<p>I hope some of the above was provided as feedback to the college. Obviously something needs to be changed in these instances.</p>
<p>I once went on an interview to professional school and the AA tour guide leaned in to me at the end and whispered: Don’t come here. And I didn’t</p>
<p>These are pretty funny (in a not-so-funny thousands of dollars way). D and I visited at least 12 schools (she did another 4 or 5 with other relatives) and the three that stand out are the more elite ones for some reason. </p>
<p>Amherst was one of the first we looked at. The guide was very snooty and IMHO judgmental. When I asked what everyone does for meals after the dining hall closes at 7 pm she said it didn’t really matter that it closed because everyone just orders delivery or goes to a restaurant anyways. Really? I informed D right then that if she did get in and chose Amherst she might feel out of place eating granola bars in her room if she was hungry while everyone was out eating sushi in a restaurant.</p>
<p>On our tour of CT/RI schools we hit some pretty bad weather. By the time we got to Wesleyan we were in a mini-blizzard. Thank goodness we gave ourselves plenty of time because it took a lot longer to get there because even the highway wasn’t plowed. Before leaving that morning we called to make sure the session/tour was not and would not be cancelled and was assured that it would not. When we arrived and found the admissions office it was clear that there was no parking available in the lots. I finally found a space up the backside of the admissions office on the side of the road. We hiked through unshoveled walks to the office only to be told we would most likely be towed and that we’d have to move the car and that the info session was going to take place but they were considering cancelling the tour because they didn’t have the manpower to get everything shoveled. Well, I told them what I thought about that and said I’d be expecting a private mini tour if that was the case. We were 3 1/2 hours from home and it had taken us over 5 to get there. In the end, they did tour everyone but boy, they sure didn’t act like they cared much.</p>
<p>The next day, we toured Brown in RI in the pouring rain, ugg! I had brought an umbrella which I of course left in the car several blocks from the campus. Just as we were leaving admissions for the tour the sky opened up. No one offered umbrellas to anyone (although a few people did have their own). My complaint was that there were several groups and you could see each one. When the tour guides would stop to point something out or answer questions, EVERY OTHER group was led to an overhang or some kind of structure, but not ours. The tour guide just stopped in her tracks while 20 of us were getting soaked. Not one, not two , but three different parents asked that she not do this but for whatever reason it continued. We left the tour before it finished and went home. I told my daughter if that is where the top US students go, she might want to rethink it. I think it was a case of “book smart, no common sense”.</p>
<p>OTOH, we had some great tours at other schools I didn’t expect to like: University of Scranton, Dickinson, Mount Holyoke, Vassar, to name a few. Very informational and pleasant, seemed happy that people were there.</p>
<p>When we took our d to Oxford, which she had chosen as her ideal from age 12, the representatives seemed cold, arrogant, and disinterested, basically saying “you can try to get in, but don’t bet on it.” She instantly knew that she wouldn’t apply. Cambridge U was the opposite, and that is where she is now.</p>
<p>I may have mentioned this before, but the school where the tour guide answered nearly every question with, “I don’t know, I’m an English major” or, “I don’t know, I just came back from a year abroad.” When I later received a postcard asking for feedback, I was honest. She also said the dorm rooms were rated top notch (uh, not to our eyes- and she didn’t have a dorm passkey, so we waited for someone to come out.) </p>
<p>Then there was the small local school that toured us through a “triple” dorm room with ripped window screens, dead bugs on the sills, badly stained rug, three beds, two dressers, two closets, two desks. (“I don’t know, I think the roommates figure out who gets the dressers.”) </p>
<p>In contrast, at the ultimate safety (big state U that didn’t even have her major, which professor friends discouraged her from attending,) the tour was the best of all. Even in pouring rain. Super guide, who made it all seem great. </p>
<p>When I was fifteen, my school led a college bus tour (without parents) that included UC Berkeley, a school I was very excited about. The school was gritty and dirty, it rained all day, the tour guide was not personable. On Sproul plaza, I was mortified to be handed a free condom (it was Valentine’s Day) by a stranger. We toured a dorm that was ugly, sported graffiti and off campus—I couldn’t imagine living in it.</p>
<p>After touring many more beautiful colleges, I went home and applied to Cal after all. All the things that attracted me to it in the first place were still there—the deep academic course offerings, diversity, urban setting, challenging learning environment, interesting peers. I attended a year and a half later and have no regrets. It was almost good to have a bad tour to find out how much I wanted an education there. My dorm wasn’t gorgeous, but my floor mates bonded and I made very close friends. One of them I later worked at the same company with; another is my husband of over 25 years!</p>
<p>P.S. My daughter toured Cal recently and thought it was “ugly”. Their admissions info session cycled the same video over and over, and was very de-personalized. Nothing’s changed! She applied, but it is not her first choice lol.</p>
