Collegiate Choice Video Walking Tours

Guide Rating -

The Bottom Line

There couldn't be a simpler premise: videotape college walking tours so that students who can't make the trip can get a good sense of each campus. And for those students who are engaged and truly curious about a school, these videos provide a tremendous service. There's no substitute for an actual college visit, but I enthusiastically recommend Collegiate Choice Walking Tours to those truly interested in learning more about a particular college.

Vendor's Site

Pros

• Much cheaper than a campus visit!
• Full-length tours give an abundance of detail
• Less packaged and more honest than a marketing brochure or video

Cons

• Watching what are essentially full-length home movies can be dull
• Low production values

Description

• Videos are about an hour long
• Home video of an actual campus tour
• Students see campus footage while listening to Q&A with a student volunteer

Guide Review - Collegiate Choice Video Walking Tours

Collegiate Choice doesn't pretend that its walking tours are anything more than what they appear to be: simple, home-video-quality recordings of actual campus walking tours - the kind you go on when you visit a college with your family. However, this Northeastern college advising firm has found a niche providing these tours to families who understandably find that they can't visit every college in person. The videos may not be pretty, but they let you see and hear about the campus and that's the most important thing.

There's really not much to say about the videos themselves. If you brought your home camcorder along with you on campus tours, this is what you'd see when you got home. A student volunteer (usually sociable, but of unpredictable quality) narrates and answers questions while the camera takes in the scenery. As Collegiate Choice itself proclaims, these videos are not intended to be "the definitive documentary or [to] show every structure on campus." Instead, Collegiate Choice is hoping that students can get a sense of the feel and ambiance of a campus to better determine whether they can fit in.

Will it work? I think most students who have already bought into the college selection process will benefit - possibly greatly - from watching these videos (although I wouldn't recommend buying the video if you've already visited the campus). A reasonable attention span is required, as is a willingness not to punish the colleges for the clumsiness of the recordings. But I can imagine a motivated applicant watching again and again for clues as to whether he'll fit in for four years at some exciting and faraway place.

The U is currently offering a sample college video of your choice on their website, with no signup or personal information required.