This reminds me that my favorite tours were ones where the tour guide essentially asked this ONLY of the students. Name, where you’re from, and what you were thinking about majoring in. Then, the tour guide would reference specific things where they could related to that (usually, the major). I think it really encouraged the students to engage and the parents to sort of stand back and watch, which was a nice dynamic.
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Oregon State does a really good job of this. When you set up your tour day pretty much any time of year, you can choose from a long menu of tours to customize your day. I just went on their web site to see what the menu looks like currently:
- Campus Tour (90 minutes)
- Campus Tour en español (90 minutes, Fridays only)
- Admissions Information Presentation (30 minutes)
- Transfer Admissions Information Presentation (30 minutes, Tuesdays/Fridays only)
- Campus Tour for Transfer Students (75 minutes, Tuesdays/Fridays only)
- Current Student Q&A Panel (25 minutes, Fridays only)
- College of Agricultural Sciences Tour (75 minutes, Mondays and Fridays only)
- College of Business Tour (1 hour)
- College of Education Presentation (45 minutes)
- College of Engineering Tour (75 minutes)
- College of Health Tour (45 minutes)
- College of Liberal Arts Student Ambassador Presentation (45 minutes)
- College of Science Tour (60 minutes)
- Natural Sciences (1 hour) note: College of Forestry and College of Earth, Ocean, & Atmospheric Sciences
- Honors College Information Session (1 hour)
- Individual Conversation with a University Exploratory Studies Program (UESP) Advisor (30 minutes) note: this is for students who want to talk about selecting a major
- Work out in the OSU campus recreation/gym facilities (!!) note: limited to 20 visitors daily, “please only register if your travel plans will allow you to stay and work out”
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I went into every tour thinking that what the school chooses to show you says a lot about the school. What do THEY think is unique, important or worth discussing. We knew we could find lots of information online, look at the CDS, watch Youtube videos, etc. But, listening to what the administration thought they’d like to highlight was a completely different data point. WPI stood out as highlighting improvements to campus that were driven by students in project based courses such as fixing a fountain that was getting people wet as they walked by or designing new parking garage.
My favorite tours were the ones where they let you pick your tour guide. Major specific tours were good, but sometimes I kid already knows about their major or doesn’t know what they want to major in, but they do know they want to participate in the Greek System, play intramural sports or study abroad.
At the school S23 ultimately ended up at, there was an additional tour of the Honors Program that was very helpful and set it apart from other schools where they just mentioned it as part of the larger tour.
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This is what I would have hoped for at some of the tours, but some schools seemed to fight their knitting. We went to one academic-y liberal arts college that spent an inordinate amount of time talking about career outcomes. Yes, job outcomes are important, but it felt like it was a pitch to parents to reassure you that the school wasn’t going to waste your money. “Your kids will find jobs.” Yes, I believe that, but D26 came away from it feeling like it really wasn’t the right fit because it made everything feel pre-professional, which she didn’t want.
Now, I think I agree with you that the tour and info session were all about what the school wanted to convey, but it seemed like such a mismatch compared to why we were there in the first place when everything she had read about the place was supposedly NOT that vibe.
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So we went on many many colleges tours. They all started with the Rah Rah session then the tour with a stop at the chemistry lab so they could point out which major corporation was sponsoring it. Three in a row were like this so we stopped doing them and just did our own thing. My kid’s had meetings with professors or their Department people (pre planned) and got way more information this way and vibe.
But we found out the school /tour was only as enjoyable as the tour guide was. Have one that’s really into it and it can be so informative. Have a guide that stayed out all night and doesn’t really want to be there it can really influence one’s perspective and that’s really not fair. They need to be trained. The good ones answered the questions before we could ask. They told us something about themselves and the why of it.
We actually stopped kid’s while walking and asked them the “Why”this school question. They were all kind and understood. But their answers were incredible. It wasn’t repeating the mission statements of the schools. They told us some good and bad or what could be improved.
So just being engaging and interested. I didn’t care what they wore but yes they should wear something from the school.
They should know basic facts.
Also snacks would be good. I tell parents definitely bring some since your blood sugar can drop.
