Our videos are simple, non-promotional recordings of the student guided campus tour at over 350 colleges and universities across the United States, Canada and Europe. They are not professionally produced. Guidance counselors, not commercial film makers, are doing the recordings. That means you get no background music, no mood shots, and assuredly no great camera work. Even after recording over 1,200 tours, we are still amateurs. All we promise is an average one hour per college of reality footage. That's not a bad time frame, when you consider most families only spend from 2 to 4 hours on a campus visit. Then again, we don't want to be too hard on ourselves either. Click on our Reviews by Others to read what the nation's journalists have thought about our efforts. They've seen the value of what we provide.
So who are we? We are independent college advisors who work with families in Bergen County, New Jersey USA. As we have no connection to the colleges themselves, both the narration and the visuals are completely candid. You will find our student tour guides significantly more knowledgeable than the average undergraduate, and perhaps a bit more forthright than some admissions or marketing departments. While we may not be expert photographers, we are good at asking questions to make sure our guides touch on all the areas we think of interest. And if an important site is omitted from the tour because of distance, we will record it at the end.
Our goal is not to replace an actual visit. Nothing beats that, and for a decision that means four (five?) years of a teen's life and perhaps $30,000 to $215,000, you want all the information you can get. Our DVD college virtual tours help in the narrowing down part of the selection process or when one parent cannot travel because of the additional cost or the need to stay home with the traveling teen's siblings. We don't want some excellent choices falling through the cracks because of the time and expense of that initial visit. Our series will give you a feel for each college to help decide if the chemistry there will be right for you or your teen.
Click on the Schools in Our Series to see where we've been. Then click on Our Order Form to print out your requests. No, our videos are not online. Does the family really want to spend hours looking at a simulated 5 inch square TV screen on a 17 inch computer monitor when there's a big TV in the den surrounded by "comfy" chairs and a sofa? We ship our videos Priority Mail, so you only have to be a little patient. Just like waiting for that "Acceptance Letter."
The independent college advisors of Collegiate Choice
Click on some helpful items: Tips for a campus visit , Helpful college planning links , Magazine rankings of colleges
Tips for the essay question , Reflections on S.A.T. courses , Applying early decision? , Considering pre-med?
Click on some items to give you a smile: Humorist Dave Barry's take on college , Our favorite acceptance and rejection letters
Our favorite letter of recommendation , Our favorite S.A.T. cartoons , The worst college interview ever
Our crystal ball reveals your future , Our favorite parents' tour experiences
Questions? Email us at collchoice@optonline.net