College Tour Guides
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Anonymous
| College tour guides are paid as part of the financial aid/work program, correct? As such, do schools have the students audition for this role? I have been on tours with extremely good tour guides, but I have also seen ones who were not. Yes, how they present themselves can be seen as positive by one person and negative by another, so I ask this generally, as in, are they competitive positions? |
Anonymous
| Some schools they're paid, others they are volunteer. Either volunteer or paid positions are competitive to get. |
Anonymous
I think it can be quite competitive, depending on the school. We also had some great ones and some clunkers. I was a tour guide at my school, and it was part of an honorary group. We didn't get paid, but it was great fun. |
Anonymous
| No they are not all paid. At some colleges it is a competitive volunteer activity. |
Anonymous
|
At my alma mater, it was a competitive volunteer activity.
And a lot of fun, I'd add, 98% of the time. |
Anonymous
| This highly competitive part makes me laugh; my DC wouldn't go near a tour guide job! (That's not necessarily a good thing, just made me laugh at the though of DC "competing" for the job.) |
Anonymous
| Granted this is not recent knowledge but I was a tour guide at Northwestern and we were not paid. |
Anonymous
|
I had to try out to be a tour guide. It was a volunteer position, but it was competitive to be chosen.
When you have a group that was super upbeat and fun - those were the best. The tours that were bad were mostly because of a) parents who were rude or overly aggressive or b) me having a bad day. I can only imagine how much more insufferable some of the parents have gotten. Also, life in general seems more stressful for young people these days, so I have to imagine we still let students have a bad day and don't expect perfection from tour guides? |
Anonymous
| The tour guides are not necessarily on a financial aid/work study program. At least at my kid's school, it's just a job you can apply for--even a kid whose parents are billionaires would be just as elligible as a person whose parents have no money. |
Anonymous
| Tbh I think the model of one kid (albeit a trained one) representing an entire university or college doesn’t make sense. OTOH my kid doesn’t like slick marketing videos either. |
Anonymous
If you visit during the school year, most college admissions offices will set up a time for your student (but not you! LOL) to si in on a class. And typically the whole family can eat in a dining hall. Definitely gives your DC exposure to more than one student. |
Anonymous
| They are generally not a paid position. My daughter is a tour guide and had to audition and goes through a lot of training and updates. The fun is that it’s a close knit group of students and touring parents can be quite entertaining. |
Anonymous
| It's typically a volunteer job -- for nerds. |
Anonymous
You seem like a real winner. |
Anonymous
They aren’t. They are just showing you the basics. You’re supposed to research and ask questions. For most people, the tour is just the jumping off point. It’s that attitude that leads to people crossing off schools that are great for their kid because one tour guide didn’t “wow” you. It’s so silly. |