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Hello Everyone!
I hope everyone is having a great start to the New Year! With College Decisions beginning to roll out and more and more students are touring schools, as February Break is approaching, I would like to highlight some of the best questions to ask your tour guides and the best practices to adopt while on tour.
As a current tour guide at Northeastern I have received a wide variety of questions both extremely broad and specific. I am going to hopefully use my insight to provide you with some of the most crucial eye-opening questions about whichever university or college campus you are touring.
Utilize your tour guides!
What I mean by this is if you are walking between stops on a tour, introduce yourself to your guide and use that time to ask some of your burning questions one on one. This can be the perfect time to ask specific questions such as major related questions while you have your guides undivided attention. Please Please, Please, don’t be afraid to ask a question because you are embarrassed or think it will be viewed as a “stupid” question. Your tour guides are there to be resources for you and equipped to answer any questions. We can also direct you to someone else who can answer your question if we cannot.
2. Ask about the overall vibe on campus
The reason I have highlighted this as a great question to ask is because it can be essential to determine whether you are joining a campus that is more collaborative or competitively based. I personally knew I would thrive more in a collaborative community-based college experience so that was crucial to me during my search. For others, they may thrive off a highly competitive atmosphere and it may bring out the very best in them and that is something you should certainly consider. It is important that you know which atmosphere you personally believe you see yourself thriving more in.
3. Ask your guide what the atmosphere is like on bad weather days?
The true reflection of a campus can arguably be made by the atmosphere of a campus on the days where it is not picturesque sunshine shining down on the campus. Do students still show up to indoor sporting events if they have to trek through the snow/rain? Are there many indoor activities that you can utilize on bad weather days? Are there places in the local area that you can visit such as a museum? One of my personal favorite rainy day activities is going to the Museum of Fine Arts right across the street from Northeastern’s campus which offers free admission to all students every day of the year just by showing your Husky ID card. For some this may not be important, but I know that for me, it was huge to have things that I could utilize on bad weather days rather than just staying in my apartment all day.
4. Ask for ways to connect with someone who shares your major
The most helpful thing that I did prior to committing to a school was reaching out to current students who shared my intended major. These are going to be your key accounts on how academics typically operate within your major. Further, these students can offer you advice as well as tips and tricks for studying, clubs, ways to get involved, sports, and so so much more! As someone who is also involved in reaching out to prospective nursing students, I can promise that we love hearing from you guys and answering your questions. So please don’t hesitate to reach out!!
Here is the link to connect with Bouve College of Health Sciences: https://bouve.northeastern.edu/connect/
5. How does the school promote involvement and student interaction?
This was a topic that I definitely did not appreciate as much until I actually came to college, where I began to realize that it is so much fun to utilize the resources your school offers. For example, during my time at Northeastern just in my first three years (and mind you two of those were heavily impacted by Covid-19) I have been able to take a free trip to Provincetown, discounted tickets to Boston Calling Music Festival, Six Flags, Cirque Du Soleil and so much more. One of the easiest and yummiest activities the school offered this past summer was free Ben & Jerry’s Ice cream every Wednesday throughout the entire two summer semesters! Of course I also cannot forget to highlight our therapy dogs Sarge and Cooper(pictured below) who are such an incredible addition to campus life.
These are just five of the many big ideas and questions that I recommend asking to get a more in-depth understanding of the university you are touring! If you guys really like this, let me know and I’d be happy to highlight some of the other questions I recommend asking.
Finally, I want to emphasize that you truly cannot go wrong asking ANY questions on tour, I promise that us tour guides don’t bite… much :)
Until Next Time,
Kaitlyn