<p>We had a freshman tour guide at an Ivy League university who had memorized the tour, apparently. Whenever she was asked a question during her “schpeel” she had to go back and begin her (canned) sentence at the beginning because she was thrown off. Unfortunately, some of the kids on the tour caught on and proceeded to try to “throw” her during the tour. She was incredibly accomplished (by her self-professed bio) and had been accepted to 3 or 4 Ivies, but I decided having second-semester freshmen as tour guides was probably not a great idea no matter what the caliber of the school.</p>
<p>I mentioned this thread to DD, the tour guide. She says that anyone at her school who is going to transfer is removed from their job as a student ambassador. Also, they ARE honest. If some asks “was this your first choice”…and it wasn’t. The answer would be something along the lines of “It wasn’t but I enrolled here and it has been terrific.” Point being that the first choice doesn’t have to be the be all end all…and students can hear that. </p>
<p>She agrees…if you have something to say to your child or other parent…please do so without being in earshot of the rest of the tour.</p>
<p>I realize I didn’t give the positives of tour guides: the tour guides at Tufts and Colgate were the reason those two schools became my son’s top choices. They were smart and somehow relate-able to my son. He knew nearly nothing about the schools before we toured, other than Fiske Guide stuff. They also asked about subjects tour students were interested, and proceeded to address them. Actually at Tufts, there were several guides for a large group, and they told us what their majors were (somewhat diverse) so the tourers could align themselves with a guide who might have something more in common with them. Tour turnoffs for my son were the guides who either weren’t very knowledgeable, or didn’t seem that enthusiastic about their school.</p>
<p>For those considering being tour guides, DO IT if you love your school, are great with people, and can walk backwards. ;)</p>
<p>The only parents who drove us nuts were those who gave their (apparently) gifted child’s bio, and wanted to make sure XXX college could challenge their brilliant progeny…</p>
<p>Least skilled tour guide: Emory student tripped over trash can while walking backwards. </p>
<p>Most obnoxious parent on a tour: Braggy mom at NYU (Full story is on my college angst blog: [The</a> Most Difficult Year to Get into College in the History of the World](<a href=“http://www.theneuroticparent.com%5DThe”>http://www.theneuroticparent.com) - Click on April 2008)</p>
<p>Had two tour guides who did not live on campus, so couldn’t answer some questions about residence hall issues, which did not impress H at all. In both cases they were commuters. </p>
<p>IMHO, I feel the tour guide should reside on campus so they can give the prospective students some pertinent info and not say “Oh, I don’t know. I don’t live on campus. I am a commuter.” Probably just as bad as saying you are getting ready to transfer out!</p>
<p>I was surprised at Dartmouth this week that the guide didn’t take us into a dorm or a dining hall. I imagine that’s not left up to the tour guide, though.</p>
<p>I don’t think it’s that common to see inside a dorm room or a dining hall. We visited 8 campuses and saw only one dorm room (at Brown, and at least they showed a freshman building which looked plenty “tired”) and dining Hall (at Harvard, but just barely, as in a three second peek through the window and even at that there was moves to shoo us all away.)</p>
<p>Let’s face it, especially at the campuses that plain old tourists like to visit, the students probably don’t want to be part of the spectacle.</p>
<p>One of our first tours was at USC where we took a general tour and then a major specific tour. The tour guide was great for the general tour except that everyone who knew the guide would put up the 2-finger “V” sign (victory) and say “Fight On” when they passed the group instead of saying “Hi!” That was an eye-opener to us - a little too rah-rah for my taste. Once we were on the Theatre Department tour it became more “Hi, how ya doing?” as a greeting, much better from my point of view.</p>
<p>At Penn State the tour group was told that if any passers by shouted out “WE ARE!” we were all to shout back “PENN STATE!” Too rah-rah for my taste, but D liked it. So I guess it just goes to show, you can’t please everyone!</p>
<p>Loved all our tour guides this summer… Notre Dame guides are masters at walking backwards and at UF we got to see the outsides of numerous LIB ARYS no R’s in theirs.</p>
<p>FAP, it’s interesting how it varies for people. I think Dartmouth was the first campus of 8 or so at which we did NOT see a dorm room or dining hall!</p>
<p>So far, we have always seen a dorm room or dining hall…even if it wasn’t for freshman.</p>
<p>When we toured UVA, we didn’t see any dorm due to privacy issues.</p>
<p>FAP - that’s exactly what happened when we visited Harvard, and D and I were both too short to peek in the window. </p>
<p>I think the only tour guide that showed us both the inside of the cafeteria and a dorm room was at Lehigh.</p>
<p>Tour guide hits-
A young man and woman at Williams leading their first tour. They were honest, cool without trying, and couldn’t walk backwards without getting right and left wrong for us visitors. They also were drop-dead gorgeous. Like out of “Gossip Girl”. No disrespect to Williams.
