In our experience, everything going on around the tour is much more important the the tour itself.
Do people look happy? Are they sitting in big groups and not looking at their phones? Is there diversity (including in the ages of those interacting)?
Our kids both had terrible…horrible… tear inducing overnight visits at the schools where they ultimately attended. It wasn’t the hosts that mattered (they were both terrible people, which we know because they were there when our kids arrived)… it was the community around them that stepped up and convinced them they belonged there. They don’t doubt their choices for a second, and would do it over again if given the opportunity.
There is obviously context to the mood on campus (finals week, midterms), but the tour guide is the last person you should be looking at while you tour… it’s everyone else… in our experience.
I think it’s interesting how often we see comments like ‘If you liked X, you’d like Y’ or ‘Students who are considering A wouldn’t be the same as those considering B’. I can see that for vibe or setting, but some kids aren’t choosing a school based on those. For mine, the primary consideration was ‘Will this school teach me what I need to be a good engineer?’. There were lots of ways that a school could demonstrate that. Rose-Hulman talks very specifically about senior projects done with industry, internships, and job placement. When talking with UA-Huntsville, they offered the opportunity to do internships during the school year if kid chose to take 4 years to graduate (kid comes in with the freshman year of engineering completed with AP and DE). At Clemson kid talked with a professor who discussed both research in his lab and students who did internships at other places. Kid also asked about a masters degree, since choosing to stay 5 years for a masters is also a consideration (RH has a 4 year to a masters in project management option).
This kid’s attitude is ‘I can deal with anything for 4 years, and am unlikely to hate anywhere, so how bad can it be?’. There were some limits - for some that will be school size, but for my kid it was deciding to avoid all city settings. Huntsville is suburban, RH is outside Terre Haute and backs up to acres of trails, and all of the others (Clemson, VT, etc) were college towns. VT was the favorite campus, but when looking at costs and aid it was eliminated, with the statement ‘It’s doesn’t make sense to pay an extra 80,000 for buildings’. Brochures that focused more on student population (racial breakdown, male/female, etc) or social activities (particularly Greek life) moved colleges down, and in some cases crossed them off the list, sight unseen, with the explanation that the school didn’t seem focused on either education or outcomes.
Without seeing it, it wouldn’t necessarily have understood how much a student’s priorities can cause them to have a list that, to an observer, doesn’t fit together. But, after visiting all of the schools none were eliminated based on vibe - it all came down to practical considerations like cost, distance, research and grad school opportunities, etc because kiddo thought that any of them would be an OK place to be for 4 years.
My child had the same philosophy. He applied to schools that were so vastly different from each other and when I asked him why, he said that it’s because he knew he would get quality education from the schools and he was just shooting his shot. WHile he acknowledges that perhaps he may be happier in one school over the other, he also was pretty confident that he would find his crew wherever he went.
Although, as a parent there is something to be said when you see your kid just immediately find a sense of home in a school. That was not something I ever expected to happen and I remember having my kid visit one school saying yup, I can go here… and then later visiting another school and their entire being changes like they just entered the mothership… it still gives me goosebumps. My only regret was not having my spouse witness it… I literally thought we were just visiting schools… not finding my kid’s home for the foreseeable future.
We definitely didn’t have an experience like that, but then again my kid ended up at my alma mater, where we we have taken the kids multiple times a year for ball games and wandering around since they were infants. They know 2 of my former roommates, who are local and will happily be bonus parents if needed. One of spouse’s former roommates tailgates down the street from the dorm that kid will be in, so if both we and my parents don’t go to a game, kid can use our tickets and still stop by to see a familiar face. I’m not sure that, in that context, there was a chance where we’d see a dramatic ‘this is it’ experience - it’s more like going home and finally having a place to use the bathroom on game day.
And, as soon as we get settled we’ll start over with kid2. My alma mater doesn’t offer kid2’s preferred major as an undergrad degree, and with this kid wanting a branch of education (as opposed to kid1’s engineering), we’ll be looking at a different set of schools. This kid is move vibe-y, and has already bumped down one nearby college that we checked out because it was too small. It will be a very different experience, I’m sure.
Curious if schools that track demonstrated interest give you “points” for a self guided tour? As much as they would for going to the official dog and pony show?
Some do - because they ask that you register the tour with them. They’ll ask for the student’s contact info before you get in.
If you do a self guided tour at a DI school, make sure you let admissions know via email. And you might even stop in and say hello if you’re there when they’re open.
Yes, you can still go into admissions, have your student tell them you’re there, get relevant info., etc. Your student can follow them on social media, email them questions (especially to their specific regional admissions rep), attend online/virtual sessions, interview, etc. There are literally tons of ways to demonstrate interest; the formal tour is probably the least of them.
Between that and the new Starbucks and Dunkins, lots of very happy Lexington students! My daughter doesn’t like Dunkin at all, but was still overjoyed at that bit of New England “home”
So I just posted about our final set of tours and how they impacted S25’s application list, but there were some things that came up that seemed more appropriate for this discussion.
Like the fact that two of the colleges we visited had Lettuce Clubs. Perhaps this is the Cheese Club for this generation. But when you are comparing colleges and one offers Chocolate Milk Club and another offers Lettuce Club … well, in this family, there’s a clear winner. But that’s probably why the non-high school portion of the family keeps talking about needing to go on a diet.
Also, we got a kick out of getting a t-shirt at the first school. I thought it was a one-off and said to S25 before visiting the second school “Ten bucks sez they don’t give away a t-shirt.” When the second school asked S25 what size shirt he would want, he turn to me and said he should have taken my bet. I thought it might be a northern thing to give t-shirts, but the third “northern” school we visited didn’t give free merch. Then again, they are a huge school and probably get a lot of money from selling rather than giving away stuph with their logo.
My middle kid has a huge collection of free t-shirts. She seeks out free t-shirt opportunities.
From your other post, I suspect Pitt was the first free t-shirt stop on your tour. Pitt gives out lots of free t-shirts, from the time you take the first tour (and many through her undergrad years there).
My warning to schools - do not underestimate the importance of the t-shirt, especially for kids who love a free one. Middle kid got an email from a college that promised a free t-shirt if she replied. She did, and in return received a small poster.
This was about 10 years ago, and she hasn’t forgotten. Every time she sees them in the NCAA Tournament, she brings this up…I’m looking at you, Butler.
They may not be free, but they are a brilliant marketing tool. My son wears his two t-shirts from smaller, Midwest, relatively unknown colleges to his large public SoCal school all the time.
They are not free to the school. They are free to the prospect and would be a part of a school’s marketing budget - not different than the free lunch on a visit day like we had at Florida Tech, Penn State, and more. Every school has a marketing budget.
The hope is this gives you a good feeling, turns you into a lower funnel prospect, and you transact with an application and then an enrollment.
It’s an entirely different situation than an orientation trip - that already has enrollees who are financially committed.
