Tufts Blogs

 

As summer is winding down and school is getting ready to start again, it’s an important time in the lives of rising high school seniors. The college search process is underway for many, and visiting colleges and universities is a major step in this endeavor. 

As you visit campuses during the fall, information may start blending together in a mix of brick buildings, falling leaves, student-filled quads, and all the other great things about college in the fall. One of the things that may help make all of these places stand out is your tour. Tour guides are current students that are eager to share their experiences and stories, tell you about the great things colleges have to offer, and most importantly, to help you feel like you belong in these communities.

Another great opportunity you’ll have is to learn about campus resources from your tour guide. Asking the right questions on tour can help you decide if a college or university is truly the right fit for you both academically and socially. 

That’s where we come in. Some wonderful Tufts tour guides and I put our heads together to  brainstorm some questions to ask your tour guides that may be helpful for you to make the most of each and every campus visit. 

From the perspective of an Admissions Counselor, I find there are two main types of questions. These questions can help you start to understand of how you might find community on campus, they can be asked to any guide at any school:

 

Questions to determine social/personal fit:

1. How do you and your friends spend your free time?

This helps you get a feel for how students typically spend their downtime in between classes and other commitments. Some students join a lot of clubs and others try to fill their time with exploring neighborhoods and cities around campus. Are you someone that prefers to spend free time out and active? Just relaxing on the quad? Maybe a mix of both?

2. What are your favorite campus traditions?

Understand what brings the student body together. Do they have more structured social events? Meaningful ceremonies? Silly yearly fun?

Questions to determine academic fit:

1. How would you describe the classroom culture?

This can help you determine how best you learn. Are you someone who prefers healthy competition in the classroom? Or hands-on collaboration with your peers?

2. How often do you meet with your professors?

Professors are great mentors that can be there for you long after you graduate. Learning how they interact with their students is important.

3. Can you talk more about [insert major/minor here]?

This one is more specific to what you want to get out of a university program. See how your guide talks about the degree structure and maybe about some electives they’ve taken. Do these sound like the classes for you?

 

In addition to my own take on the matter, I took my questions to our students to find out what our summer tour guides think! I asked these students their favorite questions to be asked on tour, as well as why these might be good questions to ask when going through your own college search process.

 

How did you pick your major?

This question allows students to dive into whatever academic resources are available to take advantage of, such as advising, course lists, and potential mentors to help students along their journey.

“This is a good story because what I originally said I was going to study is very different from what I study now. It also displays the support I got from my freshman year professors, pre-major advisor as well as MechE upperclassmen who helped me declare my major.” - Alexa ‘27

How do you handle the winter?

This is a little more specific to us here at Tufts being in New England, but if you’re considering looking at any schools outside of your home region, this can be an important question to think about how you might handle adapting to a new climate.

“As someone from California, where it never drops below 30 degrees, I get a lot of questions about the adjustment to New England winters. After two winters here, I can definitely say I was way more scared than I needed to be. As long as you get a good coat and aren’t afraid to layer, you will be just fine.” - Tessa ‘27

What’s it like to play club sports on campus?

Colleges often have different levels of athletics, from varsity to club to intramural. Asking about how these different student involvements fit in with academic/social life on campus is important. This can be applied to a number of different  areas as well, to help you understand how you might fit in with the extracurriculars you are interested in.

“Usually, sports that are not affiliated with the NCAA are considered club sports. I would say that the commitment level and competitiveness depend on the person and the team. Some teams have tryouts, while others can attend any practice they can make. In my experience, my team usually has practices about four times a week, which can be seen as a big commitment.” - Musashi ‘27