A guy at Swarthmore who reminded my daughter of her beloved brother. A coolster, but a nerd not far below the surface.
A young woman at Amherst who was funny, honest and seemingly brilliant.
The worst-
A guide at Amherst (previous kid’s tour) who was tubby, tried to walk backward with no success in flip-flops, and a guy who generally you would hate to spend time with. The “good” guide at Amherst described her fellow students as “awkward”. This was it.
A young man at Haverford with painfully low self-esteem. He related that on his second day on campus he sat down on a glass coffee table and spent his first week in the infirmary having shards removed. I offered that he must be well known in his class. “Yes, they call me glass ass”.
I’m not sure why the most memorable guides were at LACs.</p>
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<p>Hmm…a lethargic, ignorant, surly liar might make a bad tour guide, but certainly an interesting one!</p>
<p>At Tulsa, we showed up at the admissions office a little early and were the only ones there. Other prospective students and parents kept trickling in over the next few minutes, eventually filling the whole lobby. “God,” I thought, “this is going to be miserable.”</p>
<p>Then, a most pleasant surprise: A separate tour guide came out for each student! Ours asked about my son’s interests, then proceeded to lead us on a customized tour, showing us places that were relevant to his interests, as well as the usual rec center, freshman dorm, etc.</p>
<p>The tour guide was fine but not exceptional. Yet I felt it was our best tour because of the individual attention. (My son didn’t like the school, but that had nothing to do with our guide.)</p>
<p>Probably our best tour was at UTulsa as well. We had two guides for a group of about 15. They played beautifully off of each other – a male poli sci major who’s in a frat and an artsy girl. They were both fabulous. Appropriately honest and helpful. Thankfully, ds loved the school.</p>
<p>
In my 20 or so college tours (not a masochist - that’s with three different kids), it was common to see a dining hall, but less so to see a room. A couple of schools (Pitt was one) maintained a sample unoccupied room for students to get an idea of the living space without invading anyone’s privacy. We had a great guide at Duke who showed us her own authentically lived-in room at the end of the tour.</p>
<p>We’ve only had one unfortunate guide experience, but it was bad enough that d3 walked off the tour and refused to consider applying. The guide was ditzy throughout but actually rolled her eyes and repeated my apparently stupid question about housing in an unbelieving tone of voice. D got offended on my behalf, turned on her heel and walked to the car. Too bad, because it was a really good school that would have been an ideal safety.</p>
<p>I had a mom crush on one of our guides at W & M. No, not that way - I wished with all my heart that oldest d could have gotten involved with him instead of his metaphoric evil twin.
(Thankfully, she’s moved on.)</p>
<p>Does anyone else feel bad for the guides when they plead for questions and no one asks one? That’s actually the only reason I ever spoke up on a tour.</p>
<p>We have seen a lot of Catholic colleges, but my daughter toured some DC colleges (American, GW,Georgetown)this week and PA colleges last month.(Swarthmore, Lehigh, Temple, Villanova were some) I asked her and she said except for Temple and Johns Hopkins (self tour) she saw most the dorms and dining halls unless they had to cut the tour short, because they were on a tight schedule (school group)
I would think for students, seeing where they would eat and sleep is important. If I took the time to go to a college and just walked around the outside, as some parents have told me, I would feel cheated.</p>