<p>Frankfur wrote:</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I agree with this. The very first info session we attended was at Marist College on the Hudson in NY. They had a very engaging multi-media presentation and terrific presenters. I heard from people who had already been on several tours that this was the best info session they had been to. Unfortunately is gave me unrealistic expectations for others.</p>
<p>The tour guides play a ridiculously huge role in admissions. Collge adcomms should take heed. </p>
<p>Our two best:</p>
<p>UDel - Awesome personality, engineering major who played trumpet in the marching band, which had just marched at Obama’s inauguration parade. Great guy, excellent tour.</p>
<p>Brandeis - Classic overachiever, participated in everything, completely dramatic so a very entertaining tour (school was clearly too cerebral for my D!). Someone asked what he didn’t like about Brandeis: only negative for him was that he was Republican, which was really difficult there dring the last election.</p>
<p>Worst: UMass. Felt like cattle. No reservations and not enough tour guides, even though it was President’s Day and they had to know there would be a lot of HS students there. We spent the entire time trying to keep up with the tour guide so we could hear something… anything. Complete turn-off. I’m sure the campus isn’t as bad as the impression that D got (she didn’t apply).</p>
<p>Funniest dorm experience: Binghamton tour guide took us into her suite to show us a dorm room (she was in the nicest residence hall we saw on all our college tours). However, it was a Sunday and we had to step over her various sleeping roommates. We all laughed about that!</p>
<p>Best description of a large campus from a tour guide: UConn. It’s like a tootsie pop. Academic buildings in the middle, then residence halls around the next circle and athletic facilities on the outside. I’ll never forget this.</p>
<p>Good marketing: Univ of Maryland, as they parade you through the arena where the Final Four has been held. Makes you want to play basketball, even if you’ve never played before. Then go rub the terrapin’s nose for good luck in admissions! Forget academics. My D left that campus with a list of sports she wanted to play there.</p>
<p>Yalemom2: "I asked her what had surprised her most about Princeton compared to what she had expected and she said nothing - it was totally as wonderful as she had expected! "</p>
<p>If a student couldn’t come up with one thing that had “surprised” her about a school–not disappointed or a negative word–I would think she was a bit dull as well or was a total arrogant know-it-all or had not had many experiences. I asked my own dear child that same question some time back and she gave me an immediate response. It was not a response that I would expect her to share on a tour, nor will I share it here, but she had a response.</p>
<p>On a tour to UNC-Chapel Hill, there was a group of guides and we were directed to “pick one”. There was a handsome young man who was immediately bombarded by a group of girls. My daughter elected to go with a young lady who had just returned from a semester studying abroad…seemed like a good choice. She ended her sentences with “etcetera, etcetera and so forth”. There wasn’t a an opportunity to see a dorm room but she did tell us about the frequent 2 am fire alarms that usually ended with pajama volleyball. D was not amused and elected not to apply. Etcetera, etcetera</p>
<p>
Wait a minute…you say that your daughter’s response was not one that she would be likely to share on a tour, yet you’re ready to judge some stranger’s kid as dull or arrogant for not having a response that she was willing to share? Doesn’t seem quite cricket, what?</p>
<p>
We had a similar experience, but I made S apply as a safety (we are instate). He was accepted and went to the Accepted Student Day.</p>
<p>It was night and day. We had a great time, a great tour, really good sessions, and it pushed UMass to the top of the list. S is having a great time there.</p>
<p>This is why I think you shouldn’t read too much into the tour or the tour guide. Go on the tour, but then spend an hour or two on your own exploring the campus.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I don’t think I explained the context well - the tour guide had nothing real to say about anything. She quoted promotional material, and turned us all off with her social director/cheerleader vibe. I was hoping to get some real sense of the place from a student’s perspective with my question, and have asked that question on many other tours and received interesting responses, but instead received a vanilla response that struck a false note and was not enlightening. BTW, my S liked Princeton a lot in spite of the tour guide.</p>
<p>Wow- our Gtown tour was one tour guide for 7 people total - our family of 4 and another family of 3. Best tour guide ever. Goes to show how luck of the draw the whole thing is.</p>
<p>Nightchef–mine could have come up with ten things that surprised her. And if she were a tour guide, she would have been ready to tell someone something wonderful about her college. We quit doing the canned tours after about four because of the content of most of the tours.</p>
<p>Seeing dorm rooms on the tour is interesting, especially if the kid has never seen a dorm before. But there is lots of dorm variety even within one campus. </p>
<p>Families need to realize that at some schools, dorms are only for freshman. Then they need to move off campus. This seems to be most common at large state schools. </p>
<p>When we researched distant schools (most of them), I always liked to know % of students living on campus. In my case, I thought higher % better since apartment logistics can be grueling from 2000 miles away. If on campus % is not listed on the college website, you can find it at Peterson’s website. </p>
<p>It is possible that even with low %, students have the option to be on campus all 4 years. But that is more fun if your friends are likely to be doing that too.</p>
<p>
My S’s school requires that you live on campus your first two years, but I’m really hoping he moves off campus for his last two years. Dorm room/dining hall is too easy - I want him to learn how to deal with living in an apartment, handling landlords, utilities, contracts, repairs, etc, and being responsible for his own food. Or he’s really going to be in for a shock when he gets out in the real world.</p>
<p>Construction is always a turn off, especially in the winter.</p>
<p>On a tour at the end of a College Admissions Workshop at DePauw, our tourguide obviously decided to do a speed tour. We didn’t see any classrooms and went inside only one building. He brought us back so quickly that the organizers thought we hadn’t left. 30 minutes later the rest of the tours came back. We will be going back for an interview, so hopefully we will get a real tour.</p>
<p>Dickinson made such a big deal about its focus on globalization and then the tour guide talked about how easy it was to place out of taking a foreign language. Made us suspicious about the globalization talk as just a marketing tool.</p>