Are In-Person College Tours Worth it?Answered
I'm a sophomore in high school right now, and I'm currently interested in touring a few colleges. Over the summer, I'll be touring my sister's college and a nearby college. While I'm excited to tour these schools, there are a few colleges on my list I'd like to tour maybe next summer or during a break. However, most of these colleges are fairly far away from the state I live in. I'm not really sure how the college tour process works. I wanted to ask how much money I can expect to spend getting to the college and the actual tour costs and in what these tours can help me. Is touring colleges during break worth it?
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5 answers
Hello! It’s great you can tour a school close to home and your sister’s school!
First, touring a college is not necessary. If it’s too expensive to get there, you can sign up for virtual tours and request information to be sent. That will still count as “demonstrated interest.”
Since we drive to see family, we worked in a college tour in a place we were going to go anyway. If that’s possible, I recommend it!
The college tours themselves don’t cost anything. However, it’s usually necessary to pay fir your own hotels, gas if you drive and food. It can add up quick!
If it’s not possible to go in person, definitely take the virtual tours on the school’s website and fill in forms.
If you do go on a tour, you can see inside the buildings, talk to students who aren’t tour guides to get the real scoop, see what is near campus (possible but hard to do with Google Maps), and even establish a connection and with an admissions officer. You can check out the town or area around school to get a sense of things to do, any safety issues, etc.
Please let us know how it goes!
Do it. That way you can get a feel of what you really want in college.
Touring schools is so so so worth it!!! Even though it can be costly, I've toured so many schools that were just entirely different in person than I thought they would be from looking online. Online tours and information sessions are okay for choosing schools to apply to, but when it comes time to actually commit to a school, make sure you tour it before committing!! It's such a good way to get a feel for the campus and figure out what kind of students and personalities that school attracts.
I haven’t done any in person tours but when I do the virtual tours a lot of colleges offer on their websites they become glitchy. I also feel like I can’t really picture myself there and feel like I need to visit them. I hope this helps.
Definitely go on the tours at the nearby college & your sister's! Some colleges provide online tours with similar benefits you may receive with an in-person tour! But, if you do find that you enjoy in-person tours, go through your list and determine which ones you'd prefer to tour and talk about it with your parents!
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