Quote:
Originally posted by Betarulz!
As a campus tour guide, I can offer these tips to get the most out of any tour...
1st, if you set it up with the office of admissions it will probably be better than if you go during a HS visit day (however the visit days probably will offer you a lot more information on other things, particularly major and involvement opportunities). Admissions tour guides do tours more regularly, while on HS visit days, they are often searching for volunteers to deal with the large number of people on campus. Admissions tours will also be WAY more personal.
2nd, if there is something you want to see...ASK TO SEE IT. As a tour guide, I love it when my group asks questions, because often times I may forget to cover something (like student parking) that I normally don't think of as a concern. Particullarly ask about seeing Greek row, and if school is in session a tour of a greek house, b/c most tours are there simply to promote the school, and not individual organizations/systems.
3rd, enjoy yourself, get to know your tour guide and ask about their experiences. If you get them comfortable you'll probably find out a lot more about the school than you would be able to find from other sources. You'll see what the students think of their school, which is a great gauge to how you'll probably feel when you go there.
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I second all of this! I was a campus tourguide for several years as well (it's a paid position, actually a pretty big deal to be in among campus, very greek as well).
There's absolutely nothing worse or more boring when you're giving a tour to a group of 1 or 2 families who have absolutely nothing to say! Any tour that I ever gave, I always tried very hard to make it as personal as possible (even on HS visitation days- which I definately agree are not the best times to see the school!- when I had groups of 75 at times just because there were 2000 or more people at the program). ASK QUESTIONS!!!! But don't get TOO personal unless the tourguides offer up the info. Several questions that various tourguides got asked while I was a tourguide:
* A mom asking a male tourguide: "How has your sex life changed since you came to Pitt?"
* What is your GPA (I got this question several times as well)?
* Any question about drugs or alcohol phrased in a personal way- such as asking the tour guide how much he or she drinks, how available drugs are, etc. Getting a bit too personal.
Something else not to do- please DO NOT video the tour..... shots of the buildings and stuff are great, but I had a guy videotape our tour (It was just his son and himself on the tour) to show the rest of the family. Very unnerving to have a camera in your face.