<p>Hi prospectives! So, if you've visited Princeton in the past month or so, you were probably given a tour by a freshman who was followed around by several people with clipboards. This is because Orange Key was going through it's confirmation process, where the volunteer service selects new guides!</p>
<p>Now, hopefully you couldn't tell that it was the first tour your guide gave.... (walking backwards for the first time while giving the tour that will determine whether or not you become a Orange Key tour guide is nervewracking... fun though!) But I'd just like to ask, do you guys have any specific comments or suggestions for Orange Key? Should we talk about residential colleges more? Athletics? Be more enthusiastic? Tell more legends? Explain eating clubs? etc.? What did you like best/worst about your Orange Key tour? Any funny tour stories?</p>
<p>I'm so excited to be a new guide, because I love Princeton and want to make sure others love Princeton too (= So your suggestions for awesome Princeton tours would be greatly appreciated!</p>
<p>My favorite part of the tour was the large group of Korean tourists who brought about 8 children under the age of ten on the tour. Between the yelling of the kids and the attempts at discipline by the parents I didn't hear more than half of what the tour guide said. In spite of that I thought she had done a good job and was a credit to the university.
Good Luck!</p>
<p>Actually I have some input for you. I know it's difficult when school is in session and everything, but I actually think it is quite useless to simply look at and admire the school's buildings. One great thing about another tour that I went on was the accessibility to go inside the school, see a classroom, see a commonroom to a dorm, see a dining hall, etc. If Princeton could open up some of their buildings to prospective students, the tour would be, in my opinion, greatly enhanced, and pretty much perfect, as everything else was stellar.</p>
<p>I definitely agree with matty. Also, I think some more eating clubs discussion would be good, especially because they are such an important part of Princeton's social life. When I went on a tour, we had to ask about the eating clubs to get the tour guide to talk about them at all, which wasn't that big of a deal, but it would have been nice if she had at least mentioned them in the first place.</p>
<p>About what matty said, even if you can't go into a lot of buildings, it would be really helpful for tours to go through at least 1 dorm and 1 classroom. Every non-Ivy school I visited did this, and every Ivy did not. (strange...) It was definitely helpful at the schools that did!</p>
<p>HS d. and I went on a tour in February, and she had the same comments as posters above - would like to have seen classrooms, dorm rooms, performance spaces, library, dining but they weren't on the tour. </p>
<p>We did visits with older s. a couple years ago and now that I think of it, Princeton was the least open of any tour I've taken, and that includes Yale (don't know if the current practice has changed there). Personally, I didn't think it was such a big deal not to see a classroom, but to not see any of the spaces that will be so important to students seems odd. An offer was made to engineering students for something, but it would be nice if at least some of these spaces (dining, living, studying) were included.</p>
<p>Other than that, found both the tour guide and information session people to be extremely friendly and well spoken. </p>
<p>Well, one complaint. Our tour guide told us that Princeton was the southern most Ivy school and I thought "I guess Philadelphia (Penn) must be further north?" I've since checked a map, and don't know where he got his info.</p>
<p>Unless the tour guide takes you into his/her own room, it's kind of weird to go into a dorm. I was under the impression that tour guides were not supposed to bring visitors into dorms due to privacy issues. I mean, I'd hate to be walking back from the shower in my towel when a big group of prospective students and their parents showed up on my hallway. I never went on a tour that took you into a dorm at any other school either. Perhaps things have changed since then?</p>
<p>As far as classrooms and study spaces, I think the biggest reason they are not included is the time constraint. I witnessed friends who were training to be guides struggle to get in everything they wanted to in an hour. However, if you want to stay longer, I'm sure they could point you in the right direction. Might I suggest visiting Chancellor Green? It's straight out of Harry Potter.</p>
<p>What glinda is saying made sense. I went on a tour at a California school and we were wandering through the dorms and stumbled upon several just-got-out-of-shower-ers and a couple making out in a corner of the lobby. It wouldn't have been that bad if so many parents were there (mine weren't, luckily), but it was just kind of awkward and the guide was like "well, yep, that's dorm life!"</p>
<p>Many of the students are not thrilled that Admissions Office took over and now operates the Orange key (guided tour) it used to be independent. I don't think this was a great idea but they have the power.</p>
<p>I agree a dorm room can be tricky and was surprised at the number of colleges that DO include one - sometimes it's a 'mockup' - not a real inhabited room, but with furniture, etc. to give you an idea of size. For me the dorms aren't as crucial as dining hall and library. If a student is accepted, that's as good a time as any to compare dorm rooms, IMO. </p>
