I’ve reached the point in my life where we’re now taking tours of colleges and universities for my own kids, and something struck me as we were walking around UChicago this past weekend… aside from the ridiculously expense cost which is potentially a topic for another post.

It was great seeing the beautiful campus, and hearing about all the great things alumni from the university have done. But what hit me was that on the tours we’ve been on, not once have we actually gone into an academic building. We haven’t seen an actual dorm (at UM we saw a “model”… but how realistic is that). And we haven’t seen or eaten at a cafeteria. Sure the guides have told us all about it, but there’s a huge difference between hearing, seeing, and experiencing.

I get it that you can’t really experience a class, and you’re going to get people who complain if you go into the humanities building vs the physics lab (or some such), but the point is something is usually better than nothing.

Now “back in my day” (yes, I’m old) when I gave tours at Kettering all of that was what set things apart IMO. I loved taking the kids/families into the rec center, through the tunnel to the academic building, and even into my own dorm room. I like to think it’s part of the reason I chose Kettering/GMI over some of the other schools I looked at. That openness and lack of pretentiousness. Real people doing real things.

Who knows… maybe they don’t do that anymore at Kettering (my kids have no interest in following in my footsteps), but it would be a shame if they don’t… and it’s a shame they haven’t done it at the places we’ve toured.