<p>boysx3: Ewwwwwwww. That poor kid.</p>
<p>Worst tour we went on was last summer at one of the finest universities in Florida. It started to pour rain and we ended up huddled under an overhangā¦all 50 of us. We were so crowded we had to use our umbrellas as a wall to keep the rain from coming in on us. Why did they not take us inside a building? Still unbelievable. Turned us all off of that school. If they canāt treat you right during a tour, how will they treat you as a student?</p>
<p>During that all important April decision making time, we went to an accepted students day at a school in Boston. On the tour, we went into a co-ed dorm that was a few stories tall. What room did they show to these students trying to decide which school to attend? A tiny, cramped basement room with a window blocked by a bush. I couldnāt fathom WHY that is what they would choose to show!</p>
<p>Another real issue was touring a couple different schools obviously hard-up for tour guides. At both, we had freshman guides, who couldnāt answer many questions about courses, professors, traditions, and even admitted there were parts of campus they had not yet been to for any reason besides tours. To me, if you are trying to sell the school, you need to put knowledgeable tour guides as a priority!</p>
<p>Best tour out of 9? William and Mary, hands down! Smart tour guide, friendly students saying āWelcomeā, āYouāll love it here!ā, etc., well paced. Even the workers in the student cafeteria were friendly and welcoming!</p>
<p>Touring Ursinus about 6 yrs ago, tour guide looked like she rolled out of bed 1 minute before the tour (wearing fleece pants, rumpled T shirt, flipflops, hair a mess). Pointed out the Victorian homes the school owned and allowed upper classmen to live in , and how awesome the parties were in those houses. Referred to awesome drinking opportunities several other times.</p>
<p>Really knew how to impress the parents.</p>
<p>Re</p>
<p>Lol, this is unrelated but I was crazy allergies sick when I toured one college. I also get car sick and we drove several hours. I got there and was so nauseated and feeling awful. The tour just kept going on and on. At one point, I stayed back and puked in a trash can on campus. I wound up applying to the school because I liked their program (met with the department head at the end of the tour and everything) and when it came down to making my decision I decided I couldnāt go to school where I puked before even attending., plus I remembered nothing special about the campusā¦ Other then the flowers everywhereā¦ I figured Iād have to drug myself just to walk around there in the spring!!</p>
<p>I do remember our tour guide spent quite a lot of time telling us about sports. I think we spent more time in that area of campus then in the academic area.</p>
<p>When I was in college, the official tour route was re-routed around certain freshman dorms because of problems. One incident involved a student yelling out at a tour group āEat More Hard Drugs!ā</p>
<p>At one school with 55K+ price tag, the guideās shoes had so many holes all the way around it was a miracle they didnāt fall off. It was summer, I kept thinking why not get some flip flops at a dollar store?</p>
<p>About 6 years back. My family visited Georgetown (my older sister ended up getting accepted there). As we headed towards the auditorium for an info session, I got caught up in some kind of student event that consisted of about 30+ dudes sprinting through the middle of the quad. Long story short, I almost got trampled (keep in mind I was in eighth grade).</p>
<p>Not really a āhead-scratchingā experience, just noteworthy</p>
<p>At one university we visited, the tour guide talked about the student-staffed EMS service, which sounded quite impressive. However, when a parent asked what kinds of injuries or illnesses they usually dealt with, the guide responded, āAlcohol poisoning. We get a lot of that here.ā My daughter looked at me, rolled her eyes, and made a slashing motion across her throat.</p>
<p>I went on a tour with my father to Boston College and when the student guide started talking about security he mentioned that there were several campus police officers who you can easily find in the brand new Dodge Chargers. Then he said, āI guess that is where all the tuition money is going.ā </p>
<p>As someone who was struggling with the $55k+ cost of going there, that did not help.</p>
<p>My daughter was visiting UDel and at the information session, the admissions person started off by saying before I start I need to remove my shoes. I have a huge blister that is killing me and I had to pop it. It was oozingā¦ </p>
