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Whether you’re in first grade or eleventh grade, or doing a gap year, it’s never too early to start touring colleges. Okay, maybe first grade is a little too early, but now that touring universities is so easy, you may want to get a head start on looking at colleges.
Getting acquainted with a university campus can also be helpful if you’re returning for an alumni event or headed for a conference at a university. Touring universities can be expensive and time consuming. You may think that Urban City University is the perfect fit, then arrive there and find it’s not nearly as becoming as the school’s website portrays. Or you may think you want the peace and quiet of Boondocks College, but then discover during your visit that it neighbors the local sewage treatment plant and the state’s maximum security prison.
In the olden days, you could only discover these tidbits of knowledge from a campus tour, traveling miles and spending money only to find that your ideal fit on paper didn’t live up to your expectations in person. Now tech is here to help you tour campuses from the comfort of your computer!
Google Earth Campus Tours
Google has been busy getting Google Street View images of universities around the world to give you a virtual campus tour from the comfort of your home. Google has campus tours for universities in over a dozen different countries.
Google Street View University Partners is a list of universities that have allowed Google Street View cameras on their campuses around the world.
Hint: If you’re looking at universities in Japan, you really need to check this out.
Here’s a video of the how Google captured the Street View images at Dartmouth College:
You can even open a split screen view of the campus so you can see both the Street View and an aerial view at the same time to get your bearings.
For example, check out the Street View tour of San Diego State University in California.
To get started, go to maps.google.com and type in the name of the university you want to tour, along with the name of the town.
Click on Satellite View in the upper right corner of the map and you’ll be shown an aerial view of the campus. Find the yellow silhouette icon in the upper left corner of the map and try to drag him onto the campus.
If the university has Street View enabled, you’ll see blue lines showing the routes where Street View is available. If Street View is unavailable, you won’t be able to drop the yellow icon onto the map in that location.
You can view photos showing the insides of buildings, exhibits, and other places of interest on campus. Take the campus tour of Boston University in Massachusetts or Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire.
Quad2Quad – College Tour Guru
If you’re planning actual, real life tours, as opposed to virtual tours, check out Quad2Quad, an app that will help make the travel to universities much easier. This app gives you handy, essential information about visiting universities and can even help you plan your trip.
Here’s a video showing how it works:
http://youtu.be/Z4L_kZSXKE8
You can add one or multiple universities to a trip and the app will guide you with itineraries and directions. The app tells you how to get to each campus, where to park, how to get to the Admissions office, and even where to go for lunch. This is one of these apps where the developers seem to have thought of everything. The app even tells you whether you need to bring coins for the parking meters!
The schools covered are only in the US, but cover areas across the country. You can download the app for free and see which schools are in the paid upgrade.
Quad2Quad is free in the iTunes App Store for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. The app comes with information about 85 universities.
College Apps
College applications used to mean the pieces of paper you filled out to apply to a school. Now, college apps take on a whole new meaning. College apps can also help you with the college tour process.
Check out these apps from universities: Stanford University, Marist College, and Georgia Tech.
If you’re considering a school, do an Internet search or visit the university’s website to see if an app is available to help with the admissions process.
Bottom Line
While virtual tours can’t replace actual tours, they can at least give you an idea of what to expect before you visit a university and perhaps help you narrow down your list of places to visit. Save time and money by letting tech be your college tour guide!
Hi Carolyn,
This is a good idea. I checked out my local university on Streetview and that was useful. I also use it to find places to take photos.
I hope this comment posts!
Hi Mike, I’m glad you’re able to use Google Street View to tour your local university and to discover new places to photograph. I’m hoping for some bluebell photographs from you soon! 🙂
I love Google street view. I’ve spent hours and hours wondering the streets of far off cities. I spent one summer in Lyon, France, and when I went back with street view, I found all the old places I liked to hang out. It made the world seem smaller than before.
It is a perfect tool for exploring. Great post.
Hi Brian, Yes, Google Street View can be fascinating and addictive. What a wonderful tool to provide us with the ground view of places, both new and exciting or old and familiar!
I love street tours. I was even once addicted to Google Earth tours and scan through streets of popular venues 🙂
Having the opp to take a look at the campus of universities is really a great thing and very useful for students applying or thinking about joining those universities!
Hi Jane, Yes, Google Street View does provide a very convenient and free way for students to see university campuses to discover whether it’s worth investing in a trip to visit in person. Not every university is covered, but for those that are, Google makes it very handy to visit virtually!
Hi Carolyn,
I wish I had some of this technology when I was applying for the University. I had no idea how it was like to attend a university, and I have never been to the city where it was located, and the websites wasn’t that good (this was back in 1995). I know that if I was going through the same process again, it would have been so much easier to make a decision (in fact, maybe it would be harder, because of all the options) 🙂
Happy Easter Carolyn.
Hi Jens, Yes, I have just begun this process with my daughter and we have found this tech to be very helpful. The Quad2Quad app is especially useful in planning on campus visits.
I too wish I had this kind of tech when I was investigating universities. But that was back in the days of the dinosaurs, before apps! 😉
Sounds like an easy and efficient way to know about the colleges around my city. And we can read the review about various facilities and the courses we can select from. Will tell my cousins about these for sure before they jump onto something.
Hi Rashmi, Yes, these are very handy tools for anyone starting to look at universities. Good luck to your cousins in their university search!
That’s a nice feature. I started in my eleventh grade and i visited only one Univerisity as i was really fond of it. I did Maritime transportation but to be honest with you now i would chose different!
Hi Radu, Well, sometimes all you need is to visit one university, if you like the one you visit! It’s kind of like finding your one true love with your first girlfriend, right? 🙂
Yeah you are right, it was love at first sight:)) Too bad that the people in this sector are really a pain in the a… and they demand commissions in order to get hired which, in my opinion, is not normal.
you are right Carolyn Nicander Mohr virtual tours can not replace the actual tours, but as you said it can at give an idea before someone visit the university and can Save time as well as money…
Hi Jawad, Yes, these tools are very handy to help prospective university students figure out where they want to school with minimal hassles!
I have “toured” places using Google Earth before…makes me feel a little stalkerish, but it definitely shows me what to expect !
Hi Patrick, Yes, Google Earth can help you discover things you hadn’t intended to see. Check out the craziest Google Street View images: http://www.nbcnews.com/id/38695392/ns/technology_and_science-tech_and_gadgets/t/craziest-google-street-view-moments/#.UVoxq6t4bwM
Google Street is of the best inventions ever invented. About tour, when choosing a college should also take into account such things as the type of campus they have. So it can be a great tool. Greetings!
Hi Marina, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! Yes, Google Street View is an amazing free tool that we can use for many different purposes, including university tours. You’re right, getting a feel for a campus is very important so this can be very helpful!
I had no idea how it was like to attend a university, and I have never been to the city where it was located, and the websites wasn’t that good (this was back in 1995). I know that if I was going through the same process again
Hi Shafeeq, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! Yes, times have changed a lot in the past 18 years. How wonderful that we now have these tools to help us discover places far away from us.
Thanks for stopping by and sharing your thoughts with us.
Google Street View is really interesting and I have been able to use it to locate some colleges after reading your steps described. But I have still not explored this street view and I would love to travel many places from home. I will definitely inform my friends about this amazing thing.
Hi Jannet, Excellent point. Google Street View isn’t just for exploring college campuses. Check out Google Earth: Your Ticket to Titanic to explore the remains of Titanic at the bottom of the Atlantic!