<p>Our best so far was at Providence, the young woman was honest about herself and the school and tried to answer questons she felt some of the parent/students weren’t asking. She made a tour that could have been somewhat boring, quite interesting.
Worst was my daughter’s tour of American, the young man was rude, talked quickly even after requests to “slow down” cut the tour short,and said more than once, a question was answered in the literature he gave out when they started…they could have just did it themselves! I think I might call them about him, not a good representative of the campus. Of course there wasn’t any name cards or questionaires later.
Another one that wasn’t great was at a Catholic college, he kept apoligizing for different rules, such as parietal rules for dorm visiting, no birthcontrol tables, etc. My daughter in so many words told him she would hope any student applying wouldn’t expect the college to change it’s standards for them, you know what the college is, you shouldn’t complain later!</p>
<p>Oh I forgot…my favorite Q/A…was at Pepperdine. The “Lily Pulitzer Clone” guide was asked what kids did on the weekends since there didn’t appear to be much in Malibu. She replied “well…lots of times we go to L.A. for pizza.” Even DD thought that was ridiculous since we had just driven from LA and it took well over an hour to get to the school.</p>
<p>Best: Muhlenberg, Seton Hall and Lafayette. All smart, personable and informative. The two gentlemen at Seton Hall (which is a safety for my D and which we visited because it’s local and we had to start somewhere) were so sharp, edgy, witty and funny that we still remember their names a year later! She will apply there happily, and I worry that she’ll be disappointed if all the students aren’t the same.</p>
<p>Worst, hands down, was at another local school, higher ranked, that we visited to confirm that it would be a top choice. The tour guide was a nightmare. Showed up late, wearing flip-flops and telling us that she had been warned not to. Proceeded to spend the entire tour with the shoes flying into the air, tripping over them, and then taking a very bad fall at the end. She couldn’t answer any questions, was dumb as a doornail, and generally unpleasant. Daughter swears she won’t apply there, but I’ve asked if she would consider email her admissions person, explaining the situation, and asking to visit again. Daughter isn’t keen on that because she sees that girl as the best the school could do. Oh, one thing about Lafayette’s tour, the guide was wonderful, but we got the snottiest, crankiest group of co-tourees with their backsides hanging out of short-shorts and snapping gum. I’m not sure where Lafayette stands in her mind.</p>
<p>One of my favorite guides was a cute little guide at CalTech. When someone asked about Nobel prize winners, she replied, “Welllllllll, Nobel prize winners don’t really make the best teachers…”.</p>
<p>It does seem that many schools seem to select guides from the performing arts schools, so they don’t know much about the science part of campus. But they were all enthusiastic and apologetic about their lack of knowledge.</p>
<p>Recently DD and I toured Ivy. We had pre-arranged to have a tour through dept of interest and our guide was a rising senior who was lead for a student project. She spent most of an hour with us, in her lab, one-on-two, describing the project, her involvement and how being involved has greatly expanded her learning experience. Her enthusiasm for the effort was evident and my D appreciated it very much. </p>
<p>We were scheduled to take the general campus tour in the PM but decided to forgo that – D had already moved it to the top of her list. </p>
<p>I guess that’s a lesson learned – better to contact the department of interest and ask for a specific tour than chance it in an admissions group. I’d have been perturbed if we’d spent an hour listening to someone go on and on about her fabric design lab – enthusiastic or not. </p>
<p>On the negative side, toured another campus and the guide pretty much just pointed to a building and said “That’s <somebody not=“” so=“” famous=“”> Hall and it’s where you take writing class. Over there is …” No enthusiasm shown. Dropped from consideration.</somebody></p>
<p>Some general pointers: don’t walk and talk at the same time. Or if you do, learn to walk backwards. Wait until the whole group has reassembled before you begin talking. Then speak to the guy in the back of the group – meaning loudly. Find a place midway through the tour to pause and give us old folks a chance to rest. Try to extract questions from the quite ones. Instead of asking “What’s everyone gong to study?” Point to someone who hasn’t spoken yet and ask “What are you interested in?” You’ll get lots of “I’m not sure.” then you can go into your canned speech about how your school welcomes undeclared majors. Talk directly to that kid, he’ll think you’re interested – and everyone else will hear the answer too. Repeat every question if you think there’s any chance some didn’t hear.</p>
