Turning the College Tour Grind into a Family Adventure

The college tour. For many families, it’s a rite of passage, a pilgrimage across countless campuses, each one blurring into the next like a watercolor painting left in the rain. The endless parade of identical brick buildings, the droning voices of tour guides reciting pre-packaged facts – it’s enough to send even the most enthusiastic teenager into a state of glazed-over boredom. My family, having bravely navigated this collegiate labyrinth, knows this feeling all too well. The initial excitement, the visions of future triumphs and independence, can quickly fade into a monotonous drone, a symphony of architectural sameness punctuated only by the rhythmic squeak of sneakers on polished floors. The college tour, in short, can be a soul-crushing drag.

We’ve all been there: the endless stream of information overload, the desperate search for a decent coffee shop amidst a sea of sterile lecture halls, the subtle (and sometimes not-so-subtle) sighs of teenage angst. The very air seems thick with the weight of academic expectations, the future looming like a storm cloud on the horizon. But the college tour doesn’t have to be this way. It doesn’t have to feel like slogging through treacle, a Sisyphean task of endless repetition and underwhelming experiences.

We found our salvation, or at least a significant improvement, in a surprisingly simple solution: video diaries. This seemingly mundane act transformed our college tour experience from a chore into a collaborative family project, a treasure hunt for personality and hidden gems rather than a dry recitation of facts and figures. Each campus became a stage for our own unique narrative, a chance to capture not just the architecture, but the atmosphere, the energy, and the individual stories that make each university truly unique.

Instead of passively absorbing information, we actively created it. The kids, armed with cameras, became the reporters, documenting the quirky aspects of campus life, interviewing students, and capturing snippets of conversations that gave us a peek behind the carefully curated façade. Our video diaries became a mosaic of moments: a close-up of a student’s incredibly detailed notes, a candid conversation with a professor about their research, a shot of the campus mascot engaging in some inexplicable but utterly charming behavior. These weren’t just informational snippets; they were stories, mini-documentaries about the personalities of the universities, the heartbeat of their communities.

This approach also fostered a newfound sense of shared ownership in the college search process. It wasn’t just me, the parent, making the decisions; the kids were invested, their voices captured on camera, their experiences shaping our perception of each university. The video diaries became a platform for them to express their thoughts and feelings, providing invaluable insights that went far beyond brochures and official websites. They became active participants, not passive observers.

Moreover, the act of creating these video diaries added a layer of fun and engagement. The pressure lessened, replaced by a creative process. The kids looked forward to each visit, not as another dreary task, but as an opportunity to showcase their filming skills, and their editing and interviewing talents.

The result? We ended up with a collection of engaging videos that provided a far more nuanced and memorable perspective than any formal college tour could ever offer. We have a collection of vibrant memories, not just a list of visited campuses. And it was this shift from passive observation to active creation, from monotonous repetition to exciting storytelling, that truly transformed our college tour experience from a daunting drag into a genuine family adventure.