Once upon a time, I was a campus tour guide at Pomona College. I loved leading tour groups around the quad, making them laugh with small anecdotes about the Shakespeare garden, and staging a few trivia questions about Pomona's history.

But I worried constantly. My job was to convey my enthusiasm and help sell high school students on the experience at Pomona. But were these prospective students getting the information they really needed? And why weren't they asking questions about what they really wanted to know?

On your next campus visit, keep these tips in mind: Connect with students. Arrange to get coffee or chat with students who share your interests. This may seem uncomfortable, but many students are open to this and would probably prefer it to trying to answer questions over email. Many admissions offices will gladly connect prospective students with the president of a club or the captain of a sports team. These student leaders can have great insights, and may be more free to offer honest observations than a tour guide who works for the admissions office. Don't just look. Observe. Sit for a while in the campus quad, student union or a dining hall for a while and watch how the students interact with one another for clues about how you would fit in on that campus. Eavesdrop a little. Sure, you may feel like some kind of Discovery Channel documentarian, but you'll be able to see the different types of students at that campus in their natural setting, rather than reciting a rehearsed sales pitch. Talk with professors. Not every professor is willing to chat with a prospective student, but many would be willing to give you information about majors, programs, study abroad, classes or special opportunities available to high-achieving or highly motivated students. Seek them out ahead of time and make an appointment. Professors and their attitudes will prove to be a defining feature of your college education.

Campus tours are normally led by current students, and they cover a lot of ground fast, everything from dorms to academics to dining halls to college history and traditions. Once you've been admitted, some campuses will have opportunities for you to visit a campus and stay overnight in the dorms with a current student. This offers an even deeper insight into campus life.

RAISE YOUR HAND

All of these experiences, however, can be misleading. As much as they may complain in private, students who are proud of their school overall usually want to tell you how great it is. As a former campus tour guide and prospective-student host, I was never asked to lie, but I always tried to paint a rosy view of campus life. Since I also tried to speak from my own experiences, my tour groups inevitably got a skewed view of the college based on what I had encountered.

It's up to you, therefore, to interpret what you see and hear on the tour and figure out what it really means for your success at that college. To do that, you have to do more than follow the pack and listen to the guide. You have to be an active investigator.

In high school, it may feel awkward to be the one who's always raising your hand and asking questions in class. On a campus tour, it can feel even more so, given that you're in an unfamiliar place, in a conspicuous tour group, among teens and parents you don't know.

I know I felt strange and out of place visiting campuses, and I worried about being in the college students' way or slowing down the tour. My friend recently confessed to me that she pretended to be an enrolled student during her campus visits. She felt awkward on tours and wanted to blend in with the current students, rather than reveal herself as a high school kid.

But choosing a college is a big, high-stakes decision, one that you don't want to make without all the information you need. So go ahead and raise your hand and interrupt the tour if you have to. Ask questions and challenge the answers until you're satisfied. Engage yourself in the places and people you see, rather than being passive. Campus visits and tours are more valuable if you ask questions, talk to current students, sit in on classes and
meet with professors.

YOU DESERVE ANSWERS

As it happens, this is what a college education is all about: the chance to expand your horizons by participating more actively in the learning process than you ever did in high school. Asking deep questions in class; attending discussions, lab sessions and evening speeches; meeting with professors during their office hours; and branching out beyond the structured clasroom lecture will help you get the most value out of your education.

The same is true for most educational experiences. Turn a job interview into a real two-way dialogue by overcoming those jitters and asking meaningful questions of your interviewer and any other employees you meet. As long as you're making big life decisions, you deserve some answers.

Similarly, when you're studying abroad, traveling on business or vacationing, you get far more out of the experience by venturing off the standard tour and interacting with locals. By resisting passivity and the tendency we all have to just go along for the ride, you begin to learn from the people around you and your environment. Just following the herd and accepting the information you hear will give you a bland and potentially skewed perception of campus life. Putting some effort into the campus tour will give you a far more complete picture, and start you on a path toward a more enriching education.

WEB RESOURCES

Advice for college applicants from College Answer

Advice on college tours from College View

College Board article on how to prepare for a college visit

National Association for College Admission Counseling article about college tours

OBJECTIVE
Learn how to be an active participant in the college experience

OVERVIEW
It's up to you to interpret what you see and hear on a campus tour and figure out what it really means for your success at that college, says On Campus columnist Jenny McCartney. To do that, you have to do more than follow the pack and listen to the guide. You have to be an active investigator.

STANDARDS
NBEA: career development, communication; NCSS: individual development and identity, individuals, groups and institutions; NCTE: communication

REVIEW
Read the article "Tour Guide" and answer these questions:

1) Ms. McCartney encourages students to be "active investigators." What does this mean?

2) According to Ms. McCartney, expanding and deepening your experiences is one of the most important aspects of a college education. How is the campus tour one of the first steps in that process?

3) What stops students from being active investigators on college tours?

ACTIVITY IDEAS

• What type of student are you? Do you like to sit in the front of the classroom? Do you ask a lot of questions? Do you ask your teacher for extra help? Assess how active or passive you are as a student. Then, as a class, make a list of ways passive students can become active investigators and discuss why this is especially important for college students.

• How will being an active investigator help you in your future job or career? Discuss as a class.

• One of the best ways to learn more about a college is by talking with a current student. Contact a recent graduate of your school and interview him or her about college. Ask about the importance of being an active participant in the college experience. Does he or she go to class daily, frequent a professor's office hours, visit the writing center, participate in study groups, etc.? Write a two-page reflection paper about how you can get the most out of your campus experience.

• Create a list of the five most important qualities you are looking for in a college (for example: small class sizes). Use this list to create questions you can ask a campus tour guide, professor, student and admissions counselor.

• From what you've heard about college life, compare and contrast the differences between high school and college. Consider: schedules, opportunities in academics, parental control/influence, living arrangements, food, extracurriculars and expectations. Which will be the biggest adjustment for you, and why?

• Ms. McCartney mentions how many of the campus tours present a "rosy view" of college life. Who is a campus tour guide accountable to: the prospective students or the school administration? Does it matter? Using the university website and other Internet tools, plan a campus tour that would provide you with all the information you want to know. Include places that you want to visit, people you want to meet and aspects of the campus that you want to see in action (for example: a football game, a sorority or fraternity house, a chemistry lab during class). Create an itinerary for your campus visit.

• Arrange to take a tour of a local college campus. Write a one-page paper describing what you learned and comparing it with Ms. McCartney's perspective on college tours. Did others talk and ask questions? Did you? Was the tone of the tour guide overwhelmingly positive?

WEB RESOURCES

Advice for college applicants from College Answer

Advice on college tours from College View

College Board article on how to prepare for a college visit

National Association for College Admission Counseling article about college tours