Hampshire was the one for us. They had the info session first, then tour. At the end of the info session, S16 said “we can leave now.” There was nothing wrong with what they did – he just felt he had enough information to know that it wasn’t the school for him. That, after all, is what these visits should be about.
When S13 was visiting schools, I realized just how fortunate (or not) some tour guide pairings can be. At Macalester, my shy, serious, science-oriented S related well to the slightly awkward neuroscience major who toured him around. (Macalester also put the prospective students in one group, family members in another – I thought that was wise.) At Carleton, he had trouble mapping himself onto the Volleyball-playing/Christian Fellowship-leader tour guide. Visiting these schools, trying to get a sense of how well you’d fit – tour guides have an inordinate influence on this very personal assessment.
I’ve come to think of this as the Tyranny of the Tour Guide. Now that S16 is making final decisions, I’m happy he’s got the chance to visit during admitted students days and get exposure to lots of different people during that visit. Being able to average all those personalities, majors, extra-curricular interests, etc., should position him to make a fairer assessment of whether or not the school is a good fit for him. (Even Carleton, which he deigned to give a second look despite what he remembers of older brother’s tour!)
One of our least favorite tours was Claremont McKenna. We were ushered into a small dark conference room that just fit a huge table. We all took a seat and the Adcom sat at the head with a powerpoint and droned on for 45 minutes. He wasn’t particularly welcoming and spoke very disparaging of other schools.
The presentation was confining and very uncomfortable. Then we took the tour. Our guide was a lovely young quirky woman. Ds was not connecting in any way and as the tour went on, his eyes got wider and I could tell this was not his place. He still refers to CMC as “Jonestown” because he said our tour guide seemed cultish.
My D is a freshman at her small Ohio private and starting her job as a tour guide this semester. She had to go through a pretty rigorous process to be hired- 4-5 different steps/interviews! After that, another 3-4 steps of shadowing a current mentor, having a mentor watch her give a tour, etc. She has given tours, hosted overnights and they have the students rotate as in-house admission hosts - meaning they hang around the admissions office and chat/answer questions for people who are waiting for a admissions counselor, tour, appt. etc.
I personally think the tour guides should get a stipend for every family they give a tour to that decides to attend the school - seriously, a tour guide can truly make or break the visit!
Cornell. There are no reservations, so you just walk up and ask for a tour. There must have been 70 people, and ONE tour guide. She just walked and talked, never stopped and turned around to face us, did not care one iota if anyone could hear her or had any questions. The attitude was clear: “Hey, we’re Cornell, we don’t have to impress you, but you have to impress us.” D totally turned off.
Nope, but I was one. I loved it! I brought my husband to campus for the first time during a reunion this fall and gave him what I remembered of the tour 16 years later.
My experience makes me a harsher critic of student guides, though. I often have to suppress the urge to refine a guide’s sales pitch for her. (“What Maddy means to say is that the small town focuses everyone’s attention on campus life and creating fun here…”) I got through the awful A&M tour in part by imagining what I would say to sell the place.
We snuck out halfway through the Pomona tour. The guide was very pleased to share… how amazing he was. He let us know in detail about his amazing background, amazing college acceptances, amazing intellect, and therefore he was a reflection of his – you guessed it – amazing school. Amazing.
We made it through the Occidental tour, but barely. It was an extremely hot day and the tour was almost entirely outdoors. It was a small group and multiple people ended up leaving because they felt sick. The guide didn’t seen notice people were dropping like flies. She was on-script and no amount of sweating and/or puking was going to alter her plan.
Stanford was the best because we sprung for the golf cart tour (a whooping five bucks per person). It turned out to just be us with the guide, who happened to be from Hawaii too and had ton of similar interests with my D. So in-between delivering the company line, she gave some really honest insights and opinions.
My daughter is a tour guide. A freshman so she’s new at it. I just visited and went on her tour. It was one of the most fun things I’ve ever done. I just tagged along on her tour. And she had directed me not to make eye contact. Lol! Also on the tour she said that she went to the school because it had a good program but wasn’t in love with the school like many are but that since attending she’s fallen in love and couldn’t see herself anywhere else. After I asked if that was true or just hype. I was happy to hear that it was true!
My son did tours when they had open houses and admitted students day. Because his college likes to tour the prospective students with current students in their intended major, it’s wasn’t unusual. He got more than a few e-mails from people thanking him for the tour and/or asking further questions. He loved showing off his college.
Mine gets paid. She submits hours total per week. Also got paid for her training (which was lengthy!) If they host an overnight, they get a certain number of hours of pay - something like 4 or 5 - they also are allowed a small “budget” to host an overnight - to order pizza, take them out for ice cream - that kind of thing.
No tour really stands out to me for being awful, but one stands out for being great. Harvey Mudd.
So many schools just point to buildings, but Harvey Mudd took us into a dorrm room, showed us classrooms and labs. What stood out even more was stopping in on a lab and having teachers and students tell us a little about what they were working on. We even had professors telling us about how much they loved the school! Talk about feeling welcome!
D was a tour guide for three years at her LAC. Volunteer position with very competitive selection process. School really tried to choose kids from a wide range of majors, hometowns, extracurriculars, etc. At Admitted Students’ Day one year, D was thrilled to be recognized and thanked by the parent of a kid who’d been on her tour the previous fall. D jests that if you have a choice of tour guides, take the theatre major, as they will be more audible and entertaining.
D was carrying on the family tradition, as I had a summer job in my LAC’s admissions office some 30 years earlier. Loved my school and meeting folks from all over – except maybe on the days when I led four tours in 95 degree weather
Wanted to walk out at Davidson, but that would be rude in the South. We stuck it out. Was really hoping D would like the school, but a poor tour guide following an awful info session was too much of a bad thing.
“One of my kids told me that tour guides don’t get paid at their school. I was surprised to hear that. Is it common?”
Not unusual. Harvard used to have that system but phased it out 10+ years ago. I am 100% for paying the guides and paying them well. It’s impossible to avoid bias toward well-off guides if you don’t.