<p>So we have a thread how we can make those family road trips better and easier, but is there anything colleges should or could do?</p>
<p>One school gave away 25 percent off coupons for bookstore!!! Smart move</p>
<p>Another had rain ponchos, portland Oregon school, another smart move</p>
<p>I think having more students from different majors available to talk to would be helpful. I like it if there are multiple tour guides, and they have the guides introduce themselves by major so you can pick which group best fits your student’s interest. We saw a lot of that 5 years ago when D1 was looking, but almost no place did it this year.</p>
<p>And we have LOVED the “science tours” that we took at two LACs this year. Run by a science student, we were able to see labs, ask a lot of questions about summer research and requirements, grad school admissions, sources of research funding, etc. These two schools only run those tours 1-2 days/week, we actually juggled our schedule to take advantage of one of them, and are glad that we did. D2 likely will apply to one of these schools, and without the science tour I am pretty sure she would not have. These tours are in addition to the regular campus tour (so we did both).</p>
<p>I like the schools that give your student (and maybe a parent) a free lunch pass in the cafeteria. Again, much more common 5 years ago. This year we have visited 12 schools, and only 1 has provided “free lunch”. We paid on all the other campuses to eat in the cafeteria this year, but I definitely noticed which college provided that.</p>
<p>I also noticed almost no schools had bottled water any more (again, big 5 years ago). I think there is a backlash against the waste of the bottles, maybe also a cost thing. I don’t miss that, just saying it has changed.</p>
<p>We’ve gotten discount coupons at various visits. Those were nice. Waterbottles were provided on another tour, which was good because it was over 90 degrees that day. I don’t know if that was standard or not.</p>
<p>Include a meal in the dining hall for every tour participant. We have learned more about “fit” from eating in the dining halls than anywhere else on campus.</p>
<p>Now that I posted those, I just read above :D.</p>
<p>If you don’t want to give out disposable water bottles, give out one with the school logo on it to keep.</p>
<p>Brandeis had homemade, fresh out of the oven choc chip cookies for the students (seriously - there was some kind of an oven set up a few feet away from the registration counter), AND they had clearly-laid out directions from their campus to the other Boston-area schools, which was really nice since they were acknowledging that yes, most of the kids visiting there were going to visit other Boston schools as well. Well done.</p>
<p>As I wrote on the other thread, I always make sure we have cold water in a cooler, but a school gets major kudos in my book for providing some as well. We once took a two-hour tour in July in the South and was never offered water. It was horrible.</p>
<p>I agree with a meal, too. I know it can get expensive, but it’s an extra that makes such a difference. Keeps your blood sugar up and in a good frame of mind for the rest of the visit.</p>
<p>Just make sure that there are enough guides so the groups aren’t huge. I hate jockeying for position up front so I can hear, but I will.</p>
<p>Agree with pp about having a range of majors represented as tour guides. The horrible, hot tour mentioned above was compounded by a guide who was really interested in theater. He asked us our interests, and, although no one was interested in theater, he spend a LOT of time there and talking about it. At least it was cool inside.</p>
<p>Several thoughts - two are reinforcements of comments above:</p>
<p>Bottled water with the school logo on them (only at one of 7 colleges we just visited).
Or similarly, a reusable water bottle with the school logo (another one of the 7 colleges).</p>
<p>Directions to other schools printed out on small cards, available in a nearby rack.</p>
<p>Coffee, tea, water area available in the waiting area.</p>
<p>Multiple guides - this is the most important of my suggestions. For several schools, we had one guide for everyone - sometimes up to 25 people. At one school, there were many people scheduled, so they had several guides; we still ended up with 15-20 people in our group. The best were when we had our own guide - this happened at two different colleges (for one, we were the only family scheduled at that particular time and at the other, there were 3 families and they brought in 3 different guides). Maybe it was a coincidence, but the two colleges where we had our own guide were my daughter’s favorites. Since most tour guides are paid by work-study, it would seem like a no-brainer to add more guides.</p>
<p>Also, walking tours should only be about an hour - longer than that gets very tiring (especially if you are annoyed by the particular guide!).</p>
<p>And the guides should be instructed/allowed to take the groups into buildings that matter - like the library, a classroom or two, a dorm. On one tour, the only building we went into during the 1.5 hour+ tour was a HUGE administrative building that no one cared about.</p>
<p>A nice touch for the information session is to have an actual Admissions person do it. At one school, they had an intern/grad student do it and it kind of felt like a diss.</p>
<p>Hope there are some Admissions people reading and they can take these suggestions to heart.</p>
<p>I liked that Brandeis had sample course descriptions for each major as flyers you could pick up at the admissions department. I seem to remember Carnegie Mellon had umbrellas you could borrow - a sad comment on Pittsburgh weather I am afraid! I didn’t mind paying for lunch, but I really hated having to pay for parking - $16 at GW! I think that they should make it clear you are welcome to eat lunch. Also at Carnegie Mellon there was a separate tour of Comp Sci/Robotics, but that may have only been for Accepted Students weekend. I like it when the info sessions have a student or two so that the tour guide isn’t your only voice from the students.</p>