<p>Unreal!!! :)</p>
<p>Hereās another funny story:</p>
<p>Several months ago we took a tour of a small private college. Our tour guide was a freshman who was extremely homesick. Along the tour, she stopped us at the guidance office where her favorite counselor resides. She is responsible for helping the freshmen transition from home life to college life. She told us that sometimes she just shows up at her office and says I need a hug. She also told us she was very homesick a few weeks back when she became ill and she begged her mom to come visit. Her mom said no and to suck it up. Also we toured on a Saturday morning at 10 am when all the students were sleeping! So the campus was literally dead! </p>
<p>So I asked my daughter what she thought of the campus. She said, āI am not applying here because I would feel very lonely here.ā</p>
<p>Almost all campuses are asleep at ten am on a Saturday.</p>
<p>^My friend decided not to go to a college because the campus seemed dead. She toured the school at 9AM on a Saturday morning. I donāt know what she expectedā¦</p>
<p>These are greatābut it is so much more fun if people name the schools! </p>
<p>Not funny but an observation: I wish the tour guides would get real sometimes. I just visited SUNY New Paltz with my daughter. The guide was overall great, down to earth, but I just feel like someone in the admissions office told her to lie about somethings, told her to gloss over the difficult questions. I asked her if the male:female ratio was a problem (I think the school is around 38 percent male), and she said nobody really notices it. But the boys like it. Hmm.
She also said that when she got to the school freshman year she was put in a forced triple, and it was fine. She also said that roommate pairings freshman year are completely random. The school does nothing to match compatible types. She said it usually works out fine, and if it doesnāt, itās no big deal because you can switch. To me, that sounded like a serious quality of life drawback. Ok, maybe none of those things bothered her, but if they did, would the admissions office let her say they did?</p>
<p>Not a specific story but my mother always asks about sexual assault at the wrong momentsā¦ Like, the tour guide will be talking about athletics or food and sheāll just cut in like āhowās the rape here?ā (Yes, like that). Smh. I appreciate her concernā¦ But gosh</p>
<p>Yikes, how do they respond?</p>
<p>Itās actually an important question, but must be put to the right people, and who knows if you will even get an honest answer.</p>
<p>Wellā¦ I admit, I am always the parent who asks whether campus security gets an automatic notification when a dorm door is propped open for more than a specific amount of time (say 2-3 minutes). Some colleges have this system in place (unfortunately, usually colleges donāt do this until they have criminal or assault issues in their dorms). But I try ask at the appropriate time ā when we are walking past and talking about the dorms. 
The guide usually gets a deer in the headlights look when asked, though.</p>
<p>We went on a tour at UMich last Feb. It had been snowing and the campus looked beautiful. We stopped in front of a library with a glass facade where you can see inside. The tour guide was talking and our whole group was listening attentively. Then something happened on the second floor of the building, a big group of female students stood with their back against the glass wall , clearly visible to us, and proceeded to disrobe completely . Many of the dads on the tour stopped listening and stared . After a few minutes, the tour guide also realized what was happening, he chuckled and said it must have been a pledge or a dare or something and continued with his talk.
Completely true story.</p>
<p>On my tour of University of Oklahoma I asked my tour guide about on campus upperclassmen housing. He said there was no such thing. Guess where Iām going to be living next semester. During the tour he also claimed that there were no 24 hour study zones (so far Iāve counted five) and that tutoring costs money (in fact itās free for most non upper division STEM classes). I spent most of the tour wondering how heād been hired. </p>
<p>One thing thatās always puzzled/bothered me is when colleges donāt separate the admitted students from the prospective ones. During my University of Puget Sound tour my mom had to kick me to prevent me from falling asleep as the admissions reps spent thirty minutes discussing the admissions process and scholarships. Iād already been admitted with a merit scholarship. Why the reps didnāt just split the juniors and seniors up, I have no idea.</p>