<p>We will be visiting a college soon, and the school has kindly arranged for DS to have lunch with a student. He will not spend the night or have further contact with the student. The admissions office also arranged for my son to sit in on two classes, meet the department chair, and have a tour. I would appreciate feedback on my thinking.</p>
<p>1) I am figuring on thank you notes to the admissions office for arranging all this. Do we also bring a box of chocolates or something?</p>
<p>2) Also, I figure thank you notes should go to the professors who allowed DS into their classroom? I know a note to the department chair for sure.</p>
<p>3) Does the tour guide get a note?</p>
<p>4) What about the student who lets DS eat lunch with him? Note? Gift?</p>
<p>I want to do the right thing. I'm also thinking I'm thankful we are not doing a huge number of visits because this all could get exhausting.</p>
<p>It never hurts to send a thank you e-mail. My D didn’t do it for group tours, but if it is a personal, one-on-one tour, she would. If he can think of any additional questions for the tour guide/professors, he could ask those also. I think a gift is too much.</p>
<p>See often the thank you’s go the other way. It’s not uncommon for the tour guide/someone from admissions to send a thank you note to the student for coming to visit. These people are doing their jobs. You and your kiddo are the ones taking the time/incurring the expense to make the visit. It’s not like you give the person at DMV a box of chocolates for renewing your driver’s license, right?</p>
<p>This isn’t always true. I used to volunteer to give tours to people specifically interested in our fairly small engineering department. Once or twice I was sent cookies by the family I gave a tour, and it was really appreciated for me giving up a few hours to show them around campus.</p>
<p>My son sent thank you cards (I think pen and ink cards are nicer than emails) to all interviewers and professors/deans etc that he met with at visits. MyLB is right…in nearly every case, the interviewer sent a thank you to him too. When the interaction was with a student, we thought it enough for him to just sent out a brief email. The tour guides at most of the schools we visited had “business cards” that they distributed at the end of the tours…with a casual “please don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any questions”. Just in general, I don’t think it’s ever a bad thing to thank someone…even if it is their “job”. it doesn’t have to be over the top “erect a statue in their honor” kind of thanks…but a note or email is never (in my opinion) going to hurt.</p>
<p>Thank you note to the admissions office will suffice for most of this. Re: overnights…DD did a couple and brought a very small thank you gift for her hosts. I know it wasn’t food…too much risk for allergies these days.</p>
<p>What we did was send a nice comment to the admissions office saying what a great tour guide we had or how amazing the host for lunch was, asking them to please share with the student. My daughter loved hearing she was doing a good job and that her “bosses” knowing as well</p>
<p>They often hear complaints so complements are nice</p>
<p>I agree. I think thanking them warmly in person, and potentially an email if you believe they REALLY went out of their way, is sufficient. I think it’s sweet to want to bring chocolates, etc. but it’s not necessary.</p>
<p>I’m a student who conducts tours (not normally individual, and no overnights), and honestly it’s never crossed my mind that someone might send me a specific thank you note, let alone give a small gift. I’m paid by the recruitment department and quite enjoy my job, so all I really expect is that people might say thank you at the end of the tour. </p>
<p>PS the thing that I like most as a tour guide? People who smile at me along the way (otherwise I feel like I’m talking to a brick wall), and people who ask questions.</p>
<p>Handwritten thank you notes: YES!
Praise for tour guides to boss: YES!
Gifts: NO! (The exception MIGHT be a small treat to share with an overnight host).</p>
<p>IMHO, a gift would come across as smarmy, even if it is only a box of chocolates.</p>
<p>If you really feel compelled to send gifts, send them to the schools from which your child is REJECTED (and only those schools) after the decisions are in, with a nice note explaining that even though your child was rejected, you appreciated the hospitality.</p>
<p>I’ve noticed that you all on CC seem to be much more effusive gift-givers in general than I am, though.</p>
<p>I’m a prof and back when I taught at Prestigious University I used to get those thank you’s from prospective students. My take on it is that unless you say something substantive (i.e. “I really enjoyed the economics lecture. When I got back to my high school, I was able to share in my econ class about that point you made about quantitative easing. My teacher didn’t agree with your interpretation, but it was great to see that there are two sides to this debate.”), it comes across as though:</p>
<p>-the students is just writing the note because someone (like Mom) is making them do it (a
bit like writing and thanking grandma for the ugly sweater you got for Christmas)</p>
<p>-The student is just sucking up and didn’t actually get anything out of the lecture, but wants me to remember that they were there.</p>
<p>Best is probably something like: During your lecture you mentioned a new book coming out by Tim Geither and: here’s a review I read that I thought was really interesting which I’m attaching – or – I went out and bought the book and I really agree with you about his take on the corporate and social responsibility piece. </p>
<p>In other words, if you can show that: you took something substantive away from my lecture and that you acted upon it in some way, then I might be inclined to remember you if you’re accepted. By the way, I have never in all my years of teaching ever contacted the admissions office to rave about a high school student who came to my class or met with me. So don’t think that if you write a thank you note, that that will be the magical result. It won’t be.</p>
<p>Three reasons to write or email thanks to student tour guides (ad coms should always receive a thank-you after any contact):
First, it takes fewer than five minutes, and it’s an easy way to practice an “attitude of gratitude”. D’s uni tour guides are volunteers, so they give up precious time bc they are proud of their school & enjoy sharing it with guests. (Apparently there is a competitive application process to become a tour guide.) Guides are asked to provide feedback on prospies to ad coms. I know of at least one instance in my husband’s business where the job offer went to the candidate who sent a thank-you note (all other things being equal). It’s not going to make your admission happen, but it can’t hurt, especially at small schools or schools that consider demonstrated interest as a factor.</p>
<p>Wow, yaupon, most tour guides we have had did not even ask the kids’ names, I can’t see how they would be able to give feedback to admissions on them. They did not give out their information unless asked, and my D didn’t have any further contact with them. She did e-mail her interviewers and thank them, and any coaches she spoke with, but the only tour guide thanked later was the one who gave her a personal tour on a Sunday when the admissions office was closed.</p>
<p>mamabear, many of D’s tours include only one or two families. Most tours we went on during her search would indeed have been too large for the guide to know who was who (of course, our family tours took place during high school spring break weeks and summers when hordes of folks were touring – we had a personal tour at Centre, but that is the only school I remember where that took place). Many of our tour guides passed out cards with their email addresses for prospies to use if they had questions after the tour, which was a nice touch, albeit no doubt seldom used.</p>