<p>I distinctly remember Wellesley handing out umbrellas as well - it was pouring down rain and I’m amazed we even saw much beyond puddles.</p>
<p>I want them to teach us how to walk backwards :)</p>
<p>LOL–quit walking backwards! It’s a million degrees and you’re walking backwards. Get to where you’re going, get in the AC or at least in the shade and then tell us about the campus to your hearts content. And as a parent I can quit worrying that the guide will land in the hospital because you tripped. Honestly, walking backwards is not a marketable skill…
Too funny…I cross posted with Jym</p>
<p>Re: post #6 - not all colleges pay their guides. At D1’s LAC they are volunteer positions. </p>
<p>One thing I noticed this year is that more schools we visited had a “just show up, here are our tour/info session times” approach. We only actually registered online at a few schools this year (and only one required a phone conversation). Five years ago pretty much every school wanted us to let them know we were coming. I think this may result in more crowding on the tours… they have no idea how many people to expect on a given day if they don’t have a registration process.</p>
<p>Oh, I have another suggestion. Take down the poster about bed bugs before the tours come through (or take the tour through another dorm/hall). This freaked D2 out on a recent tour. She did not boot them off her list after I told her that bed bugs are likely a problem at EVERY college, they just don’t all have posters to help identify/stop the infestation up everywhere. But it was disconcerting on the tour.</p>
<p>This year was our first foray into college shopping. We encountered so many unexpected niceties: bottled water, cookies, individual bags of chips, and even logo tee-shirts. A couple of schools even set up “Welcome X from Y-town” signs in the lobby. We were offered complimentary lunch at nearly every school, too. </p>
<p>Perhaps this “specialized treatment” was because all the schools we visited were small LACs. I was most impressed with the colleges who took the time to schedule a relevant class and professor indroduction for DS in addition to a campus tour.</p>
<p>
Haha! We saw posters announcing free HIV testing.</p>
<p>…And, maybe make an effort to clean up the cigarette butts?</p>
<p>One school did have an individual guide for each family which was wonderful. Another gave out free meal tickets to us and several family members we had with us. Good food too. And one school did have a white board with the names and states of each student visiting that day. It did feel welcoming.</p>
<p>When my S was looking at his final choices after acceptances (not on accepted students day) we were very impressed that the admissions director of one college (the one he ultimatelly chose) in the info session knew the names of the accepted students, where they were from and then said something personal about them (from their app or where they lived etc…)It was a nice classy touch.</p>
<p>Contrast with another college and this was at an accepted students event where the college had students separated by region and there was no one else from our area so we were sitting alone and there was no further interaction from students or staff. We eventually went to another occupied table but it left a sour taste in our mouth.</p>
<p>I absolutely agree with pp about having to pay to park. Grrrrr.</p>
<p>I just remembered that at one school, the college president came to the information session and spoke with the students and parents. He was very personable and relayed his recent college search with his own child. He even answered questions from us parents and offered to chat with anyone who wanted to stop by his office.</p>
<p>I posted about a bad tour experience recently, - my thoughts on what to do/ what not to do:</p>
<p>1) I agree that it would be great to have students from different majors, and tailor the guides to the prospective majors/ interests etc.</p>
<p>2) Don’t ask everyone what they are interested in “so that you can focus on those areas” and then completely ignore them all.</p>
<p>3) Keep the size manageable if at all possible. I realize that some days are just really busy, but if it gets too big, it’s too hard to hear/ ask questions etc.</p>
<p>4) Don’t walk too fast!</p>
<p>5) Don’t talk about everything while walking (front-wise) to the next stop on the - no one can hear you.</p>
<p>6) Allow enough time on the tour for where you intend to go - if the tour-guide is rushing through, it turns everyone off.</p>
<p>7) Specialized tours of different departments are great!</p>
<p>8) Plan the tour so that there are opportunities to sit while talking. One tour guide planned this so that we could sit at every stop - even though the tour was 75+ minutes, it wasn’t tiring or too long as a result, and it also encouraged everyone to ask questions.</p>
<p>9) If possible, plan the tour so that you can see students changing between classes - it can be a little harder to navigate, but it gives more exposure to students going about their day.</p>
<p>10) Tour guides should not move on from a spot unless they are sure that the group has made it out of the last building, across the street, etc.</p>
<p>11) On a few tours, students handed out their cards with pictures and email, and encouraged prospective students to contact them with questions about the school, about admissions and college life in general. I thought that was a really nice idea.</p>
<p>We also had a very nice experience a few days ago at an accepted student day, not a regular tour day. While we did have some nice experiences at some of the many schools we visited in the last year, the accepted student days are so much nicer (we’ve been to 3). They gave us snacks, waters, all you can eat lunch, tee shirts and much more opportunity to talk to professors, deans and students. This is when the schools are really trying to sell themselves.</p>