<p>Bingle - on other discussions, some parents have reacted negatively to parking lot signs saying “reserved for (student name)” – finding it cheesy instead of welcoming. I have little opinion one way or the other, just pointing out that one person’s welcoming is another person’s over-the-top!</p>
<p>Have plenty of copies of the student newspaper, course guides, etc in the waiting area. </p>
<p>Orient us with a big picture view of the campus (“we are starting at the southeast corner and will make our way to x, then y and then z”) so I know that you aren’t skipping the science center, it’s just the last thing on the tour. </p>
<p>Don’t just leave us at the end. Give very clear instructions and directions. For those of you who want to go to the bookstore and grab a t-shirt, it’s this way. For those of you who want to go back to the student center and hang out, it’s that way. For those of you who parked in the main lot, it’s this way.</p>
<p>What do you mean by condescending instructions about where to walk?</p>
<p>
Just a specific experience I had at one school (not going to name names) where the guide warned everyone in a mean-kindergarten-teacher way not to walk in the road… when nobody was even trying to walk in the road.</p>
<p>Show us the facilities we’re interested in. If D says she wants to be a music major, don’t just walk past the music building and say, “yeah, so, they built this really nice recital hall and the practice rooms are in there, too.” If we ask about it and you don’t have the key, make it a point to find someone in admissions who will show us once we get back to the office.</p>
<p>Too much detail is a turn-off, especially when most of it is available on the website. This is especially a problem with some tours.</p>
<p>Admissions officers, if you ever have a slow day - or even on your way to work - try to follow the campus signage and see where it leads you. I was trying to find the student center parking at one large state U. I followed the signs to the student center…which eventually stopped, four blocks and two turns shy of the student center. And if summer construction is blocking the signage for your building, you can get one of those big banners made for about $50.</p>
<p>If you have an honors college, please make sure you have an honors college rep handle the tour (or be available for a tour). Too many times a potential honors kid is on a tour, asks questions about the honors college programs and the guide has no clue how to answer the kid. One student once told me that the guide said, “We have an honors college?” And she was not joking, either.</p>
<p>^Agree! I realize large schools have to play to the middle, but they need to be aware of and have answers for the kids who will be coming in with multiple APs, want honors courses, and so forth.</p>
<p>“Too many times a potential honors kid is on a tour, asks questions about the honors college programs and the guide has no clue how to answer the kid.”</p>
<p>One otherwise astute guide rolled his eyes at the question re: honors program and said he didn’t understand why anyone would “do honors” since it didn’t really mean anything.</p>
<p>When a student makes an appointment for an interview well in advance and expects to have an interview with an admission counselor, don’t suddenly pair them with a senior student for their interview without notifying the prospie in advance.</p>
<p>When there is summer construction and there are boards and wires across walking paths, put out a warning sign so that people on the tour do not trip and fall! I have seen this happen more than once to some pour parents!</p>
<p>When someone makes an appointment for an interview and tour, do not make them wait for over one hour past the appointment time, and if they must wait more than a few minutes offer them a small snack and/or water, especially on hot days. Also, I find it rude to have counselors open up their office doors and peek out of their offices repetitively, and then close the doors (must have happended close to 10 times while we were waiting at one school) without saying hello to the prospie (and family) that they obviously see in the admission waiting areas. We only experienced this at one school. While waiting one counselor could have said hello, introduced themselves, talked a bit about the school etc. A receptionist could have offered a bottle/cup of water (it was over 90 degrees that day). </p>
<p>Nearly all of our tours were wonderful, informative, and very welcoming. There were a few with glitches, and my suggestions above reflect some of the less pleasant experiences.</p>
<p>We never had any really negative reactions to any session or tours with either of our two oldest. But I really stopped going to info sessions after the oldest did his college junket. Rarely do they give you any information that you cannot find or glean from the college website. Sometimes it felt like we were being read the website or it was a PowerPoint that was so basic it was a total waste of time. Neither the kids nor I found the info sessions to be of much value.</p>
