That sounds very cool. I’m going to add it to my list of things to do when I eventually drive across the country 
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Ah. Adding to our “exploring the US” list!
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Out of the 30 college visits? we made between our two kids, I think 70% of tour gudes said:
“We have so many clubs. We even have a Taylor Swift club!”
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Mine was cheese clubs.
I also know where not to step so that I can still graduate from each school.
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Also got a lot of cheese clubs, and many beekeeping at smaller schools (!) and MANY taylor swifts.
I give northeastern credit - they had a Lettuce eating club, which I think may be actually unique? Or was it only the place we heard it. Not sure if it was a selling point, but it is unusual at least:)
I got sick of hearing about blue lights for calling PD/safety too…. Heck, they had those on college tours when I went my own tours! Do people not have eyes to see them everywhere? (I should be more patient with people who have never been on a tour, I guess, or never went to college, but pointing out annoys me.
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I gave all our schools a suggestion to divide tour groups by majors so they can see their individual buildings and the tour guides could speak about their specific areas of study.
Im sure the logistics would be difficult but that would make the tours more meaningful.
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Some do that. The tour is the same though but maybe so kids have someone with their interests to talk to.
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There were a number of schools we went to where you could add a department-specific tour on the same day as the general tour.
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The best tour guide we had rattled off all the weed out classes and told us to try use AP credits to avoid them.
The UConn tour guide told us that he really wanted to go to a school in California until his strict Asian mom said this one magical word: “No”
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That reminds me of our one guide, who said they “only went there because they gave him a huge scholarship”, and as pre-med and needed to save. He did say nice things about the school, but it was phrased a bit bluntly and felt off….He could have said the same thing a lot more delicately and positively - like “the school is really generous with merit for out of state students, and I was thrilled to be able to save for medical school”….
I do think many more could do this, though, and many only have the specialized ones infrequently IME. I had to really, really schedule around availability to make it work at many (most?) of the schools.. Like the engineering department has tours, but only on Tues. mornings and every 4th Saturday or something, vs. 2x a day 6 days a week for regular tours. For bigger schools, I feel like they can do better, especially since I could tell they fill up 
. I wonder if it is really supply and demand? Not sure, but it seems weird to me.
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Oh, but if you accidentally step on the seal or walk the wrong way under the arch, don’t worry because you can rub the head of the mascot/random statue to reverse the curse!
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During our last few tours, my D26 would turn to me and say, “Mother, I just heard something shocking. They have a blue light system! And listen to this – as you go up the floors in the library, they get quieter!”
She loves some snark, that one. But yes, colleges really need more original info to convey on their tours.
Some of the clubs are genuinely amusing. At Northwestern, they have a club that shows up at chess matches to heckle the players. 
And at Rice – disclaimer, I didn’t hear this on the tour, but I read it in the parent group – there is a squirrel-watching club. And then there’s a club that watches the squirrel watchers.
Incidentally, my D22 has two friends there who took a student-taught class about Taylor Swift. 
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My D22 is taking a class all about elephants, taught by her friend. Turns out, UCLA offers the opportunity to teach a 1 unit class to students who put together a pitch and a plan. That’s the kind of thing they should talk about on tours! D22 had no idea this program even existed until her friend got a bunch of folks to take his class.
ETA: I found the program! In case anyone wants more info. It’s called Undergraduate Student Initiated Education. Students can design and teach their approved class, and are supported through with faculty mentorship. It’s part of the honors program and actually a year long commitment to prepare and teach the class
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If only the class could take a field trip to Thailand to swim with the elephants! That’s on my bucket list. 
Rice has a similar program – but they make students take a whole class the semester before to prep the curriculum and learn how to teach. My D22 took a class on the History of Middle Earth (as in Tolkien), and another last semester on Conlangs (constructed languages, like Elvish or Klingon) – taught by a fellow linguistics major, in which she got to create her own conlang.
I hear this stuff and really want to go back to school – my own college experience was nothing like this!
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we heard a lot about these too - at least 3-4 schools mentioned they had those! my kid was unimpressed - lol.
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When my kids were little, we listened to Taylor Swift songs that would play on the Disney radio station – the ones from her earliest albums. There is family lore with my D26 asking for “the killamia song” in the car, and then having a tantrum when we had no idea what song she meant. Many moons later we figured out it was The Story of Us – “Is it killing you like it’s killing me, yeah.”
But none of the kids are big enough fans now to take a class, lol.
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Who’s Taylor Swift ?
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I often asked the tour guides why they chose X school.
So I appreciate their honest answer.
Of course, the admissions office might take note of who they hire. Honesty is always good and we are all different in our bluntness.
I appreciate that.
The oddest one we had was - when she visited Miami of Ohio and ate in the dining hall, they had the best Green Goddess dressing - ever!!! Sold!!!
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It was sort of the attitude which I probably didn’t convey honestly- like he was disappointed he ended up there and was making best of it- like I said he he framed a bit differently was cool answer
that was the issue - don’t be a tour guide if you are going to describe it that way IMO (poor judgement reflected by kid in taking job and school hiring process)
was probably a fine choice he went there but if you can’t do the job well, I don’t know. Seemed odd
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