Self guided tour

Colleges and Universities A-Z Florida State University
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My husband and I took our daughter to tour the campus last Friday. She is only a junior, and an excellent student taking a tough schedule with AP’s and Honors, and hopefully will get in, although she will be applying to several other schools, but I really hope FSU works out to be the one she gets into. Anyway, we drove the nearly 4 hour drive from Orlando (it wasn’t that bad). We sort of just blindly walked around, not sure where we were going, which was a mistake, I should have planned that out better. But we did see a great deal of the campus. We saw the stadium, had lunch in the Suwannee Dining Room, we even had two of the sweetest girls show us their dorm, which was in Wildwood, and all around the building. They even offered to show us around more, (I wish I’d taken them up on that), but at that point we needed to head back, and I told my daughter that we would go again in the next two weeks.

Can anyone suggest what we should be sure to see on our next visit? I want to make the most of the visit this time. We spent most of our time around the area where the Suwannee Room was, and I saw where the other dorms around there were, Reynolds, Bryan, and the few others near there (that I can’t remember), and I really like the location of those, but we did not see Smith, Kellum, Salley, which I really just wanted to see, even if it was just to see the outside of them and their location, but we did not. IF she gets in, she hopes to get one of the newer rooms, but of course she will be happy with anything if it means she gets to go there, but I’d still like to see them. I’ve heard the bad reviews and then I’ve heard that it’s not so bad, and I’ve read tons of reviews about them all. My daughter is fairly shy, smart, a good student and hopes to get into one of the more quiet dorms, and if she gets into Honors, into one of those dorms for Honors students. But I guess we have a while to wait to see how she does on SAT/ACT and how she finishes this year up. She is taking 4 AP’s next year and has two this year.

So what should we be sure to see on our next visit? We saw two book stores, bought some shirts before we left. We saw where the 24 hours Denny’s was, but we did not see any of the other dining places. We did not even see any of the libraries. We just really didn’t have enough time to see all that we wanted to, and I want to make sure we do more next time. Maybe we should just schedule a tour, but we just really like walking around at our own pace.

I have to say, everyone was so friendly, it was such a different atmosphere than here in Orlando, where we live, and the UCF campus, which we also toured earlier that week. We could not find a place to park Friday, the one garage we tried was full, and after driving around for another half hour, we asked one of the FSU police officers, he was so sweet, told us exactly how to get to another parking garage, and that if we didn’t find a spot there that he would find us a place to park. Then, the other shocker, crossing the street, people actually stopped and let you cross! LOL! This does not happen in Orlando, even at the UCF campus, with the UCF police everywhere, people still will nearly run you over. The girls we met that worked in the book stores were so sweet and friendly. Then as we were walking around Wildwood, there were two girls who had been talking to another family, and she saw us listening, and when she was done they asked us if we needed any help getting around, and even showed us their room in Wildwood. Like I said, they even offered to show us anywhere we wanted to go, but we had to leave by then.

So needless to say, my daughter is in LOVE with this campus, and it will be her first choice. She knows that it is not a given that she will get in here, and will apply to UCF, USF, and probably Stetson and Rollins (which both of those colleges gave VERY good merit awards to several of her friends) but hopefully she will get into FSU. Even my husband, a University of Miami man, was very impressed with this school and loves the idea of her going here, and since Miami is super expensive, and does not give out much merit scholarships, we will not even try for that school. So Mr. Miami, my husband, was swallowing his pride and admitted that he would love to see her go to FSU.

Sorry for the long post. I appreciate any suggestions, so hopefully we can make the most out of our next visit.

Thank You!!!

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I would suggest going back again this summer and do the guided tour and the attend an admissions Info session. The Admissions info session will answer a lot of questions you might have and we found it very helpful in preparing the FSU application. . http://visit.fsu.edu/suggestions.cfm

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If she has any ideas as to what she’s going to major in, I can’t suggest enough to visiting the buildings that house those majors, talking to some of the staff (advisors, etc), and if you run into a class or two, talking to the professor once class is over- timing this may be the biggest issue, because you might walk past a class that’s just beginning and has an hour or more left.

While scheduling a tour would obviously be the easy solution, if you’re afraid of a tour guide moving too quickly, just let them know, and they’ll probably be more than happy to go at your pace. They’re selling the university to you. Over 4 years it’ll be a nearly $100k investment (assuming cost of attendance for a year x 4), and with a tour you should get a picture of what that $100k is getting you.

I will say, the campus is certainly pedestrian friendly. While most of Tallahassee, even Tennessee Street along the northern edge of campus, is kind of scary to walk along if you’re paying attention to how many cars blatantly run red lights, the campus is different.

If you are going to do a self-tour of campus, I really can’t recommend visiting departments that house her prospective major enough. If the staff there can’t give you a tour for some reason, just walking the halls and talking to students walking around can be enough to get a tour.

I’ve given a couple tours of a couple department buildings to people that were visiting and I happened to either stumble upon a professor or advisor giving the tour, or they happened to walk into a room where I was.

For a prospective student, the places you’ll likely be spending the most time are the ones you should make sure to see. Those places would be the dining halls, the library/libraries, a couple dorm rooms, and some of the classrooms where major classes are taught.

FSU Preview is a good idea, if that’s still available. I recommend once you’re done with that tour though to explore on your own. Preview is unfortunately somewhat limited, and you will probably want to explore something beyond what Preview does.

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Thank you for the advice. I’ve been reading everything on this board about FSU, and am taking it all in. We did actually see the northern part of the campus and Tennessee Street, and it was just as I had heard everyone describe it. We are anxious to go back soon, and hopefully be better prepared. We better do it soon, before the truly miserable Florida heat sets in to stay. Thank you again.