Taking the kids: Touring college campuses
Laurel Herter wishes she'd canceled the college tour trip as soon as she heard the dismal forecast. And the fact that there was a convention of bedazzled transvestites at the Providence, Rhode Island, hotel didn't help, she said. Ultimately, Herter's daughter, Erica, decided against the Rhode Island School of Design -- her grandmother's alma mater and where her family had hoped she'd enroll. Herter thinks the hotel experience and the foul weather played a big role in her daughter's decision. But that's the way it is with college tours. You can never tell what will appeal to your child (everyone is playing Frisbee on the quad!) or turn him off (The tour guide had too many piercings!) "There's a lot to be said for that immediate gut reaction," observes Arlene Matthews, a college counselor and author of "Getting In Without Freaking Out" (Three Rivers Press). "It's all about whether they feel good there." Sure it's better to visit campuses during the school year, but many of us squeeze in a visit or three when we're traveling during the summer. After all, we're going to be in Boston for a wedding or Chicago for a meeting or heading to the beach in Southern California. Why not stop at a campus or two, even if your daughter is only a sophomore. We're likely to have plenty of company on the tours because kids are applying to -- and visiting -- more colleges, the National Association for College Admission Counseling reports. A growing number of families, in fact, are opting to send their teens off with companies like College Visits, www.college-visits.com, which is run by a former Johns Hopkins University admissions official. But before you start tearing your hair out about the competition or the tour process, remember that the majority of schools still accept most of those who apply. That should be your mantra as you hear tour guides warn how much more "selective" this university or that college has become. "You've got to realize there is not one perfect school for anyone," says Kim Johnston, the director of admissions at the University of Maine, and the incoming president of the NACAC. Most important, you should try to inject a dose of fun into the whole process, Johnston and other admissions professionals urge. Splurge on a nice hotel or a fancy dinner. Take in some local sites. Revel in the time together with your son or daughter, even though they'd probably rather be on the beach than touring a campus on a hot, sticky day. Believe me I've been there. I've endured long car rides to a campus only to face a child who refused to get out of the car once we arrived. I've tried to buck up a child so rattled by a pompous tour guide that she was convinced she wouldn't get in anywhere. I've gotten lost on unfamiliar roads and eaten cold pizza for dinner after we discovered that all the restaurants in the small college town closed by 8 p.m. But we've also had some good laughs along the way. Here's how to de-stress the tour process this summer: big or small, rural or urban -- before you set out on a cross-country trek. Also suggest they check out student blogs posted on the Web sites. and yourself -- that they will find a school -- and hopefully several schools -- that they will like and that will welcome them. "It's going to go so quickly," says Marty O'Connell, a veteran college admissions counselor and executive director of Colleges That Change Lives, www.ctcl.com. "You won't have another opportunity to be with your child like this." Now if you can just get them to unplug their iPod and talk to you. |
