Each year, McKinney Christian’s sophomore class embarks on a college tour during missions week to get a head start on the college selection process. This year, the class of 2022 visited nine colleges all across Texas and Oklahoma.

Early Monday morning, students loaded the buses and headed to their first stop at Baylor University. During their time at Baylor, students walked the campus with Baylor students, saw the University’s mascot, ate lunch in the dining hall, and sat in on presentations given by Ph.D. students. From Waco, students traveled to Mary Hardin Baylor University in Belton, Texas where they enjoyed Chick-Fil-A while sitting in the football stadium after a campus tour. From there, the sophomores checked into their hotel for the night and went to Austin’s Park and Pizza. Students ate at the pizza buffet, played mini-golf, raced go-karts, played laser tag, and rode some rides. This was a great time for all of the students to bond as a grade. They were able to enjoy each other’s company in a very different and fun environment and it was the perfect way to end the first day of the tour.

The next day, students loaded the buses and were off to The University of Texas at Austin, where they were given a tour of “The 40 Acres”, the nick name for the university. After their time at UT, students traveled to Texas’ other flagship college, A&M at College Station where they spent the rest of the day. At A&M, the sophomores received a tour, heard from Dr. Carlee Purdum (MCA alumni) of the Texas A&M Disaster Relief and Recovery Center, attended a baseball game, and went to “Breakaway,” a worship and message gathering at A&M.

On Wednesday, the sophomores visited LeTourneau University, one of MCA’s dual credit partners, before heading home for the day. The sophomores walked around in the rain and hopped on the bus drenched eager to get home, but looking forward to more tours the next day. Students stayed at home Wednesday night before returning Thursday morning to travel to The University of Oklahoma.

After the tour of the University of Oklahoma in Norman, the sophomores enjoyed the OU dining hall, Coach Restaurant, famous for the only place with unlimited Chick-Fil-A in the world. Students then loaded the buses to get to Oklahoma State University where they toured, shopped, enjoyed the traditional Hideaway Pizza Buffet, and celebrated some birthdays throughout the group. The group then attended Encounter, a BCM worship event on the OSU campus before heading back to the hotel to hang out with one another. To their surprise, student’s parents provided food and games for everyone to enjoy while at the hotel.

On Friday, the sophomores toured two more schools: Oklahoma Baptist University and  Southeastern Oklahoma State University before heading back home to conclude their college tour.

Sophomore, Will Penney said that “It was nice to see college in person and it gave us an insight into what college might be like. It also provided us with the ability to see the variety of colleges: Big or small, private or public. College tour provided me the opportunity to explore colleges that I wouldn’t have gotten anywhere else.” Overall, the college tour was a great way for the sophomores to receive some insight into what their future holds.