College touring

After five solid days of college touring with a prospective student we are intimately familiar with the themes of 2010. From safety to target to stretch, to those in-betweens like target-stretch and safety-stretch and the unambivalent super safety, we made the rounds. At all of these, high and mighty to strivers, words and issues merged into one, subject by subject, as detailed by young info session presenters from the admissions staffs and by student campus tour leaders:
---Food---"I love it. There's everything here." Talk of healthy eating in whatever campus's multi-faceted cafeterias is perhaps a tad undermined by the presence of food courts with national and local quick food providers. One campus defined itself as a "Coke campus" with Pepsi only being available in one historic building, whatever that connotes. Off campus living upperclassmen leading tours always said, "I like the campus food so much that I get my campus living friends to swipe me in for more". That sounds illegal.
---Study abroad---"You can go to any place in the world, any continent, except Anarctica, and we're working on that". Almost exact same words, every school. Ha, Ha on the first one, hmm after that, humorous by the end. There are only two schools in the country with permission to arrange study abroad in Cuba and one was was on our trip but I now have no idea which one. Every school projects max expertise in this area and promises fun and credits and education combined with no extra cost(this in fact must be a real money maker, as taking tuition for a U.S. school and then paying for a school in China or Thailand or Croatia or the Czech Republic would be a 50% or more gain).
---Teachers---slides of or comments about teachers inviting students into their homes for dinner and living room discussions are uniform. Teachers' care is a theme. Call them at 1am on the night before an exam and they will be there to help you. These presentations can arouse the skeptic.
---Family and community---this theme of school spirit and shared commitment was discussed at all presentations, but nuanced in different ways. At some schools it was stressed as a network of jobs and opportunities, at some as a collegiality that develops into a strong and important bond, and at one or two, through syrupy tales, as a blessing, or millstone from another perspective, of life just as in a real family.
---Clubs and activities---"We have over (fill in the blank) hundred student organizations on campus and whether it's a language, a service commitment, a religion, flamenco dancing, skeet shooting, a Fox news fan club, stock picking, italian cuisine, a populist peoples party, whatever it is, you will find it on our campus". That's a composite quote but this one is almost verbatim at all, "if you don't find it, you can create your own, just one faculty member approval and a few members and you are a university sponsored club". So one could have a penquin walk club, or a pen top chewing club, or an organization of Law and Order devotees having an intense rivalry with the NCIS fan club. Whatever you want, if you don't find it here you can create it.
---Safety---From out in the sticks to in the center of a city, the safety issue was thoroughly discussed. All have the "blue light" system of call buttons, interspersed at regular intervals and all have dedicated police or security departments. This topic was both reassuring and disconcerting. Even at the most self-contained campuses, women tour guides said that they made it a point not to walk alone at night for any distance. At the same time the universal comment was "that's just me being cautious, I have never once felt the least bit unsafe on this campus". Of the seven schools that we visited, two referenced the blue light system in a way that raised an eyebrow or two. The most urban one's tour guide said that the blue light system was beneficially arranged such that if you were being chased you could hit one after another as you ran for safety(a spontaneous laugh here that no one seemed to share) while the largest state university stressed the same thing as in "just keep walking after you hit one and go to the next if someone is making you feel uncomfortable".
---Internships---like study abroad, this is a college must-have these days. Some schools just arrange them for personal, networking, and service benefit and one degree mill gives four credits a semester for an internship. All schools stress their databases in this area but only one or two had that database focused nationally and even globally, at least based on their presentations, and that difference was not in line with expectations. One less widely known school seemed to have this internship opportunity wrapped really well, an impressive surprise.
---Interdisciplinary studies---this is a difference among schools. Some tout the opportunity to create one's own composite degree while others could stress only one path, in one case day one, others after sophomore year. Running the gamut, one weaker school and one stronger one discussed the opportunity to create one's own curriculum, combining different disciplines to a unified purpose.
---the G-word---if listening to student tour guides and talking to current and just graduated students is any guide, their college is such a refuge that the G-word, as in graduation, is dreaded. They seem acutely aware that college is a one time experience, one that does not guarantee the next phase of their life, and given that those chosen for contact with visitors must be pre-screened and are being paid, they really like their school. That said, they seem earnest and, given the times and the astuteness of many young people, they are telling the truth.

The experience of college viewing may have been an invaluable insight into some aspect of our culture, and perhaps a better experience for the most important person here. I don't really know, but we went to some nice restaurants, some saw some good friends and relatives, and the young one helped me move beyond step one on the smart phone(called smart for a reason I fear).