We only did three tours. Caltech was the best. An admissions person met with us for an hour ( I only said one sentence), then a 1:1 tour with a lovely young woman. The man in admissions gave my son a list of classes he could observe that afternoon, and suggested he return the next day to see some more. I was invited to join a garden tour of the campus and learned a lot about the architecture
We did many tours, and by far, the best guides we encountered were at Johns Hopkins. We had two guys, as we were a large group. They were, in my mind, exactly the kind of students you expect at JHU. Smart, well-spoken, knowledgeable, and personable. They said interesting things, and confirmed our impression of the university. It wasn’t the right place for my daughter, but we both felt it would be perfect for a good friend of hers who ended up applying.
Ohio State is the single best big-school admissions operation I’ve seen in my career. They’re unbelievable.
Our best by far was in 2014 at Tufts. He was a senior art history major. Funny, articulate, and honest about the good and not so good aspects of Tufts.
Second best was University of Denver 2017. She was friendly, upbeat, connected with the crowd. I was surprised to learn she was a freshman and it was only her second tour. I let the admissions office know what a great job she did.
I’ll give an honorable mention to Loyola Marymount University 2017. She may not have been everyone’s cup of tea but she was perfect for my daughter- quirky, nerdy, a bit out there. My D likes LMU more than I was expecting.
DD1 applied to 8 schools between 3 and 8 thousand, and Boston University (30k). One of the tour guides at BU was also a panelist before the tour. Three of the panelists were “brochure worthy” in appearance, and were great presenters. The fourth student on first glance was … not especially impressive looking, and didn’t have that polished “leader of the future” look that you see on most every campus. Until he opened his mouth. He had the entire room laughing giant belly laughs, crying in support of his challenges, and (I am convinced) raised the applications markedly. I am certain that he had more “Why BU” mentions than any kid in the history of the school with his tales of coming from a farm town with 30 seniors and a WalMart for entertainment. He had us in the palm of his hand when he talked about dragging cardboard boxes and suitcases on the subway after his first plane ride to Boston College (which for those of you who don’t know, is 20 minutes down the subway from Boston University). Imagine the horror when they had never heard of him. He talked about how he had never met a nonwhite or non-Christian person ever, and was the first to leave his town for college. Imagine his surprise when his roommate was a gay, Jewish, black man who turned out to be his best friend for the whole four years. He talked about how he was sobbing in the middle of a 200 student lecture hall because his friend had died and he couldn’t go home for the funeral, and the professor tapped him on the shoulder, took him in the hall, and made him a part of his family for the next four years. He was named Zach, and I will never forget him! We toured in 2009, BU shot to the top of the list, and we STILL talk about him.
@shoot4moon Thank you for sharing that story.
SMU.
Alabama!
We ended up doing the tour during winter break and our guide came back to school to give the tour. She was amazing!
We had a great experience at Elon, too. A one-on-one tour with someone in D19’s potential major. So much enthusiasm for the school and lots of insight!
Here’s a twist to the theme of this thread. Last year we had a very impressive tour guide at Williams. He was gregarious, intellectual, super-involved in campus government, a dynamic speaker, etc. A real rock star!
However, it had an intimidating effect on my daughter; like she thought she wouldn’t be able to live up to his standard. She quickly crossed Williams off the list.
Another vote for Clemson here. Our tour guide was, hands down, the most impressive guide we had at any of the schools we visited. She was obviously extremely bright, personable, and most impressively knowledgeable about the campus and career center. She fielded every question with honesty and poise and although she must have graduated several years ago, I’m sure that wherever she is now she’s surely doing very well.