<p>I honestly dont feel anything against UW… I love the state, plan to move there. My dh and ds just didnt feel welcome like they did at other schools. Which is the point of this thread. My friends in WI whose daughter attends WI were happy about the tuition freeze due to extra $1B.</p>
<p>BobWallace - Bates did that too which I thought was brilliant. You know kids will ask questions if their parents aren’t around. Of course, not every parent appreciated it but I sure did.</p>
<p>I let my daughter go on the tours alone until she, too, tired of tours because they were often a repeat of info available on line.</p>
<p>I didn’t mind info sessions except those that forced students who were already accepted to listen to a summary of the application process.</p>
<p>Splitting parents and kids on the tour also makes it possible for parents to ask questions. I know I certainly wasn’t going to be that parent embarrassing my child by asking questions on joint parent-student tours.</p>
<p>I don’t think I went on a tour of UW. I did three things with my mom-- saw Bascom Hill, with kids sitting in the sun everywhere, sat on the Union Terrace, and had Babcock ice cream. I was sold.</p>
<p>I was definitely “that parent” but I appreciate it when someone, parent or student, asks a good question. That’s when you break the guide out of the script. I only ask good questions :)</p>
<p>Splitting parents and kids is really the way to go, though. I don’t think I’ve ever heard a kid ask a question. It’s lame. Speak up kids, this is your life!!!</p>
<p>I took my D to Rollins College for a visit and tour. A mom asked so many questions during the tour.It verged on being awkward for everyone else. Lots of eye rolling and smirks from the other parents. 99% of the questions she asked were addressed during the info session!!</p>
<p>Arizona State University. The whole thing just didn’t seem to gel with us or connect. The tour guides were not able to answer a lot of questions and the presentation prior to the tour was not that captivating. It was just an overall dud and sealed the decision to go to another school.</p>
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<p>I liked the Bates tour too and got a chuckle out of them describing the kids group as the “real” tour. I wish more schools did that.</p>
<p>Ah, see, that’s why I like unofficial tours. My older D and I went to see ASU when visiting my sister who lives down there (and is a grad of the place). We walked around, went into a dorm and asked if we could see a sample room (one of the likely dorms she’d live in). We went to the building for her major (sustainable business) and talked to people there, and spoke to students on the grounds. We found it beautiful though WARM, the people very helpful and willing ot answer questions. If they didn’t know, they found someone who did.</p>
<p><em>I</em> wanted to go there afterward. In the end, D picked a smaller school in her dad’s state but this was certainly a close second. And she and her roommate are talking about relocating there in a few years.</p>
<p>Wasn’t that funny? I didn’t ask… I did like the mention of the bazillion varieties of cereal and the fact that our tour guide (the Parents tour guide) was the head of the knitting club. Apparently we all were impressed - my son starts at Bates next month!</p>
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You haven’t been on a tour with my boy. If he doesn’t ask questions, I can safely assume that he’s not interested in the college. What’s fun about it is that (without trying to do so) he always gets the guide off script.</p>
<p>You’d be amazed how much students will in fact speak up on a tour if they are up front where they can hear, not pushed to the back by adults, and adults would quit asking all the questions and dominating the tour guide. I’m not against separate parent/student groups, I just don’t think they’re necessary if adults would keep in mind who in fact is going to college and they most likely already had their turn.</p>
<p>That hasn’t been the case on tours I’ve been on. 98 percent of the people act like sheep. If no one is going to ask the important questions, someone has to. Yes, a parent who asks an obvious question, or one that is only relevant to his or her chid, is annoying, undisputably. But after you’ve seen some tours, and all dorm rooms are beginning to look the same, most people want to hear about something that truly will decide whether or not the kid will want to go there or not.</p>
<p>Our most memorably worst tour group was at Centre College…nothing to do with the school but one of the mothers was so overbearing…I felt so sorry for her daughter who looked as if she’d resigned herself to the way her mother is. “How many toilets are in each floor bathroom? Do you have laundry service? No? Well, they do at Davidson” on and on…people were literally laughing at her by the end of the tour.</p>
<p>During American University’s open house, they had a separate question and answer session where only applicants were allowed in. I assume most of the discussion was with current college students. My son walked out, and the first thing he said was “You didn’t tell me this was a dry campus.”</p>
<p>There was a mother on a tour group at Butler that was so horrible even the admissions person was encouraging her to hold her questions. I noticed that he held her back to talk to her about her concerns so that she and her “exceptional” child were put in a tiny tour group.</p>
<p>On the pro side, we were given a private tour at Wooster, as were all other prospective students that day. It was a music scholarship day so I don’t know if that’s the norm, but we sure appreciated having our own guide, moving at our own pace, asking whatever we wanted, etc.</p>
<p>I left that tour wanting to go there myself.</p>
<p>We had someone like that on the tour/admissions session at Hampshire. AT one point the father asked about attending classes and the very nice young man who was our tour guide said that of course, he could drop in on a class when he was visiting. And the father emphasized that “No, I’d want to attend classes with her”. The poor tour guide was speechless. I was shocked, I think everyone else was too. My older son ended up at Hampshire and I ran into the adcom during orientation and complimented her on how she handled the family (she did a great job). Apparently the girl did NOT attend Hampy - thank heavens.</p>