@cleoforshort You may want to ask that question in the thread below that also presents the positive spin. Otherwise U of South Carolina may end up taking a beating like Wash U. In all fairness to Wash U, this is the thread for pummeling any school without guilt or apology.
blueskies2day, Hey, thats the thread I started, just goes to show you how important a tour and guide can affect your college search. I was so impressed with our Mount Holyoke tour guide I started that thread, and a year and half later, my daughter is a happy firstie there. And like I said above, we didnât get a tour at Smith, Two similar schools just miles apart, and a world of difference in the presentation.
@blueskies2day
Killjoy!
@Akqj10. Do you want to get banned, because thatâs how you get banned. Unfortunately, I agree that Mt. Holyoke had the best presentation of any school we visited.
I hate that. I liked the ones where they ask rows 1-5 to go to this one and rows 6-10 to the next or whatever. We also learned pretty quickly that no one cares if you go to a different guide than your row would indicate.
In fact even when the tour guides were indicated by major and we were told to pick our own, we always went for the smallest group, whichever that was.
Not quite on topic I fully admit, but after one school suggested it long ago with my oldest, my Ds and I always pick two different tour guides to attend on our own so we get more info and also can ask the questions we really want to ask 
One of my kids recently applied to grad programs at several universities.
UNC accepted kid but spelled the first name wrong in the acceptance notice. Very odd, as the first name is very common. Nothing says âWelcome!â like a misspelled name.
U of South Carolina has been classy, generous, & cooperative throughout the process. U Kentucky same.
We quickly learned to never âput upâ with the guide you were assigned and always went with the guide we wanted. We became masters at making our move and that was always a fun part along with the quick decision of who would be best. If there wasnât an obvious major fit, Ds went with the cute one, that kind of thing. Sizing up who we wanted then covertly positioning ourselves, either with the drink of water/bathroom/tie your shoe move, or if outside in a large group standing in the middle towards the back and when they split up group just sliding over to the guide of our choice. Donât be up front for the split! And if by rows, employ the getting a drink/bathroom move.
Tulane
@concerndad Thanks for getting that off your chest!
We choose the guide who knows how to project her or his voice!
@milee30 Your WashU experience could not have been any further than ours. Obviously theyâre not very consistent.
Our info session was the best weâve been to and once that ended the break up to tour groups was very organized. As an organized kid my D was actually so impressed with the organization that admissions showed during the entire experience. The tour guide was not the best but certainly one of the best (The best was our Tufts guide)
BTW we visited a dorm room which was planned prior.
I am running to defense of the Dating Game style of tour guide selection. It can let your kid ask a few questions that they have that are more specific.
Our best Dating Game far and away was Brown. Fun fact: in order to be admitted to Brown you must do acapella. OKâŠmaybe I exaggerate slightly (but already I know 20% of the parents that started reading this post are now looking up acapella groups for their kidâs resumes)âŠbut every tour guide did some sort of acapella - Disney acapella, pirate acapella, etc. Like others said, people crowded around a subset of tour guides but my boys picked the kid I never expected them to pick: gay, professional dancer, acapella from Mumbai. Kid was amazing. Studying economics and biology and was just amazing. Since our group was small he asked the kids what they did in high school and my then ninth grader (youngest child) said âsports and soccerpellaâ. The guide asked âwhat does that sound like?â My son said âI donât know I just made it up. But I do play soccer.â It was funnyâŠand the tour guide adored it.
(but already I know 20% of the parents that started reading this post are now looking up acapella groups for their kidâs resumes)âŠ^^ :))
@cleoforshort We visited University of South Carolina in August. It was hot and humid, but we loved everything about the school. Tour guide was very personable and down to earth. Nice mix of historic and modern buildings. Campus was very clean and welcoming.
Whatâs next, Mimes at Harvard?
The above post by @milee30 reminds me of our Dartmouth experience. We got confusing information at check-in, an info session that featured a defensive and dismissive professor, an unimpressive tour guide, and a science tour (âpremed tourâ?) in which the poor student guides couldnât access any of the rooms that were presumably on the tour, even after frantically attempting to reach admissions on the phone. Gloomy weather was the icing on that cake. We left early, and didnât look back.
@cleoforshort feel free to PM me. I have one at SC who I saw blissfully happy. And we never did a tour.
My son and I visited 17 colleges (east, midwest, south and west). For him, the primary turnoff were schools that compared themselves to others instead of âsellingâ their unique merits/characteristics. For him Amherst and Rice spent too much time comparing themselves to Ivies. He plans on studying engineering. We went to the Rice engineering presentation. They could have done so much more to sell their design center. UC San Diego was the strangest visit. The info session was 30 minutes of a power point presentation. The Admissions Officer didnât answer any questions. I remain perplexed by their âresidentialâ system where any major can be in any âresidenceâ, though each one has slightly different requirements. He noticed how several of the schools try to âsellâ this residential concept without explaining why.
On the positive side, the places he was thoroughly impressed with were University of Southern California (the best tour guide), Harvey Mudd, Brown, Williams and Tufts. They never compared themselves to other universities, didnât have contrived housing (outside of Brown) and spent focused on selling the university to the prospects. He ended up applying ED to Northwestern and was accepted. For him, in was several factors including strong in engineering and music, close to home (50 mins), ability to visit multiple times, no contrived housing, and selling to the students. I thought having his dad (me) as alum would make it a ânoâ.
re post #1675. I did not say MOST, just pointed out that areas of Michigan and Wisconsin north of most of Maine are populated (ie not just the mainly northwoods and relatively few people of the UP of Michigan).
"Canât resist on the geography. Did you know most of Maine lies south of parts of well populated Wisconsin and Michigan (much less the western states with the 49th parallel for a northern border)? Map projections skew things.â
âI did not say most,âŠâ
See second sentence, 4th word. In any case, got your point.