Taking a campus tour without stepping foot on a campus
A while back I received a call from a company that produces DVDs of college campuses for prospective students and their families. Collegiate Choice Walking Tours Videos sends one of its staffers — all college advisors from New Jersey — on the college’s own tour equipped with a hand-held camera and some good questions.
The result is an amateurish video – which the company readily admits — but a pretty true view of the college. I just finished watching the 70 minute tour of my alma mater. I could barely recognize the place with all the new construction.
I watched with particular attention as I was once one of those earnest student tour guides. The young woman who led the tour that Collegiate Choice happened to take at my old college was far more informal than I was, and probably franker, admitting that she could not get all her classes and the dispiriting male-female ratio of two to three.
(My colleague Rana Cash has a good story today on a virtual college fair that allows students to tour campuses and talk to students and counselors online. It’s free for students. If you are interested, read the story now as the fair is this week.)
Collegiate Choice videos cost $15. Kids pop them in their DVD player and essentially take part in an hour-long tour. Cliff Kramon, one of the college counselors who founded Collegiate Choice, says the tours aren’t designed to replace actual campus visits.
“While an in-person visit is best, perhaps a second best approach is to watch a video of someone else’s visit,” he says. “We’re not trying to discourage actual visits. Quite the reverse. It’s because sometimes the best colleges for a student are several states away. We don’t want them falling through the cracks because of the time and expense necessary for that initial visit.”
His company has videotaped guided tours at more than 35o campuses. You hear all the question the parents on the tour ask. One thing about watching or attending college tours; it’s always the parents who ask the questions. The high school students look increasingly bored as the tour goes on and are slumping against the wall by the time the tour reaches the library
The benefit to video tours is that they give high schoolers an idea about a campus without the transportation costs My caveat would be that the response to a video tour may be more of a response to the narrator than to the college itself.
That is also the case on real tours, although students and their parents have the option of bailing on a lackluster tour and discovering the campus on their own. We did that several times when our two oldest children went to see campuses, often learning a lot more from stopping in the dining hall for a Coke and talking to students.
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6 comments Add your comment
ScienceTeacher671
November 3rd, 2009
7:09 pm
Not to sound too much like MAM, but did you hear anything from Matt about the test scores today?
Maureen Downey
November 3rd, 2009
8:10 pm
ScienceTeacher, I was not in earlier today to call Matt as I am working tonight. But I will folllow up tomorrw with him.
Here is Matt’s original response to my question about why the state doesn’t release ITBS:
ScienceTeacher671
November 3rd, 2009
9:15 pm
That does explain why I can’t find 8th grade ITBS scores for last years’ 8th graders — they must not have taken the test. However, the statement that they “don’t run them now” implies that they did do so in the past…it would be interesting to see what the past analyses (which apparently were not released) show.
ITBS better than CRCT
November 3rd, 2009
9:48 pm
The norm-referenced test is far more superior and insightful than any phoney criterion(watered down, of course)-referenced test. If the State is serious about finding out how our students test compared to the whole nation, then the State would mandate the ITBS and have independent, outside test monitors to administer the test and to grade the test. You cannot trust these integrityless (a new word?) administrators in Georgia to get near the tests, especially Beverly Hall of Atlanta and her sycophants.
ITBS better than CRCT
November 3rd, 2009
9:49 pm
In fact, let jim d be in charge. I trust jim d. jim d and Lisa B. are the only ones whom I will trust!
Sarge
November 3rd, 2009
11:42 pm
Exactly what is the point behind a campus tour, either in person or on vid? Given the university credentials and the college of whathaveyou standing in a particular field of study, exactly what, from an academic sense, would a tour accomplish? A fine view of the buildings, infrastructure, stadium, proximity to watering holes, etc would serve absolutely no purpose whatsoever…inasmuch as the purpose of the institution of choice is/would be academic in nature, any pre-study tour is entirely superflous, and a waste of time and resources.
Don’t get me wrong…I was the king of the animal house. My laundry list of daily/nightly activities often had to be grugingly rearranged so that I could 1) remain sober for a few daylight hours, and 2) pass an exam or two. The very fact that I graduated (would you believe with a few honors much less) speaks more of the fact that, at some point in my checkered college career, I became somewhat focused, not because I took a freshman tour of the campus (I couldn’t…two weeks before the start of classes, I was still on active duty), but because it was something I wanted. Ain’t no campus tour gonna do that ferya!