By Min Park
Managing Editor of Features
As the college application process nears to an end for many seniors, the process begins for many juniors. Many juniors visit college campuses and tour colleges during their spring and summer breaks to see how they would fit with that school.
Many students believe that college tours provide a specific “vibe”, offering the student a chance to identify what kind of college they would want to attend or if they would want to apply to that specific school.
Senior Isabella Auerbach, who has recently committed to a school, believes that touring her future school three times and staying with a family friend at the school contributed significantly to her decision because it allowed her to immerse herself with the student body and picture herself as a student at that school.
“I think the times that I spent on campus made me realize that I loved the students, I loved the city and I loved the architecture of the building itself,” said Auerbach. “I think my tour was one of the leading factors for my decision to go there.”
Auerbach believes that college tours are extremely valuable since colleges will always display all the best parts of their school on the website, but perhaps not represent the complete picture, which will lead to a lack of real understanding of the student body and campus.
Looking for a more liberal and less pretentious school, Auerbach wanted to see the school in person and look for students who were outside in the sun rather than stuck in the dorms on a Saturday morning.
“I think sometimes I wasn’t even looking for anything in particular,” said Auerbach. “I was just kind of feeling the campus mood and wondering, ‘wow I would be happy here,’ and not necessarily know why.”
Senior Nikolas Lazar believes that event tours after the student is admitted are not sufficient enough in giving the student an authentic impression of the school since the school will always be presented in its best light. On the other hand, he believes that although the generic campus tours have its limitations, it is still beneficial since the student gets a solid hour to really judge the school.
From his own experiences, Lazar believes that by looking at the college website, the student will usually get a really good vibe from the school but after touring might feel different.
“I think you should really make the best of your college tour because everyone is going to look for really different things, but if you are really interested in the arts, don’t be hesitant to create your college tour experience about the arts and ask a lot of questions about that program,” Lazar said.
Although Lazar believes in the benefits of touring, he believes that colleges should show more of what students would be interested in in, such as dorm rooms rather than all five of their libraries.
Senior Rhea Soni thinks that the website is more convenient since it provides the students with everything that the school has to offer on one organized page, rather than going on a tour that will give you redundant information and the same resources.
Soni also believes that schools include extraneous information during their tours only about academic programs when many students would rather learn about the geographical elements and city life of the school.
“You are going to be surrounded by new people you haven’t met and it’s something new and something extravagant, so of course you are going to want to go there and you are going to want to get involved in that,” Soni said.
She believes that it is a more valuable experience to tour a school after the admission since it would be more realistic than touring a school that you haven’t even gotten into yet.
Also, Soni says that certain colleges require money for their tours which is expensive on top of all the flights, hotels, and applications themselves.
To upcoming seniors, Soni advises touring after the acceptance and to contact a friend who goes to that school if possible.
She believes that her extensive questions to her friend, who attends the school she has committed to, has been much more valuable since she gave her the honest truth about the student life such as food, city, and programs.
As these tours can be expensive, Kathleen Sabet, Newton South’s College and Career Counselor believes that a good alternative to touring, would be attending a session when the college representative visits the school since this also shows the representative that the student is interested.
“[For] most colleges, you are going to be accepted in terms of your academic profile and your activities first and foremost, but what’s being more and more important to colleges is who are the real serious candidates and who are just hitting submit,” Sabet said.
One of the benefits of touring is that some schools track how many times prospective students visit the school, factoring this into the decision process as “demonstrated interest”; however students can also display interest by going to one of these sessions and talking to a representative to establish a relationship.
She believes that students should not put too much pressure on themselves to tour every school of interest, but should research and cut down the list ahead of time. Also, she says that making the tour a fun experience will help the student learn about themselves and the qualities that they are specifically looking for in the school.
