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Tufts Admissions Team

A Tour Guide's Guide to the Self-Guided Tour

Feb 23
Jumbo Talk

Don’t get me wrong - as a veteran tour guide, I find the process of going on a guided  college tour to be indispensable to the average prospective student. The fact that, on a guided tour, you have an expert with you at all times to answer questions, point things out to you that you wouldn’t have otherwise noticed, and show you the most notable parts of the college in question is crucial to really getting to know a school that you’re considering. On the other hand, though, sometimes the circumstances make it so that a quality traditional tour isn’t possible, and you’ve got to go for plan B: a self-guided tour. And look, it happens - maybe you showed up late, maybe your tour guide wasn’t so great, maybe you just want a little extra one-on-one with the campus. Whatever the situation, a self-guided tour doesn’t have to be a curse or a chore, and it can actually be quite a positive learning experience.

That being said, I’ve compiled below a list of some things I think you should do to make your self-guided tour (of any campus, not just Tufts!) as effective as possible:

  1. Do your homework!
    1. Just strolling onto campus and expecting to be able to absorb information about it without any context whatsoever will almost certainly get you nowhere. Instead, read up on the school to get a sense of what kind of place you’re going to. I’d personally suggest reading more informal reviews of the school, like the “Best and Worst” category on Niche, the results on twitter when you search for the school’s name, that sort of thing. Official factbooks are nice, but a student to faculty ratio isn’t going to be all that useful when you’re wandering around campus by yourself.
  2. Go at the right time
    1. Specifically, on a weekday, around lunchtime. That will for sure give you the most people-watching material to work with, and the general commotion around campus makes you less likely to stand out as a prospective student as opposed to an actual one. A self-guided tour at 8 AM on a Sunday would be boring. One at midnight on a Saturday night, however, would probably be very interesting.
  3. Get dirty
    1. Just walking a lap around the quad and calling it a self-guided tour would be false! You need to actually get into buildings and dorms and bathrooms and dining halls to get a real look at the school. During the week, buildings are a shoo-in: at least at Tufts, just about every academic building is open during the day, so walk in and look around! Look (and listen!) into classrooms, try to figure out what department teaches where, see how long it takes you to walk from one academic building on campus to another one on the other side, that sort of thing.
  4. With regard to dorms…
    1. Try to at least get a look inside. Often, dorm buildings will have their lobby open to anyone during the day, so walk in and take a look at the students in their natural habitat. And, hey, if someone is willing to let you in to see their room, don’t let the opportunity pass you by!
  5. Ask for special access
    1. You’d be surprised how far this can get you. Dining halls, for example, are a great place to try this out. Usually, if you innocently mention to the workers at a dining hall that you’re a prospective student and you’d like to take a look inside, they’ll let you walk around. While you’re at it, take a slice of pizza! Why not? You’ve got to see what the food is like somehow.
  6. Go to the library
    1. You’ve got to go to the library. I guess it varies from person to person actually where they do their work, but a large portion of the student body works in the library. I basically lived there during my freshman and sophomore years. Take some homework from school or find a book on the shelf and just hang out there for a bit. You’ll get to see how students at the college study, what they’re studying, and what their mindsets are with regard to it.
  7. If you’re feeling particularly brave, talk to somebody!
    1. I don’t mean you have to have a full-length conversation with every student you see about why they love (or hate) their school, but just some small talk with somebody you find on campus could go a long way in helping you learn firsthand what the student body is like. A great suggestion is to find an on-campus coffee shop and to ask the person you’re behind in line what drink you should order. Always mention that you’re a prospective student - I swear, those are the two magic words that turn anybody on campus into a friendly, talkative impromptu tour guide.
  8. Don’t go with your parents!
    1. Don’t do it! Your parents won’t be with you in college, so why take them on your self-guided tour? Drop them off at a restaurant and explore by yourself. This way, you’ll have a lot more time to yourself to think and reflect on how you feel about the school, as opposed to how your parents feel about it.

That’s it for now - there’s a lot more that you can and should do to make a self-guided tour a good one, but with those eight points I think you’ll find a good starting block. And hey, if you do it right, you might find that a self-guided tour can provide you with some really unique information than no regular tour ever could.