The Campus Tour–the Centerpiece of the College Visit

campus tour

The campus tour and official information session are the focal point of any campus visit. But it’s important to remember that a lot of thought (and money) has gone into creating a wonderful experience for the visiting family (there are even consulting groups that do nothing but advise college admissions directors on how to improve the campus visit experience).

At the risk of sounding overly cynical, I want you to think about those sales pitches for time shares at resorts. If you’ve sat through a few of those—just as I have taken hundreds of tours and sat through hundreds of information sessions—you’ll probably have the right frame of mind as you enter the admissions office for the first time.

General Tips:

  • Arrive early. Sometimes visitor parking is not right next to the admissions office. Leave yourselves time to get lost and found again.
  • Sign in at the front desk in the admissions office. Colleges collect information about which applicants go on tours and which do not. You want to make sure your name is on the right list.
  • Confirm at the front desk any other arrangements or appointments you have made on campus, including meetings with professors, coaches, or interviews with admissions officers. Make sure you have phone numbers and email addresses of the people you plan to meet. The admissions staff can sometimes help you confirm these meetings.

The Tour

  1. Don’t base your impression of the school on your impression of the tour guide. Some guides are great. Some are not. Some guides are people with whom you will instantly click. Others will have personalities that turn you off. Remember that the guide is only one student of hundreds or thousands (or tens of thousands). This person is only your guide—a paid member of the admissions office staffl—and not an elected or official representative of the entire student body.
  2. Remember that the student tour guides are told which route to take, which buildings or programs to highlight, and are coached on how to answer certain kinds of questions. But there may be many questions that either too technical (e.g., “are chemistry exams normed or curved?”) or too specific (e.g., “what percentage of the student body majors in chemistry?”) for them to answer well. This is why you must find ways to get answers to those questions—from faculty, from admissions staff, or from other students.
  3. Keep in mind that the dorms shown on the tour may be the nicest on campus. Ask the tour guide about his or her freshman dorm and current living arrangements. Ask which is the worst freshman dorm on campus (and perhaps pay a visit to that one after the tour!).
  4. Similarly, the classrooms you will be shown may or may not be representative. Often you will be shown very nice classrooms; ask about the classrooms in which the tour guide is now taking classes. Where are those classrooms, and how do they compare with the one you are viewing? Are they larger? Smaller? More or less technologically equipped? You want to get a sense of the variety of classroom spaces on campus. Science students, especially, should be sure to see the science laboratory spaces.
  5. Take note of which buildings and facilities were not on the tour. If the library is not on the tour, I take it as a red flag and make a beeline for it as soon as the tour is over. If there are particular facilities that you want to learn about and that interest you (e.g., the dance studio, art classrooms, labs, swimming pool), either ask whether you will have time on the tour to visit, or get directions on where to find these places after your tour.
  6. After the tour, continue to wander the campus. Take your time. Sample campus food. Visit the student center. Pick up a student newspaper. Read bulletin boards. Wander the academic buildings, especially those in which you have a keen academic interest. And if you pass a professor’s office and the door is open, poke your head in, introduce yourself, and ask a couple of questions about the students on campus. You’ll be amazed at how forthright professors can be!

In the next installment, we’ll talk about how to interpret the official “information session” that either precedes or follows the official campus tour.

Mark Montgomery
Educational Consultant

Yale Admissions Video–Raising the Bar in College Marketing

Well, Yale has raised the bar for new admissions videos. This is an outstanding promo video for Yale that was produced by Yale undergraduates and recent alumni. I’m sure the admissions office was delighted to assist, as well.
If for no other reason you should watch it for the pure entertainment value.

And thanks to my friend Ted Worcester for sharing this video with me. Cool stuff!

Lazy American Students?

I have to admit that I was a little shocked by the article written by Babson College adjunct professor, Kara Miller entitled “My Lazy American Students”, and I apparently was not the only one.  The article, published in the Boston Globe in December, set off a fire storm of comments, both positive and negative.  Inside Higher Ed.compublished a summary piece earlier this month that not only highlights Miller’s original article, but also discusses her follow up piece she wrote since so many comments were posted.  Inside Higher Ed also published a summary of a piece written by an American Babson student (which was also published by The Globe)  and the response from the Undergraduate Dean that were posted on his blog.
Babson College is definitely a unique place.   As a former Babson admission officer, I can understand that it is easy to make comparisons between Babson’s international and domestic student populations, especially since there are so many international students on campus.  However, just because it is easy to place students into stereotypical groups, I don’t think this type of judgement is fair to any student.  In my experience, every student is different and there is no way, in my mind to classify that one group of students works harder than the next.  While I do respect Miller’s right to her opinion and observations,  it is difficult to perceive how any American student will feel comfortable in her classroom, unless they want to prove her wrong!
Katherine Price
Educational Consultant
 
 

Is it too late?