<p>I agree, momofthreeboys. For my second child, attending the info session was always pretty much the kiss of death for that school.</p>
<p>Information interview: should cover some basics, but hopefully visitors did their research. That said, I don’t need to redo what I can find online (and go ahead and tell visitors to find more online. I’d appreciate you doing that). Don’t forget too that you are “selling” the school. Remember your audience. With parents and students together, appeal to us both. And, since we’re not into college just yet, remember to explain the differences. Like, explain what kids do on their down time (and don’t just talk about “kids playing frisbee in the quad”. Make it unique to your college!)</p>
<p>When you talk about FA, remember kids don’t always want to hear this talk. Maybe they should, but maybe they don’t need to deal with that. Please also don’t go into such details, expecting to cover the whole information talk exclusively on FA. We are there to learn about the college. If we decide to go there, then we might need to learn about FA options at your school.</p>
<p>Just like you expect the applications from students to be unique, I’d like the college visits and information tours to be special too. Sometimes there was very little difference among the colleges. Yawn.</p>
<p>Finally, for the tours hire kids who have LOUD voices or have them wear amplifiers so everyone can hear them. (There are products that are sold for this: Front Row’s ToGo system).</p>
<p>Don’t overdo the history lesson. We really didn’t care how/when/why Stanford was founded certainly not at the length we got to hear about it.</p>
<p>Oh, see, I loved that at Gtown! It gave me such a sense of place and history.</p>
<p>I’m geeky about the history stuff too. My kids avoided the high rise campuses anyway so most were old and the history was interesting. My second one liked the history patter, too.</p>
<p>Have an appropriate number of tour guides available so that the group doesn’t get too large. One school in the Pacific Northwest sent my DD and I out in a group of over 300 (I counted) with one tour guide. We left the tour part way through and DD did not apply.</p>
<p>Make sure that the person giving the information session is comfortable with the material - have him or her rehearse at least once in front of an internal audience. We had an information session at a different PNW college where the person giving the presentation obviously had never seen it before. </p>
<p>Use the information session to deal with the information that an admissions officer is the only source for - e.g. how does admissions work here? Do they take the common app? When evaluating the app, what are they looking for? What are some memorable do’s and don’t’s.</p>
<p>Use the tour session as a means to have the student explain what life is like at school x. Don’t tell me how many books you have in your library and about how speedy inter-college loans are - everyone has that now. Instead, tell me about the small study group rooms and how they fit into the program (e.g. I had a speech class where we were broken into small groups every week - we used those rooms to practice our speeches and critique each other (a real example for Willamette U - who give a GREAT tour).</p>
<p>Show a couple of classrooms, tell me how big the biggest lecture hall on campus is. Show me a dorm room - and explain where it differs and where it is reasonable normal.</p>
<p>Don’t show me a dorm room with a sleeping coed. (Yup - really happened)</p>
<p>See Admissions Department? Do it well, and we like it. Make it boring and we’d wish we were elsewhere. The more interesting unique details about the schools, the better. the more generic you make it, we’d wish we missed the talk. </p>
<p>It’s just like the application you hope to see next winter. Add anecdotes to make the buildings have special meaning, great. Wave you arm around and declare “and this is Dexter Hall. We take most of our classes in here” and we’re ready to leave.</p>
<p>I liked the history at Georgetown too, they got the balance right. Besides it was interesting!</p>
<p>(S2 came in and said it had too much history too, especially at info session.)</p>
<p>If your admissions office is in a building that doesn’t have “admissions” in the name (e.g. Big Donor Hall), use that name in your emails so we can find your office on the map. In fact, print out a copy of your campus map and see how helpful it is. Does it clearly show visitor parking? One way streets? Whether streets are blocked to vehicular traffic?</p>
<p>If you aren’t taking care of lunch, give us some suggestions of where to go to eat…of course, it can be very telling if we can’t find a place to eat. At one school we wanted to eat breakfast near campus. We drove up and down the main street and found only used car lots and pawn shops…not s single Starbucks or donut shop. The ONLY place nearby was a Burger King…that in itself was a big negative for the school.</p>