<p>The Yale tour took us through the library and into the common area of one of the residential colleges.</p>
<p>On my tour I actually got to see the classrooms of the Biology building (my major) and a dorm building (but not a room) but I think that was just because we were the only people on the tour and the tour guide was a really nice biology major who had access to the buildings we wanted to see.</p>
<p>one problem with seeing a dorm room at princeton is that there is no standard dorm room, even within most of the buildings. Its not like a lot of other schools were generally every room in a specific building is very similar</p>
<p>Hey guys, this thread is great. I'm a tour guide as well (congrats to the newbies!) and this is definitely some good feedback. </p>
<p>It is very very difficult to fit so much stuff into 1 small hour, but honestly, the tour you get depends on your guide. Although we are officially a branch of the admissions office now, they really didn't change much of anything in the organization, and if anything, I feel that our new relationship with them is great (more money for stuff!). </p>
<p>That being said, just like there is no typical dorm room, there is no typical tour. I hope you all had wonderful tours and wonderful guides. Good luck college shopping and keep the feeback coming in!</p>
<p>When I attended a tour last year there was only one other family. I asked many direct questions that perhaps I would not have posed in a larger group. So our guide was not only an excellent back-stepper, he delivered "off-the-record" answers that were very helpful in painting what I felt was a very good picture of life as a P'ton student -- from the mundane to the more important aspects of social and academic life. Sure, we received the requisite comments on school history, pretty buildings, quirky traditions, and great professors, but what emerged was a neatly framed perspective with great detail in those parts of the painting I wished to explore. </p>
<p>Based on several college visits last spring, I think the more effective tour guides are those who appear to be less scripted, those who are able to convey a real sense of daily student life. True knowledge of the place vs information on the school.</p>
<p>It also occurred to me that there is a difference with the Princeton tourguides because they are strictly volunteer. I wondered if any financial aid students are volunteers, or are they too busy with work study on top of classes to find the time to volunteer? Our guide had some knowledge of financial aid (knew that the eating clubs cost would be figured in the future but hadn't in the past) but the point of view of someone receiving significant financial aid can be very different from a student who has the free time to volunteer because they aren't working, too.</p>
<p>That's an interesting concern. It seems to me that being on financial aid doesn't really have that much of an impact, because a lot of the time, financial aid students don't even need a job (due to National Merit scholarship, federal grants, etc.). And I do know a number of Tour Guides who are on significant (i.e. basically full-ride) financial aid.</p>
<p>Recipients of financial aid might have more knowledge of Princeton's aid policies and might have a different perspective on elitism, a subject that can come up in discussions of Princeton (for example, with the whole eating club thing).</p>
<p>So does Princeton give National Merit Scholarships, or are you referring to the opportunity for an outside NM scholarship?</p>
<p>I don't know about Orange Key as a whole, but I'm one of those full-ride financial aid students and I make no secret of this fact on tours because I strongly believe that Princeton's financial aid policy is one of the best and that it is also indicative of the positive attitude Princeton has towards socioeconomic diversity and equal opportunity.</p>
<p>I also agree that the relationship with the admissions office is great because it's just that, a relationship. It makes sense because we share similar goals of representing Princeton to prospective students. Orange Key just has a vastly different approach. We ARE volunteer, so each tour guide has a great amount of flexibility in crafting unique tours. I encourage students on my tours to ask questions that they specifically would not feel comfortable asking an admissions officer. Plus, the perks of the relationship are great. The university's actually trying to make a mock dorm room now, which will address some of the concerns brought up!</p>
<p>I'll explore more to see if I can incorporate visiting a classroom, lecture hall, or residential college into the tour...</p>
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Our tour guide told us that Princeton was the southern most Ivy school and I thought "I guess Philadelphia (Penn) must be further north?"
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<p>Perhaps the tour guide meant to say that in Princeton's history, we've had the most Southern influence. For example, during the Civil War, Princeton contributed four generals to the Union, eight to the Confederacy. And according to Princeton lore, of the 70 names listed in the Civil War section of the Memorial Atrium, exactly half died fighting for the North and half for the South.</p>