<p>Other than the general layout of the campus, I expect to see rec. center, the student union, a few academic buildings (really great when you can see intended major's bldg), the library, and one or two dorm rooms. I've noticed that some tours don't include a dorm room. Half our the rooms I've seen are real rooms, with students living in them. Am I the only parent who thinks dorms are kind of important?</p>
<p>The dorms vary so much even on the same campus, that I don’t think the info is that helpful. The configuration can also change from year to year. One year this building is sub-free, next year it is the honors dorm,the next year it might be the freshman dorm.</p>
<p>Depending on the size of the campus, you may get to see a lot or only a little. Dorms are usually left out until you’re admitted, and even then, sometimes they only show you what they want you to see.</p>
<p>We were on a tour recently where we did not see any classrooms. When I asked, the tour guide said classes were in session, but still, I would think they would have some place they could have shown. As a scientist, I also like to see the science/physics labs. </p>
<p>Anyway, otherwise toledo’s tour seems to be typical of what we have experienced.</p>
<p>I think it’s very important to see the cafeterias/dining areas as you will be spending a good amount of time there too. If you can, try to eat there too.</p>
<p>We saw classrooms, labs in progress, dorms, eating area, libraries, rec facilities, etc. Pretty much everything. When we did summer visits the rooms we saw were “staged” but in year they were actual rooms. D’s attitude was, you’ve seen one you’ve seen 'em all, but we did get a good feel by looking at room doors, things posted on the entry bulletins and just the people. The actual room was not as important as seeing the natives in their habitat.</p>
<p>Good point about the food, westie22. We always try to eat in the cafeteria…and yes, some cafeterias have had much better food than others.</p>
<p>I think it’s very important to see the dorms as well as the eating facilities. The single place where they’ll spend the most time is in their dorm room and dorm area. It’s also the area that I think causes the most anxiety for most students - i.e. how big the room itself is, what it’s like sharing a room with others, what’s the bathroom like, what will it be like to take a shower, what’ll it be like to have all those other people in all those other rooms so close, what about people partying next door, roomies bringing others into the room, safety in the dorm, noise, etc.</p>
<p>A lot of students doing the tours may have never even seen a dorm facility before and even then the facilities are different at different campuses and even within a particular campus - i.e. the old dorm building, the new res Hall facility, the other facility, on campus apartments, etc.</p>
<p>The classroom buildings are interesting but at the end of the day a classroom doesn’t vary that much from campus to campus - seating area for students, podium/desk for prof, whiteboard/chalkboard, a/v capabilities and it’s not much different than their HS classroom. And at that they’re not spending as much time there as they will in the dorm.</p>
<p>If the student’s pretty interested in a campus but they don’t have a dorm tour then the student can ask the guide how they can see one and if the guide isn’t helpful they might be able to ask a student in the dorm area if they can show them a room. My kid did this for some random people touring and wandering around the dorm area aimlessly.</p>
<p>When some kids from my high school - all internationals - came to NYU for a campus tour, I accompanied them. I didn’t do a campus tour of NYU before I enrolled there, and I found the campus tour extremely disappointing. </p>
<p>We saw the student center - that is to say, we walked into it, the tour guide gave a little speech, and we walked out - didn’t see the dining hall in it or any of the other common spaces or any of the rooms. Then we saw the library - again, stood in the lobby, speech, walked out. Then on our way to the academic buildings we stopped outside the public safety office for a bit. And then we saw a classroom, where we all sat down and the tour guide told us there was financial aid available. When I pointed out that they were all internationals and needed to look elsewhere for aid, the guide (whom I could see I had caught off-guard) just repeated that there was aid available, even though there is virtually none. Finally we ended up at the welcome center, which handles admissions tours, and were treated to an astonishingly half-hearted presentation about applying to NYU.</p>
<p>As an enrolled student, I was very, very disappointed because I really do enjoy my experience at NYU, and did not feel that the tour was in any way representative of how I spend my time in school. We didn’t see a dorm, dining hall, didn’t see any labs, saw just the one classroom, and - as I recall, the tour was late in the day and the academic building was very empty. I felt like I was in an alternate universe where the buildings had been turned into museums and we were being shown artifacts to prove the existence of NYU students, but not actually seeing the school.</p>
<p>My kids weren’t that interested in dorm rooms, and their interest in cafeterias was more in seeing the gathered students than in the food. They figured that if other kids lived there in terms of food and shelter, they could too. They were much more interested in seeing students and getting a feeling of who they might be. The biggest tour turn-off we had was the place where they showed us the rec center and NOT the library! D was horrified.</p>
<p>I thought the dorms were just as important, if not more than any other building on the campus.</p>
<p>Dorms are important, and tours hardly ever show them. Ditto with classrooms.</p>
