Chris Bukata was not impressed with Georgetown when he first arrived on campus with his son, Greg.

“Driving in, I said `I already hate this place,’ in the parking lot,” Bukata said. “I didn’t like coming in.”

But after the two attended an information session at the Office of Undergraduate Admissions and took a campus tour, Bukata quickly changed his mind.

“It is a vibrant place,” he said. “Red Square was great.”

Spring brings visitors like the Butakas from near and far, most of them sporting high school juniors in tow, making the age-old pilgrimage to the nation’s top colleges and universities in search of the right fit.

According to Leah Thomas, assistant director of campus programs for the Office of Undergraduate Admissions, approximately 8,300 visitors came to campus in March and April alone, 3,500 of them students. She said the number of visitors is on track to match last year’s record-breaking 31,000 visitors.

The typical visit for a prospective student includes an information session at the Office of Undergraduate Admissions and a campus tour led by a Blue and Gray tour guide. Thomas said the admissions office hopes to show prospective students “the unique experience that is embodied by a Georgetown experience.”

Michael McCluskey (COL ’09), a Blue and Gray tour guide, said his goal when giving a tour is to convey that Georgetown is a unique stop in the pre-college pilgrimage.

“I always like to emphasize important factors such as academics, athletics and student life, dorm life and our great location in Washington, D.C.,” McCluskey said. “There is always so much going on on our campus, whether it is a guest speaker or a seminar or just tabling throughout Red Square [that] our tours here tend to come alive for the prospective student.”

And for many of those hopeful students, Georgetown lives up to the image the admissions office labors to maintain.

“It was neat to see all the architecture and stuff, just the campus overall,” said Sam Reinhardt, a high school junior from Tifton, Ga.

Kyle O’Donnell, a high school junior from Massachusetts, said that he liked the trees and foliage of Copley and Healy lawns, as well as Georgetown’s athletics.

“The tour was good, very informative. I got to see the lacrosse team practice,” O’Donnell said.

Parents and students alike were surprised and pleased with the more traditional campus feel of the university.

“It’s much quieter [than I thought], but you still have the city,” O’Donnell’s mother Janice said.

McCluskey added that he also tries to allay the concerns parents frequently raise about alcohol consumption and campus safety. Parents echoed the importance of the message of university security, adding that the campus seemed very safe.

Reinhardt’s mother, Susan, thought the campus “sounded very safe,” and said that she especially liked the tour guide’s mention of GERMS, the Department of Public Safety and GUTS buses.

Many students and parents expressed disappointment, however, that the university did not open as many classrooms and residence halls for tours as they said other campuses they visited had. Still, that didn’t stop many prospective students from saying that they looked forward to applying to Georgetown in the fall.

Greg Bukata said that Georgetown had become his favorite university after visiting the campus.

“Everything was great,” he said. “I was impressed.”