College Tours, So much information, so little time! Options

[HakunaMatata]

So I'm going on a college tour on Monday, Tuesday, and a week-long one during the summer, and I've been wondering what to ask.

Any reccomendations? Feel free to list the easy ones (process, avg SAT and gap, etc.) and the less obvious ones (yeah, no examples from me here).

[*mzkandi*]

The average class size, this is important if you value one on one interaction with your teacher.

How many avaliable computer labs are there and are there any open for 24 hours? During my junior year my home computer crash at 2:30am in the morning. It left me on a mad dash to find an open computer lab around campus only to find out our lastsest computer lab only stayed open to 2 am.

What are the school job placement ratings for it's graduates?

That's all I can think of right now. Good luck!

[kimmytree]

Be sure to find out what percentage of their freshmen students return for their sophmore year.

To me, that seems to say it all; whether a school is good enough to maintain its students, or so bad that a large majority ends up transferring somewhere else.

[*WHIMSICAL 0NE*]

Oooh, I'm scared to go visit colleges but I do get to go to Alaska. I would deff. ask about class sizes. I'd also ask to see what programs and such they have for certians majors.

[*mona lisa*]

If you can, ask current students about academic life, profs, course evaluations, class sizes, life on campus, financial aid, especially first year students. And ask them to be completely honest. I'm not happy with how my year has been and is turning out and I wish I had actually asked those who were going through it. Do you know want you want to do in the future? Since first year is usually the most difficult, consider what the school offers to ease that transition. It all depends on the school and what you want to get into but your first year marks may help in determining what you can get into. For many programs at my university, there is a GPA cutoff and most are pretty competitive. Good luck.

[BOOGERSHAHA]

percentage of student involved in sororities and fraternities? guaranteed on-campus housing for all 4 years?

[HakunaMatata]

I feel so geeky writing these questions down (I seriously didn't think of these earlier), but I'll definitely be asking the exact ones tomorrow and Tuesday. Thanks for all the help, everyone!

And if anyone else has any, keep 'em coming! I'm going on more after this week and I'm sure there are others doing the same. :]

[misoshiru]

If it's a liberal art's college, ask about the requirements for distribution, activities, organizations

[BOOGERSHAHA]

oooh ask about area requirements. i hate it when colleges have a lot of requirements. blah blah you have to take at least 4 humanities classes, 3 science classes, etc. this isn't high school anymore...college kids should be able to take what interests them.

haha a bit of a mini rant, meh.

[HakunaMatata]

Ohkayz, so I figured out sometimes, half the questions are just answered by spending half an hour hanging out there. You may not get a feel for the classroom, but you do get a feel of the physical and social environment.

[*Azarel*]

That's because there is no actual formal classroom environment (as you're used to in middle/high school) at college campuses (at least not at UC Davis). Most of your instruction is going to be in large lecture halls, and then you splinter off into smaller discussion groups. (Again, this is only at Davis, and I'm not sure if it holds true for other universities.)

[*mona lisa*]

I have that at the University of Toronto as well. It really depends on the organization of the course but for most of the courses I'm taking this year, there are a couple of hours a week sitting in a large lecture hall with the professor speaking. At another time during the week, you and a group of other students will meet with a Teaching Assistant. This is more of the physical high school setting you're used to but you don't do the same things you did in high school (obviously).

If you can, sneak into a lecture to see it in action. You'll be able to see how often profs and students interact, how fast-paced (or slow-paced) the lectures are and whatnot.

[Jeng]

Oo0o I went college visiting for tours over Feb vacation, they basically told us the questions and answered them, we had a few good ones and they answered it in the tour :d I forgot what they were.
Ask about dorms, do most freshman stay and live on campus.
YAH THATS A GOOD ONE DO ITT.

[misoshiru]

Usually, freshmen are required to live on campus.

For me, I go to a small liberal arts college, so in general, our class sizes are rather small. The largest class I've been in, in the 2 semesters that I've been in college was less than 50 students. But, I know for larger lecture classes such as 100 and 200 levels for Bio or Chem and the other sciences and perhaps math, there can be over 100 students in a lecture hall.