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How Colleges Dupe Students
Sara D. Davis / AP Photo
As prospective students begin visiting campuses, universities are working hard to appear picture-perfect. Insiders tell Kathleen Kingsbury how not to get fooled by the scripted charade.
The campus tour is perhaps the biggest fleecing attempt in the college-admissions process—the quad has been perfectly manicured, the student tour guide carefully selected. But the campus tour isn’t just about seeing the campus. It’s all about finding the school that will change your life—a goal that can mean many things. Students may be looking for freedom, intellectual passion, or just hot girls. Parents, meanwhile, dream of a school with a drug-free (or at least drug-minimal) atmosphere and a tuition that doesn’t push their retirement start-date into their late 70s.
How to make the most of your campus visit while ensuring you’re not getting duped by the meticulously choreographed tour? The Daily Beast spoke to admissions officers, parents, students, and former tour guides for their advice on how to see the college for what it really is.
Don’t View Your Tour Guide as an Example of the Average Student…
“Of course, we always looked for the most enthusiastic students we could for tour guides. But they also had to be the dullest ones, too. We wanted to present the happy side of campus, nothing controversial at all, and nothing off the script. You learned nothing remotely interesting on our tours.” — a former admissions officer at Northeastern liberal arts college
…Case in Point
“At Yale, my daughter asked the guide what his least favorite part of school was. Good question, I thought. He literally said, ‘Only that school is only nine months a year.’” — Lauren Spaduzzi, a New York City mother
The Prospective Student Should Schedule the Tour
“My boss’ son is applying to college this year, and they’re going out to L.A. to visit some schools. He’s interested in Harvey Mudd, one of the Claremont-McKenna colleges. So I called and scheduled a tour and interview for him. My boss freaked out and asked why I’d done that, because apparently Harvey Mudd tracks who calls to schedule the interviews. Ideally, they want the kid to call, to show interest. Or fine, maybe the parent. But the parent’s assistant? That’s the worst.” — a well-meaning New York City personal assistant
Get to Know Your Tour Guide After the Tour
“Last fall I went along with a friend on a tour of Lewis & Clark. The tour guide was super-psyched when we said we were locals, almost to the point of being a little sketchy. At the end of the tour, he asked if he could speak to us for a minute, and I thought he wanted my friend’s number for sure. Nope. [Instead] he whispered, ‘Do you guys have a hookup for some good pot?’” — Anna Gill, 18, a Portland, Ore., high school senior
Don’t Get Wasted Before You Get In
“We always told kids if they were caught drinking or doing anything else illegal on an overnight visit, they more or less could count on not getting in. Yet every weekend, one of us could count on being called to the campus hospital to deal with a case of alcohol poisoning. Every weekend. How stupid can you be?” — a former Ivy League admissions officer
Sit In on a Class—to Observe the Students
“Visit a class or two for first-year students, and try not to be steered in your selection by the admissions office. Don’t pay too much attention to the person at the front of the room, but look around closely at the students. Are they participating? Are they engaged? Did they do the reading? Because students educate themselves in context, and you have to see if they want to be present in that classroom.” — Doug Bennett, president of Earlham College, an Indiana liberal-arts college
Ditch Your Folks
“[There was] the tour of a certain Ivy League campus wherein a certain B-rate comedian turned almost-senator (and alumnus of said institution) huffed, sighed, squatted, and wisecracked his way through said tour—to his son’s chagrin, and everyone else’s disgust.” — a 2007 Yale alumnus
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Kathleen Kingsbury covers education for The Daily Beast. She also contributes to Time magazine, where she has covered business, health and education since 2005.
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ApresSki
If you're female, do not leave until you've check their security, their stats on campus rapes & their response times!! Make a note of every building you go into and see where the exits are and where the stairs are.
How fast can you run to the exit? If you are going to that school, how fast can you get to the exit from your room? If there's a fire, how long is the drop from your window? Can tie sheets together & still get out? You have to have the brain of MacGyver in order to survive these days in schools where the buildings are old. When were these buildings built? Have they been upgraded? If so, when?
Keep your eyes and ears open . . . especially if you're female! No one will protect you except yourself. The important thing is to know how to protect yourself in all situations on & off campus.
JohnnyH
Stay low! Eat bugs and grass!
GREGORYABUTLER
Well - in the real world, most women are raped by a man they know.
