Great school, but how's the ice cream

Moira McCullough wasn’t having it. The Summit, NJ, mom was not letting college-application stress overtake her home as it had for so many families she knew. The college application process is stressful enough, she reasoned. Couldn’t the travel aspect—the touring of colleges and universities during school breaks—be more fun? Moira was confident it could be. 

Moira looked to a method she’d used when her kids were little and the family was moving frequently while living overseas. The McCulloughs would get to know each new town or city by its cafés and pubs, kid-friendly restaurants and ethnic eateries. It was a tasty way to feel like a local one meal at a time.

The same approach, it turned out, worked really well for college visits. “We explored colleges through our stomachs,” she told me recently.

“My kids enjoy travel and food, so touring schools meant making sure we didn’t just blow in and blow out, doing the tour and info session, but not much else,” Moira went on. Rather than tour and dash, the McCulloughs would linger, creating their own personal tasting expedition of the neighborhoods surrounding each school. It’s how they happened on the deep-fried Oreos at Jack Brown’s, near the University of Richmond campus, and the wide range of barbecue options near the Syracuse University campus, like that at Dinosaur-Bar-B-Que. The family also made a point of checking out sights and cultural events near each institution. And they took advantage of opportunities to get physical, like ocean swimming while visiting the University of Southern California.

How. Brilliant.(!)

I recall my husband and I trying to inject some playfulness into touring with our kids, all now either in or done with college. But in hindsight, I think we viewed school visits as a nuisance that stole time from school breaks and lengthened the already-onerous college application checklist. How much healthier to approach this important step not as an obligation but as a vacation, with all the earmarks of same—regional adventures, cultural outings, tasty meals, et al.—adding more facets to a potential student’s overall sense of each campus they visit.

Eighteen months ago, Moira turned her personal mission into a resource and college-touring business, College Scoops (https://collegescoops.com/). The business offers college-specific guides to eateries and hotels, fitness options and local sights, compiled with the help of volunteer student ambassadors on each campus. (The guides sell for $10.) College Scoops also has a concierge service, for those with the budget to hire someone to assemble an entire college-tour package.

College tourism packages aren’t in the budgets of most parents I know, but that’s not the point. By reframing college visits as opportunities instead of obligations, parents and siblings, along with applicants, can reap the rewards of trying out unfamiliar cities and regions for the cool stuff they have to offer. And by treating such journeys as vacations instead of required fact-finding missions, an area’s shortcomings, as well as its assets, may jutt out. Take, for instance, the small college town with one burger joint. It may seem quaint at first blush, but the traveler with interest in a diverse food scene will catch on quickly that four years is an awfully long time to spend in a town with one dining option beyond the college cafeteria. 

There are 1,305 miles between Montclair and the campus of Tulane University. The distance from home had prevented a family friend from thinking seriously about attending the university until late in the process, when she finally visited campus with her mom. The school checked all the academic boxes. Even better, mother and daughter connected immediately with the city’s cultural vibrance, including an abundance of palate-pleasing restaurants.  

A couple of weeks ago, the now college junior and I met for brunch at Saba, a Middle Eastern restaurant on Magazine Street near New Orleans’s Garden District. We gobbled up delicious hummus, labne, and pita bread and then walked through sprawling Audubon Park on the way to campus, while my young friend spoke warmly of her adopted city. It’s a long way from home, she admitted with a shrug. But The Big Easy has turned out to be a big draw for friends and family. Most importantly, she feels at home and thinks she may stay past graduation and start her career there.

Touring colleges with your high school student this spring break? You’ll likely enhance each stop if you also check out the go-to eateries and hangouts beyond the campus gates.