Boarding school tours

Prep School Admissions
1

Hi!

I just have a question. Are the boarding school tours assessed? Do they evaluate the prospective students by the end of every tour?

2

If you mean assessment by tour guide, then no. At least at DD’s school.

1 Like
3

Yes, that was what i meant. Sorry for not being clear. Also, what does DD mean?

4

I think it’s “Dear Daughter” and DS means “Dear Son.”

2 Likes
5

Oh, thank you for clarifying. Sorry for being ignorant!

6

Seconding that at my school, we tour guides do not assess students. That said, please be nice :slight_smile:

9 Likes
7

Unless you are extremely talkative, the tour student won’t notice you among the group of families. The tour is for the school to showcase their facilities. It’s not intended to evaluate the potential students.

There was one parent I noticed during a tour-- the mom was a teacher from a public school in math. The tour said their math class in upper school was lecture based, not as much discussion as in lower school, she disagreed it was the way to do it and made it known! Her child was extremely quiet though, just the opposite as the mom. Thus I remembered them. I don’t remember anybody else in that tour.

8

At my school, we tour one family per tour guide, as was so at every private school I applied to.

Extremely uninterested students with parents who badger you with bogus questions are the worst, though; please don’t be one of them :slight_smile:

5 Likes
9

In 25+ BS tours I’ve never been on one that was not private.

3 Likes
10

Ours were all private, and at our school, there was no assessment provided by the guide.

4 Likes
11

There was only one tour that we did that had another family and oh my goodness, the parents of the other young woman drove me and my daughter crazy throughout the tour and the subsequent chat with an admissions officer. They clearly thought they were being evaluated and kept listing off said young lady’s achievements to the poor student tour guide. And asking questions that were really just a chance to have some more accomplishments out in the open. Then, as we were waiting for the admissions officer to come in for the chat, the dad badgered the girl to play the piano that was in the room until she finally did (she obviously didn’t want to), trying to showcase her skills in that area as well. Meanwhile, my daughter spotted what looked like a hidden door in the wall and asked if I thought her chances of admission would go down if she tried to open it and see what was on the other side. I told her to go for it, which she did. It was a disappointing hidden storage closet. :rofl:

4 Likes
12

We had one at Choate that was a group tour.

1 Like
13

Poor child being forced to play the piano
 I can feel the pain.

2 Likes
14

The ones we went on were not all private tours. Just one other family when it wasn’t private. Wasn’t that big of a deal one way or another. The guides were great and when we had another family with us, the kids fed off each others’ questions at times which was pretty nice. I guess it could have been awful if the other family was awful but we had good luck in our pair ups and guides.

3 Likes
15

@RoonilWazlib99
Omigosh! That is quite a story!!! I’m mortified for that poor kid!!!

2 Likes
16

She seemed pretty mortified herself. She kept telling her dad to stop asking questions and talking about her awards during the tour.

2 Likes
17

I was once asked “How do you get into this school?” by a prospective parent.

2 Likes
18

My kid is a tour guide at a school often mentioned on this forum. The guide absolutely DOES have a review to submit after each tour. It’s not an ‘assessment’ of the potential applicant and their resume/intellect but more about how they behaved on the tour.

My kid tells me that the review consists of questions like:

  • was the student respectful of you?
  • was the student respectful of their parents?
  • did the student seem interested in learning about the school?
  • does the parent seem to want their kid to attend this school more than the student?

And then finally

  • in your opinion, would you tell admission to admit this student: without hesitation/yes with reservations/probably not/definitely not.
6 Likes
19

Wow! I can imagine how parent child dynamics play into tour behavior and impressive-- see @RoonilWazlib99 's story! How awful for a kid who is just trying to avoid triggering a parent’s bad behavior to get dinged for that.

1 Like
20

hahha, I’m on the same bus.