Recently I have been going on a ridiculous amount of college tours with my Dad. With them comes a lot of stress, but they are also oddly thrilling.
1. The Road Trip.
It's a mini adventure, you leave early in the morning, with your coffee or tea in hand. You make your parents listen to Hamilton and you eat McDonald's oatmeal for breakfast. On the way there you do more research. Do they have a good program, how many kids go there, what about tuition, how many faculty, and average class sizes? It's a tad insane really.
2. At the College.
They usually have informational meetings that have a lot of smiling people on the PowerPoint slides. Then you break into the tours. This is the best part. Here, you can look around the campus and ask, would I be happy here? Could I live here with out my Dad or cousins? While you walk around campus you try to ask the right questions about tuition, meal plans, etc. When they get to the department you're interested in, you peek into classrooms and facilities, and you wonder if you could get into this school.
3. Driving Home.
This is when you mull it over. You have a heart to heart with your parent. Here you can speak truthfully about what you truly thought. Compare it to other schools, where is it on the list: 1st, 2nd, 24th? Then we have the tradition. After each college tour my Dad and I always get Chinese food to finish the day off.
Finally, always remember to enjoy your tours. They can be a lot of fun if you let them. See yourself in these environments, be truthful, and ask yourself this question: do you want to be there?
