<p>silverweed: definitely agree about UNC; they made everyone feel like they had a chance.</p>
<p>Well we could start a whole new thread about funny/awkward/inappropriate questions that have been asked on tours ;)</p>
<p>That said, tour guiding differs school to school in terms of commitment level. At some schools, it’s a paid job, at others it’s completely voluntary. At some, anyone can do the job, at others it’s quite competitive. Level of training varies. Some guides are simply not supposed to answer certain questions. </p>
<p>I always appreciated when guides let us know (by being asked) whether they were working voluntarily. I still had some good paid guides, so it wasn’t a strike against anyone, but it did say a lot to me when students went the extra mile on their own time (and when a school could rely on students to commit without any compensation).</p>
<p>I would like to make a correction to my previous post about Lafayette. While it is true we did not have free food there, that was simply because it was the last day of the term and the cafeterias were closing down. We have been assured of their future hospitality in the spring! </p>
<p>In the “smaller/poorer” colleges catagory, Franciscan U of Steubenville not only fed us, they gave us free t-shirts. I thought that was terrific considering that school’s small endowment and constant money woes.</p>
<p>I’ve got to chime in that William and Mary was the least impressive. While the receptionist was nice and did manage to find a catalog for us, the info session was an exercise in “we won’t be admitting most of you” and the tour guide seemed to have no knowledge of the library.</p>
<p>The adrep at Skidmore was great, but the tourguide seemed to wish death to all prospies.</p>
<p>Great: Williams, Allegheny, Rhodes, Carleton</p>
<p>Good: Hamilton, Centre</p>
<p>Ehh: Sewanee, Southwestern</p>
<p>Davidson was a bit of a puzzle. Hospitality combined with standoffishness. Although I will always be grateful to them when my daughter left her purse behind and they mailed it to her.</p>
<p>Best: American U
Worst: Hampshire (visited on a class trip, so it probably wasn’t the normal experience)</p>
<p>While it’s logically true that you cannot accurately judge a school by one exposure to a tour or information session the advice every applicant gets is to visit. Visit, visit, visit. Well, most visits consist of a session with an admissions rep and a tour. If you’re lucky and have time you might be able to sit in on a class, visit a dorm or chat with students over lunch–but realistically the snap judgment made because of the demeanor of the official folk does stick with you and become the personality of the school. Is it a limited sampling? Of course. Is it really fair? Maybe not. But if those in charge of representing the school can’t build enthusiasm, that says something.</p>
<p>I’m really surprised that so many people had awful experiences with W&M! At the start of the summer, I had really believed that UVA would be the Virginia school I would apply to (with W&M VERY under the radar), but after visiting both, I was completely turned off by UVA and loved W&M. </p>
<p>The info session at UVA was the worst I’ve ever attended. I got a distinct “we’re better than you and we know it” feel (not to mention it was in some dark, rundown, out of the way movie theater) and my tour was just as bad. The guide seemed clueless and barely talked about academics…more interested in the “We Love Bob Barker” club and his descriptions of streaking the Lawn. Definitely not what I was expecting.</p>
<p>In contrast, W&M was the complete opposite. My tour guide there was great to answer my questions. Though he couldn’t help me with info about my intended major, he went out of his way to find a friend of his that could talk to me about it. Really a totally personal experience.</p>
<p>The PreVU at Vanderbilt was amazing and the Admissions Team was fantastic.</p>
<p>the uchicago admissions team definitely makes the admissions process very interesting</p>
<p>Best tour and info…tie between Gettysburg and Fand M. You are interviewed and then given a 1 on 1 tour with a guide. Most crowded was Loyola and villanova at least Loyola gave out water and had info sessions, villanova had neither. Worst interview…Lafayette…the adcom was dis interested, didn’t take notes and went on about how selective Lafayette is, that they reject students who are accepted at other colleges like BC . ( D was accepted there, but chose BC). Most like a stress test…Lehigh…those hills!!! Best tour perks…colgate for the ice cream chipwhiches, Hamilton for a coupon for a free bakery cookie in town ( very needed as I had left home 250 miles away without my wallett/money/CC…Worst adcom to talk to about upping the merit scholarship…Franklin and Marshall…very rude and imperious " One shouldn’t rely on merit scholarships to finance ones college education", ( and to think I groveled to Fand M for them to up the merit $ from a mealsy 7K to a mealsy 12K).</p>
<p>Best campus visit experience: tour guide at UCSD. Bright, enthusiastic, well read, ambitious, presented a clear case for “Why UCSD”</p>
<p>Worst campus visit experience: dude that did the info session at UCSD. Newbie, clueless, gave wrong information, read all “information” from the brochure.</p>
<p>Wow, I’m applying to Colgate and Carleton, but it’s too bad I’m an international student or I would’ve visited > <</p>
<p>Chocolate chip cookies, vouchers, and candy!!! Weeeee~~</p>
<p>the William and Mary info session was the worst. I went in June, and the guy talking could barely be heard, was rushing through what he was saying, and they showed a completely awful video in the beginning of the session. it was horrible and made the school seem like a joke.
