This can be a excellent idea ,toward the end of the college search, when a prospective student has whittled the choice of schools down to a couple.
Imagine if every visitor wanted to speak with a professor.
When would there be time for the professor to teach!? Admissions Counselors should know departmental information and should be your first contact for specifics.
Some schools will be happy to arrange for one of their current students, within a certain major, to contact a prospective student interested in the same area of study.
I see nothing wrong with a student being paid to be a campus tour guide. This presumes that a paid guide will be dishonest. Schools that want to maintain a
decent retention rate will not want to mislead prospective students or the prospective student's parents. The goal is to recruit a student who will be a good fit with their institution.
Kathy Williamsof WI3:19PM May 02, 2011
Successful college searches culminate in one thing: the right fit between student and school. Prospective families that focus on finding the right academic, financial, co-curricular, cultural and social match for their learner are the ones that end up with a happy, succesful student. Force a bad fit and get ready to repeat the process in one to two years. Having worked for over 20 years in college enrollment, I will tell you one of the best untapped resources is looking at students' cars (and in some cases, trucks). Easiest way I know to get an SES profile and sense of social diversity (or lack thereof) on a college campus.
JBof OH4:44PM March 24, 2011
Many, many tour guides give tours as a voluntary service. Dickinson College tour guides do so, as I believe do most liberal arts college tour guides. The exception to this, obviously, is in the summer where tour guiding is a paying position.
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Kathy Williams of WI 3:19PM May 02, 2011
JB of OH 4:44PM March 24, 2011
Caitlin of NJ 10:28AM March 15, 2011