Homemade videos
offer closer look
at colleges
The videos are homespun, with no fancy angles or background music. The camera even jiggles a bit. But it captures an up-close, unvarnished look at mainland colleges, without the air ticket.
Tricia Shoemaker, of Haiku, ordered 10 videos for her daughter, Annie, a senior at Seabury Hall, so she could consider lots of options in applying to college this fall. For students in Hawaii, the videos offer a shortcut that can help narrow their choices, she said.
"It was really great to have them," said Shoemaker, who learned about Collegiate Choice Walking Tours Videos from a Seabury counselor. "I felt like we were choosing the right college after watching it."
The videos capture student-led tours of college campuses, as if an uncle tagged along with his video camera -- except that the cameraman is a college counselor, who knows what questions to ask. They cost $15 per tour, plus shipping, and run from half an hour to two hours, depending on the tour.
What they lack in finesse, the videos make up for in spontaneity, unlike the carefully scripted promotions available from the colleges themselves. The company has 350 videos of colleges in North America and a few in Europe.
"The viewer can literally look over our shoulders to see and hear everything we did," said Cliff Kramon, an independent college adviser in Tenafly, N.J., who runs Collegiate Choice.
"The good news is that we are guidance counselors who make sure our student guides touch on all the topics we think important," he added. "The bad news is that we are guidance counselors, not filmmakers."
The Shoemakers had visited a few mainland schools last year, and Annie fell in love with the University of Denver. The videos gave her a chance to see some more far-flung options, such as Harvard, her mother said.
"It might not convince you to go, but it may remove questions," Shoemaker said.
For more information, visit www.collegiatechoice.com.
