<p>austinareadad - I do not believe your son’s reaction to Princeton has anything to do with visiting the schools on consecutive days. Beyond being in the Northeast and being very highly-selective the schools are very different in many ways …
one in a urban area while one is in a leafy suburb
one a gritty pseudo campus (which I like BTW) while the other has the classic scenic college campus
one has the vice of quirky intellectualism while the other has more of vibe of mainstream terrific student vibe
one has a very eclectic set of students while the other has a much higher concentration of mainstream/prep types.
(these descriptions are not meant to be good/bad … but to highlight differences)</p>
<p>Both are great places but I would be more surprised by someone who absolutely LOVED both as opposed to someone who LOVED one and the other wasn’t really compelling.</p>
<p>I toured Boston College recently with our daughter this summer. The tour guide was terrific, very personable, articulate BUT the tour was all about sports which she doesn’t care the least bit about. We weren’t shown a dining hall, dorm room or the performing arts center. (which she would have been interested in seeing) I don’t think she wants a rah rah scene.
She did a summer program at Georgetown and wasn’t blown away by it. Not sure why. I think she loves Boston and compares every city she sees to it.
I suggested she take a look at Trinity U. in Texas where my son is. She doesn’t want to go to a Southern school so that’s out. Oh well…to be continued…</p>
<p>Organized tours seem like such a waste. Just get a campus map and go see what you want to see. Most days all the buildings are open and you can just pace yourself and see what you want to. No time wasted waiting for the tour to get organized and inane questions along the way.</p>
<p>Did you mean ‘vibe’ 3togo? Not that quirky intellectualism can’t become a vice, heaven knows! </p>
<p>I disagree, Barrons-- to me the buildings are just buildings without the tour guide’s patter, explaining things. Not that we haven’t broken away from tours, had dreadful tours, etc. But the tour guide is important, and representative-- they don’t usually voice a sense of things that’s vastly different from the school’s sense. If I could only A) hear the tour guide’s speech, or B) go inside the buildings, I’d pick A.</p>
<p>My S was a tour guide. He did it because it was a paying job. He did also love his college, so that helped. But I’m not sure there was a rigorous selection process (although his friend also interviewed and was not chosen, but his friend was… well, he’s on the 5 year plan at a 4 year school). There were days he did tours when he didn’t feel well, and tours he gave where he just felt no connection to the family/kids at all. </p>
<p>I always tried to separate the tour guide from the school and encouraged my kids to do the same. But that’s not always easy.</p>
<p>We toured a Catholic college where the tour guide, a very personable and seemingly intelligent young woman, had on a top that would have been risque at a nightclub. The V- neckline plunged BELOW the bottom of her breasts. She was also wearing a necklace with a very large and brightly colored cross. I’m not sure if she thought the cross would make her outfit more conservative, but it served to draw even MORE attention to that area. I honestly don’t know why someone in Admissions didn’t send her home to change.</p>
<p>The tour guides will usually say nothing you could not get from a college guide. Usually less than some of the more honest guides. If you walk around you can talk to some real people and get a better picture than a canned speech they have given 100 times. Take a look around the major dept–see if they have decent facilities like a lounge or library where students can mix with faculty and each other. At larger schools tours don’t even go into most buildings at all. And probably not the ones for the major.</p>
<p>Wisconsin usually doesn’t get snow in April- only 5"??, up to a record 19" snowfall in that part of the state, maybe northwards, that month! Very late spring this year. Lawrence is a small campus in a medium sized city- not much going on. Son had GT summer camps for WCATY there and we were underwhelmed by the campus- but used to UW-Madison… Beloit is a depressed city.</p>
<p>I don’t know if this is true at all schools, but at my D’s state school, the tour guides are now recruited. My D was approached about becoming one after she was recommended by both of her advisors (major and concentration). She said that the got a pool of about 60 kids and after extensive interviewing, practice tours and scenarios, about 20 were selected. The kids run the gamut of majors and interests because they try to divide the prospective students up by intended areas of study when they come for tours. She had enrolled in the school, sight unseen, so we went up for a prospective student tour. The tour was ok, not great, which is why they began the new program that D is part of this past year.</p>
<p>After reading about all the students who were turned off of otherwise-perfect schools by trivial characteristics of tour guides, I can’t believe people here are still supporting organized tours. From what I can tell, you get a canned speech from an admissions dept. drone who gets asked a lot of stupid questions by obnoxious parents, followed by a tour of a lot of areas you aren’t interested in led by someone who may or may not be wearing deal-breaker shoes. It’s like letting a car salesman tell you why his cars are great. What’s the upside?</p>
<p>At some schools you really can’t get access to certain areas without knowing someone or being part of the tour.
At others, it does make sense to do your own tour.
I think the info sessions are often more of a waste of time than the tours, actually. I think I only once learned something I didn’t know and it was trivial during an info session.</p>
The last tour (Washington College) we went on we were the only family. It would have taken us much more time orienting ourselves to the campus. We really enjoyed the personal attention. We were able to ask questions related to my daughter’s interests. Tomorrow we are seeing Gettysburg College. Looking forward to another tour.</p>
<p>Ah, Schmaltz;
My daughter & I agreed that our Beloit tour guide was total eye candy. He was fine, the tour was fine, but the school and community weren’t a match.</p>
<p>My daughter dropped Portland State University from her list of “possibles” after we stepped over our second (or was it the third?) inebriate passed out in front of one of the academic buildings during our recent (July 2011) tour.</p>
<p>Bars on the windows of most buildings was not a warm and fuzzy factor either.</p>
<p>Dear DennyAlaska-I think you & D might win the prize…wow, that just sounds really rough. We’ve only done three city college tours, (Boston), but have managed to avoid that. Jack hammers, sirens and drivers running red lights don’t seem too bad in comparison. (I did see bars on the windows…)</p>
<p>5grizzlycubs- did you see the movie Role Models? One kid was into a role playing game with swords and a king, and they had to kill the king and “take control”? That was LARPing. Lots of youtube videos of LARPing that may help you visualize it more!</p>
<p>MizzBee - Do you remember the actual title of that “stupid reasons” thread?
That was one of the first threads I saw many years ago when first visiting CC and laughed until I cried at some of the reasons. I never subscribed (???) to it and only ran across it one or two other times.</p>
<p>What did you guys think of Washington College? What did you/your child like and not like? My neighbor’s daughter just left this past week to attend her freshman year there and I had not heard of it before.</p>