Get a Peek at College Life on The College Tour

College and career readiness has always been an important part of school counseling programs. It is never too early to get students thinking about their post-secondary education options. As students advance to middle and high school, it’s prime time to introduce the college experience to them so they have the opportunity to really think about where they might see themselves after graduating 12th grade. Many students often travel for college tours to help them make decisions about where they want to apply. Today, I want to share about a Prime Video series that takes students to visit close to 60 college campuses, and it’s called The College Tour.

What is The College Tour?

The College Tour is a TV series that gives viewers a sneak peek into multiple colleges and universities. It was created as a tool for high school students to use as they embark on their journey to finding the right college. Each episode features peer-to-peer stories from diverse students with diverse backgrounds so the viewers watching can connect and identify with being college-bound.

The episodes in the series feature everything from campus life to academics, sports, clubs, activities, and so much more. Viewers will hear from real students sharing their personal and authentic stories about their experiences at the featured school. Executive Producer and Host, Alex Boylan saw his niece go through the challenges of exploring colleges while not having the finances to travel around the country to see them in person. Her experiences prompted her uncle to team up with executive producers Lisa Hennessy and Burton Roberts to create this show.

The College Tour visits a variety of places from large schools, such as Arizona State University and the University of Illinois, to smaller ones, such as Delaware Valley University and Fort Lewis College. Because of this game changing series, young people around the world can now ‘push play’ FOR FREE on any TV, computer, or phone and take an incredible journey to learn what it’s like to be a current student on campus.

What I Love About It

The first episode I watched featured UMBC. My best friend’s daughter completed her Freshman year there last school year, so it was cool to get a glimpse of where she began her college journey. The first thing I loved was just the overall enthusiasm Host Alex Boylan had from the beginning and throughout the episode and how he recapped all of the important points shared after each students’ segment during the show. The students aren’t “interviewed” during the episodes. Each of the students tell their own stories in their own ways which makes each segment of the episode unique. As I continued to watch and meet each of the students, I was so happy to see the diversity of the students chosen. I felt like everyone watching would be able to see themselves in some way through the student representation. As a person of color, that is always very important to me.

I love that The College Tour features students from all walks of life from first generation students to students with disabilities. I also love that the show touches on Masters and Doctorate level studies as well. Viewers will even hear from students who are seeking degrees later in life. You can also see an all-Spanish episode from Maricopa College!

Watch The College Tour

I mentioned earlier that The College Tour is on Prime Video, but the GREAT thing is, you do not have to have a subscription to watch the series! The episodes are all available to watch on The College Tour website. You can also access FREE video-based classes to use for classroom lessons. Many school counselors are implementing The College Tour in the classroom and they have noted the show is helping students feel equipped to go to college. Using the lessons teaches students what to look for as they decide which college is the right fit for them. The College Tour website offers the series for FREE to ensure there is an equitable distribution of information. That’s pretty awesome!

The College Tour is now streaming on the The College Tour APP/Streaming Channel through the following: Apple TV, Roku, Google Play, Amazon Fire, Android TV, and Smart TVs, including Samsung, Sony, LG, and Phillips. The College Tour also streams for free on Amazon Prime.

If I were a high school counselor, I would definitely begin implementing this series into my school counseling program and sharing this great resource with students and families. And, as I said before, it’s never too early to get students thinking about this, so even middle and elementary school counselors can introduce this to families as well. Families can begin watching the series while their children are young so that by high school, the children are engaged with the idea of working toward the goal of going to college. I highly recommend this series. It is very well done!

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