As seniors begin the lengthy college-application process, college tours such as the San Francisco Bay Area trip become crucial to helping students make a monumental decision of where to attend college.

A group of seventeen students and three chaperones journeyed 1,840 miles by plane to San Francisco to visit a total of five colleges in a span of three days: The University of San Francisco, UC Davis, UC Berkeley, Stanford and Santa Clara University.

According to Ms. Young, the main coordinator of out-of-state college tours, one of the cons of the organizational process was the price. The tour, which took place in late October, reached a total cost of $1,500 per student.

The process of planning the trip began around February, lasted through five months, and started with student interest, according to Young.

Young began by setting up a poll sent to Alpha students in their designated Google Classroom inquiring about which colleges students would be interested in visiting. She proceeded to contact travel companies which work to arrange visiting hours per campus, transportation, meal times, and tours of landmarks of the area.  

“I make sure that the money being put into it makes it a worthy experience,” Young said. “It’s a fun trip to be on, just to be somewhere new seeing what else is out there.”

College tours help students become exposed to the environment and culture of a new school, according to Mr. Nordlund, one of the chaperones on the trip.

“You can really sense the amount of life or vibrancy just from walking on campus for five minutes,” Nordland said.  

While visiting Stanford, one of the five universities the group toured, Ms. Glawe, another chaperone, said it was one of her favorite universities she has visited.

“It was something I would have never expected and I mean it felt like I was going back to school myself,” Glawe said.

Glawe explained that one of the takeaways was that the group was able to get a full experience from the city within their time limit.

“We saw 5 colleges in 48 hours but we also got so much of the sightseeing stuff,” Glawe said. “We got to see the Golden Gate Bridge, we went to ChinaTown, and we did a lot of the stuff that you would do if you would actually attend there.”

College tours such as the San Francisco Bay Area trip offers a lot of advantages for students, according to Young.

Bigger schools, such as UC Davis, UC Berkeley and Stanford were the main schools requested by students to visit because of size and programs they offer.

“This tour gave students the opportunity to see both extremes and try to imagine where they’re going to fit in best,” Ms.Whittaker, another chaperone on the trip, said. “UC Berkeley has really strong science programs and they also have the largest number of nobeloriets in the country.”

These tours have a profound effect on whether or not the student applies for the select schools.

“Your surroundings I think can inspire your decision at times,” Nordlung said. “UC Davis was surrounded by farmland and it had a redwood grove alongside a creek.”  

Every tour was also described as very different than the last and significant for opening their eyes to help imagine their future.

“When we finished with our college tour we asked all the kids their favorite and we said ‘Do you think you’ll be applying to these schools,’ and they said ‘Definitely,” Whittaker said.