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<p>This only works if your college actually does have a zero tolerance policy.</p>
<p>I would mention if college has “substance free” or “quiet” dorms. Lets be honest, some kids will use drugs and alchohol, and I don’t think a school can always stop that – especially if no one complains. What the college SHOULD be willing and able to do is make life comfortable for those who DONT. So mention healthy activities and the school protecting those who don’t. BTW what burnt me up is one of my co-worker’s kids as a freshman had roommates dealing from his room and the school wouldn’t do anyting about it.</p>
<p>"i figure this is the best way to answer my burning question.</p>
<p>i auditioned for campus tour guide. i made it to the last round and bombed out in my audition. the coordinators were role playing parents and one of them asked:</p>
<p>“so. . .this is New York, and i know it’s just FULL of crime. do college kids do drugs here?”</p>
<p>When the provost was showing S and I around the college that S eventually chose, I asked, “I’ve heard that your college has a major problem with alcohol and drug use including cocaine. Is that true?” [S later said that he had the same question, but was too timid to ask it, so was glad that I did]</p>
<p>The provost said that there had been an alcohol problem, that the college has been addressing in several ways, and he detailed the ways that included some programs that were going to be instituted for S’s freshman class. The programs were attractive ones such as having a variety of interesting, small seminar course offerings for freshmen that included fun activities that the course members go to do together, allowing students better ways to bond than through drunkenness.</p>
<p>The provost also said that while some students did drugs – as is the case on virtually all college campuses – they didn’t have a major problem with drugs.</p>
<p>Both S and I appreciated the provost’s openness, and S picked the college, and has been very happy there. S is a student who really doesn’t party in the sense of using drugs or alcohol. He doesn’t even drink at age 21 – his choice, not something my H or I have pushed on him. H and I are social drinkers.</p>
<p>S’s experience at the college also has reflected the truth of what the provost said.</p>
<p>So, the best answer is to be truthful while also putting the truth into context and saying how the college is addressing those issues.</p>
<p>“If the question were about alcohol or drugs, I would probably say “the college has a zero tolerance policy” and probably nothing else.”</p>
<p>That wouldn’t have answered the question, and wouldn’t have been acceptable to S or me.</p>
<p>S did not want to go to a school in which the majority of students thought that getting trashed was the best way to have fun. S had spent most of a summer in a science-oriented program at a top 40 college that clearly would have been delighted to recruit him. Because the teaching assistants for his program were undergrads who kept talking about the drinking scene, S decided not to apply there.</p>
<p>“I’m sure it’s tricky being a tour guide, and that’s why I wouldn’t ask anything that would put you on the spot.”</p>
<p>Most parents and students who spend their time and money visiting colleges are far more interested in getting the info to help them make the best decision for where to invest their money and spend 4 years of their life than they care about making things easy for the tour guide.</p>
<p>Here’s what I would say: “As you know, every large university has issues with drinking and drugs. The differences come in how the university deals with the problem. Here at NYU, …” and then describe the programs the school has to address the issues.</p>
<p>When I toured NYU with one of my children, the model dorm room we were shown had an absolutely unmistakable “baked in” odor. Most of the parents recognized it; many started giggling. I think most of the kids didn’t – none of them had ever been in a place where you could smoke enough marijuana indoors to acquire that particular smell. Of course, someone asked The Question then, and we got a version of Youdon’tsay’s answer. (I didn’t have the impression, then or now, that it would be truthful to say that “only a small minority” of NYU students used drugs. Or that a “large majority” does, for that matter.)</p>
<p>When I toured Dartmouth, the drug/alcohol question came, quite aggressively, from a U.S. Senator, whose daughter looked like she wanted to shrink herself to the size of a peanut when he did it. The tour guide just flat-out lied.</p>
<p>Model dorm rooms are awful. It’s hard to find someone that wants to have people traipsing through their room 4 times a day and usually, tour guides are limited in that they need to show a room in a specific dorm that’s on the route. I’m not really a fan of “fake” dorm rooms or ones sponsored by corporations, but I’ve definitely had my fair share of “Please ignore the smell, this is a college boy’s dorm room” or big posters of the women from Maxim on the walls or not being able to wade a tour group in through clothes on the floor or empty vodka bottles…</p>
<p>At least you get the real deal?</p>
<p>^^The tours we’ve gone on - when we were let into a dorm at all - they didn’t generally have a specific dorm room available, but we would peak in at kids who left the doors open. Only once, has the tour guide shown their own room. (That was at Caltech and students in the hall goodnaturedly teased her because her room was larger than average - which she had indeed told us.)</p>
<p>As to the original question - I’d really like the tour guides to be honest. I think there are schools where it’s harder to be a non-drinker. There are schools where frats do a lot of drinking and schools where they do much less drinking. There are schools that have a reputation for a lot of pot smoking. College was an eyeopener for me - in high school only the poor students smoked dope - in my day, in my crowd it seemed like everyone did. And the biggest dope smoker of all graduated summa cum laude.</p>
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<p>That’s why I always felt guilty about showing my room (a LARGE single, not indicative of anything a freshman would get). Next year, my room is way off the route, so it won’t be an issue. We usually had several rooms that we could try and SHOULD have been open, but often were locked, leading to the “I don’t know what’s going to happen but I’m going to knock on doors…”</p>
