The West Coast College Tour spent two nights in Las Vegas. We bounced out of bed after the first night like silver dollars paying off from a one armed bandit!
- We had a morning appointment with the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
- We had an afternoon appointment with the Hoover Dam.
We had stuff to do!
Once again we had trouble finding where the prospective students were supposed meet. So, by the time we found the meeting place, we were late. I dropped off all three ladies and started looking for parking. The most desirable parking seemed to be the parking garage called Tropicana.
Now here is a rant on getting to the prospective student meeting. I’ll pick on UNLV because they are the last big campus we visited, not because they were any worse than anyone else in providing maps and directions for getting around campus . You’d think that Admissions departments would want to make Campus Tours easy. It sure sounds easy when you are looking over things trying to figure out what you need to know. Unfortunately, as a first time visitor, you don’t know enough to recognize the shorthand that anyone who has been there before just assumes. At UNLV, they have worked very hard on their campus maps and have condensed a lot of information onto them. This results in a large number of buildings all packed together with numbers apparently assigned at random. The key is ordered alphabetically by some permutation of building name. It is impossible to quickly determine where you want to go based on where you are, even though the University has these maps posted all over campus. Sure, after you’ve been there a while the maps could be a great reference, but for the person who doesn’t know quite what they are looking for, they are a false hope.
Anyway, here’s how I would tell the family of a prospective student how to link up with the folks giving campus tours at UNLV:
The Student Services Complex (32 on those maps) is just to the east of the Thomas and Mack Center (16) which is very visible from Tropicana Boulevard. Assuming that our experience is common, the Thomas and Mack Center will not be having an event and the parking lot will be empty. Make your way to the right (east) side of the arena and take the road north of the Tropicana Parking Garage (13) and, as you are forced to curve to the left, the Student Services Complex – Building B is on your right.
If you click on the photo captioned “Student Services Complex” it will enlarge to the point that you can see “SSC B” on one of the buildings. That is UNLV speak for ‘Welcome prospective students, your tour starts here.’
You may not be able to drive any further. Although the roads are indicated on the map, there are metal gates set up to prevent traffic. The best place to park is probably the Tropicana Parking Garage, because you may be able to park below the top level and get some shade – a real plus in the summer in Las Vegas.
We also visited the Bookstore (36) and the Student Union (38). After all that, the College Tour Review Team announced that they liked the folks they talked to… but… they didn’t think they wanted to be Runnin’ Rebs – Las Vegas was too hot to keep up the pace.
On to Hoover Dam, which you really don’t have to see just because you’re in Las Vegas, but we did and we were glad. I kind of geeked out over the facts like how much concrete went into its construction and how much power is generated. It is still an awesome project. Our student tourists enjoyed walking where Percy Jackson had walked
We didn’t have to drive very far after Hoover Dam; we went back to Las Vegas and the Freakin’ Castle.