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It’s worth pointing out that the average CC parent may not be the average college visitor. On every single tour we went on, people asked questions that they would know if they had looked online even on the most cursory basis.
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I dunno who told the gang at Syracuse that I could be won over by unlimited orange juice, donuts and fun size Kit Kat bars during summer open house but man, I almost talked DC into applying. Everyone was simply so poised, so pleasant and ready to answer any and all questions during our visit. I know that hasn’t been everyone’s experience up there, but the welcoming team sure brought their A game that morning.
I was sad when DC moved on. I just couldn’t imagine the savory goodies that they provide Mom & Dad on Admitted Students Day.
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Reminds me of when we visited BU on a cold, snowy April day. We spent the morning at another college which felt as cold as the weather but when we walked into the BU admissions center that afternoon, not only was it warm but they were providing coffee and hot chocolate…made a great impression!
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amazing!!
- Don’t pretend things are unique that aren’t! So many schools tout that things are special to every school. KNOW what is special and highlight that. We have traveled to learn about YOUR college, not “college”. talk about traditions, etc. Talk about YOUR res life and community building, talk about course selection and YOUR club life that you can “make a new club” - duh everyone can.
- Along the same vein, I really, really wish schools had tours for families who had already been on a million tours that didn’t talk about basic things like the library has quiet places and not quiet places (yes every school does), the school has blue lights and app for security (yes every school does), the school has a meal plan with swipes and points (or similar names) (yes every school does). That said, I realize sometimes people are first-gen or on their first tour too…we had “tour bingo” it go so redundant
- If you are on a remotely noisy campus, give tour guides microphones! it is SO nice to be able to hear well.
- Make sure tour guides know the answers about clearly remarkable things in buildings they go in. I was recently on a tour and the library had a piece of art that was by an obvious artist to many of the parents - tour guide had no clue (the artist was an alum)
Terrible look. There was also an ENORMOUS painting the tour guide had no idea about - one parent on tour happened an alum and had an amazing story about what the painting was of - that tied to the history of the campus and the history of engineering (and it was a STEM school). bad look. - While it is nice to have a variety of majors as tour guides.. I don’t think that is a “must do”; some of our favorites have actually been from different majors than the ones my kids like - so I would pick them for skills and NOT to ensure diversity of majors. An excellent tour guide can talk about all majors IMO. We even went on a speciality tour of an engineering department once, and still didn’t feel like we learned all that much more than a generic tour.
MOST IMPORTANT try to keep things to end when they say they will! If it is supposed to be 60 minutes, try to keep to roughly 60 minutes - not 80.
Some special things I have seen:
At info sessions, I have seen scrolling slides welcoming kids by first name:
*
Welcome Ella from NY, NY…..Welcome, Henry from Chicago, Il - was nice to feel welcomed.
In room waiting for tour having students there chatting up kids, answering questions*…
small water bottles to take and/or waterbottle fillers (like in-wall water fountains) for before tour in case we forget:)
Have some free stuff, even if just a cool sticker when you check in.. I know the most prestigious schools don’t do this, but c’mon, we came all the way there!
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After going through this process with two kids, here are the things I most appreciated about tours (keeping in mind that all of our tours were at LACs, so some of this might differ for larger schools):
• Being able to select a tour guide based on common interests (or, sometimes, being assigned to a tour guide based on similar information that my kids provided when they registered for the tour).
• Hearing specifics that make your college great: unusual academic programs, funding sources and opportunities to support research and internships, popular classes, campus traditions, honor codes, special interest housing, and so forth. Yes, every campus has a cheese club (or similar), but what are some of the popular clubs or traditions that really show what the school is all about?
• Ready answers to questions that should probably be predictable: what percentage of students double-major or go abroad, questions about specific activities (our kids wanted to know about writing for the school newspaper, music opportunities for non-majors, off-campus study, general studies requirements, and so forth). Lots of kids want to know the likelihood of getting a single dorm room, and when that might happen.
• Speaking of newspapers – copies of the campus student newspaper available for the taking was always a plus. Easier during the school year, but maybe the admissions office could snag extra copies to have around during the summer.
