College Discussion - View Single Post

juillet · 05-08-2008, 12:13 AM

I am also a tour guide for my college and I'd like to address some of the suggestions I've seen. Most of them are really great, but some of them give me concern.

"Keep the tours limited to 6 prospects or fewer (with families). Make a point of calling the prospects in close and asking the family members to remain on the periphery. Hand out maps and refer to them as you travel."

I can't do this. I am assigned to a group, and I don't limit the group numbers or anything like that. We usually give individual tours to families, but we only have maybe 50 tour guides -- not all of them are available any given day, and sometimes we have multiple large groups on one day. Remember, I'm giving a tour in between my classes or extra-curricular meetings. I love giving tours, but I can't guarantee that you're going to have small group.

Also, I refuse to force parents/guardians to the periphery. While it will be the children who are going there, the parents are often the one footing the bill and they have every right to know what it is they're paying for and where their child is going to be living for the next four or five years. They often have the most intriguing questions and/or ask the questions their child is afraid to answer.

I don't get maps from the admissions office to give out.

" I would truly appreciate getting a handout with the above layouts on them."

We don't have floor layouts, either. Trust me, the tour guides are giving you exactly what we have. I wish I could but we just don't have them.

"Offer kids a choice of tour guides-you'd be amazed how often my kid 'switched' the tour group he was assigned to, because he felt more affinity with a guide that, based on 10 seconds of introduction, seemed more like 'his type.'"

We don't have choices of tour guides. Our tour guides are assigned to certain groups based on their availability -- remember, we're giving tours in between classes, extra-curriculars, doing class work, napping, etc. Besides, you and your D or S are touring the school, not evaluating the tour guide. The tour guide usually wouldn't be a guide if he or she weren't trained to adequately do the job, and you're not trying to speed-date or make friends with the guide -- you just want to see the school and hear about the stuff. It's understandable if he's not knowledgeable about what you want to know, but if you have a male and you want a female -- I don't understand that.

"2. Avoid wearing extremes of fashion. I've heard of more than one girl reject a college because she didn't like what the tour guide was wearing."

This is quite frankly ridiculous. Of course, we have a uniform for tour guides, but I can't imagine someone rejecting a college simply because the tour guide is wearing something they don't like. Obviously, we're supposed to be professional, but outside of that personally I don't see how what I'm wearing is any of your business.

"Before beginning a tour, they took 5 minutes to get to know the kids in the group (name, home town, possible interests, other schools seen so far) -- I think that breaking the ice at the start of the tour might make the kids more comfortable asking questions later instead of letting the parents hog the floor."

This is often impossible, as I sometimes have tour groups of 50+ students. If I only have about 10, sure, I love to hear names, where they're from, majors and all that kind of stuff -- I love getting to know prospective students and I have a lot of 'little sisters' who I gave tours or was their student admiss counselor. But if I have 50+ people, it's just not feasible.

"Show a dorm room! On our tours more times than not, a dorm room was shown. Obviously the tour guide has permission and a key to enter the room. "

At my school we are absolutely not allowed to show dorm rooms. If I have a very small group (one or two families) I have sometimes broken this rule and taken them into my own dorm room so they can see it. But if I have a larger group, I just cannot do it, for security purposes. We have an admitted students weekend in April for the express purpose of ladies coming to stay overnight and see what the rooms look like; they'll have to come to that (it's fun!)

In addition:

-I only give view book statistics when asked; you'd be surprised how many people ask
-PLEASE don't answer your phone while on the tour; that's rude (in turn, I won't either)
-I can't tell you your chances for getting in; I don't work in the admissions office in that capacity
-Please do not press me to break the rules for you (take you into academic buildings, show you a dorm room, etc.) I will say no 97% of the time and it will cause bad feelings in the rest of the tour.

05-08-2008, 12:13 AM	#74
juillet Junior Member Join Date: Mar 2006 Posts: 143	I am also a tour guide for my college and I'd like to address some of the suggestions I've seen. Most of them are really great, but some of them give me concern. "Keep the tours limited to 6 prospects or fewer (with families). Make a point of calling the prospects in close and asking the family members to remain on the periphery. Hand out maps and refer to them as you travel." I can't do this. I am assigned to a group, and I don't limit the group numbers or anything like that. We usually give individual tours to families, but we only have maybe 50 tour guides -- not all of them are available any given day, and sometimes we have multiple large groups on one day. Remember, I'm giving a tour in between my classes or extra-curricular meetings. I love giving tours, but I can't guarantee that you're going to have small group. Also, I refuse to force parents/guardians to the periphery. While it will be the children who are going there, the parents are often the one footing the bill and they have every right to know what it is they're paying for and where their child is going to be living for the next four or five years. They often have the most intriguing questions and/or ask the questions their child is afraid to answer. I don't get maps from the admissions office to give out. " I would truly appreciate getting a handout with the above layouts on them." We don't have floor layouts, either. Trust me, the tour guides are giving you exactly what we have. I wish I could but we just don't have them. "Offer kids a choice of tour guides-you'd be amazed how often my kid 'switched' the tour group he was assigned to, because he felt more affinity with a guide that, based on 10 seconds of introduction, seemed more like 'his type.'" We don't have choices of tour guides. Our tour guides are assigned to certain groups based on their availability -- remember, we're giving tours in between classes, extra-curriculars, doing class work, napping, etc. Besides, you and your D or S are touring the school, not evaluating the tour guide. The tour guide usually wouldn't be a guide if he or she weren't trained to adequately do the job, and you're not trying to speed-date or make friends with the guide -- you just want to see the school and hear about the stuff. It's understandable if he's not knowledgeable about what you want to know, but if you have a male and you want a female -- I don't understand that. "2. Avoid wearing extremes of fashion. I've heard of more than one girl reject a college because she didn't like what the tour guide was wearing." This is quite frankly ridiculous. Of course, we have a uniform for tour guides, but I can't imagine someone rejecting a college simply because the tour guide is wearing something they don't like. Obviously, we're supposed to be professional, but outside of that personally I don't see how what I'm wearing is any of your business. "Before beginning a tour, they took 5 minutes to get to know the kids in the group (name, home town, possible interests, other schools seen so far) -- I think that breaking the ice at the start of the tour might make the kids more comfortable asking questions later instead of letting the parents hog the floor." This is often impossible, as I sometimes have tour groups of 50+ students. If I only have about 10, sure, I love to hear names, where they're from, majors and all that kind of stuff -- I love getting to know prospective students and I have a lot of 'little sisters' who I gave tours or was their student admiss counselor. But if I have 50+ people, it's just not feasible. "Show a dorm room! On our tours more times than not, a dorm room was shown. Obviously the tour guide has permission and a key to enter the room. " At my school we are absolutely not allowed to show dorm rooms. If I have a very small group (one or two families) I have sometimes broken this rule and taken them into my own dorm room so they can see it. But if I have a larger group, I just cannot do it, for security purposes. We have an admitted students weekend in April for the express purpose of ladies coming to stay overnight and see what the rooms look like; they'll have to come to that (it's fun!) In addition: -I only give view book statistics when asked; you'd be surprised how many people ask -PLEASE don't answer your phone while on the tour; that's rude (in turn, I won't either) -I can't tell you your chances for getting in; I don't work in the admissions office in that capacity -Please do not press me to break the rules for you (take you into academic buildings, show you a dorm room, etc.) I will say no 97% of the time and it will cause bad feelings in the rest of the tour.