I really want to go on a college tour led by @skieurope. I bet that would be very entertaining! 
On one of my very first college visits as a parent, we sat in on a panel discussion. The room was filled with parents and someone in the audience asked about the male - female ratio. A young woman on the panel said, âThere are a lot fewer guys, but itâs not a big problem because there is another college down the hill with lots of hot guys.â And then she said âYumâ with some fervor. I was thinking she was chosen to participate because of her very animated personality but the admissions department got a little more enthusiasm than they bargained for.
At another college, we were led through a food court on a tour, and a current student saw our group and looked so surprised seeing us there, like we were space aliens invading. I couldnât hear what he said, but I could hear his friend tell him that we were âparentsâ. I kind of worried about my D18 ending up there. My D20 likes that school and she might fit in fine with that crowd. Haha.
At the uni D18 attends, on our first tour there, we overheard one student saying to another, âI never knew sex helps you do better on tests.â D made a face and I said, âWelcome to college!â
@STEM2017 we had a tour guide that used one of those microphone devices when touring an urban school where we were following her on the sidewalk along a street with rather loud traffic alongside us. We still couldnât hear her at all and she spoke very fast. It was about ten minutes into the walking tour before she paused in her speaking long enough that we could shout from the back asking her if she could raise the volume. Once we made the request, turned out she could and did and it was better but still her voice went in and out some so they are not perfect!
At a mid-range state school on admit day, we sat in on a panel for honors admittees. One of the honors student panelists detailed how he managed to double major, graduate in 3-1/2 years, and study abroad 3 times. Majored in psychology and something else. Had drifted back to the school for their career placement services since he seemed to be at loose ends. âI have a friend whoâs a flight attendant. Maybe I can do that.â Bless his heart.
Also at the same school, from our tour guide, âI had an offer to go to Johns Hopkins, but I chose here.â OK, but wow.
Couple all this with the ONE library on campus and this became a hard nope for D.
@TomSrOfBoston, There are definitely Greek houses in Cambridge-along Mass ave (Alpha Delta Phi, Zeta Psi, etc). Some are quite old. Some more recent. As in 233 Mass ave, now Zeta Psi , âThe current location was occupied by Revolution Books, a communist bookstore, prior to Rho Alphaâs move. MIT begun the process of evicting Revolution Books, who believed the eviction to be a plot by the Reagan administration.â
Our tour guide at Columbia a few years ago was a philosophy major who couldnât quite decide if she was into pre-med, or pre-law, or fashion design (she was so excited about her fashion internship where she met Emma Stone).
@cameo43 I swear we were on this same tour!!! the school became a NOPE for him.
Years ago I was a college tour guide for my T40 school in a low-cost area. During my largest tour Iâd ever had (illness among tour guides) there were about 75 people, mostly from the NYC area. One parent asked me about the cost of meals and I was able to rattle off the actual prices for breakfast, lunch, and dinner at the main cafeteria-- they popped up on the display when you ran your meal card. He aggressively accused me of lying because there was no way the prices could be so low. It was a very awkward and extended argument where I tried to explain cost of living differences, etc to him, and he repeatedly told me to stop lying. I finally had to tell him that he needed to walk over and see for himself. I wondered afterwards if it turned off every single person on the tour.
Has anyone else seen a parent argue with a tour guide?
Holy Cow @rosemaryandthyme !! I can thankfully say no, Iâve never seen anything like that. That guy needed a nap, jeez!
In the many tours that Iâve taken over the years, embarrassing parents seems to be a common theme.
At a well-known business oriented school just outside of Boston during the walking tour, one parent kept repeatedly urging her son to share his straight âAâ status and the fact that he âwouldnât mindâ rooming in a double, with the student tour guide, while at top 20 school a parent actually passed out tickets to a play that his daughter was in that night (donât know if she was the lead or notâŠ) at the local high school in the next town over.
One of my favorite moments however, was at a LAC in Vermont on a snowy February day, where the lovely student tour guide was able to speak clearly and cogently to our group, while walking backward in flip flops and a sarong.
@hop - too funny. I will admit I had an overwhelming urge to offer my 13 year-old daughterâs hand in marriage to one of our tour guides at Georgetown. Thankfully, for all involved, I did manage to restrain myself.
@hop I do hope the guide had at least some good thermals under that sarong, and was also wearing at least a shirt!
Just a tee-shirt. Can you imagine?
Yet it was her graceful, backward moves in the thin plastic flip flops that really did my head in.
And to think, our tour guide at Cornell apologized to the group for wearing (very pretty) athletic sandals in August.
@hop When you mentioned a sarong, I was picturing a male guide! ? It just shows how influenced we are by our own cultural experiences and expectations.
@hop Iâm glad that my D doesnât go on CC, I wouldnât want her to get fashion ideas for winterwearâŠ
At Tufts - very pushy Dad asks the tour guide something about what admissions is really looking for and a few helpful hints. Admissions guide, taken aback, says she will talk about admissions to the whole group once we are stopped and everyone can hear. Pushy Dad says, âNo, you donât need to do that. Just tell me what I want to know. The rest of these people donât need to hear this.â Pushy Dadâs son was cringing and hiding at the back of the tour group the entire time.
At Penn - as we are leaving the another pushy Dad who has been pelting the tour guide with questions asks as we are leaving the library, âHow many books can a student take out at one time?â Tour guide, who doesnât look or act like the library type, says she has no idea. Pushy Dad tells her to go back in and find out. We (the 50+ people on the tour) can wait. He was not a popular guide on this tour. Sometime later, in the middle of the Wharton lobby, his cell phone rings really loudly. He ignores it because the tour guide is answering yet another question of his. Then he proceeds to answer it and talk loudly, all the while standing at the front of the tour group.
Heard a Yogi-ism today at Virginia Tech Hokie Focus regarding recreation facilitiesâŠ
âMcComas Hall has nicer facilities but most people go to War Memorial because itâs less crowded.â
@STEM2017 Iâm not sure why thatâs considered a Yogiism in your mind; it actually a valid reason, IMO
@STEM2017 more go to ⊠less crowded.