<p>Ironically the only tour we took that didn’t show us a dorm room was Occidental - the college D ended up choosing. They did take us into the common lounge of one of the dorms. Since most of the other tours we took were in the summer, the dorm rooms we did see were sort of like ‘model’ rooms - meaning no one lived in them. I think the reason we didn’t see an Oxy dorm room is because school was in session and they probably couldn’t get anyone to agree to show their dorm room.</p>
<p>At Oxy they showed us the library, the science building, the marketplace (dining hall), one of the dorms (but no room) and mostly just pointed out different buildings.
Pomona was pretty much the same except they showed us a empty dorm room. At Scripps they showed us the coffee house (very cool!), the art buildings, a library that was very old and quite beautiful and the most beautiful dorm I personally have ever seen. </p>
<p>Having toured many colleges now all the different libraries, non-descript buildings, common dining areas and dorm common rooms have sort of run together in my mind. </p>
<p>While Oxy dorms did nothing for me I was ready to move into Scripps myself. D however nixed the all-girl college very quickly and really when all was said and done ended up not really caring about the dorms that much. Teens are pretty adaptable and I think it’s true that if they see everyone surviving it they figure they will too. </p>
<p>What I enjoy most about college tours are the Q&A session either before or after and if I can I l always try to quiz the tour guide (usually an older student) about their personal college experience. I’m always interested why someone picked the college they did, how they like it and also what else they applied to. </p>
<p>The problem with college tours for me at least in my D’s case is that she made some very definite decisions about her choices based on the tours. She basically ruled out all the Claremonts after visiting them and I’m still not 100% sure why. I guess she just didn’t get the ‘vibe’ she was looking for.</p>