So all the emergency exits in the world aren't going to save you from the boy you VOLUNTARILY brought back to your room who thinks that NO means MABYE.
sosuede
You know, it's far safer to never leave home. Entrances can be barricaded and canned food stored in the safe.
UltimateFitz
-yawn-
pricklypear
-yawn-
Yawns are contagious, you know.
Dreamer4Ever
-yawn-
Uh oh.
sosuede
-waste of electronic ink-
Dreamer4Ever
Says someone who'se never tried to get into a high-pressure college.
Spasticula
Some of this is not advice at all, just silliness. But the most important thing was "The school is supposed to change your life." exactly. Sums it up completely!
The Ivy's I visted could not overcome their own faculty dickheads, which is what allowed me to turn them down. You want how much from me for tuition, and I have to study with this pompous ay-hole?
Other schools will present beautifully on all the right matters and suck after you attend. I'm thinking of a certain, respected school in the south starting with "R."
JohnnyH
It's just a business and they are telling you what you want to hear. Its all about the numbers.
JohnnyH
WOW! What a puff piece.
"How colleges dupe students."
1. Overpriced 'education'.
2. Convincing students its a privilege to be in college even though the student is paying for it.
3. Convincing students that colleges and universities are not business's.
4. Convincing students that they have been educated not indoctrinated.
Dreamer4Ever
Wow! Sneer a little more at the higher-educators of the world Johnny, I think some of them didn't quite grasp your vitrol.
Have fun imagining a microbiology course or an organic chemistry lab or as "indoctrination."
lreyn84702
The few faculty members that are moderate or conservative keep their mouths shut. It is really quite sad. The place for ideas has become the place for idea. You can dispute that, but you are only kidding yourself.
shutterbabe
lreyn84702, I encountered fewer professors in my college years who were vocal about their political view than I did during high school - and in high school it was an extremely conservative agenda to boot! - and I am skeptical of lumping all professors into the categories of either outspoken liberals or sheepish conservatives. Making a career of promoting open mindedness and continuing learning throughout your life is not something that should be dismissed as a political bully pulpit.
drmarkklein
Given a college degree is the equivalent in economic value to graduating high school back in the 1950s most students are better off minimizing education costs by doing the first 2 years at community college and then finishing at their state university. Private colleges are a total financial ripoff for most students given today's very depressed wage structure.
GREGORYABUTLER
Best bet - the City University of New York!
Very low tuition and high quality education!
Why pay $ 40,000 when you can get the same quality for $ 4,000?
Teuthida
Amen.
Or UNC Chapel Hill. Or Wisconsin. Or UVA. Or College of NJ,
Reject the tired elitist approach to higher education.
gatetree
Ms. Kingsbury, I admire your ability to get paid for writing this.
newreader
I read this article hoping for something like this:
http://enrollment.rochester.edu/blog/admissions/how-colleges-distort-th e-truth/
Or, even more juicy, this:
http://enrollment.rochester.edu/blog/admissions/colleges-dont-like-you/
Oh, well...
Brendino
I gave tours at the university I went to. I don't think I ever had to lie while I was there...the great thing about being the tour guide is that you can dump the tough questions on the admissions counselors :)
finderj
With more and more institutions of higher ed straped for funding and fewer and fewer students attending without scholarships, grants or loans, of course universities want to sell prospective students on their campus.
Do the simpler thing: do one or two years at a community college then see which of your state universities suits your goals.
It's cheaper, and in the long run, likely just as good as a private university for the bachelor's.
piktor
The author of this drivel writes for Time mag? No wonder news magazines are in trouble.
Sparky223
Yeah not the most exciting post. One thing I wish I had thought of when I was looking at schools is to figure out what direction the campus (i.e. student body, adminisitration, athletic programs) was heading in. I loved my first two years of college and hated my last two.
martykz
Funny you should mention Harvey Mudd College in Claremont, CA. Our son is a senior math major there this year and he reports an experience beyond exemplary. The whole school is barely 700 students but they have a reputation and performance record all out of proportion. Their president, Maria Klawe, for instance, was just elected to the board of Microsoft. Check it out only if you're an uber-nerd.
bigdoc13
Better yet,get a real job(you know,something that requires WORK)and quit trying to be a Yuppie S.O.B.
Thank you.
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