<p>In the helpful hints category, when you stop to talk, do so in the shade, especially on a sunny day in the South.</p>
<p>I agree about letting people have a small rest from time to time. We toured William and Mary twice, and both tour guides would bring us to places with benches/seats and say: “have a seat while I talk about…” and it was nice. I have to say both of those tours were terrific and the tour guides (both dryly funny) are a big reason W&M is the top of my d’s list. </p>
<p>And while there’s nothing a tour guide can do about this, I second zoosermom’s dismay over co-tourees. We had a bad experience at Vassar, with the other kids on the tour being obnoxious. My d felt that if they were indicative of the kinds of kids interested in Vassar, she didn’t want to go there.</p>
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That’s my daughter’s theory, too, and I’m not sure they’re wrong. The people, including families, on the Muhlenberg tour were amazing. That had an impact, also, because every person she encountered there was helpful, enthusiastic and downright nice.</p>
<p>The memorable tours were the ones that guides gave personal examples of coping with being at college, such as ways they decided on a major or how they were using the resources available. I remember a couple examples of difficulties that they resolved, which reflected well on both the students & the campus environment.</p>
<p>Least useful were tours that are reminiscent of a tour for tourists, as opposed to one for students deciding about college. For example, I accompanied my son on 2 tours at Yale, one for those interested in science, which was excellent, & a general tour, which I remember highlighted “sights,” like a Maya Lin sculpture.</p>
<p>The better tours focused on the needs of the students, such as the science tour at Yale. Other examples were guides who sensitively responded to questions or were concerned about the physical comfort of the group, such as on a hot day finding places to stand in the shade or providing water.</p>
<p>In general, the best tours were given by older students, like juniors or rising seniors, who had a more seasoned perspective on life as a student & their college.</p>
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<p>D2 had a similar experience at one of her top schools. She liked the tour guide, as well as the few other current students that we met while visiting the school. But some of other kids in our particular tour group really turned her off. I encouraged her to focus more on the current students and suggested that chances are most of those other kids who were visiting the school may end up going elsewhere, anyway.</p>
<p>Best Tour Guides: With D1, it was during our first visit to American. Even though she was a Freshman, this tour guide was friendly, enthusiastic and knowledgeable. The tour really left D1 with a positive feeling for AU. With D2, the best tour guide, by far, was at Brown. She was not only knowledgeable and enthusiastic, but had a quirky and charming sense of humor, which really struck a chord with D.</p>
<p>Worst Tour Guides: At Trinity College the tour guide often mumbled and was difficult to hear, especially outdoors. At Washington College, the final straw for D was when our tour guide announced that she was transferring at the end of the semester.</p>
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<p>That wins the “funniest post of the day” award. I hope someone told the admissions office about this before they left!!!</p>
<p>Two experiences.</p>
<p>First, I asked a tour guide what other schools she applied to and why she chose University X. She spent the rest of the tour telling S1 and I how Univ. X was her third choice and how as a freshman and sophomore she had tried to transfer to her first choice. She obviously didn’t care for Univ. X and was just doing the tours for the work-study cash. It certainly didn’t leave the best impression.</p>
<p>Second, on another tour a parent asked about the party culture and the University’s attitude toward it. It was like someone threw a switch on a robot. Guide quoted chapter and verse about the strict attitude the school took toward on campus drinking. This was great until, walking backward, he tripped on an empty beer can outside one of the dorms. When I bent down to help him up there were at least a dozen more empties lying in the brush.</p>
<p>I like my tour guides to be honest and to give a realistic view of the school. Whether accurate or not, tour guides are viewed as an example of the typical student; if Admissions Offices had any idea how their schools are being represented by their chosen guides, they’d have a collective heart attack.</p>