<p>I think it’s really important to show rooms so I always try to find one someplace, but sometimes, it just doesn’t happen.</p>
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<p>And this question is why many schools are now separating the parents from students for the tours. This is a parent question…I can’t imagine too many students would make this inquiry. But certainly anyone who asks should be given an honest answer about the situation at the school.</p>
<p>But the answer regarding the school’s policy and keeping students safe, and what the school is doing to address alcohol and drug issues would be good info to have.</p>
<p>There was a well publicized tour guide’s report of how drinking was actually allowed in the dorms of a school in one of our southern cities. It may have been “honest” but it was illegal and not very settling for those who inquired.</p>
<p>"And this question is why many schools are now separating the parents from students for the tours. This is a parent question…I can’t imagine too many students would make this inquiry. "</p>
<p>It’s not just a parent question. I know students, including my son, who have asked that question or have been concerned about that issue even if they weren’t brave enough to ask the question.</p>
<p>There are students who want to go to colleges where drugs/alcohol are prevalent, and there are students who don’t want that kind of scene.</p>
<p>The bottom line is that tour guides are most likely instructed not to answer questions regarding illegal activities. As a communications professional I certainly cannot imagine any college allowing a paid or volunteer representative to give commentary on illegal activities. It would be acceptable to cite the college policy on alcohol and drugs, it would be acceptable to cite any published crime statistics but after that tour guides should not be giving “their opinion” on these types of activities. If you want the true scoop on what is going on you are far better off asking a student you meet in the cafeteria or on the sidewalk separate from a formal college presentation. If I were in charge of the tour guides and I found out they were blathering on about a drinking or drug culture - which afterall is their opinion on the subject - it would be their last tour. And, I think it’s rude to put that young student in the awkward position by asking the question. You can easily glean the campus culture in many ways without cornering a tour guide with a question they should not be answering. Finally, this is why an “overnight” is also a good idea after the acceptances are in and before the commitment is made. Kids learn “alot” about what’s happening during an overnight regardless of what kind of person they end up with or because of the person they end up bunking for the night with.</p>
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<p>This is actually fairly rare. Most schools encourage you to answer the question because it is asked OFTEN, I’m sure at almost every school. The only “official” guidance I’ve gotten on it is to use your common sense - certainly don’t lie, but also don’t be like, “Yeah, man I was so freaking bombed last weekend, I went to this party where I did 4 keg stands, no one will like you if you don’t drink here.”</p>
<p>I would say the best tours are tour guides “giving their opinion” and personal stories. After all, you can go look up the college’s policy or public crime statistics. A tour should offer something someone couldn’t discover on their own by reading the website or the guidebook. For many, that’s understanding the experience of the tour guide, and trying to see how their own life would fit into that context.</p>
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<p>Let me rephrase my comment. I agree, it’s a question that is not just a parent question…but it is my opinion that this question is more likely to be asked by a parent than a student. AND if there are not parents there, the students open up more (or so my daughter who does tours for students says). </p>
<p>And I agree some students want to know if there is a culture of alcohol and drug use because they WANT that. They too, are unlikely to ask the question if mom or dad is standing next to them.</p>
<p>I agree re: separating parents and students. For example, I gave one tour where a student asked about the LGBT scene, and said he was glad the tour was separated, since he wasn’t out to his parents yet but wanted to get that info about future colleges. Often, student tours will ask about drinking, and yes, often the bent is more “will I get in trouble if I drink here?” as opposed to “will I be safe/can I choose not to?”</p>
<p>The other good thing about separating students and parents is that the family gets two perspectives on the school, from two different tour guides, and can come together with complementary info when making a final decision.</p>
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<p>No parent honestly believes that there is NO drug use on any college campus in America.</p>
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<p>You’d be surprised…</p>
<p>Actually, few parents believe there is none, but most parents want to believe their little angel will never partake. And they want the school there to be the mom or dad, to crack down hard and fast on anyone who does, in hopes of deterrence. </p>
<p>And many little angels want to know exactly how much trouble they’d get in if they did…</p>
<p>I’ve seen parents surprised by coed dorms on tours, so, yeah, I believe some parents think there are college campuses with no drug use.</p>
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That’s a reasonable point. So far the drinking question as been answered exactly the same way at every school I’ve ever visited, so I tend to take the standard answer with a grain of salt. There’s a visit report in the college visit section I think for Tufts that would make give many parents pause. (High school kids pregaming etc.) Not the school that you see on the official tours.</p>
<p>And see, I have NEVER heard this question asked on any of our tours. I have often, however, heard the question about curfews/overnight visits. I guess we’re just touring with a more sex-obsessed crowd rather than a drug-obsessed one.</p>