Video: You-are-there campus tours
As a 1980s-era student who waded through college brochures instead of slick online presentations, the idea of a college tour videos still seems like a Jetsons-age luxury.
That said, I've seen a few that were so slick they left little impression of the campus or of student life at the school. (And this University Business writer has had a similar experience with some of the older ones.)
So when she wrote about this first-person video recently produced by Fairfield University in Connecticut, I had to give it a look.
It's a trip. The university has you choose whether you want the experience of students David or Sarah, and then let's you spend a day with them.
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I chose David. The day started with his alarm clock going off in his dorm room, and from there it took me through his morning routine, classes, a trip into town and the beach, a ball game, studying and a campus dance. I got a good look at his dormitory (including bathroom), the campus, classrooms and community. The presentation is smooth, though the shaky camera adds a certain amateur YouTube flavor.
Experiencing everything through his eyes -- and yes, he interacts with the people around him -- did give me an I-am-there feel that's missing in most campus videos I've seen.
That said, I was a little impatient with the time spent taking in some of the mundane details of life campus. But I'm not a prospective student, and that type of viewer just might eat it up.