Prep Day - Washington D.C College Tours 

          For Prep Day this year, I decided that the smartest activity to participate in, as a junior, would be the D.C college trip, which consisted of four tours.  This was a unique experience for me because it was the first time that I had toured schools with a group of my peers, who were able to share their thoughts on the various colleges.  The D.C college visits were also on a Wednesday and Thursday so I really got a good understanding of what life on campus was like because our tours took place during the middle of the school week.  The tours, were in some cases, lead by Prep alumni who showed us around the campus and shared their experience with the school. 

          The first of the four schools we toured was the University of Delaware.  The only disappointing part of the trip was the bad weather which detracted from the amount of time that we could spend looking at schools on the first day.  Because of the bad weather conditions, we only really had time to do a very brief tour and then lunch in the Delaware cafeteria.  The next college that we toured was Loyola Maryland.  This tour was much more productive than the University of Delaware because we were broken up into groups of 6-7 and we each had our own tour guide.  The last college tour that day was Georgetown, and our tour guide was Prep alumni Matthew Halcheck.  Being lead by a Prep alumnus was a unique experience because he was able to answer questions that many tour guides would not have been able to.  Questions like, “Was the transition from Prep to Georgetown difficult?”, or “What’s the one thing you miss most from Prep”.  The final college tour we did was the Catholic University of America. After eating breakfast in their cafeteria, we did a big group tour which was effective, but not as effective as the Loyola tours.  The tour ended with a trip to the campus shop, and then we headed back home.

- Sean Severson