<p>Hi, I recently made a call to HU and they told me that they stopped offering campus tours as if this week--so the lady told me i could do a self guided our instead. Do you think it would be more or less the same? She also gave me information of hoow & where to go, maps etc etc. which are very helpful..but my cousin who's a Howard Alumni will be showing me around..so i suppose it would make it easier.</p>
<p>They're not offering campus tours (w/ a your guide) until June & July. I was planning on flying out there to D.C. next week...and perhaps check out other schools in that area like George Wash. & GTown...(and maybe more).</p>
<p>So would it be worth the visit? Or should I just wait...? (I'm kind of anxious to go, so the sooner the better :P). [but i plan on becoming a transfer for fall 2012...so i just want to know what my future options might be :) ].</p>
<p>Absolutely, go if you can! These kinds of visits will help a lot with your nervousness, and if you decide HU is not for you, you’ll have time to formulate a new strategy.
Your cousin will be the best guide, anyway! The map from the admissions office will have some information, and a lot of the standard tour information (buildings, history) is more interesting to parents than students.</p>
<p>A self guided tour is better than no tour at all. The downside is that you won’t be able to ask questions of the student leading the tours, and you probably won’t be able to see a dorm, but on the upside since classes are probably out of session you’ll be able to poke around the academic buildings more. And I see now that your cousin who is a Howard alum will show you around, so that will help a lot. If it’s not possible for you to go later in the summer when they’re offering guided tours, then you should go now.</p>
<p>Absolutely! With an alum showing you around, you’ll get a great tour and possibly more candid answers anyway.</p>
<p>I just did a two-day visit to the college ds eventually choose. He did the overnight thing, and I did the official tour. The best part was really being able to spend some time on the campus by myself, attending a sporting event, talking to people, observing, eavesdropping. I wish we’d done fewer tours now, spending more time at each campus.</p>
<p>My opinion, in answer to your question “is it worth it?” Absolutely NOT. When we visited schools on a Sunday, when admission offices are closed, or arrived too late for am actual tour, we walked around or drove around and never felt any attachment to the school, never picked up the “vibe”. It was a total waste of time. My kids never applied to any of those schools where we had chosen to go on a “self-guided tour”.</p>
<p>You’ll learn so much more about the school just by doing some online research. But if you really want to garner a sense of what’s important, and feel that college “vibe”, go on a tour, and take in an information session. It’s not the end-all, but that’s how to start. Don’t waste your time thinking you’ll get to know a school just by driving around on a self-guided tour. All you’ll learn is how big those buildings are. Meh</p>
<p>He/she isn’t just driving by; her cousin is an alum and would be the tour guide. Driving by on a Sunday probably is close to worthless.</p>
<p>Alum tours can be even better than a student-led tour if supplemented by current online information and a chat with current students. I’ve led a few myself ;). Make sure said alum has visited recently enough so that the tour isn’t dominated by “wait, my favorite tree (field, diner, etc.) has been replaced with an ugly new lab (sidewalk, student center, Starbucks, etc)!” If the alum stills knows any profs on campus in one of the student’s areas of interest, try to set up a meeting with your prospective student.</p>
<p>Depending on how long ago your cousin graduated, having contact with a current student could prove helpful. While you’re visiting, you might check with campus venues, e.g., art gallery, where students might be staffing the desk. When we visited schools on our own, we enjoyed chatting with students who were staffing a student event and another who was staffing the art gallery.</p>
<p>If I understand correctly you would be doing a tour with an alum while school is in session, but no tours are offered. (I suspect because of upcoming exams.) It seems to me that this would be fine, especially if you are able to eat in the cafeteria and get into some of the academic buildings. I actually think dorm visits are somewhat overrated - and many colleges have photos of rooms and common spaces on line. If you can meet with a professor in your area of interest, I agree see if you can set something up.</p>
<p>You probably want to skip Georgetown, based on your other threads about your academic difficulties I think Georgetown is more than a reach for you. Have you thought about visiting University of Maryland College Park or American University? Both might still be reaches, but a little more in the realm of possibility.</p>
<p>^ haha yes! I also had UMD-CP, and AU on my list 
(why i said other schools in the area) …and maybe even UVA & George Mason(very close to my old house in NorthVA/and my grandma’s )?</p>
<p>aaah I think you’re right about GTown being a reach…and since it’s Catholic/Jesuit affiliated (?) i don’t think i’d fit in very well (mistaken me if i’m wrong).</p>
<p>I concur with SmithieandProud to skip Georgetown. Honestly, it’s a mega-reach even for students who have been focused 100% from the get-go. I see no point in touring it.</p>
<p>I would, however, tour GWU/AU/UMCP (since they are all in the same general area), and maybe even Goucher if you want to go to Baltimore, simply because those 4 will give you 4 very different campus experiences and that will help you discern which type of experience you like (big-city-urban, sprawling mega-campus, small LAC, etc.).</p>
<p>^ thank you for the suggestions! ( as well as to everyone else that has posted in this thread)</p>
<p>I will make sure to skip Georgetown :]</p>
<p>You could consider purchasing an inexpensive $15 video of the ‘campus tour’ either before or after your visit. You’d get to hear some of a typical tour. We used this method as my husband was unable to go on many of the tours for health reasons, so we purchased a few DVDs and watched them together.</p>
<p>Collegiate Choice Walking Tours [url=<a href=“http://www.collegiatechoice.com/index.htm”>http://www.collegiatechoice.com/index.htm</a>] offers DVDs of actual tours and they might be helpful as you gather information about schools. Check out their website.</p>
<p>^ thank you for the suggestion!!! I’ll try to purchase the DVD if I can</p>
<p>and thank you to @pizzagirl for suggesting UMD-CP It sounds like a place I’d like (good balance of having a good academic rep AND social life? -I think, haha).</p>
<p>It’s worth doing a tour to get a sense of it if you can’t wait until the official ones - especially with your alumni cousin as the our guide. Most students doing tours are interested in seeing the dorms which you can’t ‘officially’ do on your own but if you head over to the dorm area and spot a friendly looking person maybe you can ask them if they’d mind showing you their dorm room. I know my kid did this for a few obvious visitors who were looking around on their own.</p>