Taking a College Tour

One of the most important things to remember about the college admissions process is to remember that you’re always being watched. This is no different on tours. Tour guides can submit reports on the prospectives they show around and they going in the admissions folder along with the interview reports, transcripts, etc. Obviously, having a tour guide write a nice recommendation is not going to get you in if you don’t have the grades, but it can help separate you from others.

Be prepared to think on your feet. Some tour guides will have a funny question or icebreaker during introductions just to get to know the prospectives a little better. When I give tours, I like to ask what students like to do for fun. These are not evaluative questions – there isn’t any one right answer – but there are definitely some wrong ones. Yes, the following are actually answers I’ve gotten on tours:
- “Talk on my cell phone”
- “Hang out with my friends”: Seriously now, who doesn’t like to hang out with their friends?
- “I don’t have much free time”: Well, what do you do with your time? If you don’t enjoy anything that you’re doing, you’re wasting your life away. Sure you won’t enjoy everything
- “I don’t know”: Whenever the tour guide gives you a chance to talk, they’re giving you a chance to stand out. You don’t have to come up with some ridiculously unique activity, just something that shows you are passionate about something.

Some better answers:
- “Play soccer/basketball/football/etc.”: This is a solid answer, especially if you are considering continuing the sport in college. The tour guide might either: a) be on the particular team or b) know someone on the team. If the guide is on the team, you can make a personal connection with the guide so they are more likely to remember how wonderful you are and what a great addition you could make to the school or they might even be able to set up a meeting with the coach. Most admissions offices will have the office phone numbers but coaches aren’t usually in the offices over the summer. If a tour guide is on the team, they might have the coach’s cell number. Numerous times over the summer when someone mentioned that they ran track or cross country I was able to call the coach and set up a meeting that day. If the coach couldn’t meet then, they’d usually tell me to give their CELL number to the prospectives to call them. Even if the guide isn’t on the particular team, they might know someone on the team who they can put you in contact with – and that’s information you’re not going to get from a college’s web page.
- “Participate in Model UN/Student Government/something that you would like to continue should you come to this college”: When prospectives say they enjoy participating in something that they plan to continue in college, it shows they’re most likely doing it because they enjoy it rather than just resume building. Similar to sports, they may be personally involved with the activity or may know someone involved so they can give you an inside scoop on how the activity works at the university.

On the tour, show some interest. Many times the tour guide will be VOLUNTEERING their time to show you around. When you give up an hour of your day to show someone around, they appreciate it when you show some genuine interest. The most boring tours I’ve given are when I have only one family and the kid seems to be just along for the ride. Even simple things like making eye contact can help show your interest.

One of the best ways to show interest is to ask RELEVANT questions. Whether they like to admit it or not, most good tour guides will have some type of routine that they follow on the tour and most of them will cover almost all the relevant parts of the college experience; which means there’s no reason to interrupt the tour guide to ask about Greek life while the guide is talking about the business school. However, when campus housing is covered, it would be a good opportunity to ask about how many students live on campus or if it’s guaranteed for all four years.

The best questions are ones that go beyond simple facts that could be looked up online. Tour guides are not impressed when prospective students ask “So how many students go here?” because that just means the prospective didn’t do their homework before visiting the school. It only takes short amount of time to do some research and find a unique club or activity you might be interested in if you came to the particular school but your interest can leave a good impression.

After the tour, be sure to thank your tour guide. If they give you an email address, shoot them a quick email to thank them for their time. Even better, send them a note. Believe it or not, these can end up getting filed in your admissions folder. Will a thank you note alone be the difference between being accepted and rejected? Probably not. But when you are applying to a competitive school, a trend of courtesy – thank notes to your tour guide, your interviewer, anyone else who you met and took some of their time to talk to you about the college – might be the difference. Most competitive colleges will receive many more qualified applicants than it has room for in its class, so you need to stand out in almost any way possible.


Quotables:
“Do you really have to say “Hi” to everyone? I mean, isn’t that impractical?” – a not so socially minded prospective student on a tour in response to the Speaking Tradition

“I assume the Honor System covers cohabitation?” – a mother innocently wondering how roommates getting locked out for hookups was handled

Me: “There are numerous upper classmen who voluntarily come back early to help the freshmen move in. Typically, cars don’t even get to come to a complete stop before they are surrounded by five to six upperclassmen asking ‘Where’s the stuff going?’ The parents tell them, and then watch joyfully as their child’s stuff disappears.”
A few sentences later…
Mom: You were just kidding about the freshmen’s stuff being stolen, right? Don’t you have some type of honor system here…?
Me: When I said “disappears” I meant it disappears from the car at a very rapid pace and is moved to the freshmen’s dorm room…