I am planning 3 different trips to visit and tour schools in the June/July time frame. My daughter does not have a “dream school” - the point of the tours is to potentially identify one, or not, in particular so that we can know whether she would want to apply ED anywhere. Would love the benefit of your experience and thoughts on official tours vs. self-guided tours. And on whether it’s beneficial to schedule an interview.
If your main purpose is to get your daughter fired up about a college, you might want to hold off on the interview. Unless she’s one of those naturally happy, carefree, loves to talk to everybody kind of people, an interview can be stressful. She’s more likely to enjoy a tour if she isn’t dreading or stressing over an interview.
As for interviewing in general, you’ll find there are hugely differing opinions out there. My opinion is that if a school requires interviews or strongly suggests interviews, then of course you do one. Otherwise, think long and hard about your particular kid and the risk/reward.
There’s a bit of scuttlebutt out there that the interviews are really more to give the prospective students a way to ask questions and to keep alumni engaged, but that they don’t weigh much in admissions. I believe that’s true for many, many schools. For those schools, I think an interview is more of a risk than potential reward. The interview is not going to help your admissions chances (just ask all the dozens of interviewers who have posted here that they’ve never once had a single kid they interviewed - no matter how fantastic - get admitted to their selective school) but could pose some risks. No matter how articulate your kid is, what happens if there’s an social blunder, your kid is late, or your kid just has an off day? Highly unlikely, but still… a negative interview/note could jeopardize an acceptance but as mentioned, there’s almost no upside, so why take even that remote risk?
We personally did not like the self-guided tours. We liked the official tours and added on information meetings with heads of departments, honors college, study abroad, (and for us pre-vet and vet school). Not interviews, just fact finding appointments. They were the most helpful of all. The official tours gave us a good feel for the campus and then we wandered around ourselves but had a clue where we wanted to look more.
We felt like the open houses/guided tours were more informative and helpful than our self guided opportunities.
My daughter didn’t connect with/like any of the schools where we did a self-guided tour. She did apply to some, but now we’ll be going back to visit those again so she can get a better idea. It would’ve been easier to just do guided tours the first time around.
If finding a good fit is important then summer tours are not the best. I personally like to see students and get a feel for the energy or lack of it is on campuses. However, in summer you can see if the campus appeals, you like the architecture and whether you like what they have to say at info sessions and on the tour about academics and other things.
^^^ agree with @citymama9 During the summer you miss the students that really make the place what it is. Your D will want to talk to current students as she walks around, casual questions, stuff like what they like and don’t and what they wish they had known before applying.