Every prospective student, parent and sibling has their own perspective and criteria and all are valid but that does not mean they cannot seem amusing, surprising or flat out odd to others. Also, current university students sometimes add to flavor of a tour, intentionally or not, as well. For example,
Tour guide: Many freshman dorms are suites with jack and Jill bathrooms shared by the four roommates.
Prospective student to parent: Great! Then I only have to keep 3 people in line.
Parent: Yes, and then I am unlikely to have to come clean the bathroom for you.
?!?!?!
Student Tour Guide at a âCollege that Changes Livesâ, responding to questions:
School spirit/sports: âWell, our teams actually arenât very good. I mean, if you have a friend who plays sports I guess youâd go to a game and support them⊠but nobody else really goes. Thereâs not a lot of school spirit here.â
Campus party culture: âOh yeah, thereâs always lots of drinking and stuff. But not everyone does it. I mean, if you donât want to do that sort of thing, no one will harass you here.â âThereâs seriously nothing to do here on the weekends. So, a lot of people party the whole time.â
Research opportunities: âYes! Iâm so excited that my favorite professor is letting me assist in a research project this year! Because, like, no undergrads usually get a chance to do that.â
Library: âLook around at the study carrels on the second floor. If you canât picture yourself here for hours every day, you probably shouldnât enroll here, because itâs basically the only study space on campus.â
At this point, my kid and I quietly slid to the back of the line and then made a beeline for our car. Never even made it to the bookstore for our free swag. There was a lot more⊠we still laugh about this and wonder how this student could ever have been chosen to represent the school.
Question posed to the student tour guide: âWhy did you pick ____ University?â
Answer: âI procrastinated and this was the only place I had time to apply to. Thank god they accepted me.â
At another school:
Research: âIâm feeding rats.â
In the lobby of the campus library:
Son: Where are the stacks?
Guide: I donât know, I only come here to make copies.
Parent of a brilliant student (and a Columbia grad herself) to Guide: What is your major?
Guide: Biomedical engineering.
Parent: Oh thatâs a great field of study, it combines the biomedical aspect with the engineering,
Yes. Yes it does.
Oh, and I almost forgot. Same tour:
Parent: What is the ratio of men to women at this (unnamed technical school)?
Guide: About 3 to 1.
Parent: What is it like as a woman to be in the minority?
Guide: I really donât notice it because 1/2 the men spend all their time in their rooms playing video games.
This is already my new favorite thread!
Not so much as overheard but what I saw.
One school, as we were touring I saw a drug deal go down. The two werenât as cleaver and secretive as they thought they were being. Not sure others in our group realized what was happening. They actually picked a primary campus landmark to do the exchange, not sure what they were thinking.
On another tour at University of Kentucky as we were waiting outside admissions I hear my daughter say âis that a guy walking a baby Kangaroo on a leash?â Turned around and yes it was. Not sure it was an actual kangaroo but a variation of one (donât recall what they said it was) but they were just walking around campus.
We were at a âpublic Ivyâ and the tour guide squealed like a fan girl and pointed when she saw the president of the college walking across the lawn. âItâs President X!!!â. We still LOL at that and on subsequent tours we rated them lower if there wasnât a president sighting (and there never was again). We also still mention it every time the name of that school comes up!
My H asked our tour guide at big state U why she choose this school ⊠âbecause I couldnât afford to go to the college I really liked âŠâ We appreciated her honesty, but she could have sugar-coated her response just little!
I canât be specific but⊠my husband confirming urban legends as true to student guide. It was like christmas came early for that young lady! LOL She said she couldnât wait to tell her friends she gave a tour to the guy who did x,y, z.
@houndmom I would prefer honesty in a guide over diplomacy.
Senior tour guide answered every other question with, âI donât know, I was abroad last year.â I actually commented on that, on the feedback card. She took us to view a dorm she had no keycard for (we waited for someone to come out) and raved about the rooms, whch were pretty crappy. She couldnât answer some question about the science requirements. âI donât know, Iâm an English major.â
On top of that, DH wasnât with us, so he went back with D2. That tour guide complained about other students, how so many were from rich, NYC suburbs and snooty. Huh?
Lol, then there was a somewhat remote college where the admissions dean came out while families were waiting for a tour to start. He came over to my D and after introducing himself, asked âSo, did you know we have a mall x miles away?â
I couldnâ t make this stuff up. Fortunately, these were both safeties and she ended up not needing them. But really, is the environment so bad that you have to assure a kid thereâs a mall?
Best exchange we heard on a tour was:
Tour Guide: âOver here is the dry side of campus. Down that way, itâs the wet side of campusâ.
Unknown parent: âWhat does that mean - wet and dry side?â (cue the eyeroll from me and several other parents).
Tour Guide: âWell, the dry side is no alcohol. The wet side, youâre allowed to haveâŠâ
and then she went on to list the types of liquor and quantities allowed - I was borderline âimpressedâ with the ease at which she rattled off âmagâ and 24 pack, etc. to a tour of 30. She was quite knowledgeable - haha.
And then she ended with a giggle and âThatâs if youâre 21, of courseâ.
Me: âOf courseâŠ(with a snicker)â
Unseen student in the back of the tour group, not-successfully-sotto-voce: âIf you ask that question this time, mom, I will literally kill you.â
Weâre all still wondering.
Student: Do you have to be part of an organized study group to use the library?
Tour guide: âŠno?
Above post reminds meâŠ
At a womenâs college:
Nearby student #1: Thereâs a party at Villanova tonight.
Student #2: Wait, I thought that was a dry campus?
Student #1: HAHAHAHA!
At a top LAC, we were told that athletes, gays, blacks etc all had separate dorms. Isnât it ironic to claim being champions of diversity while taking pride in self-segregation.
The only memorable thing I remember from the gazillion college tours we did:
Son to Mom - âEw! Mom, did you fart?!â
The entire tour group turned around so see who had âtootedâ the horn; a nearby man spoke up and said âno, son - it wasnât your mother, it was my wife!â
Hahahahaha! Iâm still laughing, two years later!
I donât know what happened after that because the tour group scattered before it was over. I did feel a twinge of pity for the guide, but the entertainment was priceless!
Said the tour guide at a lovely future safety school: The classes are great here. I never got an A in my life until I got here! Really! NeverâŠ
And one amusing, perplexing scene we witnessed followed a lovely campus tour when the admissions officer invited families back in the admissions office to answer any questions. A student and (presumably) mom and dad got in their car, seemed to change their mind and head back into admissions, and each went straight to various candy dishes and scooped out every piece of candy and without saying a word, returned to their car. ?
At one fine university, we were all rolling our eyes at the mom who was badgering the tour guide with detailed questions about the dorm setup. âYou mean there are boys and girls living not just in the same building, but on the same hall?â âUm, Yes.â âSo if my daughter is on her way to the shower in the morning, in her bathrobe, there might actually be a boy in that hallway who might see her?â
We felt badly for both the tour guide and the womanâs daughter, who was clearly just mortified.
@Trixy34 wrote: âParent: What is the ratio of men to women at this (unnamed technical school)?
Guide: About 3 to 1.
Parent: What is it like as a woman to be in the minority?
Guide: I really donât notice it because 1/2 the men spend all their time in their rooms playing video games.â
Ha! Bet it was RPI! My son graduated RPI in 2017. Sounds about right!