Over the past couple of weeks I’ve started the college tour-thing with my youngest son.  Because we live in Ohio we visited OSU & Miami first (will visit Case Western Reserve, Oberlin & Kenyon next).  And because I’m a proud Michigan alum we visited Michigan next.   And unfortunately to say the “Michigan Experience” was underwhelming as compared to the first two would be an understatement. 

We started our tour in Columbus and were immediately placed in an empty conference room with a goodie bag of OSU swag on our chair with my son’s name on it.  Nothing terribly expensive or unique but it did give you the impression they were glad you were there.  While sitting in the room waiting for the tour to start there was a giant Brutus Buckeye to one side of the stage with a nice OSU power point presentation scrolling along.  Promptly at 2:00pm someone from admissions greeted us and told us how the next two hours would unfold.  Then about 10 OSU students came running in at full gallop with the leader yelling “O.H.” to the room (I obviously didn’t participate).  At this point I felt like I was at a pep rally and they split us up into 10 small groups for the campus tour (about 5 students/leader). 

The basic pitch OSU gives to prospective Freshmen is “we’re big – REALLY big” and because we’re big you’ll have a lot of opportunities both here and once you graduate.  They walked us around the campus itself (I was surprisingly impressed) and made stops at the library, the student union (that’s where the tour started), a dorm room, a cafeteria, their new rec center (that thing blew my son away it’s so new, modern and huge), the library (also modern and huge) and of course – the football stadium.  The tour ended at the honors hall where the student guide talked about the various opportunities students could have if they wished to pursue grad school both at OSU and other schools.  I have to admit I walked away with a very different attitude about OSU than I had going in.  I mean there’s still a significant academic gap between Michigan and OSU but that gap is closing and their working very hard at it.

Next up was Miami.  Miami again had us in a conference room but unlike OSU it wasn’t an empty one with folding chairs – it was a very nice theatre type environment located inside their admissions department.  They also had swag bags but instead of having them filled they had a table where you could pick up whatever materials you wanted on the various colleges inside the university as well as housing, scholarship and other school information.  They also gave a power point presentation but unlike OSU’s that simply played silently in the background theirs was narrated by the admissions director and was VERY impressive.  “96% of Miami graduates are either working in their chosen field of study or in grad school, 91% acceptance rate for law school, 75% acceptance rate for medical school” and so on.  They talked at length about the ROI for an degree at Miami – showing exactly what four years of tuition, room & board would cost and what the Miami degree would represent financially afterwards.  They showed all the businesses that did on-campus recruiting this past year.  They talked at length about graduate school opportunities and told the students they would be given an advisor to help them achieve their goals.  It was incredibly professional and to the point and definitely resonated with both my son and me.

The campus tour was very much like OSU except they showed the students an example of what the food selections would look like (award-winning allegedly) and spent a lot time in the classrooms themselves.  Tour of dorms, library, and campus itself (it’s freaking gorgeous) but no tour of the rec center or athletic facilities.  FWIW we went and looked at the rec center before leaving on our own and it was nice, albeit quite a bit smaller and older than OSU’s.  Their pitch was pretty simple “we’re very good academically and we know exactly why you are here.  And if you come here you’ll be positioned to achieve your education or financial goals once you leave.”

Last tour was Michigan’s and to say I was fired up for the one would be putting it mildly.  We started the day having lunch at the Brown Derby (had to the first time I’ve ever eaten there without any drinks first) and then we walked over to my old fraternity house, Sigma Chi, which is located next to the  Union.  Place was locked up unfortunately but he got to see the relative “splendor” of an old fraternity house as well as how centrally located it was.  After that it was off to the Regents Center for our tour to begin.  Others here had told me about the hype video they show so I was very much looking forward to seeing what Michigan put forward.  And then things started heading downhill.

We got there about 15 minutes early and were instructed to meet outside the Regents Center where my son checked in.  He was given a virtually empty bag from the M Den and told if we needed to use the bathroom before our tour to go to the international center and use theirs.  No video, no PowerPoint, no nothing.  Just at 2:00pm the tour started and they were very insistent that anybody late would need to reschedule – no waiting!  Our tour guide was a student just like OSU & Miami but unlike their tours that focused on what the incoming student would experience his presentation focused on his personal feelings & history with Michigan.   We stood outside West Quad where he told us about dorm life but we never went in and never saw a room (I told my son not to worry – dorm rooms are dorm rooms everywhere).  We stood outside the Michigan Union, again never went in, where he told us about John F. Kennedy’s speech launching the Peace Corps 60 years ago.  We then walked over to the law school where we stood outside in the courtyard, so pretty, where he talked about the law library but we didn’t go in.   Next stop was standing outside on University where he talked about the classes he took and gave us yet another history lesson on Ann Arbor and why it wasn’t the state capital.  After that we stood in front of U.G.L.I. (it’s not ugly anymore – who knew?) where he talked about the building’s renovation.  Last stop was in the diag where he talked about the legend of walking on the M (you’ll fail your first blue book exam) and pointed to Angel Hall and told them you’ll probably take a lot of classes in there.  Then it ended.

No mention of cost or ROI like Miami.  No tours of buildings and facility like OSU.  No mention of Michigan’s academic prowess nor what grad school might be like.  LOTS of talk about the history of Michigan and Ann Arbor itself which candidly, neither my son nor any prospective student seemed to give two shits about.  I know it really doesn’t matter in the great scope of things – Michigan will turn away WAY more students than they’ll admit – but it was still quite disappointing.  It felt like they didn’t think they needed to “sell” the students on coming here so they really didn’t even try.   And in some ways the day felt like a metaphor for the football team – all talk about the glorious past and no focus on the here and now.  He’s still going to apply and if accepted I’ll still pony up the insane out of state tuition costs but man I was so hoping for more.