The campus tour is an important component of any visit to a prospective college or university. With the guidance of a current student, you can explore a school’s buildings and grounds and ask questions. While you do not want to waste this opportunity, part of maximizing your college tour is avoiding inappropriate or ineffective questions.
The latter category — ineffective questions — can be subdivided into two areas: questions that are beyond the knowledge of your tour guide, and questions that can be answered by visiting the college’s website.
[Learn the questions to ask during college tours.]
Questions That Are Beyond the Tour Guide’s Knowledge
Nearly all campus tour guides are current students. This means that they are invaluable resources for opinions about the best classes, campus social life, dining hall food and the worst dorms. However, they may not know much about financial aid, specialized learning services or how the administration makes decisions.
For instance, financial aid may be an uncomfortable subject, as it involves both personal and parental resources. In addition, a student tour guide may not know how the school awards grants versus loans. Even if your tour guide has extensive personal experience with the system, his or her experience likely will not match yours. Instead, ask financial aid questions when you meet with an admissions counselor.
The same goes for any specialized learning needs that you may have. Even if your tour guide shares a similar challenge, and is familiar with the available campus resources, he or she may not wish to discuss this topic with strangers.
Finally, a tour guide may know very little about decisions that are handled at the administrative level. Asking about his or her experience in freshman-level classes is fine, but asking which classes are assigned adjuncts versus tenured professors may not result in an informed answer.
Questions That Can Be Answered by Visiting the College’s Website
The other type of question to avoid on a campus tour is one that involves facts and figures available on the school’s website or from third-party resources. Almost any answer with statistics falls into this category: the percent of students who live on campus, average class size, graduation rate and so on.
But you do not have to avoid these subjects entirely. Rather, ask questions about how current students experience these statistics.
If a college touts a low student-to-professor ratio, for example, ask if it truly feels that way. Are small classes found only in highly specialized senior-level seminars? Do freshmen ever enroll in small classes? Or you might see that 20 percent of the student body participates in the Greek system, so you could ask your tour guide how that affects his or her social experience on campus.
[Find out how to plan the perfect college visit.]
Crime and safety are two additional topics to consider. The statistics available on a school’s website can be useful measures, but your tour guide can also share his or her impression of campus safety. A campus that is statistically safe but where students have safety concerns can be a stressful environment. The campus website may discuss safety initiatives, like late night patrols and increased campus lighting, but the actual student experience may be more relevant.
Graduation rate is another topic where official statistics and student experience may vary. Your tour guide may be able to talk about the accessibility of advisers, or how seriously professors take their office hours. Again, it is the student perspective that is worth knowing, even if it is a limited sample size.
A college tour can provide invaluable insight into daily life on a campus. Use your tour time wisely, and target your questions for maximum usefulness.
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Don’t Ask These Ineffective Questions While on College Tours originally appeared on usnews.com
