This discussion was created from comments split from: Colleges you (surprisingly?) loved after visiting 
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<p>I just graduated UCLA and am going to Stanford for med school next year⊠From what I read on this thread I wanted to share my experience because I actually did partially base my college decision on the quality of the college tour.</p>
<p>My 2 cents is that itâs not wise to base a crucial decision such as college attendance on a brief superficial college spin. In hindsight, my UCLA tour told me nothing about how UCLA would really be like. I think the tour is a completely inaccurate measure of the school because (a) it depends on how much money does the school invest in promoting themselves which, in my humble opinion, is independent of how much career assistance they offer, (b) the tour guide is 1 student out of thousands of students (a sample size of 1 statistically provides no information about a population in the thousands), © the guide may be having a good/bad day which affects how you âfeelâ about the school at the end, and (d) the tour goes over mostly irrelevant info like the schoolâs history or basic locations of buildings on campus.</p>
<p>In retrospect, I wish I had made my decision focused on: scholarships, programs the school offers (proximity of research centers, medical centers for premeds), unique student organizations (ie only UCLA offers a mobile clinic which is a great premed org), counseling for your studentâs interested career (ie UCLA premed counseling is nonexistent), and other career related factors. I wish I had not factored in: campus aesthetics (how âgoodâ the campus looks because when I was at UCLA on a daily basis⊠no matter how good the campus looked â I just didnât care. Bottom line, the good campus aesthetics didnât improve my day-to-day UCLA experience whatsoever), food quality, dorm quality, and greek life/party scene. Even if the food is bad (UCLA food is #1 though), dormâs are shabby (UCLA is avg on this), and thereâs nothing to do on Saturdays (UCLAâs party scene is great though the same can be said about other city located colleges like USC), I found from my experience and my friends experiences (attended USC, Princeton, Columbia, UCSD) that most college students can adapt or find ways around these things easily. Conversely, some student organizations, programs, or career opportunities can be highly unique to some schools and are invaluable for career development (ie UCLA has no premed counseling).</p>