I’ve always been scared of college and moving away from my parents, so I didn’t really know what to expect on a college tour. Not only was the U of M Twin Cities a rival to my family's legacy college ,UW Madison, but it was also a 5 hour drive from my hometown to get there. 

When we arrived, it did feel like you were in the city, but I like the electric, lively city feel that you get walking around with all the people, bikers, and even cars all over.. 

My mom, my little brother, and I exited the parking garage to go to the 200 Jones Hall, which was a building on campus. We could  see all the beautiful fall colors and feel the slight briskness in the air. One thing I noticed was they had huge bike lanes—we were told that this was a big way people got places on  campus. I thought that this was a great idea. Then,  I saw a sign that read “Raising Cane’s.” I was sold. It’s one of my favorite chicken places. 

At Jones Hall, we  were greeted by college kids that are working to help us. They were so nice and even though we were a little late they still treated us well and didn’t rush us. It was interesting to me that they would give up their time studying and give us a 30 minute presentation along with a 2-3 hour tour at the beginning telling us what happens there—their attraction, sports, and so on. 

Once the presentation was done, there were really only a couple things I thought I really learned. It talked about requirements and even things that are looked at when getting accepted to go to college there, which is important. 

We were then greeted again by 6 different tour guides and they introduced themselves to us. They told us where they were from, why they were there, what they planned on doing after college, and why they loved this school. We then were all put into groups of around 8-9 people and one tour guide and started the tour. 

After we went building to building, my group's tour guide Kate would tell us when the building was built, what happens in the building, and if there were any cool facts about it. We then got to the major center building which has the 2nd largest bookstore in any college. We went inside and really looked around going through everywhere in the building. We then went to their science center which was made to look like a living cell. In the middle of the building was the help center which was called the mitochondria which is the powerhouse of the cell or in this case the powerhouse of the building. 

When we got inside the dorm rooms I was first off very shocked at how big the room was as I’ve heard they are very small. Another feature I thought was very smart was the fact you needed your student card to get into any building that was important so then not everything was open to the public. 

Next, we went to Paul Gym after which was the name of the gym on campus, not only was it huge but there was a vendor there that sold protein shakes, regular shakes, salads, basically healthy things that are good for you after a workout. Then we were shown the football stadium, hockey rink, and unfortunately we couldn’t see the pool. Then some of the art around the campus which was the last part of the tour. There were only a couple things I wish we could have done differently, mainly being touring the sports complexes instead of just looking at them.

I thought this part of the tour was displayed wonderfully and my group's tour guide really helped me see what our group wanted to see. This is a tour where you are walking the whole time up and down stairs which was fine for me but depending on who you are it might be strenuous.  I also think slowing down slightly would have made it like 30 minutes longer but it would have been a lot easier to understand everything and really soak in everywhere we went. I understand they are trying to get us to see a lot but I felt a little rushed and there wasn’t a whole lot of time to really see inside and out of the buildings because we were moving so fast.

Overall I really enjoyed the tour and would definitely recommend going on a tour here to see if you’d like to go to U of M.