University Passport Launches on California Campuses

All the talk of who is going to which college has just about settled down in our town. The decision phase has been in fever pitch for a few months now. With my kids a few years away from the college hunt, I have been stunned by how many schools kids visit and how many they apply to before they (and the schools) make their final decision.

Michael Kim was one of them just a few years ago. He remembers traveling from California to look at colleges in Boston, getting lost, being late for an interview, and thinking that the 40-minute tour of the campus was not really worth flying across the country. "I could have just gone to the web site," said Kim, a UC Davis graduate.

So he worked on an idea for a business to provide students and parents with a better college tour experience. The recently launched University Passport is up and running, and tours are available on five University of California campuses. Tours will be added at Stanford and University of Southern California by the end of summer.

On the University Passport web site, students and parents can book flights, hotels, and plan their time on and around campus. For $110 per student and $85 per parent, the company promises more than a 40-minute tour. A shuttle bus picks up students and adults, and student tour guides show them the standard tour stops as well as campus sites not on the college's customary tour. Visitors dine in a student dining hall, take part in an interactive student panel with current students, and have the chance to sit down with a student or professor in their intended major.

Kim, meanwhile, sees the web site developing into a social network where students can ask other students about the colleges they attend. If it takes off, he sees the company expanding to campuses throughout the country.

Check it out. I'd love to hear from parents and students who have recently gone through the college search about what they think about the kind of service University Passport plans to provide.