in an auditorium session.

It is also possible to email someone the department you are interested in to see about meeting a professor or attending a class.

My son was not interested in attending a small college and seemed to prefer a busy campus. We quickly realized that touring a campus when classes were not in session was a bad idea for him. He will be attending Northeastern in the fall.

At this juncture on the college tour train, I have done a few info sessions with kid and a few tours. Turns out when he tours alone he engages with the other students, leans in to hear the tour guide and takes incredible mini notes to share with me.

He has been fortunate to be able to take it slow, at some local, much-sought-after places we figured were just for getting his feet wet at the whole experience, and the delightful tour guides turned out to be the spark that set him on fire.

Once we started in on schools designed to be more likely for entry, his ears were greatly attuned to some features and conditions he had begun to think he wanted wherever he lands.

So sometimes I start out on a tour with him, then duck out for coffee, and it has really upped son’s game at focusing, listening, watching, digesting the info his eyes and ears are being hit with.

I have done tours plenty of times before, however, and do not always feel I need to have a student guide help me understand what the school offers. I can read the printed info, go to the website, come here to CC and poke around.

My two cents:

First, don’t try to see more than 2 schools in a single day. We have seen about 20 schools between my two sons and found two visits fill a day well, allowing enough time to see two thoroughly if they are close enough.

Second, evaluating a college is a lot like going to an open house when you’re looking to buy a home. It is worthwhile for the applicant to have a few people with him or her, because, as when touring a house, everyone notices different things.

Third, I highly recommend taking notes of your visit when you get home (or to your hotel) because the schools do start to all blend together after a while. I would write an email to myself about each college we saw highlighting the important points.

Fourth, attend the information session and go on the tour. It takes time, but the purpose of your visit is to gather information, which is what the school is giving you by hosting these events. That others here are saying they need express tours is laughable. You’re about to be a college student…time to put on your big girl pants and prove you have an attention span to intelligently gather information and analyze it critically. Parents should try to set the example, but if they are too impatient for the process, maybe the applicant should have another adult accompany them.

One thing I always asked tour guides is if there were one thing they could change about their university what would it be. (Edited to add: I see mentioned by someone a few posts up!)

My younger son thought it was much easier to write about colleges that he had visited. My older son just cared about the the CS department and didn’t try to add to anything that wasn’t easily found on the college website for the “Why X college” type essay.

Most colleges will let you eat in the cafeteria and have coffee in whatever lounge type spaces they provide. I recommend both. And agree that the student newspapers can be eye-opening.

@birkygg hey im sorry i havent checked CC in so long. Pertaining to your question about if families ever ask for more personalized tour guides, I can answer it now. The short answer is no, because I believe this would invade privacy laws and contracts that tour guides sign so that they are not allowed to take campus tours to certain destinations on campus. *Note, my school is particular about tours so you can always call and see if these destinations are already on the tour, but to my knowledge, it’s difficult to visit the places not on the tour with a student.

However, there are many other ways to go about doing this if you and your family really think this is an important aspect of the college. If you know any current students on campus, that maybe your child went to high school with, I’m sure they would be happy to help. You could also always call the university and see if there is another way besides the tour to see some of these aspects. There are also apps such as campussherpa that connect families with current students for one on one visits of the campus. This limits the number of places that are not allowed to visit and provide students and families with a complete sense of the campus without any rainbows and sunshine PR getting in the way. (Meaning students can answer honestly about the school rather than how the university wants you to think everything is). Hope this helped, and please let me know if you have anymore questions.

Email the department you are applying to and ask to meet a professor. Most professors are extremely caring and interested in mentoring students through major and curriculum choices and sharing their research. D1 learned that another engineering major was a better fit, she should add a CS course outside of HS, she should NOT pay for grad school and instead be fully funded. Meeting with such kind and caring professors at other schools helped her chart a course at 17 so that 4 years later she is now positioned with tons of research to apply to a PHD program. It takes confidence to engage in research with professors freshman year. I think starting to meet with some in HS broke down the walls and made them seem more approachable.
S1 came out of a meeting with an ME robotics professor with an appointment to tour their grad school labs. The lab tour sold the school. Reminded S1 that he should make eye contact with professors. Asked how that went and was told, “Not a problem because the professor looked at his hands while talking.” I knew then that S1 would be OK in the engineering school on very social campus. Thankful that the social vibe is helping him grow because he needs to spend lots of time in labs.
We did not pay for HS, college counseling or SAT courses. The $$ and time spent touring were worth every penny.