California College Tour
California College Tour allows students to visit and experience life at several prominent California Colleges. For many students, the process of figuring out which school best fits their needs is an overwhelming and confusing task. The California College Tour transforms this experience into an enriching and fun summer adventure, in which students take campus tours, have meetings with admissions representatives and receive materials to help evaluate each school. Tour participants are shown how to get the most out of their future college visits. For example, students learn what questions they should be asking of campus officials, how to compare schools to one another, and what factors are most important for their personal college selection process. Many tours are led by the admissions office staff, others by personnel provided by Education Unlimited, depending on the campus and tour dates. Historically, most of the actual campus tours have been provided by admissions office staff.
The California College Tour is a wonderful opportunity for students to tour numerous college campuses and evaluate their college options. Students visit a wide variety of campuses, including private and public schools in both urban and rural areas. Participants will be able to determine if a large or small school is appropriate for them, and, with the comparison materials we give them, they will be able to review their opinions once they’ve returned home.
In less than one week, students have the opportunity to experience the major cities of California, including San Francisco and the greater Bay Area, the Los Angeles area and San Diego. We encourage students to enroll with friends, but even those who don’t arrive knowing someone will end up with a group of newly-found friends, usually from across the US and around the world, although of course the demographics of attendees for any given trip cannot be predicted.
Housing is provided with students each having their own bed, usually in doubles or triples. Most overnight stays are at business class hotels, and are always at least rated as 2.5 star properties, but most years are 3 star properties and better. We stay in the main areas where attractions are when feasible. We may occasionally stay in a campus dorm/residence hall to get a feel of campus living. Meals are provided, though some students bring some spending money for snacks or optional food items (or souveniers!). All essential items of room, board and transportation are provided during the trip, so it is possible to do the California College Tour without any added cost or expense.
Students have the option to do the tour without the group flight, in which case they should plan to arrive in San Francisco as close to the listed start time as possible (as that is the scheduled to coincide with the arrival of our group flights).
By paying the additional fee for the group flight you guarantee that fee is all that you need to pay regardless of what the final amount of the ticket costs, as Education Unlimited accepts responsibility for finding a flight within the flight budget or making up the difference! If you choose the group flight option less than 30 days before the start of the trip, however, there may be additional costs for ticketing. If there are additional costs related to signing up less than 30 days in advance of the trip, you will be alerted to any additional fees and be given the option to downgrade to the tour without group flight, in which case you can still go on the trip, but will simply meet up with the group at the Boston airport.