College and university administrators, especially the directors of admissions, who are on the frontline of the competition for prospective students, understand that college today is much more than an education: it is a lifestyle. They know that the size of the applicant pool and the eventual admissions yield frequently depend on one factor: the campus tour. And that means that the weapon of choice in the marketing wars is architecture that matches the expectations of prospective students. Today's students are sophisticated consumers who shop for colleges the way they shop for anything else and colleges have responded with equal sophistication, hiring celebrity architects and focusing on facilities that offer the amenities that students expect, while facing the challenge of sustaining the tradition and sense of community of the "academic village."