GW info session was pretty good</p>
<p>Williams ADCOM is wonderful! So helpful.</p>
<p>Admissions people were nice at Emerson face to face, but they never returned my (important) emails, which was a definite downer.</p>
<p>Wagner admissions treats applicants like royalty, basically. Elmira’s reps are good too- I got a personal acceptance phone call from mine about two weeks before the letter even came.</p>
<p>Best was Duke! The lady who lead the information session was really nice and informative and offered everyone coffee. She answered any questions very honestly. They also had a student help with the info-session which I thought was really helpful, and he was really nice, too. My tour guide was really cool and helpful. He was very honest about what he liked and did not like. After the tour was over, he offered to lead anyone interested to the sports facilities even though that area of campus wasn’t on the tour. After that, he offered to ride the bus with anyone to East Campus, which also isn’t on the tour. Finally, I’ve sent four emails to Duke, and they’ve all been answered very quickly and thoughtfully.</p>
<p>Columbia was also very good. The info-session lady was great and hilarious, and my tour guide was really nice and helpful. The admissions people also seem very organized.</p>
<p>Brown was HORRIBLE. The guy who lead our info-session wasn’t even an admissions worker, he was an alumni, and he didn’t know anything. He kept telling us the dumbest things and spent like 20 minutes talking about how children of alumni are basically shoe-ins (I have no legacy, so that upset me). My tour guide was nice though…</p>
<p>Cornell was amazing (:
i had a one-on-one chat with the admissions lady and she was so friendly. answered every question, encouraged more questions, knew what she was talking about. By far the friendliest.</p>
<p>Harvard is always so friendly when i call the admissions office. The lady actually went to check her sources when she gave me information, just to be extra sure.</p>
<p>Yale admissions, when i called, sounded annoyed. like a “what do you want” kind of an attitude.</p>
<p>The Scripps Admissions has always been very helpful, whether it was through emails or interviews. Every representative I have talked to has made me feel that they are really interested to hear what I have to say. I had a preliminary interview with a representative my junior year when I first visited the campus, and the conversation flowed so well because the representative seemed like she was so interested in what I had to say and was so positive. This year I tried to schedule an official interview since I was going to be near the campus, but was told that there were no more available spots. However, they still gave me 20 minutes to be able to talk to an admissions officer, who was also upbeat and seemed interested. </p>
<p>The same goes for Wellesley college. An admissions officer was supposed to come to our school, but no one signed up so it was cancelled. I signed up last minute (I was not aware that Wellesley was coming to our school, since the name had been misspelled on all the flyers). I emailed the admissions officer and was able to talk to her on the phone. </p>
<p>Both schools have been very personal and helpful. I’m not sure whether other women’s colleges are the same, but it’s exactly what I want from a school.</p>
<p>When we were going through the admissions process a couple of years ago, my son’s first choice school was Washington & Lee until we dealt with the admissions office and made a visit. After that they fell completely off the list. The student guide was very nice, but the admission office’s attitude was very much one of we’re a wonderful place and if you’re very lucky we might let you come here! The student wearing the “We’re not stuck up, we’re just better than you” T-shirt didn’t help matters.</p>
<p>catsushi, I totally agree with you about Scripps. Everyone I spoke to, from the tour guide to my interviewer, was just so sweet and upbeat and helpful. I was so nervous for my interview but it wasn’t stressful at all because my interviewer was just so amazingly nice. Every call I made to their office was handled efficiently and was actually helpful - it’s just really refreshing.</p>