I am pretty new to CC, but have a question that I can’t seem to find an answer anywhere on CC or google for that matter. Has anyone ever posted a request to a current student to give a tour on a Saturday? I was hoping I could convince a student to give my son and I a tour in exchange for a great meal (of their choice). Am I crazy to think someone would jump at that? I have a neighbor who has visited small LAC’s and asked students who were out and about if they would show them around, and many were happy to oblige. I just feel intimidated doing so, especially at Penn.
Don’t be intimidated.
You can always ask admissions if they have a list of amenable students.
And when I was in a sorority at Penn, we had volunteers both to give tours and to call alumni for donations. If you have any connection to a Greek organization, you could try that.
Wouldn’t it make more sense to visit on a school day, so u can observe the normal rhythm of the school, rather than just look at empty buildings? It’s a school tour, not an architecture tour.
Don’t go last weekend in sept…the Pope will be in Philly!
I would try rhandco’s suggestion. Admission’s office should be able to find a student who can show you around and share their experience.
I have called admissions twice and the answer was no, once with hesitation, the other resounding. My son wrote admissions and received a no with a self tour map. I am now going to try a Penn Facebook page, pre-med organizations on campus (?) and a student from our school who was accepted this year (we’ll see if she knows anyone who may be an alumni, etc.). My son does not want to go Greek, so I don’t want to impose there. Thank you for your help/suggestions - much appreciated.
Your son should be the one asking on the Facebook page, and IMO, really should be the one trying to organize this period.
I respectfully disagree that it has to be your son. It can be intimidating for some people, student or parent if Ivy League schools are not a part of your world. When I toured Penn and Princeton with my oldest son in his junior yar, we didn’t contact admissions; that seemed to intimidating to me, and I don’t think my son cared one way or the other. However, we did have online aquaintances on both campuses (and my son had a former math circle friend at Princeton), so we just did informal tours with them.
You or your son might try to contact someone from a group on campus that he might be interested in. My son(s) and I have contacted Christian organizations on campuses of various colleges, and people are usually good at responding.
My middle son and I will be visiting Penn in early September, as well, but we’ll be there on Monday and Tuesday, and will do an official tour on Tuesday.
If he’s interested in the College, I’ve heard of students (though this is just through word of mouth), contacting the below group and requesting a tour. They do Penn College of Arts and Sciences information sessions that are planned exclusively by student volunteers and are totally separate from Admissions. I don’t know if they will actually do an individual tour. But it’s worth a shot. They also might actually have saturday sessions scheduled.
http://www.collegecognoscenti.com/
Also, while it’s not terribly weird for someone’s mom to contact the school or current students, it comes off a lot better if a student does it him/herself. Especially if it is going to be in the facebook group. Kids are a lot more likely to respond to another student than someone’s parent. But that’s just an opinion I guess
OK, I think I need to clarify. My husband and I are doing recon for our son. If I actually contacted someone on Facebook or anywhere on social media, he would run for the hills!! I don’t consider calling the admissions office as overstepping my bounds or being an tiger mother.
This is the final leg of a 19 college tour (over two years) which our son has made (and taken pride in) each and every admission/tour/interview arrangement (after our travel was set by us). This summer he is working two jobs (55 hours per week 6 days a week) and volunteers on the 7th day for 8 hours. All on top of 2 AP classes that require summer work. My husband and I volunteered to do the back work on this to help the kid out!!
I prefaced the discussion with the fact that I am new to CC, however, I am not new to the process and neither is our son. This is the first college out of the 18 that we have visited that does not have tours and admissions sessions on Saturdays in the fall, which this family finds odd.
So any help out there would be appreciated and thank you to those with great suggestions, I do appreciate it.
:-S
If you have a date, I’d be happy to ask my daughter for you. She’ll be a sophomore in the college.
Thank you very much, Saturday, 12 September. Afternoon time frame.
@bakermom64, you can also try the Kite and Key FB page or website and ask for a day host. This is the organization on campus that conducts the tours for prospective students and families.
My son just signed up for a tour through Kite and Key! Thank you so much pmsleepy!! Thanks to all on CC.
Glad it worked out!