<p>I have to be honest and say I don’t think it is the responsibility of the University to provide umbrellas to families that happen to be touring in the rain. They are not 5 star hotels (although their rates are similar!) We always googled the weather report the day before and dressed accordingly. We always carry umbrellas in our cars, so if it was cloudy we would bring them along after parking just in case. </p>
<p>The quality of the tour guides vary from school to school but these are volunteers generously giving their time. I have always maintained that the tour guide should be a “paid” position. The schools would have the ability to expect more from the guides and it might attract a more industrious student who would put more into the undertaking. </p>
<p>Tour guiding is a paid position at many campuses.</p>
<p>At Johns Hopkins…after being told about the great campus security, my D took a right out of the building instead of a left and the tour guide exclaimed, “No no! You don’t want to walk in that direction.” :0 </p>
<p>What a bizarre thread. I can understand high school students not understanding the difference between the wrapping paper and the gift. But parents? Really?</p>
<p>WasatchWriter et al, my post (#8) was about a truncated visit to a school that was an add-on, a school in which my daughter wasn’t very interested. I agree that it’s a shame when a bad tour guide results in ruling out a school that may be well suited to a student in many ways.</p>
<p>We were almost late to our Conn tour because it was going to rain and we stopped to buy an umbrella. We got there and Conn had umbrellas. Oh well :)</p>
<p>I TRY not to let a lousy info session or tour color things but when you are looking for a reason to make a long list shorter, it’s hard not to take that gut feeling into account and unfortunately the gut feeling is often affected by the admissions office reception. </p>
<p>But yes, it is a lot like wrapping paper and I do actively fight that tendency to judge the book by the cover, as it were.</p>
<p>@oldmom4896 I was not referring to the experience you described.</p>
<p>@OHMomof2 I agree it can be hard.</p>
<p>Sometimes you fault the guide, not the school. Other times, you wonder how a school can let such front door impressions be so poor. On that great tour we had of the ultimate safety, a supervisor joined in, unannounced, for part of the walk. Good idea. She had a chance to check him in action- and frankly, we didn’t “need” her for info, he covered it all. </p>
<p>None of these issues are petty at all, because every single one of them reveals something about the college that could be a deal breaker/maker. Fit is everything. A devout Jewish student may not feel comfortable at a college with a cross on the chapel. To her, that’s not petty at all. Another student may be thrilled at the let loose atmosphere of a college that doesn’t have rules about wearing shoes in the dining hall. And an ill-trained tour guide may make it clear that the college doesn’t care enough about each student to teach him to do his job well. </p>
<p>Both of my kids liked or rejected certain schools based on stuff like this. There is no right or wrong when it comes to a feeling about a school. If the kid isn’t committed to loving the place, then he won’t be successful there, no matter how good a fit it may be on paper.</p>
<p>My D had a weird experience at Wellsley. I wasn’t with her for the tour. Apparently there were a lot of crude references to sex acts and many of those references seemed quite angry. Not only in signs all over campus but D tells me there was crude language from the tour guide as well. (This was confirmed by the mother and several friends who accompanied D on the tour). My D is not a sheltered kid so I tend to think things must have been pretty over the top. In any case my D clearly took away the feeling that the school was not a fit. (Not that we could have afforded it anyway - D only went on the tour because friends were going). </p>
<p>Agree with @Massmomm. This is a light-hearted thread and no one is bashing colleges. Sometimes a little thing can turn a kid (or a mom) off of a school and that is ok. </p>
<p>We had a scheduled personal tour at Marywood, scheduled about a month in advance, had a confirmation letter and a confirmation call the day before, and when we got there - no one was there to take us on the tour! That knocked it off my daughter’s list.</p>
<p>She nixed Montclair State University because of all the cars driving around - we had a hard time crossing campus roadways because of the large number of commuters. She said it made it feel like less a campus. This was exacerbated by the fact that no one could tell us anything about the music program, and the music school was almost silent, which I thought was just weird. </p>
<p>@Massmomm, I disagree. Yes, fit is important, so go visit, and walk around; observe the students, what they talk about, etc., but how well the tour guides are trained likely has zero correlation with the impact that a school will have on your life. </p>
<p>And I’m sorry, but if a kid is freaked out by the sight of a cross on top of a building, he/she will have trouble living in any American city/town (and I speak as a non-Christian).</p>
<p>Agree with previous posters that Northwestern’s info session/tour leave a lot to be desired. (As an alum, this really disappointed me.) Even the place they hold the info session is horrible–there are much nicer buildings on campus. Our tour guide there also mixed up Upton Sinclair and Sinclair Lewis, which led to sideways glances from my son and his friend. </p>
<p>Also had an off-putting experience at Grinnell, where were were not allowed to see the inside of any performance spaces or dorms. Weak tour guide there as well–all he could talk about was the north-south campus rivalry and the party scene.</p>