The Ultimate College Tour Checklist

The current college admissions landscape is overwhelming, filled with conflicting advice and inflated expectations. When it comes time to actually visit the schools on your list, the pressure can make it difficult to focus. After three or four campus visits, every brick building and library starts to look exactly the same.

A college tour is your best opportunity to see if you can genuinely picture yourself living and learning at a specific institution for the next four years. To make the most of your time and travel expenses, you need to step off the scripted path. Here is your ultimate checklist for uncovering the reality of a college campus.

Before You Arrive

Do not show up to a college tour completely blind. You want to use your time on campus to ask high level questions, not to find out what majors they offer.

• Do your homework: Take ten minutes to review the school online. Families can use our platform to explore detailed resources, list-builders, and profiles for the top 100 colleges.
• Register officially: Always sign up for the tour through the official admissions website. Many schools track "demonstrated interest," and an official visit is one of the strongest ways to show you are serious about attending.
• Plan a side trip: Schedule an extra hour to walk around the surrounding town or city. You will not spend all four years trapped inside the campus gates, so you need to know if you feel comfortable in the surrounding neighborhood.

During the Tour

Tour guides are usually enthusiastic student ambassadors who are trained to highlight the very best parts of their university. Your goal is to look past the shiny new recreation center and observe the daily reality of student life.

• Read the bulletin boards: Look at the flyers taped to the walls in the student union or academic buildings. Are there interesting guest speakers, active club meetings, or theater performances happening? This is a great indicator of a vibrant social scene.
• Check the condition of older dorms: Every tour will show you a beautiful, staged showroom in the newest residence hall. Ask to see a standard freshman dorm. You want to know what the average living conditions actually look like.
• Eat the food: Skip the local restaurants and buy lunch in the main dining hall. You are going to be eating this food every single day. See if there are healthy options, allergy friendly stations, and decent quality meals.

The Right Questions to Ask

Never ask a question that can be easily answered by looking at the college homepage. You want to ask questions that reveal the actual student experience.

• Questions for your guide: Ask them what they do on a typical weekend. Ask how easy it is to get into the classes they need to graduate on time. The most revealing question you can ask a tour guide is what they would change about the school if they were the university president for a day.
• Questions for random students: Break away from the tour group for a moment and politely stop a student who is not being paid by the admissions office. Ask them what the stress culture is like or if professors are actually accessible during office hours.

Keep Your Search Organized

As soon as you get back to your car or hotel, write down your thoughts. If you wait until you get home, you will forget the specific details that made a school stand out.

Keeping track of your tours, applications, and deadlines is a massive logistical challenge. Traditional high-quality private college counseling is prohibitively expensive, costing families upwards of $10,000 per year.

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