Touring Tufts

The New York Times recently featured two Tufts student tour guides in an article about the importance of the campus tour.

Medford/Somerville, Mass. [07.17.06] In most cases, campus tours are student-led, fast-paced, fact-filled journeys through campus. But, despite their brevity, campus tours often leave a lasting impression on high school students’ minds, according to The New York Times, which recently highlighted two Tufts students who are part of “the corps of students entrusted with being the university’s public face for potential applicants.”

"We know that the campus tour has the biggest impact on whether a student decides to apply to Tufts or not," Tufts' Assistant Director of Admissions Kerrin Damon told the Times. She added that the University has hard data – from surveys of students who have taken tours – to prove it.

For this reason, Tufts relies on students like Matt Thomas and Deborah Bamel, who will both be sophomores in the fall, to lead parents and prospective applicants around campus, sharing facts about the institution and fielding questions about what life is like at Tufts.

Thomas told the Times that he provides honest answers in response to tough questions from campus visitors about stereotypes and college life. Bamel said she tries “to assess each group they lead and pitch the tone of the tour accordingly,” according to the Times.

In training students to become tour guides, Tufts admissions officers stress the importance of being respectful of other institutions. “At Tufts … the guides are admonished not to speak poorly of other colleges,” the Times reported.

The guides are also reminded of “how important their role as a tour guide is,” Damon told the Times.

“Despite all the money that colleges and universities spend on brochures, Web sites and other marketing efforts, high school students and their parents often base their impressions of an institution on the young man or woman who has led them around campus for 45 minutes,” the Times reported.