You have hit send and submitted all of the necessary documents for your regular decision applications.  You decide to read your essay one more time (just to torture yourself) and you discover it, an error!!  What do you do?  Is it too late to send in a corrected copy?  The answer is….it depends.  Whether you find an error on your application or you decide to take the January SAT or February ACT one more time, the chance your updated information will make it to your file before a decision is made varies from school to school.
If you do need to submit updated information, the best thing to do is to send it directly to the person who is responsible for your application.  Contact the admissions office and ask which counselor covers your high school.  Email that person the new draft of your essay or your updated standardized test scores as soon as you receive them.  You should also not be shy about sending in updated grade information on courses or any new honor you received after you sent in your application.  You can also send the updated information to a general admissions email and put a hard copy in the mail, just to make sure it is received.
The tricky part about submitting new additions to your application is that there is no guarantee the admissions staff will see it before a decision is made on your file.  Also, some schools may not accept new standardized tests scores if the test was taken after the application deadline.  However, some schools will make every effort to be sure the information is reviewed.  When I reviewed applications, our school had a great system in place to make sure updated information was received by the counselors and in some cases, the new information (especially updated test scores) made all the difference.  So, don’t be shy!  It does not hurt to try!
Katherine Price
Educational Consultant

Best Value Colleges

This morning, The Today Show reported on the Princeton Review’s list of 100 Best Value Colleges for 2010.  You can see the video of the report as well as read about the criteria used in determining the list at:  https://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/34810203/ns/today-today_technology_and_money/
 
Katherine Price
Educational Consultant

Major in Art, Fashion, Design and More at SCAD

One of the best parts of my job as an educational planner or educational consultant is that I have the opportunity to meet with representatives of colleges from all over the country.

This morning I met with Tiffany Reissig, an admissions representative from the Savannah College of Art and Design.  We had a great conversation, and I learned a ton about this premiere art school in one of the country’s most interesting, historical cities.

After the meeting, I asked if she would share a few words about what makes SCAD unique.  Here’s what she said:

– Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

A New Way For College Students to Relieve Stress

I worked on various college campuses for over ten years and there were always programs available to students to help them relieve stress during finals week. I thought I had seen it all.  Midnight breakfast served by faculty and staff, massages, yoga classes, junk food galore in the study lounges of the residence halls, but Chapman University has a found a new way to help their students forget about all the stress of finals. The LA Times reported that a student group has arranged for puppies to be available to students outside of the library during “cram week”.
I have to say, I love this idea!  One of the biggest complaints I used to hear from students was how much they missed their dogs.  I wonder who will get worn out first, the students or the puppies???
Katherine Price

College Admission, Hogwarts, Harry Potter, and a Lesson in Marketing

An editorial in today’s New York Times is written by a prospective college student, Lauren Edelson, who laments that every college in America is now comparing itself to Hogwarts.
And she’s right: they do. For two reasons. First, today’s college students grew up with J. K. Rowling, just as I grew up with Dr. Seuss. Students today quote lines from the books and movies, just as students my age regaled in singing the song from “Brady Bunch” or “Gilligan’s Island.” Times have changed, icons have changed, but kids have not.
Second, and because Harry Potter and Hogwarts are so iconic, colleges craft marketing messages around J. K. Rowling’s settings and characters. If Hogwarts is every kid’s idea of school, then it’s only natural for university offices of communications to use Rowling’s language to entice potential applicants.
I don’t disagree with the editorial one whit. And I applaud the author’s desire to focus her college search on what really matters in a school: academics.
But the writer is both unusual in her focus and naive in her understanding of how colleges and universities operate. The comparisons to Hogwarts are lost on this young woman, but they resonate with the vast majority of prospective students today.
Mark Montgomery
Educational Consultant in Colorado

College Admissions Essays: Wacky Prompts

a girl looking at college admission essays

High school seniors are now in the final stretch of cranking out their college admissions essays. Pity them.

In an effort to keep students entertained during the admissions process, some colleges ask students to respond to some pretty wacky prompts.

Why? Well, the cynic in me wants to say that these essays are a way to separate those who are really interested in a particular college, and those who are not. Those applicants who spend the time and energy to address these prompts are perceived by the admissions office to have at least “run the gauntlet,” and are therefore more worthy of admission.

Admissions offices that require these crazy essays swear that they glean something interesting about the writer that helps them to determine whether the student is really someone they want to grace their campus. Maybe so.

Either way you look at it, my job is to help students brainstorm ways in which to respond to these kooky prompts. Sometimes the process is fun–hysterical, even. Sometimes, it’s like pulling teeth.

So, readers, how would you respond to the following prompts? I’d love to read your comments!

1. How do you feel about Wednesday? (University of Chicago, 2002)

2. What outrages you? (Wake Forest, 2009)

3. Write a haiku, limerick, or short poem that best represents you. (New York University, 2009)

4. In the year 2050, a movie is being made of your life. Please tell us the name of your movie and briefly summarize the story line. (New York University, 2009)

5. What is college for? (Hampshire College, 2009)

6. Are we alone? (Tufts, 2009)

7. Make a bold prediction about something in the year 2020 that no one else has made a bold prediction about. (University of Virginia, 1999)

8. Write a short story using one of the following titles: a.) House of Cards, b.) The Poor Sport, c.) Drama at the Prom, d.) Election Night, 2044, e.) The Getaway. (Tufts, 2009)

9. How did you get caught? (Or not caught, as the case may be.) (Chicago, 2009)

10. You have just completed your 300-page autobiography. Please submit Page 217. (University of Pennsylvania, 2009)

Thanks to Allen Grove for bringing this list–originally published at CNN.com–to my attention. I’ve worked with students writing nearly all of these this year.  Whee!

Mark Montgomery
Educational Consultant