AFwife Claire Posted April 20, 2017 Share Posted April 20, 2017 (edited) I laughed at this article about college tours! (ETA: Some language) The Hair-Pulling Madness of the College Tour "I was a tour guide in college. I worked in admissions. I’ve consulted with students applying to college. I know campus tours. I believe in campus tours. My advice has long been to take official campus tours. Get a feel for the school when students are on campus. See a variety of settings and sizes. It’s good advice. Only now that I’m a parent of a junior applying to college attending campus tours, I’m here to say, what in god’s name is this madness?..." Edited April 20, 2017 by AFwife Claire 10 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sebastian (a lady) Posted April 20, 2017 Share Posted April 20, 2017 That was cute. One of my favorite parts of a your tour was lunch afterwards when the family would share all the little exaggerations and absurdities we'd noticed. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted April 20, 2017 Share Posted April 20, 2017 HA! Funny... I haven't encountered "seamless" yet, but omg I can't tell you how many times I've heard "awesome". It became a running joke between dh and me Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
plansrme Posted April 20, 2017 Share Posted April 20, 2017 Our favorite joke is that every campus rec center, with its lap pool, lazy river, indoor track, climbing wall, basketball courts (and you can check out basketballs for FREE!), is the "best in the nation." Of course it is the best in the nation, because it was built from the same Build-Your-Own Best in the Nation College Rec Center Kit that was shipped to every other school. 8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dmmetler Posted April 21, 2017 Share Posted April 21, 2017 What I love is the quads that are set up to replicate famous schools in totally different climates. Maybe leave the Ivy for places it thrives and drop your tuition by 5k or so because you won't need quite so many landscapers to hand nurture each sprig? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theelfqueen Posted April 22, 2017 Share Posted April 22, 2017 My oldest brought home an AFA brochure one time and said "Umm Dad is that you?" Sure enough there was DH and two of his squadron mates on the cover of the brochure. Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk 8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joules Posted April 22, 2017 Share Posted April 22, 2017 Love that! College tours are right up there with EFCs on their ridiculousness. We had a couple of good ones with honest guides out of over a dozen, but mostly it's like going to that comedy show at the amusement park where you laugh at all the same jokes given by a new crew each year. We started in 9th grade so tours became almost nostalgic by the end. I still think they are useful if you have time. They give you an orientation to campus if you do the tour first, and then you can explore the other parts at your leisure. As a matter of fact, the places that aren't on the tour route are usually the most interesting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alice Posted April 22, 2017 Share Posted April 22, 2017 That was hilarious. I was a tour guide, it was pretty fun. From that perspective the questions people asked were also somewhat ridiculous. I remember thinking a lot of times "Um...did you read any of the info before coming?" Also, it was a particularly beautiful campus and I always felt like saying "Ok, let's get all the 'it's so pretty' comments out of the way and then I can tell you about the academics.'' Being a tour guide was a good gig though. I started it one summer I was also doing chemistry research. My research involved setting up these long columns for filtration that would take hours to run. So I would set one up, go give a tour and come back to finish the experiment. I got paid for both so it was a great way to make extra money. My chem professor was fine with me doing it. We've often joked that there really is only one quad at all the schools, complete with the multicultural group of kids, (one from each race!) that travel from school to school, for photos. They bring their own trees in autumn splendor, and supply the earnest professor, in tweed, with the obligatory group of enrapt students, with large imposing granite edifice in the background. The viewbook always has the group of music students, artfully posed around a fountain, all holding their instruments (I know this, because several of my kids have been photographed in just such a shot). If it is a college that is not in the middle of NYC, there's the shot of outdoorsy things going on, at least a skateboarder, but better yet, a mountain biker. In the West, you can substitute a snowboarder. If a Service Academy, you get statues! Lots of statues! And the eternal photo of the covers going up at Commissioning! That is funny. As a chemistry person, we always laughed because several times photographers would come through the lab and ask us to do something "sciency" for a photo. They always liked it when we used a pipet, it was like "standard chem photo 101". 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goldberry Posted April 25, 2017 Share Posted April 25, 2017 That was hilarious! One thing about the tours that gave DD an education... the tour guides on all the tours would mention this or that activity, and then say with so much excitement "and there's usually free food!" After the third tour guide doing that, DD started to get concerned.... "These people can't afford food, can they?" :lol: Of course there's meal plans, but yeah, it was a bit of a wake-up to her how much she would look forward to events with "free food!" 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goldberry Posted April 25, 2017 Share Posted April 25, 2017 And this, yes! One of our tour guides was getting a double major in chemical engineering and biology, AND was graduating early. WTH? Most have already brought peace to several warring nations, started a non-profit, launched an online magazine, or are literally in the process of curing cancer. You will wonder what you’ve done with you life. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elegantlion Posted April 26, 2017 Share Posted April 26, 2017 I haven't been one of the tours at our campus, but I'm not sure how effective they are. We see tours going through when we're sitting in the halls and always want to stop them and answer questions about the history department, which I doubt some of the tours guides even mention, well I know some don't because I've overhead their spiel. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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