<p>“Maybe different KINDS of tours would be nice.”</p>
<p>Harvard does this as well; there are tours aimed at tourists, and tours aimed at prospective freshmen.</p>
<p>Hanna–I’m not surprised! The first time I went to Boston as a girl we got a tour of the city from our relatives…“Harvard Yard” was right up there with the other touristy sites.</p>
<p>A hundred and forty posts into the thread – I guess it will tolerate a little drift.</p>
<p>I’ve read lots of comments on CC that boil down to “wonderful old building” and “wonderful old brick buildings.” I’ve lived my entire life on the west coast, and to me “old” and “brick” mentally resolve to “earthquake death traps.” I’ve stayed with a friend in Chicago who lived in a 4-story brick apartment building. The thing scared me in several irrational ways. It felt good to get back to the land of wood frame buildings and seismic building codes.</p>
<p>I also deal poorly with places without mountains – but that’s not a college thing.</p>
<p>I have to admit that I couldn’t read all four pages of this thread, but thought I’d add a few comments. Forgive me if they have been posted already.</p>
<p>-Admission questions go to admission officers, student life questions go to student tour guides. While tour guides can usually throw field questions about admission policy, they don’t always feel comfortable with it and might not be prepared for the follow up questions. Save those questions for the admission officers.</p>
<p>-If your child loves the feel of a school and what they have read about it, but they don’t like the personality of the person running the tour, consider hanging around for another tour. You will inevitably encounter a tour guide who isn’t at their best or who doesn’t “gel” with you. It’d be a shame to write off a great school just because of that.</p>
<p>-Take extra time to wander. I’m always surprised when a family rushes off to get to the next school. I imagine that if they took the formal tour up at Monticello, they’d explore a bit when it was over.</p>
<p>-Don’t eat lunch in the dining hall. Dining services at many schools are contracted out, often to the same major companies (Sodehxo, Aramark, etc.). You know it’s not going to be home cooking, but it will be okay. Instead, check out the neighborhood around the campus. Just ask your tour guide where they’d grab lunch off campus and go from there.</p>
<p>I’m also going to paste something that I wrote in a different thread that I think applies:
</p>
<p>I’ve notice that great leaders make a profound remark from the front facing the audience and then the leader promptly gets in back to push to agenda forward. </p>
<p>I dislike guides that talk from the front because the talk generally forward, don’t see the guidees reactions, and can’t hear the questions. </p>
<p>If the tour guides would lead and direct from the rear of the group, the guide will have greater control and be easily heard. The guide can guide by words (the bark) and monitor the reaction of the group (the stare) because the guide will be always be facing the group. Any stragglers can be herded (the nip).</p>
<p>
This is why most guides walk backwards. By doing this, they can lead the group and maintain the right pace while still talking and answering questions. </p>
<p>
I’m not quite sure I understand…how can the guide face the group if they are behind it?</p>
<p>If you look to the left, oops, I mean your right; ouch, dang sidewalk crack. You will see the science hall. You in the back, that is off limits because of construction. Crash (trips over feet as he turns to walk “forward”) </p>
<p>Dean J. Choose two guides, tell one to lead from the rear. Have the guide give some simple instructions at the beginning that he will talk from the back or from the side of the group rather than the front. He will tell the group to walk at a certain pace and will stop the group to point out or answer questions in greater detail. </p>
<p>If you notice that some people try to lead from the front, and no one is following.</p>
<p>Because of their training and the sheer number of tours they give, I think guides are pretty good about knowing that their left is the group’s right and most will glance behind them if they don’t know where the curbs and bushes are on their route. To this day, I know where a tree’s root is sticking up near my alma mater’s library and it’s been quite some time since I was a student tour guide.</p>
<p>I don’t think any school minds if people wander off during tours. It happens all the time. The people who want to be on the tour tend to stay with the guide.</p>
<p>It is kind of hard to lead from the back when the group has no clue where they’re going 
I’m having a hard time picturing this.</p>
<p>My daughter’s university recommends that the tour guides not walk backward. Since school is urban, tour involves crossing heavily trafficked city streets. She says she walks a bit, then stops to speak and answer questions.</p>
<p>All the tours we went on were led by someone leading from the front, walking backwards. Somehow, it always worked (though I can see why audio’s D did differently considering busy streets.) I also don’t get the herd dog analogy. I don’t really want to be “herded” or to be told what pace to walk and when to stop from someone behind me. If I want to keep up, I will. If I don’t, that’s my problem. The standard model always seemed fine to me.</p>
