What were some of the most unusual questions you or your child has heard at info sessions or tours?
I’ll start, anticipating that many of you will add even funnier ones.
Asked of a college admissions officer at a session at a high school:
Student: How is the water pressure in the showers?
Admissions Officer (after a pause): I’ve never gotten that question before. (Longer pause.) I never showered on campus. If you visit and take a tour, maybe you could ask the tour guide.
As an ice breaker a tour guide asked kids to introduce themselves, where they were from and to name their favorite ice cream flavor. I don’t remember the kids names or where any were from but I do remember the one kid who answered “I’m lactose intolerant.”
I just remember at an info session at an ivy-school (probably 200 people in the large room) and some parent asked what the detailed course sequence was for a student who was pre-med. Aye-yi-yi.
About 20 years ago I was in charge of the local alumni admissions interviewing group for my alma mater, which shall remain nameless but has been ranked #1 on the USNWR national universities category for the last few years. A few other alums and I were at a fall evening admission event to help check people in and be on hand to answer questions from the alumni perspective but the main draw of the evening, of course, was the admission office rep who was coming to do an official presentation.
The admission rep’s flight was delayed so another alum and I got up there and did the best we could on giving the spiel about the school to the audience and then asked if anyone had any questions. One student raised her hand and asked if students who attended our university had good admission results when transferring from it to other schools.
Girl in tour group said to leader, “What’s with all the crosses and statues of Jesus n’ stuff around here?” This at the Catholic University of America.
How funny - I’m actually a parent who did ask how the water pressure is! I figured it’s important to me, and might be important to some of the students who were too nervous to ask. But I asked during the tour of the dorms, not during the info session.
At Vanderbilt’s info session, the admissions officer asked the students to introduce themselves and say what their career goal was when they were 5 years old. Got a lot of police officers, firefighters, teachers, etc. but also got nuclear physicists, stock analysts, and other super specific careers that few 5 year olds probably even know about. Those students sounded like they were trying too hard to impress.
At a panel discussion where the audience was allowed to ask current students questions…a student was asked to give an example of something that was difficult for him the first year.
His response was hysterical.
“The wildlife. There are deer on North Campus the size of horses, and if they wanted to stomp you to death, they could. I’d never seen a deer or a turkey in my life before coming here. Seeing them walking around loose scared the hell out of me.”
^^^ Depending on where you’re from, the snowy sidewalks may be a valid question. Here, if a business shovels their sidewalk after it snows and someone slips and fall, they can be held liable. However, if they don’t shovel and someone falls, then there is no liability. Stupid I know, but go figure and no one shovels sidewalks.
I was at a session on first year campus life in a packed auditorium when a mom asked what the college would do to teach her “very sheltered” daughter about rape. I think everyone in the room at that moment turned to look at the mom and her D. The poor girl looked humiliated.
I always try to ask if they have a guide who can talk about what the LGBTQ scene on campus is like, to save my kid the embarrassment of asking. Sometimes they have me meet another guide when we get back to the office, sometimes we luck out and our guide is LGBT or an ally. But last time I asked and the guide absolutely froze up. “There are a lot of them on campus. They have a club room and parties. I don’t go to them, but you can find them.” Poor kid, I think she was embarrassed.
It’s not really a crazy question, is it? I mentioned to the admissions office that they should probably do a 15 minute diversity talk to their tour guides so they don’t run into this again.
Love this topic. At our first few info sessions, S18 and I were mortified by Parent behavior. Now, if there aren’t at least two facepalm moments in an info session I feel cheated.
At an info session, one parent became positively obsessed with the logistics of summer storage. Is it on campus? Who can use it? If you have too much stuff, is there additional storage nearby? If so, how do you get your things there?
Watching the students who were doing the info session chase this rabbit down its hole became quite entertaining. And if you’re wondering, the students handled it great.
