By VANESSA YU:

Colleges have sent out their decision and prospective students are now faced with the first step into adulthood. College campus tours are a vital part in a student’s decision.

Their choices will affect the next four years. Alexandra Avendaño and Kylie Greenhut took these tours which helped them make the final decision for college. Avendaño resented Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois.

Greenhut loved San Jose State University.

“I hated Bradley. There was nothing there that would spark my interest,” Avendaño said.

Avendaño got off the airplane in Chicago where she drove 150 miles to Peoria. Upon reaching the school, she found the lack of diversity inappropriate for a communications major. That steered her far from Peoria.

Greenhut took one weekend to drive up to San Jose State University where she participated in orientation and fell in love. With a communications major in mind as well, she was impressed with the innumerable clubs that exist within the university. The clubs offer her a chance to intermingle and converse with people all around the world on a single campus. Greenhut has her heart set on San Jose State.

“There is so much to do there, the diversity is amazing,” Greenhut said.

The same weekend that Greenhut took her college tour, I took a campus tour myself to the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Through the student initiated program “A Step Forward,” I joined about 20 other Southern California students on a tour bus. The campus itself was beautiful and the people were nice.

However, with an over-bearing “we’re always right” philosophy, I immediately knew where I would be going to in the fall. UC Irvine offers the opportunities to expand my scholastic and social horizons that UC Santa Cruz did not.

I strongly recommend students who are juggling several college options to take college tours.

These tours offer a taste of the college life with a group of like-minded individuals who are also in the process of figuring out where they belong in the college life.