<p>We are really looking forward to visiting Cornell next week but I just saw that there are no tours for the day of our trip. </p>
<p>How important is going on the actual tour? I looked on their site and they said it is about an hour and 15 minutes long. Would we be lost visiting the campus without going on the tour first? </p>
<p>I'm really confused. I don't know if we should just go and walk around the campus & Ithaca. We are driving and it about 3 hours each way. </p>
<p>Thank you! :)</p>
<p>Well, Cornell’s a huge place and the tour’s main purpose is to show you around central campus, so you won’t see everything (like north campus where all the freshmen live and obviously you won’t be going into any actual buildings). If you have a general sense of what you want to see - maybe the buildings where your classes will be - it won’t be too hard to build your own tour.</p>
<p>can you get into the academic buildings while visiting campus on/off the tour? I remember when i visited Columbia months ago they did not let me in any of the buildings during the tour which was dissapointing.</p>
<p>If you’re visiting on a weekday, sure, just walk in (but you can’t do that on a tour). It would obviously be better to call ahead to the departments you’re interested in if you want to talk to the director of undergrad studies or something like that - just walking around random buildings won’t do you a whole lot of good.</p>
<p>my tour guide was amazing and was a large part of the reason i decided to apply to cornell and maybe even why i will attend.</p>
<p>ugh i just realized i’ll be there when theres no tours as well :((( i don’t understand why they don’t offer tours at such a crucial time. ahh any advice?</p>
<p>Have you actually registered for the new student admit days? If you register and then get the email confirmation, you will see a link to “plan your day”, if you click on the link, you’ll see that there are definitely tours available – campus and then residence hall tours on each day.</p>
<p>I think you are looking at the regular visit Cornell site – and they have blocked out the next few weeks for general tours because of the Cornell Days for new students. Only those kids who are registered and admitted will be on the tours. But there are definitely tours available on the official days.</p>
<p>yes, i was definitely looking at the wrong webpage! The link in my email did not bring me to the right spot, but now i see that there are definitely tours on Cornell-Days just for the admitted students
hopefully you see it too teaberry?</p>
<p>The tour is definitely a nice overview of Cornell, gets you situated with the basic history, offerings, and stats of the university - though I’d definitely take the time to talk to other students and explore that campus on your own to try to get other viewpoints and an unmediated feel for the school. The tour can give you a lot of facts, but it can’t replace your own interactions and experience exploring and feeling out the school.</p>
<p>Tour isn’t that big of a deal, it’s a good condensed version but if you wanna see a good overview of everything do something like this:</p>
<p>-Park at baseball field in Schoelkopf garage (get visitor pass from booth)
-Walk down Hoy Road and enter Duffield Hall which is a really cool engineering building.
-Exit and walk down East Ave which is the main road on campus, stop in Statler Hall (hotel school) on the right, also two more sec up the road is the Cornell store on the left.
-Then from East Ave turn right onto Tower Road, on your right will be the ILR buildings
-Stop at Kennedy Hall, get lunch at a place called Trillium (good food)
-Then walk up Garden Ave which intersects Tower Road and get onto the Ag Quad, go to Mann Library to see one of the popular and new libraries on campus.
-Then head to Martha Van Rensselear Hall to see the new Human Ecology Building
-Head towards Beebe Dam and theres a small footbridge that crosses the dam which is really cool and then keep going towards North Campus
-Look around North Campus, since this is where all the freshmen dorms are (probably won’t be able to go in unless you meet a student though)
-From north campus pass through the Balch Arch (dorm) and then go back down East Ave.
-On your right will be the arts quad and architecture buildings and then further down will be the Cornell Store again</p>
<p>I came up with this in 5 min and it should be obvious when looking at a map. But it creates a big loop around campus and hits literally every college at Cornell and the freshmen dorms.</p>
<p>Are you an admitted student?</p>
<p>If you’re an applicant, more important than the tour is the information session at most places. Aside from the … valuable information, signing in for these is generally the way that schools track whether you’ve visited.</p>
<p>Although Cornell claims that demonsitrated interest is not a factor … well, either it is or isn’t. I would make sure they knew I visited if there was a way to do so.</p>
<p>Thank you everyone for the advice. My son is really interested in applying to Cornell next year. I hadn’t realized that they didn’t offer tours April 12 - 23 because that is when all the lucky new students get to see the campus so we will be picking a different day to go. :)</p>
<p>Nd09,
Thank you for your detailed response! I am going to print it and bring it with us. I was wondering about where to park, too! Great advice! :)</p>