<p>Sure, if the school’s reputation otherwise speaks for itself. As I said upthread, we were less than impressed by the Tufts tour, but the school’s reputation, particularly in the field my S is interested in, is just fine and he got a good vibe, so why wouldn’t he consider applying / going there? Haverford’s still on the list despite a bad tour guide. OTOH, we had a better tour guide at Clark and neither of my kids wound up being interested in the school itself. Not everything has to be Practically Perfect.</p>
<p>I never preregistered for any of the tours or info session I went on, it just didn’t seem particularly necessary and felt like a waste of time (I guess I was wrong?) </p>
<p>I didn’t really care about demonstrated interest at most of the schools I was visiting because most of them got 20k+ applications a year and were very selective and I was pretty sure admissionswise they probably couldn’t care less about whether I filled out their registration card or not. Judging by the posts in the accepted students’ Facebook group for my future college (Brown) tons of students got in without even visiting.</p>
<p>Having to preregister for a tour would have forced my day to be too regimented I think. When I visited colleges, sometimes I liked to walk around on my own for a while, sometimes being shown around by people I knew who went there, maybe having a meal in the cafeteria, and then when I had had my fill of that I would join in on the next leaving tour. None of the tours I went were particularly over crowded. Generally there was a huge crowd in the info session, which was then split between 3-5 guides, leaving ~15 people per group, which seemed very reasonable. Maybe if you pressed me I would admit that my Columbia tour was a little too big, but it was also Columbus Day weekend so it was too be expected I guess.</p>
<p>Pretty much all the colleges I visited though had registration cards you filled out in waiting areas, so maybe I’m misunderstanding what you mean by preregistering for a tour.</p>
<p>While agreed, it is impolite to RSVP to help the schools plan accordingly for tours, as others have said, many are not as sophisticated about the college planing as cc’ers. That said, I cannot believe a person who had registered was turned away. That is wrong Anyone being turned away, registered or not, is going to have a negative reaction, and that is bad PR for the school (which is why they usually accomodate all the people who show up unannounced). Agree that there should be more tour guides on call just in case of massive turnouts-- but at finals time that is tough to do. Not impossible, but tough. </p>
<p>Also agree that prospective applicants and admitted students should have different tours, if possible. But this is why I believe in seeing schools BEFORE applying, not after accepted, but then again undersand that many cannot do this. If possible thought, I feel its a better approach.</p>
<p>And to keep on the light side, instead of being angry-- keep a mental list of the stupidest questions prospies and/or parents ask. My favorite was the prospective student at Brown who showed up in an ROTC uniform and asked about their ROTC program. Uhhh— they don’t have one.</p>
<p>Public relations/communication may be considered an easy major to study, but in practice, it’s damn hard to get it right.</p>
<p>Unless you’re running a theater school, there’s no reason that everyone should have the skills to give a great tour. That terrific tour guide might be utterly lost in a chemistry lab, on the water polo team, in a finance internship, or in any number of other jobs and activities. So why would it be a problem that the opposite is also true?</p>
<p>I haven’t read the whole thread but something that really infuriated me was when we WOULD register at a college for the tour, WOULD call weeks ahead to set up PRIVATE appointments so our daughter could talk with, say the head of the orchestra (something she just wanted to do as an EC, but wanted to make sure the program was strong), and another prospective student and their parent would just SHOW UP, NO APPOINTMENT and expect to be seen. More often than not, the professor would say, “Well, this is the only time spot I have so why don’t you just come in with this student (our D).” Burned me. Maybe it shouldn’t have, but it did. Rude and intrusive on the time of a student who prepared for the visit.</p>
<br>
<br>
<p>Heaven forbid that tour guide talent becomes one more factor that Harvard uses in admissions decisions. Things are crazy enough as it is. The minute Harvard starts considering that we will instantly see the rise of a new industry: tour giude consultants and coaches offering to tutor your hopeful kid for a fee.</p>
<p>If tour guides are that crucial to the success of the school they should hire pros to do it and let the students go back to class.</p>
<p>I went on two Harvard tours, one with each daughter. And both times I was impressed with the guides. Both were very polished and articulate young women. But on the other hand, I never really held it against a school when our particular guide was disappointing (Princeton for example). I just chalked it up to the fact that they were using 19 year old amateurs and tried to focus what the school actually offered rather than this particular kid’s theatrical shortcomings.</p>
