<p>Has anyone canceled a tour do to rain or other inclement weather? Sometimes I feel the admissions team would prefer you rescheduled but that always isn't an option. I had it start raining a couple of weeks ago on a tour and although the guide wasn't prepared, I had an umbrella and felt most of the tour was indoors. I know it was cut short, but in preparing for tours, trips, weather is not always cooperative and sometimes you can't visit again.
What have you done and do you think weather hurts a tour, it's going to rain, snow, etc. when your child is there and yoiu should be able to still get a good feel of the campus.</p>
<p>Time is precious when trying to schedule and attend tours. If we booked a tour and it happened to be raining, so it went.</p>
<p>Weather is also extremely unpredictable, unless you’re focuing your search in southern California.</p>
<p>That being said, if you have the luxury of being able to reschedule at the last minute, it’s not my place to say you shouldn’t! I’m just telling you what we did in our family.</p>
<p>Enjoy your visits. They’re a great time and will make great memories, regardless of the weather.</p>
<p>We are supposed to visit a LAC in MA tomorrow, it’s supposed to be showers and the admissions office said, “Feel free to reschedule” but then they tell me the last 1pm Saturday tour is tomorrow (other is 10am) Since we have family plans, ACT’s, etc.the next few weeks, we are going. I would cancel if it was snow, but not rain.
Maybe we will see more inside the buildings than out : )</p>
<p>We were in VA for a tour of W & M when the remnants of a hurricane came through. Our tour was scheduled for the day after the storm, and the school did not cancel, despite some downed tree limbs and deep puddles. Our first tour of Vanderbilt was held in a downpour so steady that I couldn’t remember seeing a thing afterwards! The kids chose these schools anyway.</p>
<p>Bad weather events can be indicative of what a student will face as an undergrad - I don’t think the weather can really hurt a tour for this reason. We didn’t know what to expect of Nashville weather and were surprised that our d at Vanderbilt experienced tornado warnings each year. The school was well-prepared and texted/phoned each student to tell them to move into basements or hallways.</p>
<p>I admire those folks who book college tours or auditions between December and March. For some majors, there’s no other option - you audition or you’re not considered for admission. I know folks who’ve endured white-knuckle driving conditions or long airport delays to get to schools on schedule.</p>
<p>We did an NYU tour this summer in a drenching, torrential, downpour complete with thunder and lightning. The admissions staff was very sweet about handing us paper towels to dry off with. OTOH Connecticut College offered ponchos and another school loaned umbrellas … </p>
<p>My son decided against NYU and is happily applying to Connecticut College.</p>
<p>I seem to remember on our school visits that there was always a nice collection of school-insignia golf umbrellas in the admissions office to be used (borrowed) in case of rain during tours. And of course you can always pack a little umbrella of your own. No reason not to do a tour in the rain–if the school doesn’t look its best, so be it; that’s the way it is going to be some of the time when your child is attending anyway. </p>
<p>Obviously really bad weather–a dangerous windstorm or flooding or icy or other really hazardous travel or walking conditions–is something else again, but there are a lot of parts of the country where rain is a part of the regular weather pattern and you just have to deal with it for tours as for everything else (and in my experience the colleges did). </p>
<p>Actually, our worst tour experiences were during unusually hot weather at New England schools–guides pausing under trees to talk in the shade and singling out air-conditioned buildings for detailed attention, which were not necessarily the norm but were more comfortable.</p>
<p>We’ve done tours rain or shine, and I agree in some ways the scorching days are worse than the rain.</p>
<p>We went on a tour of the University of Kansas on a cold (15 degrees), windy day. Daughter wasn’t interested in the school, I think in part because we had such a miserable time on the tour. She is now a freshman at a LAC in Minnesota. Yes, I know, it is colder in Minnesota than Kansas. We visited the school she is now attending on a nice, warm, June day when everything was green and the flowers were all in bloom. Obviously the campus won’t look like that a fair amount of the year. Helped to sell her though.</p>
<p>We toured Pepperdine during a pretty rough storm. It was actually great because everyone else cancelled. There were two students and two adults on our tour. The information session was like a private meeting with the adcom.<br>
The students are going to go to these schools in all kinds of weather, why not just take whatever comes…at least that was our family attitude.<br>
And as someone mentioned time is tough for scheduling these things with HS kids with ECs, etc.</p>
<p>Cute light snow would not be a problem for us. </p>
<p>I would reschedule if it were gray, cold and rainy…no school is going to look good in drab light no matter what anyone is saying to you on your tour.</p>
<p>However, if it would be an otherwise blue sky day with occasional rain, go for it.</p>
<p>Touring a school when the weather is bad is like going on a blind date with someone who’s very sick.</p>
<p>I actually wish we had seen some schools in the rain. In 8 or 9 tours, we’ve never had a drop of precipitation. I would love for d to see her first choice schools in inclement weather. We’ve visited her first choice school 3x, in different seasons - but all crystal blue skies (and it’s NOT in California) :)</p>
<p>In fact mathson had the most gorgeous weather for his accepted student’s weekend at Harvard, and miserable weather for the weekend at CMU. He still picked CMU and it still rains a lot in Pittsburgh!</p>
<p>Maybe the bad weather will actually result in having a more clear, educated feeling about a school - you will see the things that “matter” than being bowled over by the picture-perfect, tulip laden walkways that can sucker many parents/students in!</p>
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<p>While this is basically true, one of the ways I knew Wes was my first choice was that when I visited for the second time I still loved it (and the way it looked), even though it was gray and rainy the whole time. But that was for an overnight, not a tour, so maybe that’s different?</p>
<p>D toured one school in the pouring (and I mean deluge) rain and loved it anyway. She’ll be graduating from there this spring. S toured another school this past April in a biting wind with occasional snow flurries, and has applied. The weather was what he’ll be facing if he goes there, so it was a realistic tour!</p>
<p>Over the course of D and S1’s college-hunt years, we did tours in all kinds of weather. Some of the worst weather actually led to the most memorable tours - it can definitely lead to bonding among the parents - and in no case did it turn either kid off to the schools in question. The only complaints we had were from S2 (6 at the time), who found he had a hard time scootering in the snow at Oberlin.</p>
<p>there are exceptions, but as a rule of thumb, kids don’t like the schools that they visit in bad weather. if you think that a certain college would be perfect for your child, don’t visit when it’s rainy or overcast. the joke about the university of rochester is that the president has a weather machine that he uses to create sunshine during spring open house. rochester has one of the highest percentages of cloudy days of any city in the U.S.</p>
<p>Gosh, I would sure hope that both students and parents could look beyond the cloudy skies to see that a school is about more than the “view”.</p>
<p>Are you trying to sell your child on a school? Then you might need a perfect weather day to help you. If it’s a school the child is excited about, it shouldn’t really matter. We have done tours in rain and shine and in extreme heat. She IS at the school we saw on a beautiful day though (LOL).</p>
<p>I think fair weather visits always show a school in a better light, but its not always possible or necessary. In our family’s experience, if we visited a school in bad weather and the school was high on the kid’s list they seemed to be able to see beyond the conditions much easier than with schools they didn’t already love. My youngest chose the school he visited during awful inclement weather, a freak spring pelting snow/sleet/wind event that prevented us from walking the campus (tour had to be by bus). The University of Kansas was his #1 going into the visit and the miserable touring conditions did nothing to change that. He saw his very close #2 the day before on a gorgeous spring day and it remained #2. </p>
<p>If you can easily reschedule, I would, but don’t be deterred by the weather if rescheduling would be a problem. There’s no guarantee the weather will be any better for a second attempt.</p>