<p>This wouldn’t be contact about a student’s admissions prospects, or anything regarding the student. This would be feedback on a tour guide, and I would think a parent perspective would be highly appreciated by the tour guide’s boss (admissions). I think that is a completely separate issue then calling to find out if SAT scores were received, for example. Admissions KNOWS that most students don’t tour alone, they tour with parents! Another alternative would be to have both mom and D sign the letter, or send it anonymously. I would NOT have D sign the letter alone; then it sounds snarky and it would probably end up in her admissions file.</p>
<p>I would most definitely write a polite but firm letter about your tour experience. And, I would also have the letter come directly from you, not from your daughter. As an alum, you are certainly familiar with the school and I think that it would be appropriate to compose the letter from that point of view. After all, the campus tour is such an important part of the college application experience. For many kids, this first impression is the deciding factor as to whether or not they will eventually apply to the school. Luckily your daughter has learned about your school through you so she is still interested in it as a future choice, but what about the other people who knew nothing about the place before the tour. Seems to me that they still know nothing about the place. I did several tours with my son last year and I had different impressions about all of them. Should the tour guide make or break your child’s decision? No but the point of a tour is to learn about the college or university and all that it has to offer. I do think that an excellent tour guide can make a big difference however. Last summer, my son wanted no part of touring UCONN but I made him attend a tour/info session. We had such a great experience and a wonderful guide that told my son so many things he never knew about his state’s flagship university. After the tour, while we were eating lunch, he told me that he was glad that he came and that he could see himself applying there. He did apply, was accepted, but has chosen another university. But, his impression of UCONN was changed forever by that one tour guide. So, don’t hesitate to inform them of your experience. After all, they are in the business of wanting kids to choose their college over someone elses. And just like any job, if someone doesn’t do their job well, the people that employ them need to know about it.</p>
<p>Don’t take the EL at 2AM riding a miniskirt?! My god, please do write a letter! </p>
<p>gweeta, I understand what the GC is saying but those tours are not just for the students. If i were in the Admissions office, I would very much want to know what the people footing the bill thought. </p>
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<p>Again, what did you expect her to say to a group including parents? I’m sincerely curious. Most tour guides, in my very limited experience, recite the schools official policy and then assure the parents that is what the campus is really like. </p>
<p>I really did think, and still do think, it’s a silly question to ask on a student/parent tour.</p>
<p>The tour guide made the tour all about herself, her religious values, etc.</p>
<p>Yes, it was a lame question, but some first time parents ask lame questions.</p>
<p>This is what she could have said "Well, this is college, so you are going to have kids that party. However, our school has some many activities, clubs and an amazing beach, that for those that don’t want to party, there is a lot of fun stuff to do. (not well, I am religious so I don’t even know people like that).</p>
<p>Of course she knows people who party at school. </p>
<p>If she presents that all she knows about the school is her sorority and her own clubs, she is not a good tour guide. As well, if you come off as thinking you are better than the average student, who may be the ones in your audience, you will turn kids off.</p>
<p>I think the BEST person to write the letter is the parent since she/he is both an alum and the parent of a prospective student.</p>
<p>As an alum, you can make the point that you love the school and want it to be seen in its best light; and as a parent of a prospective student, you can point out that you have been on student-led tours at other schools recently and how poor this one was in comparison, citing specific things that were unsatisfactory.</p>
<p>Also, when asked about student alcohol/drug use and the school’s “culture,” the tour guide should state whether there are substance-free dorms or other housing options available, what the school’s policy is regarding alcohol (etc.) in dorms (and whether that policy is closely adhered to), whether the town’s bars allow under-age kids in (even if they aren’t allowed to purchase and consume alcohol there), … That type of information is factual and is the type of information that students (and parents) are seeking.</p>
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<p>Then they are looking in the wrong place and I find it very hard to believe that the vast majority of parents do not already know that.</p>
<p>A tour guide is paid or a volunteer associated with the college. They are not there to provide a truthful, balanced picture. They have a job, the job is to get students to apply. </p>
<p>Has anyone been a tour where the guide said, “These are the policies but the admin turns a blind eye so the party scene is pretty good” or “Did you know that the bars here in town let underage students in? But don’t worry, not one drop of alcohol will pass through the lips of an underage drinker.”</p>
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<p>I still think is a very odd conclusion to come too. Would you assume a student who said they drank alcohol believed they were better than those who don’t? Or do your assumptions about who believes they are superior only extend to those who do not drink? My point remains that at least she shared her personal experience, which was honest.</p>
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<p>I might, depending on how she answered the question. There are ways and ways of answering a question like that. A student could give the impression that she thought everyone except social losers drank, or that she chose to drink but other students made the equally acceptable choice not to.</p>
<p>It sounds like this young woman is in the wrong job. Someone who has no empathetic imagination, who can’t figure out why someone else might be asking a question and how to give answers that would help them, ought not to be a tour guide. I’m sure she’s a lovely person, but she’s just not doing her job.</p>
