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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]About to make our first round of college visits over spring break and curious to hear from experienced parents if you and your child felt that the official guided tours were a valuable experience or not? In my personal travels I'm not one for guided or packaged experiences, preferring to discover things on my own just by exploring and talking to people. But perhaps the tours provide access to places and insights I can't get to on my own.

What would you recommend as the best way to experience a campus on a short visit?

[/quote]

Didn't read the thread. Just responding to initial question.

Yes, yes, yes. Go on the official tour for a number of reasons:

1) Your kid is registered. They know you showed up, went on the tour. Your kid gets points for showing up. This matters a lot more than you think. I know this direct from several admissions counselors who came to our kids' school.
2) You'll hear the "official" spiel from a kid trained to tour visiting potential applicants. This has some value. Ask questions, and see how the kids respond. We took one school off our list because the kids ducked some of our questions. We were suspicious, and later questioning confirmed our suspicions that the school had a weakness in an area DD was interested in.
3) If you don't have time to spend schmoozing with kids (and they are busy!), you at least get to meet one or two actual students, which is better than not meeting any. They can give you a sense of what the school cares about. We went on two tours at one school, and the kids all said they belonged to greek life, which DD had zero interest in. We crossed that school off our list because greek life seemed extremely important socially at that particular school.
4) The tour take you places you can't see otherwise, like inside a dorm and a dorm room, inside labs, the cafeteria, inside other places that you can't get in as a casual visitor, especially at urban schools where you can't even walk through the library without an ID. You can also request certain places, and at small schools, they will honor those requests (my kid wanted to see certain labs, and they brought us over to that building at one school.)

Best of luck to you and your DC! [/quote]

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