<p>@moooop - An alternative way to look at: there are so many great schools out there that even if some come off poorly to you, there are plenty of other great options that feel better. In nearly all cases, I don’t think there is a clear BEST place to spend your money and go to school. You can get a fantastic education at any number of schools.</p>
<p>I still thought the tours were useful, but I tried to get outside the admissions system as well. I contacted the head of the neuroscience program at the school I ended up at, and had a one-on-one meeting with him, followed by sitting in on a class with one of his undergrad research students. That was a much bigger positive influence on m than the general tour.</p>
<p>Just because there are scores of places you can get a fantastic education, does not preclude there being one or two that are really great fits. Sometimes the biggest gap is between “good enough” and “juuuuust right.”</p>
<p>@moooop: I’m with you, except that I’d say that, possibly aside from some sort of special need like an extremely niche program, there’s never just one or two schools that would be really great fits for anyone.</p>
<p>I’m happy to say my son never decided against the colleges he visited due to architecture or food. But he instantly would turn against them when during the Adcom meeting he was informed that students would be required to take a) Four years of a foreign language or b) Read the Illiad or c) Courses in religion or philosophy. Let’s say we discovered he wasn’t going to any place that emphasized a well rounded education in the liberal arts.</p>
<p>It’s easy to miss details on a college website. Most college websites have hundreds, if not thousands, of pages of information. I can see this happening.</p>
<p>Nano, you made me think back to kiss of death which occurred at accepted students’ weekend. Son had never visited most of his colleges on tours, though unofficially had seen other colleges. On the schedule at this college, it said go to room XXX to meet the head of NS at 11:00 a.m. So son and 4-6 other students and their parents arrive at her office. She became flustered and insisted the meeting was suppose to be at 1:00 p.m. She wasted time arguing with all of us. Someone asked her, “Why if we are here now, can you tell as about the NS program? we have luncheon with speakers at 1” We all left with a bad impression. </p>
<p>In fairness, we had wonderful experiences with CS dept, bio, every other department.</p>
<p>A slide show should be about the school, the programs, the social life, etc. There were enough crosses
in the buildings to let you know where you were. </p>
<p>For some, the Kiss of Death is the Kiss of Life…my son loved NCF, and these were two of the reasons! That’s why a campus visit is so important. It really makes all the difference in knowing which college/univ is a good fit, and which is not!</p>
<p>@masha12358, I apologize. I thought that the hyperbole of a “Kiss of Death” thread made it obvious that one student’s perfect fit is another’s mismatch. I did not intend to disparage NCF. It just wasn’t right for my S. There are hundreds of “What I loved about X College” threads. I thought this particular thread was a lighthearted way to discuss what can turn a kid or a parent off of a particular school during a visit. My S’s #1 choice has received it’s fair share of criticism on this thread, which I’ve taken with a “That’s why there is chocolate and vanilla” attitude.</p>
<p>My daughter spent five years at a Catholic college (see post #7) as a nonCatholic and was very happy there. She was great friends with the priest and the nuns even though they disagreed on many issues. The only time she was “forced” to do anything “Catholic” was when she was an RA and one of the monthly themes for the floor bulletin board was Catholic identity. She ended up tucking a picture of Martin Luther down in one corner, and the housing staff found it very amusing and let her keep it there - they knew she is a double pastor’s kid and was doing it with a sense of humor.</p>
<p>There were plenty of crucifixes and statuary, and even a cemetery for nuns next to the health sciences building (school had been a convent before becoming a college) but no one was forced to do anything spiritual. There were no prayers before meals or classes, and of course abortion and birth control and end of life decisions were covered in her medical courses.</p>
<p>“A slide show should be about the school, the programs, the social life, etc. There were enough crosses
in the buildings to let you know where you were.”</p>
<p>Would you rather they not let you know that religion is a big part of the education at that school and then spring it on you at orientation? The slide show was about the school, telling you religion is a focus.</p>
<p>I know someone who went to Fordham (Lincoln Ctr) and swears there were no crucifixes on the walls. Anywhere. That you wouldn’t know it was a Catholic school. That religion classes weren’t required. On the website, it clearly SHOWS crosses and religious icons and priests in many of the pictures. Religion is required as part of the core curriculum. She went there for 4 years and seemed to miss all that.</p>
<p>Some people really do need it pointed out several times. </p>
<p>At my daughter’s school, everyone who was anyone would mention the telescope on every tour, discovery day, and orientation. Big. Biggest one in the world (okay, maybe FL). It’s all anyone could talk about, and if they had had a slide show, that telescope would have been in every third slide. Tomorrow, when the rocket is launched from Cape Canaveral, everyone will be talking about the telescope again. That’s what schools do - talk about the things that are important to that school.</p>
<p>I keep reading a lot of posts about how people shouldn’t be turned off of a school because of the architecture of a place, but I completely disagree with that. The reason that I go on tours is to get a feel of whether or not I would enjoy actually living at that college for four years. I really don’t care about the information that they tell me in the presentations because usually that just repeats what I already researched about the school. Instead, I go on the tour only for the reason of actually walking on the campus and seeing if I like it. If I hate the way that the buildings looks, then i’m not going to apply there because I will always hate that building. Fit and feel is the most important part of tours, in my opinion, so if I don’t like the architecture of a school, then I’m not going to apply.</p>
<p>funny story, actually I broke the number one rule in all the world when choosing a school…I didn’t visit not one of them. I chose my school because it gave me the most money out of the schools that I had already sifted through as fits. Ironically, I “visited” my school on my graduation day because its location was near the auditorium where my graduation was being held. In the dark, my first impression was small and the buildings looked old, but it looked really homey. I disliked the school’s serious atmosphere for a while until I grew used to it. I freakin’ love my school, I have no idea what’ll happen if I lose my scholarship. It’s like those arranged marriages theory. If everything matches once you’re there it’ll fit. Of course, my case is probably rare and definitely not the smartest.</p>
<p>As for the debate between guided tours vs. unguided…I took my son on several tours of schools that were close together on the east coast. One school, though, my wife and I did NOT want son to attend. Fortunately, our guided tours took so long early in the day that by the time we got to this school, it was late in the evening and decided to just walk through the campus. Oh, and this was a Saturday night with lots of partying going on. We turn a corner and some drunk kid is puking his guts out. That’s all it took. My son decided there was no way he wanted to go to that school. We returned home and I got a big thank you from my wife for “convincing” son to look elsewhere.</p>
<p>Actually, that number one rule wasn’t in effect for many of us oldsters when we went off to college. Few students had the money to visit colleges. You just went and enjoyed or made do for four years. College tours are a recent innovation from what I remember.</p>
<p>Columbia again: We were shepherded into the large library in the centre of campus with no AC on a hot summer day and forced through a long hour and a half info session that gave us no key information about anything. The guy at the front was a horrible orator. The tour saved it though. </p>
<p>No, college tours aren’t a recent innovation—I toured 8 or so colleges back in the mid-80s, and I know my father toured a few back in the early 60s.</p>
<p>I toured in the mid 80s also. One kiss of death from back then…Middlebury. Two friends and I flew People Express (!) from NYC to Vermont for the tour. For me the kiss of death were the hills on campus, for one of my friends, it was the fact that a kid he spoke to in the French immersion house couldn’t answer him in French :)</p>