<p>“i don’t associate with those people” comes across to me as feeling superior and throwing in the religious part does as well. </p>
<p>I drink. Yes I do. I don’t drink alot, but I drink. So guess she wouldn’t hang out with me. </p>
<p>If a school doesn’t have anything to do on weekend nights, that seems to be an issue with the school, as much as the kids going into the big city. Dead campus on weekends would be the issue for me, not the kids going into a city.</p>
<p>Again, the tour guide could say what my daughter says- that yes there is partying on campus, but she has found that there is so much to do, plays, movie nights, dances, whatever, that there is so much to do, and she has found lots of kids enjoy what the campus has to offer, she is able to have fun and so do lots of others kids.</p>
<p>The question was a silly one, but to say, well, I am religious and don’t hang out with those that aren’t well, is naive and snooty. And shows the tour guide didn’t have much of a clue about life at her college for the average kid.</p>
<p>What she should have done was talk about all the cool things on campus, the resources, what the local town has to offer, not her own cocooned world. Her personal experience was honest, but didn’t answer the question in a way that is helpful on a tour.</p>
<p>I think that worker performance depends just as much on hiring practices and training as it does on the skill and interest of the person filling the position.</p>
<p>If I sent a note I would do so with those thoughts in mind.</p>
<p>Definitely write the college, or better yet, give the office of admissions a polite call, especially as you are an alumna. I took about 25 tours last year, and an equal amount a few years ago with another child. Some were excellent, most were good and a few stood out as awful. It depends on the guide, and since the guide, paid or not, is supposed to be an ambassador - and in fact a salesman - for the school, that person ought to know a lot about their own school and be prepared to answer questions on all sorts of subjects. I made a point of complimenting excellent guides and even the admission offices when the tour ended, and I registered a few complaints where they were due. </p>
<p>Tuft’s gave us what my son described as the “Fabulous!” tour. The guide easily was the most charming guide at any college. He chattered on about how fabulous its social life was, the delights of the city it bordered and how fabulous that was, the fabulous way that the school will deliver pizza to the students rooms until midnight, but he never said one word about academics and couldn’t tell us where the physics building was when we asked. Harvard gave us two guides who had never met each other before and who happily spent the entire tour complimenting each other on getting into Harvard, completely ignoring all of us tagging behind them on the tour. It got to the point that we parents started openly making jokes about it among ourselves. Those were funny experiences that did not serve either school well. I am sure both have better guides.</p>
<p>As far as drinking goes, most colleges tell parents they police drinking, but might not tell you that they don’t or can’t at off campus houses or fraternities. A friend of mine’s son had the awful experience of having his roommate die from alcohol poisoning at an off campus fraternity hazing last year at Oneonta College in NY state. No one at the fraternity called the authorities when the poor kid could no longer stand. Instead, they allowed him to go to sleep from which he never woke. It was horrifying. Worse, he was not the first student to die at that fraternity. But, who warned the parents about off campus parties? No one. </p>
<p>A few colleges, like Georgetown, pull the kids aside and talk frankly to them about drinking without any parents present. However, my son reported with amusement that there was a six-pack visible on the roof just beyond the railing while the guide was talking to them. He didn’t think it was a prop.</p>
<p>When I visit a college, I want to learn as much as possible from a tour. Buying an education is expensive and I want to know what is being offered for my child academically and socially. I appreciate and expect good, informative tours. Anything less doesn’t do any of us any good.</p>
<p>You should absolutely write a letter. This is exactly the kind of feedback an admissions department wants to hear - most are always striving to put their best foot forward and would like to know when someone associated with the office is painting a less than flattering picture of the school.</p>
<p>And I have absolutely answered the drug/alcohol question with, “Yes, students do drink. We are a college, students are adults, some students will choose to drink whether there are laws and rules in place or not. We are focused on keeping students safe so there’s amnesty if you call EMS due to alcohol poisoning, AlcoholEDU classes for incoming freshmen, etc etc. There’s also chem free dorms for students who don’t want to be involved, and there are TONS of things to do on campus if you don’t want to drink. Last weekend I went to [fill in the blank – see a former porn star speak, asian arts show, gallery opening, concert, whatever] and it was a Friday night, people were sober, and it was a really good time.”</p>
<p>It’s the truth. It’s something you probably should consider about a college before applying since you’ll have to live in that campus culture. I (and I would hope, most tour guides) want you to be aware of what the culture is here - that there is a drinking scene, you can get involved with it, but there is little pressure to drink, and lots of fun things to do if you’re not drinking.</p>
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<p>Actually at the Harvard tour, when the question was raised by a parent, the tour guide said the dorms had stein clubs and happy hours. And we had been on other campus tours when guides said alcohol was strictly prohibited in dorm rooms, and a second offense meant suspension.</p>
<p>And when another kid was looking at University of Iowa, he learned that the city ordinance allows underage kids in all the downtown bars (although they have to wear wristbands indicating they are underage). (You can guess whether underage kids manage to drink in the bars via older kids buying them drinks.) As a result, the party scene is downtown, not in the dorms. And the dorm population is composed primarily of freshmen. This is useful information that doesn’t show up on the college website.</p>