I’m a sophomore at Park City High School and some (most) would describe me as — bookish. I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t daydreaming about what college would look like for me and what sort of life I would create for myself when I began to build it independently in a new place with more autonomy than I’ve ever known. Now that the time has arrived to start bringing tangibility to these dreams, I’m finding there is so much that goes into selecting a college. The best part of which is probably the college tour. I’m fortunate in that my parents are able to consider sending me out of state and have turned college tours into a bit of a family adventure as an excuse to do some traveling and have new experiences. What I’m finding is that the spectrum of the college tour experience has been surprising, exciting and eye-opening. In my experience, college tours are as unique as the universities themselves. They each offer up different people, campuses, cities and towns, values and culture. Because of this, it can be difficult to know what to look for and compare them against each other for decision making. Though the information is obviously unique, the tours tend to follow the same formula: an information session, splitting up into smaller groups, then, as the name suggests, a student-led campus tour. As a prospective student, the fact that these tours are student-led makes a huge impact. It opens the door for answers that don’t sound like they’re being read off the school website and brings authenticity to the tour and the college itself. A good tour guide will leave you with a feel for their favorite place on campus, the best study spots and which dining hall should be frequented during exam week for emergency 2 a.m.-study fuel. To date, I have done four college tours: the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Washington University in Saint Louis, Columbia University, and New York University (NYU), both in New York City. Full transparency, as a high school sophomore with just a dream and a decent GPA, I’m not an expert in much of anything having to do with college, so at this point, when I take these tours, I’m relying mostly on instinct and how I feel as I’m taking it all in.  First and foremost, college is about possibility. It has the potential to define the whole rest of your life — where you live, where you work, what you do, who you have relationships with — and as exciting as that is, it’s also really scary, at least for me. If you tour somewhere you don’t like, you have just erased that entire potential future, and that’s a huge thing! For example, over spring break, I was able to tour NYU and Columbia back-to-back. I first went to Columbia, where I accidentally arrived three hours early and couldn’t find any coffee (which was the real tragedy). Once the tour actually started, it was the shortest of the four I have taken. They did not offer the usual information session you find on other tours, only a tour guide who walked around campus and talked at various stops. The information shared felt very surface-level, and I missed the depth of feeling needed to imagine myself in a place. We also didn’t really go into any buildings, only a short lap around one of the libraries on campus. After we left, I was talking to my mom on our subway ride on the way to lunch, and we both decided to take it off the list. That whole future possibility — gone. Then I toured NYU, and they did have an information session. We spent more time inside their library, and ended the tour inside the bustling student union, crammed full of students clustered together, advertisements for clubs and intramural sports and NYU school spirit. We heard more personal stories, and by the end of that 90-minute period, the potential for an entire life-trajectory had opened up. That, more than anything else I can tell you about looking for a college, is the most important, or at least I think so. You have to like the space, the atmosphere, the city or town. You have to be able to visualize yourself there for four years. If you can’t see yourself living there or belonging there, then it isn’t the place for you. Just because it’s a good school doesn’t mean that it’s the right school. For me, there are a few different things that I look for during a tour. I obviously want to know about the academics, campus safety, all of the practical things. But what I really want to know is if I can get a sense of student life. I want to know if I can see myself there. Learning about student traditions, or about the opportunities that they have as students at that particular university, helps me to do that. Another thing about college tours is that they give you the opportunity to travel. Throughout the past year and a half that I have been looking at colleges, travelling for these tours has given me the opportunity to watch concerts, professional sports games and eat some really good food. I have had so many amazing experiences, both through these tours and in the cities where they’re located, and I’ve been surprised to discover that at this stage, that is one of the most impactful aspects of doing a college search. You get to have experiences in all of these different places and imagine what your life would be like if you lived there. Regardless of whether you are actually applying to college, or helping your teen look for a college, I would urge you to work hard to keep your focus on creating possibilities that will help shift feelings of fear or anxiety into excitement. Yes, there are aspects that are stressful. You might not be going to the same school as your friends, you might be going out of state, or even out of the country, but all of these factors open up the idea for something new. Personally, I have no idea where I’m going to end up. Three years from now, I could be in New York, Canada or California. No one can predict the future, but at this stage, I’m learning so much about myself as I open up my imagination and allow it to expand into potential futures I’ve never even considered before now. The post College tours give Park Record intern a feel for the future appeared first on Park Record. ...read more read less