Hi and welcome.
May I have your attention?
Today you’re going on a goCAMPUSing College Tour
providing you an opportunity to tour one or more college campuses.
We feel that it is important to share with you some information about this tour,
so that you can better understand
and better appreciate this unique discovery and learning experience.
First, this college tour has been in the planning process for weeks, if not months.
Your school’s guidance department has been working closely with our goCAMPUSing staff
As well as the college’s admissions departments of the colleges we are currently about to tour.
The college, or colleges, we will be touring
are simply examples of a variety of college options out there
and this experience is meant to be just that – showing options.
Possibilities. A point of reference that YOU can gauge other colleges by.
You can hate the college. Love the college.
Like some aspects of the college and dislike others.
And that’s ok.
This college tour is intended for you to set up a baseline,
criteria of sorts, of what you are looking for in a college.
Or simply, to make you curious enough to ask questions and look at other colleges.
Maybe motivate you or inspire you.
We’re trying to expose you to college in an in-person experience
so we can make the idea of going to college real for you.
Not just some intangible dream or goal that you think it is.
But to make it physical and tangible.
Allow you to feel a college campus’s vibe.
A vibe. It’s a real feeling,
that you can only get from being on a college’s campus.
Every college has a vibe.
And everyone can feel that vibe differently.
Secondly, we can’t control the weather.
If it’s hot, it’s hot.
If it’s cold, it’s cold.
If it’s sunny, raining or snowing,
it’s going to be sunny, raining or snowing.
keep in mind that at this college – it gets hot and cold.
It rains and snows.
And there is no way we could have predicted experiencing storms and blizzards
on the days we scheduled this college tour.
Everything, from getting appointments with the colleges,
transportation, meals and so much more was set a long time ago.
So, the weather we get, is what the weather is.
Thirdly, the college you are about to tour is currently in session.
Students are on campus and in classes.
College students are listening to lectures,
in labs, study halls and libraries
working and learning.
We don’t want to interrupt their learning.
Some college students are in their dorm rooms,
Reading, studying, sleeping, or taking showers.
So, we ask that you please keep this in mind
while on the college campus.
We are invading their private space.
And we mean that.
Big time.
We’re guests of the college.
Be respectful.
Keep in mind of how YOU would feel
if you had visitors walking up and down the hallways of your school,
random groups of people streaming in and out of your classes
while you were trying to learn or taking a test.
Or imagine a dorm room was your bedroom at home.
It is a bedroom for college students.
Would you like dozens of people walking into your bedroom while you were sleeping,
trying to relax, studying, or hanging out with friends?
Well, neither do they want people walking through their room.
Our tour group isn’t the only one the college gets.
Hundreds of high school students tour and visit the college every day.
Be thankful that they are providing us with this tour of the campus
and offer us their college’s admissions presentation.
So, feel extremely lucky if the college gives us a chance
to see inside any classrooms,
labs, libraries, or inside a dorm.
Again, college classes are in session.
Lastly, about the college’s admissions presentation and campus tour itself.
You might feel that admissions presentations
between various colleges may sound repetitive.
Well, a lot of the information is similar.
One they don’t know if this is the first college you’ve ever toured or your fifth time.
So, every college admissions presentation
covers some of the basics about applications.
You are responsible for hearing the differences.
You are responsible for asking the questions at the admissions presentation.
After the college gives their admissions presentation
and the questions and answers session comes to a conclusion,
comes the actual college campus walking tour.
Typically, the college tour is given by a student who attends that college.
It could be a college junior, sophomore, senior,
or even a graduate student – going for their masters
The person, the students guiding us through the college campus is
not a professional tour guide.
He or she is just someone who typically loves the college
and wants to share their experience with potential applicants to the college.
They volunteered to give you a tour of their college campus.
So, let’s not be super critical about their performance.
How well do you speak in front of a group?
While walking backwards.
This college student is probably in between classes devoting their time to you.
Use this great opportunity to not only get a real-life insight
to a college from a student’s perspective,
but a chance for you to ask real questions about the college and life on the campus.
It is important to keep in mind that your college student guide
might not know all of the answers to your questions.
If the college student guide is a history major,
they probably won’t know about what goes on
in the bio or computer science programs,
and a pre-med college student may not know
about the college’s pre-law programs or criminal justice.
They might not be familiar with the college’s men to women ratio,
the college’s diversity percentages,
Greek life, or what sports division the college is in.
So use this as an opportunity to contact the college in the future –
by email – to ask those questions –
and thereby showing your interest to that college –
which might help give you a better chance of being accepted.
And let’s hope that you looked into your goCAMPUSing backpack.
Not only does it contain a brief profile of the colleges you will be touring –
which includes much of the basic information about the college,
but on the back is a scratch sheet
to help you figure out the pros and cons of that particular college.
Plus – the backpack is packed with general college information –
from what to do on a college tour, little tips of what to look for,
and how to help you figure out what colleges best meet your wants and needs –
academically, socially, and financially.
And there is a glossary of terms in the backpack too,
that you’ll need to be familiar with pertaining to
the college application process and college life.
In closing please understand that
there is so much more we can share with you
about what you are going to experience
however some things the goCAMPUSing staff
and your school’s chaperones can better share with you in-person on this tour,
while other things,
are those we’d like you to discover on your own – all by yourself.
Oh, and one more very important thing.
please don’t expect or treat this college campus tour like a trip to an amusement park.
It is not!
We hope you enjoy this college campus tour experience.
It’s pretty cool.
You ought to have some fun,
but keep in mind that this is an educational experience.
An experience that most high school students in the United States don’t get.
And for a few of you on this goCAMPUSing college tour,
it just may be the experience that changes your life.
Over the years, I’ve seen it happen –
again and again.
And that’s very, very cool.
I wish all of you the very best.
If you have any questions,
Please feel free to ask your school’s chaperones on this tour,
myself, the goCAMPUSing tour leader,
or make a note to ask your school’s counselor
or college advisor when you get back to school.
I Thank you for listening!