• Brief introductions from the students on the tour help personalize it (names, home towns, academic or EC interests).
• Yes to mic-ed up tour guides! That helps enormously (at least one college even provided wired earbuds to make it easier to hear the tour guide).
• Access to facilities: dorm rooms (a few colleges we saw kept a model double room in a freshman dorm open for visitors to see, so there was no need to invade students’ privacy), labs, classrooms, performing arts space, libraries.
• Tour guides armed with specific anecdotes about the places we see on campus – distinctive works of art or architecture, as noted above, or just relevant stories that shed light on the school community and history.
• Info sessions and tours that line up and are easy to schedule. We saw several schools in which the info sessions and tours were not on the same days, or had awkward gaps between them, which made it harder to schedule (especially if we were trying to see two colleges in one day).
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Off the top of my head:
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Do not make the information portion overly long, especially do not use it to simply restate all the information that is on the website or in the institutional fact book. Many families are visiting more than one college in a day; it’s common to be tired or overloaded, and hearing what is essentially a website read aloud can be irritating. Let them know where that information is, and hit only the highlights.
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Get the tour groups as small as possible so that people can both hear the tour guide and also have the opportunity to talk with them or ask questions. When it’s a big group and no one can hear anything in the back half of the group - those students and families give up and tune out.
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Go inside the buildings! Many tours just walk around a campus looking at the exteriors of buildings; we already know what that looks like, and that’s the easiest thing to “see” on your website and via Google maps. Take families through buildings so that they can get a sense of them and see the far more interesting things inside, where they’d be spending most of their time. This also means going farther inside than the lobby; walk down the hallways and go up the stairs and around, so people can peek into classroom windows and have a real feel for it.
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Talk to your past/current guides about what the common questions are that they receive; try to incorporate the answers to that in your info session, even just prefacing that with a running down a quick list of common questions
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Set your guides up for success and practice how to respond to the queries that some guides get tripped up on. Give them all a pocket sized flip pad and a pen to take with them on their tours to make a note of a parent or student asking them something that they don’t have a great answer for, and coach them on saying: Great question! I don’t have an answer for that but can I connect you with ___ when we get back to admissions?
(Yes, I’m saying to give them a little notepad. While prospective students may not care if their guide pulls out their phone, to many adults, pulling out a phone and typing on it can be a turn off, especially as it can appear they’re pulling out their phone to look at/respond to texts mid conversation.)
- Give your guides either business cards for those to contact with questions, or a more casual looking business-sized card that’s colorful, friendly and with a little blurb on the front about calling them any time and the phone number on the flip side to call to ask any and all follow up questions they might have. Your guides don’t need to hand them to everyone on the tour, but they should have them at their ready in their pockets to hand over with enthusiasm and tell them they can introduce them to the appropriate folks back at admissions if they have time now, or to reach out here and they’ll be happy to answer any questions.
LOVED:
Tours that separated into parent groups and student groups. Each cohort has different types of questions, some of which would/should not be asked in front of the other.
Smaller tour groups vs larger. Not always possible, but overall, everyone came away feeling more favorable when there was a bit of a relationship with the guide vs a performance by them.
Info sessions that covered different topics than the tour, such as questions about the admissions process itself, rather than the same info shared by tour guides.
Campus culture of both students and faculty approaching/engaging with prospective families. The schools where students offered directions, introduced themselves, gave helpful hints of navigating a dining hall, showed us labs, etc all left us feeling like there was a strong sense of community.
DIDN’T LOVE:
Info session moderators that didn’t “contain” oddball questions. Really, 40 of us didn’t need 20 minutes on your worries about summer storage!
Info sessions that were really loose.
Guides we couldn’t hear.
Big group tours.
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I have never been on a tour where the guide didn’t ask students where they were from and what they were thinking of majoring in - is that not standard? I have been on like 20!
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There have been at least a few where it was just a “Let’s go!”
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That’s a little too much. On a few tours we went on the guide would ask all the students where they were from and that was it. They didn’t ask the parents, since it’s assumed that the students and parents are from the same place. I think that’s ok to do a quick, “where is everyone from?” and just ask the students, but anything more than that isn’t necessary.
