“A dad asks, “Can my son bring his guns to campus?” GUNS. Plural.”
At Northland College, there is a dedicated room for dressing game and fish. But I’m guessing your tour wasn’t at a tiny outdoors-focused college in the woods.
“A good friend heard a father ask, “purely hypothetically, of course”, if a student with perfect test scores should take the tests again to prove that it was not a fluke. The dumbfounded admissions representative said that if such a student did, she would try and reject”
Friends son took ACT September of Junior year and got a 36. Our state has a required ACT in the spring of junior year. Friends son wanted to not take it. Counselor said school had give them " talking points" to try to convince students who already had very high scores to take it. One was " its good because you can show your score was not a fluke. "
Visited one LAC with my D and a mother asked for details about the Latin major. When the admissions officer informed her that there was no Latin major at the school the mother grabbed her son’s hand and stormed out of the information session muttering that they had wasted 4 hours driving there. There was a stunned silence for a minute or so after they left. And all I kept thinking was – why did they not look at the list of available majors on the website before making the school visit?
Not so much crazy as it was arrogant. At a prestigious state flagship the AD led the best info session out of all the colleges that we visited. She provided some great detail on the types of students that they are looking for and was very clear on the fact the take course rigor into account but not the “prestige” or ranking of the applicant’s HS. She noted that they are very familiar with many prestigious high schools and do take their rigor into account, but that they would not put a student from an unfamiliar or non-prestigious school at a disadvantage simply because they went to a non-prestigious school.
The first person to ask a question once we got to the Q&A point was a father who told (did not ask, told) the AD that a student attending a more prestigious high school should be admitted ahead of a student that did not. Kudos to the AD for handling his statement with the grace that she did.
I’m so happy to hear the AD’s comments. We happen to live near a not prestigious school so that is where our DD attends. We are hoping they will look at ACT and AP scores to evaluate her.
But to contribute to the thread, I did not realize I would learn so much about bathroom policies on lots of college tours.
^oh no, I think I am the crazy parent that asks how often the dorm bathrooms get cleaned.
@laurrodes , I lived in the Boston area for ages and was frequently surprised by the number of people who didn’t know what an"Ivy was. I think they thought “Ivy” was synonymous with “top school.” An acquaintance whose daughter was at Georgetown kept insisting her child was at an Ivy League school. Great school, yes, but not part of the Ivy League.
my student who is a tour guide at her school got an irate parent who was upset that they couldn’t actually go in to the cafeteria without paying. There weren’t any free passes given out for the tour. Dear student said that they don’t show dorm rooms either and don’t let families into the cafeteria. Families are welcome to go on their own before or after the tour and can pay for a meal. One family in particular was very put out, but as she says, she does not make up the rules, but is being asked to follow them.
There was a time back when that I thought most colleges would let you come in and have lunch gratis if you were visiting and touring the college.
I was more annoyed by the parents who “auditioned” their kids on tours, rather than by the ones who asked dumb questions. The shower pressure parent might have been remembering her own terrible dorm showers, but the parent who rushed forward with: “Does winning the Westinghouse science prize help my son with admissions?” or “Does she get credit for all 12 of the AP tests she scored a 5 on, or is there a limit?” really got on my nerves!
re post #43. Was that school Wisconsin? That sounds like it. If not, great that more than one top tier flagship has the policy. Got the message from a UW admissions person that students at all, including top tier, HS’s are expected to take their most rigorous curriculum and do well in it. This was in a Wisconsin city at an evening school presentation for parents et al.
We got lunch passes at all the midwest LACs we visited. No Us, no NE LACs.
Wasn’t a question, per se, but I met a parent of a freshman (in high school) at a Vandy tour. And it wasn’t their first rodeo either.
I thought I was over-the-top. 
Ahh yes, the humble brags. 
Agree @Massmomm.
This summer I helped drive my daughter’s high school soccer time to a university for a camp. Before I returned home her male coach shared with me he ran into a college tour group. After arriving at the university he found a restroom, as he was at the urinal, a tour guide brought a family into the restroom and described that all the restrooms on campus are cleaned twice a day. He was just a bit surprised to become part of that tour.
At a tour of Tulane: “Is it always this hot this time of year?” Yes. Yes it is.
Well my D and I had the luck of touring colleges the Saturday after the general election last Fall. It was quite a spirited time to be in Portland. We were at an extremely liberal leaning school in Portland. During the admissions presentation the adult giving the presentation talked about the sadness the students had and the support they needed during this time. I thought she handled it very well being quite a touchy topic but impossible to avoid. I had the displeasure of being in the ladies room with some very hostile parents who were extremely offended by the presentation and had decided to get their kids and leave (kids were in another session with a student pane)l. I mean seriously we are in Portland.
A mom at a general info. session: “My kid has to take this class for his computer animation program… It’s called Discrete Math. What is Discrete Math? And is it hard? Because my kid doesn’t like math.”
(I can’t remember the answer, but it was polite and very concise.)
@Veryapparent why exactlkly did the presenter HAVE to mention it at all? It certainly wouldn’t make anyone with a different political opinion feel very welcome there - as admissions that person should speak for the whole student body - so do all the students feel the same???.
@tutumom2001 The polar opposite (so to speak) at McGill: a parent asking, in late November, if it is always this cold in the winter. The response was “it doesn’t get cold around here for another couple of months.”
@toomanyteens That seems like useful information for any conservative students considering a certain “extremely liberal leaning school in Portland.” (And, yes, probably a large majority of the students who attend that college feel similarly. I know our junior highs and high schools had support sessions for concerned students in the same timeframe.)