<p>Agree with those above who said that the tourguide jobs are usually very coveted positions. That said, I do think they need to screen/train their guides (and admissions reception staff) a little better. I’ve told this story before, but will repeat- At Amherst, the admissions secretary was a cranky, squat little old lady who sat at her desk knitting, barely looking up to acknowledge visitors. The tourguide we had was a young lady who announced that she was only there b/c she was a 3rd generation Amherst undergrad. She didnt take us to the library b/c she’d never been in it, and although she did take us into the science bldg, she also announced she’d never been in it, but joyously exclaimed “oh look you can see by boyfriends trailer (temporary housing due to dorm renovation) from here!!” (looking out a hall window inthe back). Needless to say, we were underwhelmed, and DS did not apply to Amherst.</p>
<p>Whoa! I would have never guessed how angry and upset some people get about tours and info sessions. </p>
<p>Visiting a college in spring break is like visiting a national park in the summer. Yeah, there are lots of crowds but all you have to do is walk a few feet away from the main look-out points off the highway and there is nobody and the views can be spectacular. </p>
<p>You can always get information on the website or by calling the admissions office at your convenience, and nowadays there are plenty of videos (official and unofficial) that replicate a campus tour. And anyway, most guided tours at colleges are incredibly boring, especially at the ivy league schools - who donated what building, what historic event happened some place, how many volumes are in the library (answer- many more than your kid will need, and you can get more through interlibrary loan), what silly tradition makes the college unique (hint- it isn’t unique), etc etc. </p>
<p>A better way to get a feel for a campus is to walk around a bit, attend a class or two, eat a meal at a cafeteria and watch the students as they interact with each other and with professors.</p>
<p>I’m not condoning rude or pushy behavior and definitely I don’t like when parents dominate, but I am a bit more sanguine about that kind of behavior. Look what passes for ‘spirited debate’ on TV these days.</p>
<p>My take away from this thread is that students and parents should judge and evaluate a college just as much as they do the students.</p>
<p>
Haha! Very amusing!</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>The Brown website specifically says that individual reservations are not necessary, but a lot of college websites do indicate that you need to register, either using an online form or by calling them, and if that’s the case, it seems a little disorganized not to do so and just show up and take your chances. If anything, I am frustrated that many of the sites only allowed registration for info sessions / tours for the next 45 - 60 days; since we’ve been flying to a lot of destinations for multiple tours, we really needed to know whether we’d be seeing certain campuses at certain dates / times. And since it’s all electronic anyway, no reason that the entire calendar couldn’t be put on line. It was frustrating trying to get inexpensive plane tickets, etc. and not knowing the specific times and dates.</p>
<p>I seem to remember that the best-organized tour offices had a sign-in sheet with the names of students who had reserved printed at the top, and a limited number of spaces below for walk-ins. I assume this made it easier to say, “please wait for the next tour,” to a walk-in, and to call in an extra tour guide if the day promised to be busy.</p>
<p>I have to commend the offices that put extra thought into these things, as any tourist operation gets frantic at times, and college tours do not generate any measurable form of revenue. That’s why the Ivies struggle - there are just too many partakers of the free tours.</p>
<p>I think it’s ridiculous to have to make a date far ahead of time for something like a college tour. Our life, what with jobs, other kids’ schedules, and family moves, emergencies, and changes, absolutely does not allow planning many months in advance. I’ve learned not to make such arrangements because they inevitably have to be changed at the last minute anyway. There are many families like ours. I appreciate colleges that are flexible. Fine, you should be <em>able to</em> reserve ahead if you want to and not have it be overcrowded. But colleges should also have an option for people who can’t possibly do that through no fault of their own.</p>
<p>As for the kids with the dumb questions: many, many kids nowadays have basically no guidance counselor and have parents who are unfamiliar with the process. Is it their fault that they learn things late? They are learning the hard way and are already hugely disadvantaged in applying.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>How do you expect them to know how many tour guides, etc. are needed at certain times, then? If I ran an admissions office, I sure would want a sense of when it was going to be crowded and not-crowded so I could deploy my resources accordingly. Whether that’s receptionists, tour guides, or even something as simple as the coffee and refreshments I’m putting out.</p>
<p>^ Beware the one-post contributor with strong adverse opinions!!!</p>
<p>^^ agreed
a likely ■■■■■</p>
<p>Yikes, how many posts do I need under my belt before I can have a contrary opinion and not be considered a ■■■■■?
