Tufts Blogs

One of the reasons I love being a tour guide at Tufts (and I think one of the reasons people generally find their tours here to be enjoyable) is because we’re highly encouraged to be as honest as possible in our guiding sessions.  Being honest not only makes the tours easier for guides like myself (my friends say I’m a horrible liar), but make the tours more informative and interesting for people.  Many guides can make any school seem amazing, but obviously nothing is perfect at any school.  However, at Tufts we personally believe that conveying a truthful picture as possible is the best route to go.  That’s why I’ve compiled a list of questions designed to help get you a realistic perspective of whatever school you happen to be touring:

1. What are your 3 least favorite things about your school?

Many tour guides have been asked the question “What’s your least favorite thing about your school?”, and as a result, I guarantee they have an answer ready to go.  It’s not too hard to pick out something general that applies to many schools or something that’s already an obvious characteristic about the university.  However, even if you have a good guide, it’s hard to come up with three things that they don’t like about the school, and you’ll hopefully get a good picture of the school’s more negative aspects (every school has them).

2. What does the university do to combat gender ratio imbalances for majors like engineering and math?

Tough question for any school.  There have always been an imbalance of men and women in engineering, science, and math.  It’s slowly been improving, but there’s still a long way to go, and much of it has to do with the university level.  Usually you’ll find ratios in engineering that are 1:2 at the highest (science and math are a bit better).  However, if the school cares enough about the issue, it will have clubs, professors, organizations, and events centered around recruiting and encouraging women in science (Tufts has quite a lot happily, especially with Society of Women Engineers and Deans Abriola and Knox leading the engineering school).

3. So obviously your school has quite a diverse student body (no school is going to deny that they have a diverse student body), how has the school accommodated students of various backgrounds?  In terms of LGBTQ culture?  Religion?  Race? Politics?

This is a very general question, but you can make it specific to fit your needs.  If you have a very specific background you’re concerned about, ask about it.  If your guide doesn’t know too much about a specific background, they should definitely be able to direct you to someone who can answer your question appropriately.

4. I noticed your school had “X incident” occur a little while ago.  How did the university handle it?

Every school has had an incident covered by some media outlet at some point in the past.  As my friend and fellow blogger/tour guide Hayden Lizotte said in his past article “A Tour Guide’s Guide to Tour Taking”, do your research.  A quick google will get you everything you need to make any tour guide impressed by your questions, even if it is something most guides want to avoid having to answer.