college search... the beginning

I just returned from the east coast college tour tonight. With an eleven hour flight and one hour lay-over, I'm surprised I'm still up. Right now I would be snuggled in my bed because it is 2:45am in Boston. Due to jet lag, I'm forcing myself to stay awake for another hour or so. Overall, it was a great tour and gave me a better understanding of the colleges I will apply to in the future.

The total count was 28 colleges visited. After the first five or so we started to hear the same thing about each college. Each tour guide mainly emphasized ONLY the good facts. It was extremely cold, but every tour guide mentioned that during the spring people are throwing frisbees, tanning on the grass, and barbequing. Another commom theme is mentioning how great their food, housing, and abroad program. After a while, it became redundant and the only thing that was changing was the beauty of each campus. Even though this was an educational trip I still had lots of fun, made new friends, and gained a better friendship with some acquaintances.

I'll never forget the great moments we had on this trip. We had many inside jokes and funny events take place. We had a couple of hotel parties with the entire group, late night workouts, and many naps on the bus. The sixteen students practically lived on the yellow yankee bus because we travelled so much, passing through twelve states in seven days. My favorite colleges were UPenn, Boston College, and Georgetown. I also really like Princeton and Johns Hopkins, but know that I wouldn't have a shot. From this trip I realized I really needed a campus environment because I didn't care for Boston University or NYU. Another aspect was nice dorm rooms. Ollin College had the best dorm room by far. Only five years old, the dorm rooms were very spacious and quite modern. However, I could never attend Ollin because they have a little over 300 undergraduates.

Overall, this trip was a great experience and I can't wait for the West Coast College tour. I'm hoping that it'll be even better, but East coast will be difficult to top. With more students attending this trip, I have a feeling it'll be even more clicky. College tours are actually a lot more beneficial then what I had originally thought.