<p>Oh man, I'd forgotten that I created this thread back in the day.</p>
<p>Here's a funny story from my MIT Admissions blogger experience.</p>
<p>On one of the first dates of my life, with my first boyfriend, we were headed toward a restaurant near campus for dinner. We were standing at a street corner waiting for the light to turn. Suddenly a pack of about half a dozen freshmen ran up to us ("You're an admissions blogger!") and started chattering at me. They had a prospective student who was visiting campus in tow. They wanted to introduce him to a "real live Admissions blogger!" It was blindingly obvious that he wasn't a blog reader and had no idea who I was, but they spent the next five minutes hanging on me like a pack of puppies telling this poor kid about me and trying to get us to talk. I'm mildly surprised that they didn't follow us into the restaurant and try to sit down with us.</p>
<p>My hands-down favorite tourguide, and I have many, was from NYU, although none of our kids went there ultimately. The one who wanted it didn't get in and vice-versa, ah well.</p>
<p>Anyway, she was about 5 feet tall, blonde and adorable, walking backwards despite construction, raising her voice above a noisy street day in Greenwich Village. She backed herself into corner niches to help broadcast her voice, wore a crisp blazer and low heels to negotiate the sidewalks, and in general personified "street savvy." Originally she was from a rural town in the South. When asked, she said she dresses to guide the tour, but carries sneakers in her backpack for the rest of the day.</p>
<p>A group of teens walked by, guilty of "breathing while black" carrying h.s. bookbags. Right then, a nervous dad asked about "nieghborhood crime" looking anxiously after the disappearing teens. Tourguide practically mopped the sidewalks with the Dad, saying basically, if what you see here at 11:00 a.m. concerns you, you might wonder if anyplace in NYC is right for you. Then she cited neighborhood crime stats (very low indeed) with razor-sharp accuracy. She redirected the tour to discuss purchasing top-run Broadway shows for $30. </p>
<p>Even more impressive was the D of the nervous dad. Nobody on tour could figure out who belonged to him, as she obviously melted towards some other parental unit. </p>
<p>I think both girls have a future in NYC. Point is: if you are nervous to even see people of color, strike NYC off your list. Tourguide had no patience to coddle the dad's fears, and that's what interested me the most.</p>
<p>Yes, she sent the letter back to them (and told them that she wouldn't be attending since she got into her ED school). She continued to receive enrollment info from them though- housng info, admitted students day info. She said she'd call them if they sent her a letter with her roommate's name.
Fortunately, that never happened.</p>
<p>Thanks, I honestly appreciate knowing this. Am guiding someone who has Fordham on her list, so the story really caught my attention. Thanks. Hope your D is flourishing now!!</p>
<p>I really loved Fordham- the location, the students, their "mission". But the administrative offices were just terrible. Just be sure to really keep on top of things. If your friend seems very qualified yet gets rejected, I would even call them to double check that the decision was correct. The same year my D had her trouble, my best friend's son got an EA rejection letter from Fordham one day and an acceptance letter from them two days later- no mention of the first letter being sent by mistake. Just two completely different letters. He also got into another school ED and didn't attend Fordham. But he did call admissions and told them about the two letters fiasco. Hopefully they're better organized this year.</p>
<p>Another Fordham story. It was my friends top choice. He had a very good average and good SATS. They invited him to interveiw for the honors program and get a private tour etc. Around March he calls and the lady in Admissions tells him he has been accepted and he should be getting the letter in a few days. Well he does get the letter in a few days, but it is a rejection letter. The lady had made a mistake and had to personally call his mother and apologize. Apparently his SATS were not up to their standards at almost a 2000.</p>
<p>Our campus visit to Wesleyan was just a day or two before an S&M festival which was heavily promoted with posters and sidewalk chalk messages. The tour was given by a delightful and intelligent physics major from India, but within a very short while the group dwindled to less than half the number we started with. Those who left were vocally and clearly were not choosing to do the tour on their own, but looking for the most direct route to the parking lot. My daughter wondered if they were perhaps concerned about their kids being being offered complimentary Wesleyan tee shirts afterwards.</p>
<p>Our Yale experience began with the corniest video I have ever seen, followed by a pretty useless hour-long tour that was more a lesson in Yale's history than anything else. Towards the end of the tour we were crossing a courtyard, and our awkward tourguide says, "Yeah, this courtyard is actually heated from underneath? I guess since we're Yale we can do that." She said it with such a superior tone and it just seems like a huge waste of energy (especially after reading that NY Times article on College of the Atlantic, which starts off describing how students wait until they practically can't see their dinner in the cafeteria before reluctantly turning off the lights). Ugh. Afterwards we met with a really lovely Yale student, niece of a family friend, which was a nice note to end the experience on - well, actually my dad twisted his ankle really badly at the end of the day - anyway, I'm not applying there, no matter how cozy the courtyard may be.</p>
<p>at duke last year my mom and i were walking through all the tents (duke students tent outside for tickets to bball games) when:</p>
<p>VERY drunk boy: HEY YOU! GET INSIDE MY TENT!
Other boy: Dude, that's a mom!
Drunk boy: Heeeeey momma!
.. and so forth</p>
<p>my mom is not young/hot and very anti-alcohol, so she practically ran away and hated the school from then on... it was awkward</p>
<p>also, my brother goes to upenn and was a tour guide for about 2 weeks... used to tell the obsessive kids/parents that they should probably retake their sats because they need at least above a 2300, or to try taking up [exotic sport or craft] because "the dean told me Penn really needs one of those"</p>
<p>over the summer i went to boston and toured mass college of pharmacy. the student panel there has become somewhat of a running joke in my family- i wonder if they were the only 4 students left there over the summer. the admissions office gave us the previous year's brochure and application info because they hadn't finished everything yet. one guy, when asked why he chose MCP, said "well, i'm from ct, so obviously i looked at uconn for pharmacy, but i didn't get in. plus, storrs is in the middle of nowhere." the next question was what they liked to do for fun (the college is very urban, right around northeastern) and his answer was "oh, we hang out in our dorms. play a lot of video games." my uconn alum parents were wondering why they had to be in a city to play D&D.
later, when the whole thing was done and we were hungry, we asked where they liked to eat, thinking we could get lunch at a great local place. "have you ever been to TGIFridays? it's delicious."</p>
<p>D visiting Davidson. Rep for school received heated call which kept army of prospective parents and students at bay. Full of apologies, she told us she received a call from F. Was irate that son not admitted to Davidson. "He got into the other 19 schools, what is wrong with you people?" he asked. Davidson, understanding that their admission was irrelevant to his matriculation, decided to preserve their acceptance for another student. Imagine that.</p>