<p>what i really want to get from a tour is a sense of how students at that campus engage with each other and with faculty. When I see the athletic center (or whatever fancy term currently stands for ‘gym’) I want to see how busy it is, whether it seems mostly occupied by serious athletes only or is more democratic, etc. When i see the cafeteria, i pay most attention to what i can glean about student social life. when i see a classroom building, i’m interested in faculty member’s doors – open or shut? office hours posted? In seeing a departmental office - does it seem friendly? any students hanging out? In the hallways - what’s on the bulletin boards? </p>
<p>In the dorms, do the common spaces look well-used and interesting, or bland? </p>
<p>I guess ultimately I want to find out more about the college’s vibe than it’s facilities.</p>
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<p>I asked my kid who worked in undergrad admissions and gave tours also. Seeing REAL dorm rooms is:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>A privacy issue. These are the kids’ homes…and their private places.</p></li>
<li><p>Even with advance warning, the tour folks found that the appearance of the rooms varied wildly. They did not want to show families and prospective students someone elses MESS. </p></li>
</ol>
<p>This college had a model dorm room…and that was fine.</p>
<p>The reality is that every college has several freshman college dorms and even if you see ONE room/dorm, your kid might be living in one that is different. They did look at the common areas of one dorm on each tour. Those were very similar from dorm to dorm at this particular school.</p>
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<p>These questions are NOT answered by touring a dorm room…or even a dorm. Most colleges now have excellent virtual tours that show a variety of dorm rooms, and also have floor plans of the dorm/dorm rooms. These give a lot of information too.</p>
<p>One thing that was good on some tours we were on…they had a voucher for a beverage/cookie at the student center dining hall, and this was a stop along the way. Gave folks a chance to rest a bit…but also to see the student center in action.</p>
<p>Every dorm room room I’ve ever seen has either been:</p>
<p>Very new, with better amenities but incredibly small. </p>
<p>Or </p>
<p>Very old, very <em>ahem</em> well worn, slightly larger than the rooms in newer dorms, but with strange nooks and crannies and weird splotches on the ceilings…</p>
<p>And it makes no difference what you see on a tour, because your child’s eventual room probably won’t be in that dorm.</p>
<p>I’ve only been on one tour that did not include a peek inside at least one dorm. I always wondered if that particular college had cinderblock tiny rooms with linoleum or overcrowded rooms.</p>
<p>I think the dorms are important, if only to give a picture to the talk about dorms. For the students who are putting a priority on that, it would be a disservice to skip them entirely. Some colleges don’t really change their set-up from year to year. My daughters college was a residential one and it had a very unique dorm set up that was a big part of college life.</p>
<p>My two cents - and worth every penney - is gleaned from 3 kids over a 10 year period.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>The Guided Tour is ONLY A STARTING POINT. - the real fun and work begin in walking around the campus, in and out of classrooms/ buildings that hold the expected major and trying to get to the closest city/grocery store / highway.</p></li>
<li><p>We have weaseled our way into several dorms, at different schools, guided by helpful current students. (No, I don’t think we have ever looked like a security issue). That’s how we found our D’s home for 4 years.</p></li>
<li><p>Don’t hold the class up with individualized questions. DO try to arrange a scheduled time to talk to professors, counselors and/or coaches.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Good luck to all.</p>
<p>
They might not be answered or they might be. Some students on the tour have never been inside a dorm building at all. Some campuses have dorm buildings where the layouts are all similar or one can see the several different categories. I think an actual physical visit means more than just seeing just a virtual tour on a website of a sanitized view or drawing of a room and enables one to get a better feel of what it’ll be like living there. It also may help the student feel better (or worse) about the bathroom/shower situation which is a cause of anxiety among a number of the incoming students.</p>
<p>We did one tour where the dorm visit basically only showed an empty dorm room and yet another where students volunteered to have people visit their rooms - often the tour guide’s own room. These rooms tended to be in the state in which the student lived - all filled up with stuff and often somewhat (or very) messy. This is a world of difference compared to a virtual tour of an empty staged room. I preferred the tour of the ‘normal’ room to see what it’d be like when they put 3 students along with all their stuff in there. I thought the tour of the empty room used just for tours wasn’t very useful.</p>
<p>I think a good combo is to physically see the dorm on the campus and then view the virtual tours or floor layouts later to decide which dorm to be in if they have a choice.</p>
<p>Some students don’t really care so much but a lot do.</p>
<p>We went to an open house at Univ of Montana, where they offered tours of all nine dorms. I didn’t have the energy to see all nine, so I asked our tour guide which four she recommended for freshmen. We looked at the four and ranked them. I’m sure we’ll have to rank dorm choices, should we apply next year. Not all the rooms were clean, but I’m used to seeing messy rooms at home;) It still gave me a good idea of size, window size, layout, bathrooms, laundry rooms, lounges, etc.</p>