Campus Tours

I don’t know why it’s a big deal if parents ask questions. I’ve done lots of tour with my 2 oldest kids and most were a plane ride away. If we’re going through that time and expense we’re going to at least ask some questions. Some questions I asked, some my kids asked, didn’t really matter to my kids nor did the tour guides seem to care. I think most tour guides love answering questions because giving the same tour every day can get pretty old. Sometime if you walk beside the tour guide they’ll answer a question more honestly than they will to the whole group. My S22 is very social so we would often ask quietly, “what do kids really do on weekends?”. We’d usually get a more honest response than the standard “oh we have 200 clubs and you can start your own if you like”.

Some other things we liked to ask:

Are sporting events well attended? What’s the most popular sport for spectators? How many intramurals do you have, how hard is it to get on a team? You could ask similar questions for musical performances or art shows or whatever your student is into.

Do many kids go home on weekends?

Is it a bar school or a house party school?

What’s you favorite/least favorite course you’ve taken?

Where did you eat most of your meals as a freshman? (Thai often tells you if the cafeteria food is actually any good).

Who was your favorite professor and why?

How many hours on average do you do homework in a day? What do you do the rest of the day?

What was your biggest class size? Who was your favorite professor and why?

Obviously we wouldn’t ask all these questions on every tour. You don’t want to be the student or parent that monopolizes the whole tour.

We also like to spend time walking around campus on our own. Eat in the cafeteria if you can and observe if kids are socializing or on their phones. Strike up a conversation with a random student and ask them a couple of your questions. Walk through campus and off campus on a Fri or Sat night and see what kids are doing. See if kids smile at you and hold open doors. Drive or walk around the surrounding areas (all four sides, not just where the school entrance is). Eat at a local student hangout for lunch or dinner.

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The twist on @Juno16 's question that always ended up being revealing was “what’s the class that everybody wants to take?” It lead very naturally to how hard to get classes were prioritized, how kids heard about these amazing classes (History of the Holocaust at one school, Yiddish Literature at another, and Creative Writing workshops at another), etc.

Another favorite was how did you meet your friend group? It is a nice opening for the social vibe.

But yes, it should be the kid asking. I saw a lot of eye rolling diring parent questions. A few schools cleverly split tours so students were in one group and parents another, but they were in the minority.

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Let’s see I think I have been on 7 or 8 campus tours and I mostly only asked questions to move the spiel along, tried to laugh at the appropriate places, etc. My D22 didn’t ask many questions either, but she absorbed it all and just walking around campus was super helpful for her. Later during admitted student sessions we did have breakout sessions for the parents for financial aid, etc, but D22 really did not want me talking a lot when she was around. Most of the other parents on these various tours did not ask many questions either. They really want to hear from the kids. If I wanted them to talk about something they weren’t addressing, dorms, or food, or whatever, I might ask something, but mostly in my D22’s view I was just supposed to provide transport and fade into the background.

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@kcoug26 - Not an answer to your question - but for college tours, we found the website Daytripper University to be very helpful. Fun info for places around each campus featured and a good guide to round out your visit. You may find it a helpful resource when you are touring.

I don’t think a parent asking a few questions is a big deal, just don’t dominate the tour. I’ve been on a ton, and a handful involved one parent just pestering the tour guide with continuous questions, not letting the kids get a word in edgewise. Also don’t ask questions easily obtainable from the website other sources.

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So what is the best question you have been asked as a tour guide?

And how did you answer….

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My son has been a tour guide at his LAC for the past three years. The guides are trained, mostly by more senior guides, but they are not constrained about what they can say in response to questions or required to stay “on script”. I think he appreciates it if the families he is touring with ask questions, talk about the students’ interests, etc., as it enables him to provide a more interesting (even for him) tour rather than just doing a standard spiel. He also does a lot of customized tours focusing on the arts or athletic facilities - if your student has specific interests, it’s always worth asking the admissions office if they can do something like this.

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The types of questions that were most helpful to my daughter’s were those that helped them figure out the campus vibe/activities and how that worked for them.

The least helpful questions were those that were simply factual questions where the answer was readily available on the school website.

Our best tour was the one where the weather was crappy and my daughter got a 1 on 1 tour. This meant the tour was completed shaped around her needs/desires and she and the guide just chatted away during the whole tour.

I stand by my view above that the role of the parents on these tours is to trail behind and listen. The worst tour we had was one where the parent’s dominated and gave the kids no chance to ask their questions.

There was 1 school that separated the parents and kids and did separate tours-- that was a model that I also really liked. My kid did too because it meant we could compare notes on what we heard.

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Where do you study, which leads to questions of how much or if the dorms are conducive to study, and can go a few other directions from there, like what’s the library used for these days, or where do most people study?

How was major selection for you: hard to get into a program, how did you choose, etc.

How hard to find a job, do you have one other than this, how many kids work, on or off campus jobs, etc.

What did you do last (or next) weekend? Not to be creepy, but to illustrate what a random weekend looks like. Also how often do most kids go home, or have friends visit them here.

What sports or arts events draw out the kids? What is school spirit built upon? Are there annual things that are unique to this school? You might be able to answer this on the website or Niche or whatever, but true energy can come through to really illuminate some answers.

Parents can ask questions and participate, but only when the kids are not carrying the ball. Leave space for them to jump in, but don’t sit on a decent question during a dead spot just because you asked the last one. Most people are happy to have someone else ask a question they are interested in hearing the answer to. My DD was chatting with a quieter student she met on one of our tours, and when that girl asked her a question DD just said “Well hang on, I’ll ask.” Not shy, that one.

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