<p>Dean J, I respectfully disagree about not eating in the dining hall. The point of eating there is not to get a good meal, it’s about seeing a typical meal that a student would get and to check out current students. Since freshman are going to be eating the majority of their meals on campus, that’s the best way to see the quality of the food. Besides, many colleges give coupons for a free meal - how else can you get a taste of Penn States premium ice cream?</p>
<p>Leading from the back seems silly to me. The best tours are simply small (no more then 10 people) groups with a backward walking guide in the front. The guides always ask the group to warn them of any upcoming trees, or things to fall over. Audiophiles point about urban tours makes sense too. I really think the key is small groups if at all possible.</p>
<p>Yes, we ate on campus wherever we could. On the summer trips, there were usually summer campers with burgers and dogs being served. In these cases, we passed on the food, but still checked out the dining area–it’s a place where a student will spend a lot of time. Is it depressing, uplifting–we saw some of both, with most in between? It’s not just about the food but how the students interact in this social setting. And we did get quite a few free lunches! Macalester had the most interesting food and Grinnell the most beautiful student center.</p>
<p>I’ll add something I did not do but witnessed at BU. After the tour, do not go back to the admissions office and corner an admissions officer while reciting a list of every AP course, every award, every thing your kid has done. You could just see the admissions officer squirming and thinking “your kid and everyone else on this tour…if these kids weren’t all qualified they wouldn’t be here.”<br>
It was unbelievably uncomfortable even to witness. My heart went out to the kid who was standing there like a prized heifer at the county fair.</p>
<p>ebeeee–I’ve seen a mom do this. It seemed she had really taken to heart the “make sure the campus representative remembers you” advice and was dropping her son’s name and achievements every chance she got. Bleah.</p>
<p>Princedog, #149. Sure you have. Border Collies at work. Kid on a leash. GWB.</p>
<p>Parents are welcome on the tours, of course, but I also have another suggestion. If school is in session, parents, please settle down in a nice cafe somewhere after the tour and let your son or daughter explore the campus at their leisure. It’s usually MUCH more comfortable for your son or daughter to talk to college students without parents around. I often “adopt” stray prospectives, answering their questions, introducing them to friends with similar interests, showing them my dorm, etc. and somehow I don’t see this happening if their parents are around.</p>
<p>The worst was a mom talking to a teacher in the middle of a presentation for the intended major. The mom dropped into the conservation the name of about 5 admissions representatives. And then said how is the admission representative going to know that her son almost solved some FBI factor solution on his own. And she said she wished she could have someones name as a liason between the admissions office and her son. So of course the teacher said you can use me as a liason. And he gave her his e-mail information. I just couldn’t believe all the sucking up some moms will do. </p>
<p>In addition, I wanted to comment on the parents going up to the tour guides after the tour and listing all of their childs attributes as if they have a say in the process. I see it on almost all the tours we went on. Even though I know its totally crazy, I always feel that I somehow have to go up there and speak about my son, and not let the other parents only get their say in. I know its wrong…</p>
<p>My dad and I were at Cornell and oh god… He asked questions like “Is there anywhere to put your coats when you come to class?” and then mumbled about how horrible it is when the tour guide said that most students just place them under their desks or something. I don’t remember anything else because I tried to forget it all.</p>
<p>
I agree eating in a dining hall is high on my list also … not to check out the food … but to talk to the students. I was incredibly shy in HS but when I went on my tours I left my mom and walked up to tables with 2-3 kids and explained I was a prospective freshman and asked if I could join them. Every group I asked said yes and were incredibly helpful. I think I got more from attending a class, hanging on the quad, eating with students, and (most importantly) sleeping in a student’s room in a dorm than I did from any formal activity like a tour or question session. For me these informal situations helped me figure out which school felt the most comfortable to me and which I could best envision myself spending 4 years … and ultimately switched my first choice so I picked a “lower” ranked school … because it was the best fit for me … and I’m 100% sure I made the best choice way back when.</p>