If your kid chose a school based partially on the tour guide

[Anonymous]

The school my child will be attending is pretty small and got a tour guide for us who was double majoring in the exact same things my daughter wanted.

They knew their audience. And it 100% sold her on wanting to go to school there.

It was basically a private visit, as they had also set up for her to take classes in the performing art major. It was a really lovely day.

Can’t wait for my husband to see it at orientation next week.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I wish more schools would let you choose your tour guide. If we had gone with the energetic tour guide at one school, I know my kid would have had a much better view of the school. We kept crossing paths with that guide and experience was completely different. At the Next school, we actually did just jump groups to the one we felt was better and my kid walked away with the ability to see themselves at that school.

Elon seems to try to match tour guides with students based on information you give them when you register for the tour...it makes an enormous difference! My DS wasn't really interested in it but we toured there because we were looking at other NC schools and it was by far the best tour, largely because the tour guide was able to speak to my son's intended major so well. It is now on his list (while a lot of schools dropped off because of dull tours).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wish more schools would let you choose your tour guide. If we had gone with the energetic tour guide at one school, I know my kid would have had a much better view of the school. We kept crossing paths with that guide and experience was completely different. At the Next school, we actually did just jump groups to the one we felt was better and my kid walked away with the ability to see themselves at that school.

Elon seems to try to match tour guides with students based on information you give them when you register for the tour...it makes an enormous difference! My DS wasn't really interested in it but we toured there because we were looking at other NC schools and it was by far the best tour, largely because the tour guide was able to speak to my son's intended major so well. It is now on his list (while a lot of schools dropped off because of dull tours).

I have heard really great things about Elon. So many people who fall in love with it after seeing it in person.

We toured Meredith in NC and had a really nice day there, too.

I went to Wake - don’t remember a ton about my tour except the trees on the quad were rolled after a March Madness win. And I of course felt that “this is home” feeling. Was so excited to get my packet a few weeks later. Such an idyllic place to go to school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our tour guide at one school was such a bad match for my kid that they completely ruled out the school citing things they easily overlooked at other schools.

Same. Visited a number of schools over spring break, two of which were ruled out due to tour guide (there were also other valid reasons but the tour guide was the part DC was most vocal about).

One based our groups tour on the back of their personal ranking of each campus coffee shop and why they ranked it as such… this was a T10 school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:One of the best things that my parent ever did for me during colleges tours was ask a current student from the department I was interested in to lunch with us.

After the main tour, we were walking around and went to the building of the department I was interested in. A student was there, we started talking with the student and my parent offered to take them to lunch with us.

The student was up for a free lunch out. During lunch the student shared some really great information about their experience in the department that was helpful in my decision making.

If people have the opportunity, I would definitely recommend it. A college student's experience can vary depending on their major and just because a college is great, it doesn't mean that specific department is good (or vice versa).

Yes! My niece's dad (my BIL) approached tons of random kids on the campuses of the schools they toured and tried to engage them. Always found a couple willing to really chat for a while and he felt like those kids made a big difference in her view of the schools.

[Anonymous]

The school my kid is attending allowed kids to choose their guide, which I think made a big difference in my kid being able to see themself at the school. And then the guides we chose—we visited twice—were really dynamic, which also helped.

My kid has an activity they love and wanted to continue in college, and would ask a question of most tour guides about it, to see whether that activity was big enough on campus that even a non-involved guide would know about it. That ended up being really helpful; in most cases, the guide wasn’t involved directly, but the ones who could talk about it because they had friends who participated or because it was big enough culturally to be known by most students made the best impression on my kid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The school my kid is attending allowed kids to choose their guide, which I think made a big difference in my kid being able to see themself at the school. And then the guides we chose—we visited twice—were really dynamic, which also helped.

My kid has an activity they love and wanted to continue in college, and would ask a question of most tour guides about it, to see whether that activity was big enough on campus that even a non-involved guide would know about it. That ended up being really helpful; in most cases, the guide wasn’t involved directly, but the ones who could talk about it because they had friends who participated or because it was big enough culturally to be known by most students made the best impression on my kid.

We've gone on a couple of tours where they gave choices of tour guides and it makes a huge difference. I don't know why more colleges don't do it.

[Anonymous]

When a school has you pick the guides, how does that work? Do they each talk a little about themselves? Or do they say "this is the guide for X subject?"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When a school has you pick the guides, how does that work? Do they each talk a little about themselves? Or do they say "this is the guide for X subject?"

This is what happened at the three schools we toured that let you pick your guide.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The school my child will be attending is pretty small and got a tour guide for us who was double majoring in the exact same things my daughter wanted.

They knew their audience. And it 100% sold her on wanting to go to school there.

It was basically a private visit, as they had also set up for her to take classes in the performing art major. It was a really lovely day.

Can’t wait for my husband to see it at orientation next week.

Private visits are awesome. My first kid's tour at the school they ultimately attended---was 20 students for the general presentation, then each kid got their own private tour guide, in the same area each kid had listed as interesting. It really goes a long way towards getting all your questions answered and feeling like you matter. Versus other schools where it's 30+ to a guide and you cannot ask questions with some of the overbearing kids/parents if you are a bit shy

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Same thing with overnight visits when I was visiting colleges back in the day.

I did the overnight and ruled out school based on the person I had been matched with. Am 100% sure I would have gone there if had not done overnight and everyone - and I mean everyone- I have met in years since from that school are great and so bummed at my younger self for locking in on 1 person when making my decision (oh, and did not tell parents so they didn’t have chance to say I was foolish, which I was). All is well now, but have used it as learning lesson for everything else I have ever done/chosen since (so maybe it needed to happen!).

[Anonymous]

Tour guides put my child off William and Mary

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My 52 year old wife wanted to get the William and Mary tour guide's phone number. Not sure if it would have been for for her or our daughter.

We loved our William and Mary tour guide!

So did we - and my oldest ended up going there. My kids definitely favored schools where they felt like the tour guide was someone they could be friends with.

They didn't eliminate schools with less-than-stellar tour guides, but there were a couple of schools that were eliminated because of the admissions presentation.