Among top universities competitive for the best and brightest high school students, campus tours are an integral recruiting tool. At Cornell, there is a multi-tiered interview process just to become a tour guide for Campus Information and Visitor Relations, the group that runs campus tours, which reflects the significance of the job. This week, The Sun decided to go undercover as a high school student to discover the truth, and lies, of campus tours at Cornell.
Despite arriving 20 minutes early, Day Hall’s lobby and plaza were already teeming with over 100 potential students and their families waiting to embark on an afternoon campus tour. After waiting a lengthy 30 minutes with color-coded tickets in hand, The Sun and a companion were called by color to depart on the 75-minute walking tour. One seasoned tour guide and two younger guides-in-training introduced themselves to the group of over 25 high school students and their parents. (This turned out to be an intimate group; tour groups the next day totalled up to 40 people.)
A short but interesting history of Cornell’s founding launched the tour itself. One of the guides in training explained that Cornell was “one of the first Ivies to admit women,” despite the fact that Cornell was actually the first Ivy to admit women, and the only founded as a co-educational school. Few tour members seemed to notice this mistake.
Parents and prospective students alike raised eyebrows, however, when the guide made her next error: when listing the seven undergraduate colleges that make up the University, the tour guide could only list five. After a considerable pause, one of the other guides added the final two Colleges (of Architecture, Art and Planning and Engineering) to the list.
The group likely forgot this gaffe, however, as the tour approached Ho Plaza. As the Bhangra team danced in the background, the guides tried to shout over chimes music. The guides described Ithaca as being “a small but busy college town,” and gave a quick geography lesson that included Ithaca College, Cayuga Lake and TC3, which, despite its location east of Cornell (and on the same side of Cayuga), was described as “somewhere on the other side of the lake.”
The requisite stories about Willard Straight and the Clocktower pumpkin were then told, to which the group gave up the obligatory laughs at appropriate moments. Gannett was mentioned briefly as a “24 hour facility” (which is true for phone consultation only), and a guide described her experiences at Gannett as having “always gotten in and out in under an hour” in her almost-four years at Cornell. This seemed to please parents, despite its somewhat unique take on Gannett.
Guides moved quickly through campus life and housing, and then settled for a quick question and answer session after a run in with Bill Nye ’77, who was passing by. Potential students asked about wireless access, science programs and dining hall food. One father asked the guides what the worst thing about Cornell was, in their opinions.
“Well, I felt, like, so lost, like, being in Ithaca after coming from like, a big city,” answered one of the trainees. A mother toward the back of the group whispered to her daughter that “she had better not develop such speaking habits if she came here [to Cornell].”
When asked what Cornellians typically do for enjoyment on the weekends, the guides stressed how “fun it is to stay in and hang out in the dorms,” and how “big parties are sometimes an option, but Cornell also has a bowling alley, rock climbing wall and lots of a capella concerts to keep students busy on weekend nights if you aren’t one of the many people who stay in,” as parents raised eyebrows of both disbelief and approval.
As the tour moved through the Ag Quad, guides discussed the two colleges housed on the quad. The most recent accomplishment of the AEM program was touted by a tour guide, who cheerfully explained that the program “was recently ranked fourth in the country by US Weekly.” (Though AEM can hardly be found on the pages of US Weekly between photos of Britney and Angelina, it was, in fact, recently ranked number four in the country by BusinessWeek.)
After passing by Statler and catching a brief glimpse of the Engineering Quad (from across the street), the tour wound to a close in front of Day Hall and guides remained to answer questions that had not already been asked.
Though novice mistakes were made and many subjects were glossed over in typical campus tour fashion, group members seemed unphased and perhaps did not even notice the small mistakes made by the intrepid guides on the tour the Sun took part in.
Indeed, rather than focusing on the shortcomings of the guides, tour-goers post-tour complaints to the Sun focused on inability to hear their guides over the chimes and slightly inaccurate or exaggerated answers from the guides in accordance with their Cornell training, rather than factual inaccuracies or blunders.
“I wish that ‘real’ [untrained] students would come on the tours to answer questions,” said Alan Ruby ’82, who went on a tour with his son Nate Ruby, a class of 2013 hopeful. “In my time at Cornell, sometimes I would follow tours and talk to the parents in the back. These students tend to leave out how hard the work can be, or the more realistic descriptions of Cornell life.”
High school students who participated in the tours agreed.
“They were a bit tight-lipped about the social scene,” said John Star, a potential member of the class of 2013, of his tour guides. “And they didn’t talk about professors.”
Students approached by the Sun were eager to get answers about “real” life at Cornell from a student untrained in promoting the university. Parents agreed that some questions remained unanswered, specifically about social life, academic rigor and getting involved.
“It’s a little bit superficial; a bit artsy fartsy,” Ruby said of the information and answers given by the tour guides. “Kids need to know that engineers are studying, architects are tired — you aren’t babied here, and they don’t tell you that on the tour.”
Despite some shortcomings, however, students seemed no less enthusiastic about Cornell after the tours.
“The campus was a lot bigger than I expected,” said Adam Crown, potential ’13. “But Cornell is still one of my top choices.”
Star agreed: “I like Cornell more now by far. I didn’t like it originally because I thought students had to do certain programs. But now I will definitely apply to Cornell.”
Those messages from prospective students are proof enough that campus tours and tour guides are doing their job and keeping high school students interested in Cornell, despite small slips and mistakes. Of course, Bill Nye, Bhangra and the number four AEM program probably don’t hurt, either.