I went on tours that had more than 20 students plus parents. There is no way I would have wanted to waste time knowing each student’s name, where they were from and what major they might like. We came on the tours to hear about the college, not the other tour participants.
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We found the “where are you from” question interesting. Last one was asked of students only, maybe 10 students. Half of them were from California at an OOS college so ..it was interesting. One international. But it took all of maybe a minute or two.
Definitely the tours where the group size was limited were better.
The thing I think that would most improve the tours is “don’t let the parents dominate the questions, especially the same parent over and over with half the stuff they ask being available on the website and the other half over protective stuff that makes their student cringe”. But I don’t think you can enforce that 
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How about allowing the students to ask questions about things happening ON the tour…and having parents hold their questions until the end of the tour…unless it’s important.
We were at one tour…and my husband noticed there were NO smoke alarms in the dorm rooms or hallways in the dorm, and no sprinkler system. This was shortly after the deadly Seton Hall fire. So…he asked…and the poor (but really excellent) tour guide had to say…he and no idea why we couldn’t see any (turns out this particular high rise building didn’t have smoke alarms or a sprinkler system). As we were walking, another father came up to DH and thanked him for asking. That father was a city firefighter and had noticed the same thing. So…that parent question was important.
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We went on one tour and there was a parent who kept interrupting the guide and completely monopolizing the questions and answer times. And of course he’d start off every question with some long anecdote, “well when my last kid was looking at colleges,” or “our guidance counselor said,” or “or the website said.” It was so annoying, but the guide handled it very well. If the guide was annoyed he certainly didn’t show it. He was very nice and would just say “well it’s time to move on.” or “does anyone else have any questions?” I think that ones things guides need to be taught, how to deal with people who may be a bit difficult.
On another tour we were on, it was myself, D, and H along with a mom and her daughter and two girls with no parents. The girls with no parents were from the area the college was located in and were totally uninterested in the tour, the spent more time taking pictures of themselves and talking. The girl who was with her mom was extremely angry and she and her mom kept arguing and fighting. If my kids were acting like that, we’d leave the tour. When we left the campus, the girl and her mom were yelling at each other in the parking lot. Anyway, we were the only family that was remotely interested in the tour. The tour guide was great and she didn’t let the mom and daughter and two girls bother her at all.
Stuff we liked about tours:
-The tour guides wore name tags and were dressed a certain way. Almost all the tours we went on the guides wore a school shirt. I think this is a good idea as the guide is working and makes it seem more professional. Guides should not wear pajamas or short shorts
-Guides who speak clearly and are easy to hear and don’t talk too fast
-Guides who are enthusiastic about their school and you can tell they enjoy attending
-Guides who are knowledgeable
-Tours that are just the right length, not too long, but also not to short
-Tours that aren’t too long
Stuff we don’t like:
- Guides dressed like they just got out of bed or wear clothes that aren’t very professional. I don’t mind casual, but please no pajamas or sweats
- Tours that go on way too long or tours that are way to short and are very rushed
- Guides that just say “I don’t know” when asked a question they don’t know the answer to. Here is what they should say instead: “Since I’m not familiar with that program myself, let me refer you to someone in their department who can speak with you.” or “I don’t know about that, but let me help you find the answer at the end of the tour, or refer you to someone who can answer that for you.”
- Guides that seem to be unhappy at the school. I get it, college isn’t always fun and games, but don’t spend the whole tour badmouthing the school or showing us that you’re unhappy there
- Guides who spend the whole tour talking about their excessive partying. We get it, college kids party, but don’t air your dirty laundry in public and please tell us about the campus and classes as well
We recently toured a catholic college where all the student tour guides were wearing white blazers and ties. They all belong to a club that gives the tours. I guess that’s the uniform? It felt a little pretentious to us. It would have been more relatable/approachable if the student tour guides were in jeans and college sweatshirts. The tour guide is make or break for us. If they seem unfriendly or disinterested it’s just hard to connect and picture yourself at that college. The tour guide in the blazer was in fact very friendly, but the outfit was just a little off-putting to start and left us wondering if that school was more formal than most.
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