<p>I would let most of the poor tourguiding techniques go, but I would let a college know that a student is saying it was her last choice and wasn’t happy about it and/or that she is transfering for any other reason than, they don’t have a major she/he wants or something like that. I know it’s “just a job” to them, but they should be intelligent enough to know you can be honest but not bite the hand that feeds you.</p>
<p>I heartily agree that if you are interested in being a science major, find out if the college you are touring has a general science tour, or whether you can make arrangements to visit some of those departments. I thought my DS was going to revolt when I advised him that the tour of Brown was a three bagger – info session, general campus tour and then a physcial sciences tour at the end, the latter taking 1.5 hours. We weren’t done until around 2:30 and had not had lunch.</p>
<p>Nonetheless, that physical sciences tour got him energized. We found a place to eat lunch off campus and he opened up much more than he ever had about what he liked and didn’t like, grabbed a napkin and started putting his college list together in priority order. Brown started off the day as “meh” and has wound up #2 on his list, and would likely be #1 if it was in CA.</p>
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<p>Agree 100% Debruns, but it does make me wonder about who interviewed, chose and trained these students.</p>
<p>I have a friend who has been an admissions officer for three decades, so when she took her oldest daughter on campus visits, she tried to caution her against basing her impressions on the quality of the tour. </p>
<p>But then, at the very first college they visited (a school that the mom had secretly hoped the daughter would attend), both mother and child were struck by the fact that all of the other participants on their tour were obese.</p>
<p>Even though these fellow visitors had no connection to the college in question … other than the fact that they were prospective students and parents … and even though my friend had (at least in theory) the wisdom and experience to shrug off such circumstantial details, mother and daughter left that school with the feeling that the fit, athletic child would not be well matched there. She didn’t apply and the mom never again encouraged her to do so.</p>
<p>I sometimes use that anecdote as a cautionary tale to warn prospective students and their parents of the unlikely influences that might affect their college choices. Yet, even when advised to look beyond them, first impressions can play a starring role.</p>
<p>“Agree 100% Debruns, but it does make me wonder about who interviewed, chose and trained these students”</p>
<p>I wonder that also, you can tell some are trained much better than others. Some it seems they woke up the last minute and said, “We have a tour, show them around!” : )</p>
<p>I also agree with Sally, tour guides can sour a interest no matter how hard you try to delete a bad one from your memory. I marveled that my daughter this week was able to do that at American and still say she wants to visit again and give it a better shot.</p>
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<p>Believe me … it happens! </p>
<p>Also, on many campuses where guides are not paid during the school year, they are paid during vacations. Since, in today’s economy, any summer job can be hard for a student to come by, admission officials may not have trouble hiring quality summer guides. Often there are enough students who want an excuse to stay on campus (or who live close enough to commute) so that a summer guiding job is coveted and selective position.</p>
<p>But hiring vacation tour guides at other times of the year can be more of a crap shoot. If the college folks don’t cancel tours entirely during a vacation period, they may have to resort to using any available warm body … even one that is still warm from bed. ;)</p>
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<p>Well, as dear old Dad used to say, “When you pay peanuts, you’re bound to get monkeys”.</p>
<p>Our S visited 7 schools in the NE in 5 days. He traveled with a friend and parent so his interpretations of the tours are all I have to go on. He thought the Harvard and Amherst tour guides were arrogant and boring. He said they showed no enthusiasm. When asked why he attended Harvard, the guide said he was from Boston and Harvard was close by. He also noted that both those schools talked mostly about how difficult it was to get in. On the other hand, Dartmouth, Middlebury and Yale encouraged everyone to apply. Our S said that it was obvious how much these guides enjoyed their schools. It seems that a true love of being a student at the school is the most important quality of a guide.</p>