List your summer college visit list!

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IMO, parents should be neither seen nor heard on campus tours.

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<p>I disagree. I certainly think it's fine for parents to go along on tours. Colleges expect it, tour guides expect it, and sometimes half their pitch is aimed at the parents. I've always found that a shared experience of an info session and tour gives D & I the basis for a deeper conversation afterwards about what she liked & disliked about the place.</p>

<p>As for the parents keeping quiet, I have mixed feelings. I try to keep quiet at the outset, and let the tour guides do their thing and let the students take the lead in asking questions. But as the tour goes on, sometimes a question or statement just begs a follow-up, and if no one else puts it out there, I will. Example: while touring Penn yesterday, the tour guide stopped by a blue emergency phone along Penn's famous Locust Walk and used that as the backdrop for a prepared spiel on safety and security on the Penn campus. Her pitch was informative and generally reassuring, emphasizing the size of the Penn police force, their response time, the low rates of violent crime on campus, etc. The pitch was clearly aimed at the parents more than students, as it's the parents who tend to be most concerned about such things; she even said as much. She then asked if there were any questions. Dead silence for a moment, until I asked what seemed to me an obvious follow-up: the tour guide had told us earlier that most Penn upperclassmen live OFF campus. So I asked about the neighborhoods they lived in, crime rates there, whether the Penn police had jurisdiction in and regularly patrolled those neighborhoods, and how much of a patrol presence the Philadelphia police had in those neighborhoods. The tour guide answered some of my question reasonably well, but basically acknowledged that the security issue is a lot more complicated than her prepared pitch might have led one to believe. Had I not asked the question, that information would not have come out, and it's certainly not something Penn emphasizes on its web site. </p>

<p>I believe my job as parent is not to help the school sell itself, but rather to make sure D is getting as full and accurate a picture as possible. A few well placed questions can sometimes advance that cause, but I try to interject myself sparingly. As it turns out, D isn't so interested in Penn, not because of the security issue but because she's looking for a smaller, homier LAC environment---something back-to-back visits to several small LACs and a large research university helped her clarify. She'll probably apply to Haverford and Bryn Mawr. If she ends up attending either school she may end up taking a few classes at Penn, especially classes in less commonly studied languages. And if that transpires, I believe both she and I will be better informed and better prepared to anticipate and address the security concerns that will arise as a consequence of our having had a fuller discussion of these issues on our tour.</p>

<p>fireflyyscout- thanks for the feedback on Lehigh. I'm already dreading hiking those hills if it's hot on the day we tour!</p>

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I certainly think it's fine for parents to go along on tours.

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<p>I have no problem with parents going on campus tours or sitting in info sessions. They just should discretely blend into the background for the most part. Your question was reasonable, but did it really get anything you didn't know? </p>

<p>There are dozens of questions to ask that could blow a hole in whatever spiel is being given (like: "how can you say with a straight face that you don't have TA's when your website has training manuals for how TAs should handle a class?"). But, what's the point? The student tour guide doesn't know. And, the admissions officer is just going to bob and weave. I don't know...I never really felt comfortably busting their chops in those settings.</p>

<p>^ I didn't think I was "busting the chops" of the tour guide. I genuinely didn't know whether Penn police patrol outside the campus proper. Some places they do, some places they don't; depends partly on whether they're given that authority by the local police and municipal authorities, partly on what resources they have. Turns out (at least according to the tour guide) the Penn police do patrol in the surrounding neighborhood but only within a radius of a few blocks. That is valuable and relevant information not only for students and parents considering Penn, but also for those considering Bryn Mawr, Haverford, and Swarthmore who may take some classes at Penn or otherwise have occasion to spend time there.</p>

<p>Penn's train station is right on campus. I don't think Penn's neighborhood is sketchy enough to be a problem in the daytime. After dark, you'd probably want some local knowledge about specific neighborhoods, how far from campus to stray, etc.</p>

<p>I remember my daughter saying she and a bunch of friends went somewhere near Penn to try an Ethiopean restaurant they had heard about. She felt the neighborhood was maybe marginal at night, but they were in a group of six people....</p>

<p>"Also, frankly, D is a little resistant to northern weather and the more northerly the spot on the map, the less the interest."</p>

