<p>I’m currently a senior in high school. During thanksgiving break, I toured Stanford. Interestingly enough, I saw two 6th graders being dragged along with their mom at an information session. The mother only brought these two kids; they were not related to a high-school aged individual. Same thing happened at MIT, different kid of course.</p>
<p>I can understand this for SAT programs like EPGY or the Hopkin’s program. But seriously, who needs to tour colleges 5 years early?</p>
<p>On a side note, I’ve discovered the more prestigious the university, the more annoying questions are asked during the info sessions</p>
<p>“We offer four tours per day on a first come, first served basis. Tours are available Monday - Friday. Exceptions: Tours are not offered to elementary and middle school groups from mid-February through the end of April.”</p>
<p>Not my idea of a fun time out on the town for elementary school students, but apparently there’s a demand!</p>
<p>The mom could be a HS guidance counselor or private admissions counselor. She could also work for a non-profit like Questbridge. The kids may be just tagging along.
Another possibility is that the older child in the family is sitting in on a class or interviewing with the admissions office, and the mom is trying to keep the younger siblings busy.</p>
<p>Also I don’t see the problem with touring at that age if it wasn’t a specific trip just to tour. If I was on vacation around there, I wouldn’t mind going to go see the campus, much better than looking at some boring building with some historical significance attached to my sixth grade mind.</p>
<p>Haha I suppose you are right. I was just a bit shocked at how uh proactive some of these parents are. I do suppose it may help them in the long run though</p>
<p>I have seen younger children in the info sessions & I never gave it a thought. In the summer we saw quite a few with families obviously on vacation. I agree, it might be more entertaining for the younger kids to go on a campus tour rather than going to the “button museum” or some other boring venue! Campuses usually have food & plenty of restrooms available, too.</p>
<p>We had some friends who went on a college tour with almost every family vacation. They had vacations all over the country, and they just got into the habit of visiting a college nearby. At the time I thought it was a little weird, but once I saw how tough it is to actually get out and visit schools during Junior and Senior year, I thought the mom might have been really smart instead of really weird! I think the main reason she did it though was because(1) she really loved seeing different colleges herself, and (2) she thought it made future college seem real and not so intimidating to her kids.</p>
<p>I toured Stanford when I was about 8 but I fell asleep midway and had to wait in the car so the only thing I remember about Stanford is the chapel!</p>