We are traveling to see some schools in October for S27. Unfortunately, we just learned that no student led tours are offered on the day we will be visiting University of Michigan. To date, we’ve only done student-led tours when visiting campuses. Does anyone have any tips or ideas to make sure it’s a good use of time? Any ideas or Michigan specific ideas would be welcome! Thanks!
Is that a day off for students at U Mich? If possible, try to visit on a day students are on campus. It’s much better to see a college when students are around.
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Luckily, it’s not a day off. Michigan doesn’t offer tours on Thursdays though during the school year, which is when we will be there.
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Any suggestions @Knowsstuff
See if they have a tour app u can follow.
Eat in a dining hall. Stop kids on campus to talk, chat. Make an appointment with an academic department if of interest or a student group if of interest - like we met Hillel at a few schools.
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Thx.
Honestly, we did our own tours at many schools. The guided tours tend to be all the same. Only so many Chem buildings one can see in their life time. We have always just had lunch. Walked around to get the vibe of the school. You can easily Facebook or email some students that are part of organizations you might want to be part of. Let them know when you’re coming and get an unofficial school tour.
Even your AO might be able to help select a student for you. Also admissions is very helpful. They get it.
We also stopped some students when just walking around and asked. “Why Michigan”. Yep. That question. We got very honest answers.
Major hint. Make an appointment to talk to a professor or someone from the department you’re interested in. My son did that at Michigan and my daughter at every school we toured. No better way to get inside information plus a feel for the culture. Good item also to use in your essays. Plus let them know you need a tour. They might be able to help finding a student.
Good luck.
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We went and hung out in the academic building that housed his major. It was a great way to see all of the bulletin boards with research, upcoming activities, clubs, and positions available. When we did this, we ended up having conversations with people that gave us so much more information about classes, majors, opportunities, and a real “day in the life” than we ever got on a formal tour. Sometimes there are career service offices, or student achievement centers specific to the school/major housed within those buildings. We found those people very helpful.
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At Michigan when walking around Central campus you will see the majority of your classes are minutes from each other. Definitely walk to the Arb. Definitely get a Hot fudge chocolate chip shake at Pizza Bob’s 
… And a Chipati 
.
University of Michigan Nichols Arboretum
One thing to know is that Michigan is part of Ann Arbor. So the stores, shops aren’t just student’s but mostly. There is tons of security and it’s a relatively safe campus.
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See if you can find a current student through friends or family and offer them
A $25 Starbucks card or something to take you on a private tour! We’ve done this a lot and have had great tours.
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Bit random, but–I never tried it at Michigan, but I got pretty good at talking us into things like student athletic facilities. Like, told the guard, “Hey, my son is applying here, he wanted to see the X, is it OK if we just go in and see the X quickly?” I think every time I did that, we just got waved in. No guarantees, but it wouldn’t hurt to ask.
And while his interest was athletic facilities, I am sure there are equivalents for other interests.
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If your student is interested in any clubs or teams, they can search for contact information online and contact students in the club. My S23 was interested in formula SAE teams. He was able to meet with students at each school, get tours of their workspace, and at many schools they took him around to see more engineering buildings and other facilities. This turned out to be the most useful part of touring each school for him.
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