The thing is, after only a few months reading (and timidly participating in) this site, I can see that those of us who are this intense about the whole college thing aren’t really all that…normal.<br>
I mean, I’m totally on board with the whole “be familiar with the college FAQ website answers and all the available on-line information before going on a college tour” thing, and I do mad amounts of research on all the schools my kids show any interest in, but my husband thinks I’m totally nuts and so do most of my friends. I live in a pretty intense, high-income, high-achievement area whose public schools are tops in the nation and even so, most parents aren’t reading CC and tend to work in college visits with family vacations and school breaks, as far as I can tell, and if it’s OK with the colleges to hop on to a tour they haven’t made reservations for, wouldn’t give it a second thought. It doesn’t make them bad people because they haven’t made a part-time job of the process of college admissions.
I think it behooves us to remember this and try to be just a bit tolerant of the other families who aren’t quite as intense as we are ;).</p>
<p>All of my kids’ colleges requested appointments for tours and info sessions. I got shut out of some of them because I was too late in registering. They did not budge when I personally called the admissions office and pretty much begged since I was going to be in that area and not likely to be back that way for just that one college. I rearranged my schedule so we could see that school, dropping another one off the list that is in a city that we are likely to visit in the near future. </p>
<p>But when I got to the college, lo and behold, there were gate crashers galore. And no one was turned away. Made me a little hot under the collar since my request was emphatically denied and I spent a lot of time rearranging things so that our trip was not the way I really wanted it to be. So I did not hesitate to crash an info session when I saw I had time at the end of the day after a nearby tour and session. And they did have us sign in, treated us just as well as the registered folks. </p>
<p>I don’t know what the answer to all of this should be. To tick off a parent and kid by denying them the tour when they show up, is tantamount to losing a customer. In times when this is not a wise thing to do if the college is one who is working hard at attracting kids. Though it is not a smart thing to do, kids do make big judgments and decisions based on that tour experience. </p>
<p>I planned and scheduled the tours, not my son, since I was driving and had some plans as well. It took a long time to coordinate all of what I did. Though my son could have done it, he would not have done it as well and it was too much time and effort on my part not to have this efficiently done. I’m just too old and tired to have to go through this learning experience with a kid again.</p>
<p>How did you even know that the other parents / students were gate crashers or not? I had my kids go up to the desk and check in while H and I would stand or sit in the waiting room. How would we know what other parents were saying at the check-in desk? Indeed, we deliberately stayed away from it because we felt it important that the kids “own” interacting with the receptionist, checking in for the tour, filling out forms, etc. H and I would be looking around the room, reading brochures, etc – not paying attention to other parents.</p>
<p>It takes very little effort to register for a tour. The vast majority are on line registration and it literally takes seconds. I liken it to an RSVP and it is a courtesy. Unfortunately there are many people who like to think that (RSVP, pre-registration etc.) means everybody but them. There are rude people all over the place. Smart schools will have back-up tour guides on standby and all the extra work that goes along with accomodating non-compliers. Smart schools also know that there are some legitimate add-ons who may see an opportunity to fit a tour in that they might not have previously been able to plan as well as people who just can’t get their “*****” together to plan ahead. I also see nothing wrong with sending a group out that is expected and holding back the newcomers until the back-up guides can get organized. It’s all about customer service as cpt says.</p>