<p>Im a student at the University of Pittsburgh, which has a very large and urban campus. Because of the size, most of the school-sponsored tours dont show you the entire area surrounding the campus.</p>
<p>Id imagine that most urban schools (NYU, BU, etc.) have this same issue. As such, Im thinking about starting a tour guide service that goes through the off-campus areas. </p>
<p>The tour would include a walk through off-campus neighborhoods, information on off-campus housing, restaurants, and activities. A student very familiar with the area will lead the tour. All in all, it would be approximately 1-2 hours long.</p>
<ol>
<li> Would you be interested in such a tour?</li>
<li> How much would you be willing to pay?</li>
<li> What would you want out of the tour? What information would you like to get, and what places would you like to see?</li>
</ol>
<p>Thanks for your time.</p>
<p>For me, Pittsburgh is a small city that is very easy to navigate. I would not pay for a tour of Pittsburgh–sorry.</p>
<p>I thought the tour offered by the University was very good even it did not touch on the off campus areas. I found adjoining areas (such as Craig St, Forbes Ave and Schenley Park) easy to find and explore on my own. In order to make this tour idea attractive, you need some kind of “hook” —what would be cool /interesting about the places that would be on your tour? What places would you show people that they would not otherwise find on their own?</p>
<p>As far as off campus housing tours, that might appeal to upper level students but I imagine that information about off campus housing spreads well by word of mouth after a student enrolls. Freshman don’t really need to know about this since housing is guaranteed for 3 years.</p>
<p>Interestingly, my son’s 3 remaining schools are the ones you listed, Pitt, BU, and NYU. I agree w/rocknroll52, a hook or two will make or break your idea. A good hook would be a nice meal at a local restaurant where at the end of your tour, everyone can sit down and ask questions and engage in discussions. I find that the std. tours are very much going from place to place very quickly and there’s not many opportunities to assess what’s been seen, ask more questions, or hear what others are thinking. Off-campus safety is big for parents while activities, clubs, food/drink, greek life, and typical apts are probably big for students coming in. Maybe showing what a typical off-campus apt. would be like along with costs, time to class, etc. would be a nice feature. Some people are not adventurous, esp. in a city if the parents are not city people to start with, so you may get some demand from that demographic. We walked around Boston U., NYU, and Pitt some before and after but there are even areas around Pitt that we have no clue about. For example, is the Carlow College area safe after dark (looked a little seedy)? Stuff like that can make or break a tie bewteen schools. So i think there’s pent upd emand for this service if done with a hook and addresses issues important to both students and parents.</p>