<p>You should definitely keep that in mind with Bates as well. No ocean effect like Bowdoin and the same weather as Colby. last winter most of ME was under 2+ feet of snow for months.</p>

<p>My daughter is also very interseted in these colleges. If you could give us feedback on these visits, it would be greatly appreciated!</p>

<p>I'm sorry,as you can see I really am a novice. I am referring to ebeeee's visits in California, including University of Redlands, UOP, ect.Thanks!</p>

<p>We will be visiting Holy Cross, Bowdoin and Bates in the next few days. </p>

<p>I have a question for the group: what kind of clothing do parents wear on these tours? Am I going to look out of place wearing shorts? I mean, it's hot out there!</p>

<p>A tank top might be inappropriate, but by all means, where shorts and good shoes (athletic shoes) for walking. My sons wore shorts and t-shirts and we'd bring along nicer clothes to change into if an interview was scheduled close in time to the tour/info sessions.</p>

<p>When I toured the big Greek school, I was the only mom there in tennis shoes. Metallic sandals seemed to be the in thing. I didn't care but did notice! I might have been the only one in shorts, too. I think most of the moms wore capris. Lots of the dads wore shorts, so you're good.</p>

<p>Definitely wear shorts. Campus touring, in the summer heat, is grubby business.</p>

<p>Wear what you want and be comforatable.
A campus tour isn't a fashion show.
I wore shorts, flip-flops, and tanks or short sleave Ts.</p>

<p>Did the Boston swing MLK day 2008. D wanted to see if she could handle the winters. </p>

<p>Tufts
BU
BC
Amherst
Wesleyan (on a whim, on the way back)</p>

<p>Just got back from a Southern swing:</p>

<p>Elon
Davidson
UNC
Duke
Emory</p>

<p>About to head out on a Pennsylvania visit:</p>

<p>Lehigh
Villanova
Dickinson
Bucknell
Penn</p>

<p>We've found that tours are helpful (especially since all of our visits have been when school is not in session). We detest information sessions/slide shows and skip these. </p>

<p>It looks like we may have to start getting on airplanes soon. I wish D could decide . . . . </p>

<p>I tend not to ask too many questions unless something is really bizarre. E.g. at Emory, the tour guide said the Greeks had higher GPAs than the non-Greeks. Sorry, but I simply had to ask why that is.</p>

<p>My D and I both enjoy visiting schools this summer. She gives me 2 rules to follow:</p>

<ul>
<li>don't ask more than one question during the Q&A</li>
<li>don't wear socks with sandals</li>
</ul>

<p>It was hard, but I did it.</p>

<p>Yes, do dress comfortably. It's not an interview; it is one of the few times in your life when you as parent can be completely anonymous. On the Emory tour, there were some clearly over-heated parents. I was not among them.</p>

<p>My S is a rising senior, interested in electrical engineering. We're only visiting a couple of colleges this summer:</p>

<p>University of the Pacific - toured in June, S loved it, it's #2 on his list behind Cal Poly SLO.
Seattle University - will tour in August
Santa Clara University - will tour in July or Aug</p>

<p>Any suggestions for other schools in the Seattle area while we're there? I think UW is out because it's too big, and Seattle Pacific is out because it's too religious.</p>

<p>Leaving this weekend for two more visits - Kalamazoo and Carthage. That leaves us with Juniata in the fall. But I also think at the end of next week S will have it nailed down to 4-5 schools. We have visited schools since last January - Allegheny, Wooster, Hendrix, Uiversity of Cincinnati, Kalamzoo and Carthage. He still wants to look at Juniata and then I saw Hiram literature sitting on the desk this week, but no mention. He registered for a second try at the ACT and narrowed his choices for schools so hopefully we are entering the next phase. I just hope these schools are in his reach. I going to check out that common data set next.</p>

<p>murmur, what did you think of Hendrix?</p>

<p>vballmom - You've run through the list of Seattle colleges, but it would be worth looking at UPS in Tacoma and PLU in Olympia (not religious, despite the Lutheran in its name). If your son has granola leanings, Evergreen State College in Olympia would also be worth a look.</p>