Campus tours play vital role in decision about college

SEATTLE -- Ian Heilbron sets the tone for the tour.

"Ask a lot of questions," he encourages the dozen people gathered in the foyer of the University Services Building on a recent Tuesday morning. "My tours are very laid-back."

The 23-year-old Seattle University graduate has been leading campus tours for prospective students and their families for two years and says he makes a point to be open and informative. He doesn't want the experience to be intimidating. He wants people to ask questions. Lots of questions.

Frequently, he's asked:

* Why choose Seattle University?

* Is there a Greek system? (No.)

* Do freshmen have to live in the dorms? (Yes, sophomores, too -- unless they live at home with their parents.)

The small class and campus sizes are what drew Heilbron to SU. Plus, he wanted to go to a private institution and get off the island. (He's from Hawaii.)

Heilbron graduated in June with a degree in accounting and plans to return in the fall for graduate school.

Meantime, he -- and admissions counselors from around the state -- recommend on-site versus online campus tours whenever possible. Virtual tours, they say, show how a campus looks.

But, Heilbron notes, "You don't get the feel of the school, you don't get the smells, you don't get the sounds."

And he's not alone.

"It's hard to pick up the atmosphere of the campus by looking at a Web page," says 21-year-old Barbara Seabury, a student admissions representative at Western Washington University in Bellingham.

Plus, "Most of the students actually make their decision of where they're going to actually attend by going on a campus tour," says 39-year-old Lisa Garcia-Hanson, director of admissions at Central Washington University in Ellensburg. "That's why I think having good information about the campus and the campus tour go hand-in-hand."

Heilbron encourages high school juniors and seniors and their parents -- "the people who are paying," he says -- to visit five to seven college campuses before making a decision.

There's just no substitute for an actual campus visit, agrees 30-year-old Mike Rotterfman, assistant director of admissions at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma.

"I would recommend visiting different types of campuses," Rotterfman says, also advising students to come prepared for tours and not to be afraid to ask questions, such as, "What are the hot topics on campus?"

Also, "Students always want to know how the food is," he says.

But, Seabury says, "I think it's important for students to ask questions about the actual application process. A lot of students don't understand exactly how to apply."

Campus tours are typically free and last an hour to an hour and a half. Some schools require reservations, so it's not a bad idea to call ahead.

University students might also be available to have lunch with prospective students. And admissions counselors might be available to meet individually.

"I encourage students to do a one-on-one appointment with an admissions counselor," says 24-year-old Jenna Serr, assistant director of admissions at Tacoma's Pacific Lutheran University. "It's a great way to get information about what makes the school special or unique."

Like Heilbron and other counselors, she recommends multiple visits: "They should visit as many schools as possible because they might have one school in mind they think is the perfect fit, but once they visit other schools they might find that their opinions have completely changed," she says.

At the start of his recent Tuesday morning tour, Heilbron asks folks where they're from. Oregon, Hawaii, Louisiana, Colorado. This isn't surprising, as about 50 percent of SU students come from out of state, he says.

The first stop is the Albers School of Business and Economics in the Pigott Building, where a piece by renowned Pacific Northwest glass artist Dale Chihuly hangs in the atrium. Heilbron pulls the group into Classroom 100, where he mentions the average SU class size is about 25, the ratio of professors to students is about 13 to 1, and there are about 50 Jesuits living and teaching on campus.

He also explains that SU is on a quarter-based system, and the most popular class is "Hollywood and Jesus." Then, he leads the group through the Chapel of St. Ignatius, designed by architect Steven Holl. According to SU's Web site, the chapel was inspired by "seven bottles of light in a stone box."

Next, Heilbron leads the group past Xavier Hall, the smallest dorm building on campus, and the Quad, the plaza at the heart of the campus that features a waterfall and rock formation reminiscent of a Zen garden.

At Lemieux Library, Heilbron explains that the black-and-white façade is "supposed to look like books on a book shelf." The library holds more than 250,000 volumes, he says.

After a few more stops, he takes the group to the third floor of Bellarmine Residence Hall to check out a dorm room. By 11:08 a.m., the hourlong tour is back where it started, in front of the University Services Building.

"I was impressed with the layout," 53-year-old Connie Hector says at the end. "I think it's nice to see it in person."

She took the tour with her husband, Richard, 66, and their 17-year-old daughter, Stephanie, a high school senior in Roseburg, Ore.

"I like the campus a lot," says Stephanie, who's visited about a half-dozen college campuses.

But "I still have no idea," she says. "I like so many other campuses," too.

* Selamawit Gebretsadik, 17, is a senior at Kentridge High School in Kent, Wash. She works on her school newspaper, the Fleet Street News.

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