Now that you know the essence of the BIG visit, time to fill you in on the SPECIAL visit. Special visits are still bigger than most weekends. The difference between them and the BIG visit is that the SPECIAL visit is geared toward a select group. In this case, the select group were high-ability students at schools across the state. That's why this specific special visit is called Scholar's Day.
Scholar's Day is truly a sight to see and probably OU Undergraduate Admissions at its finest when it comes to recruiting. First off, when the students come in, they come into the beautiful Baker Ballroom. It is quite the setting, with round tables with white tablecloths, making for an intimate setting. Like the big visit, it begins with a short speech from President Roderick McDavis. Once he's gotten the crowd excited and interested, it's time for the Dean of the Honors Tutorial College to explain how great the college is and the many awards the students within the college have garnered. After a brief video chronicling great professors and students, they show "The Promise" spots. And then, yours truly and one other student give a quick 2-3 minute speech about how we were able to discover our promise at Ohio University.
The day only gets better because after an information session with admissions and then an appropriate academic college, it's lunchtime and let me tell you, this is the best food OU can offer. Ham and turkey croissants, potato salad, potato chips, iced tea and to top it all off, ho-ho cake. Now on big visits, there are too many families to feed them all. But for these special visits, especially something as important as Scholar's Day, anything you can do to impress them to get them to choose OU is worth the extra money.
Once lunch is finished, it's time for a question and answer session with a panel featuring students and staff members representing everything from financial aid to the Global Learning Community. The Q+A is very productive as the students and parents ask very good questions. After the Q+A, it's time for...you guessed it, a tour of the campus. With the limited amount of students, the great thing is that instead of groups of 25-30 people during a big visit, the groups are around 10-15, making the groups more intimate and allowing for a more personalized tour. In the end, the evaluations look good and the day goes well. Now the hope is that ALL of them choose OU.
So that's it...the end of the Fall Quarter tour guide events. Through this blog, you have truly received the tour guide experience. There are ups and downs as you can see by the stories. It is a physically and mentally challenging job as seen by the tour guide route and amount of families that come through. You've also gotten a feel for how admissions runs big visits and special visits. Hopefully now, you can see all the hard work done by the Tour Guides and the Office of Undergraduate Admissions. So the next time you see that OU has a bigger incoming freshman class with better grades and test scores, just remember all the hard work and hours spent by the tour guides and the Office of Undergraduate Admissions that makes it all happen.
Sunday, November 18, 2007
Friday, November 9, 2007
THE BIG VISIT
435 families. 1200 people. 36 tour guides. Saturday morning starting at 8:30am. Yikes!
This is the essence of the big visit. The Office of Admissions is very ambitious...as they should be. Ohio University is a great school and people should hear about it. So in the Fall Quarter, the Office of Admissions has two big visit days, this time called Discovery Days. The premise is pretty simple: get a ton of prospective students to visit this beautiful campus and discover what it has to offer for them. For tour guides, it means being on top of your game at all times. You never know who is a prospective student and who is an OU student. It also means that your usual tour of 5-10 people could be as much as 35-40 people at any time. I know, sounds like fun. Well, it is.
After a 9am morning tour, it's on to the Welcome session inside Memorial Auditorium. The fun inside starts with President McDavis, pumping up the crowd with al the great stuff OU has accomplished in the past year. Then, we show the 3 Promise campaign commercials, which leads into 4 speeches from students (including yours truly) about how they discovered their promise here at OU. Once we finish a brief info session by OU Admissions, it's time to bring in the most exciting band in the land to cap it all off. Filling up the entire bottom of MemAud, the Marching 110 blasts out Stand Up and Cheer before we have the parents and students disperse to their respective academic info session.
Once we scurry all the prospective students to their respective locations, it's time for us to relax and recap the first part of our day. Lunch is time to unwind and that's exactly what we do. We know we have to because we've only finished one half of the day.
The second half begins with the Resource Fair inside Grover Center. What exactly is the Resource Fair? Well, it is a huge showcase of information from about 25 different organizations or colleges here at OU. The students and parents walk from one end of Grover Center to the other, gathering information that will hopefully help them in their college decision. For the tour guides, this means walk around, mingle with families and answer any and all questions. It can either be a fun time (if with the right family) or really boring when no one comes and talks to you.
Once the families have had a chance to walk around the tables, minlge, relax and have some popcorn, it's time to do more tours. So if families took a tour in the morning, they are free to leave whenever they like. Those who did not take the morning tour option take this option. So as the tour guides stand outside, the families walk out the south side of Grover Center and find a tour guide and leave. It looks like mass chaos but it's more of a controlled chaos. Once they find their guide, they are on their way.
Once the tour is done...so is the BIG VISIT. It truly is a tiring day that stretches from 8:30am to 3pm. It's up and down in terms of how hard we work the entire day but it definitely is a long day. A complete slideshow of the BIG VISIT is below. Watch and enjoy.
This is the essence of the big visit. The Office of Admissions is very ambitious...as they should be. Ohio University is a great school and people should hear about it. So in the Fall Quarter, the Office of Admissions has two big visit days, this time called Discovery Days. The premise is pretty simple: get a ton of prospective students to visit this beautiful campus and discover what it has to offer for them. For tour guides, it means being on top of your game at all times. You never know who is a prospective student and who is an OU student. It also means that your usual tour of 5-10 people could be as much as 35-40 people at any time. I know, sounds like fun. Well, it is.
After a 9am morning tour, it's on to the Welcome session inside Memorial Auditorium. The fun inside starts with President McDavis, pumping up the crowd with al the great stuff OU has accomplished in the past year. Then, we show the 3 Promise campaign commercials, which leads into 4 speeches from students (including yours truly) about how they discovered their promise here at OU. Once we finish a brief info session by OU Admissions, it's time to bring in the most exciting band in the land to cap it all off. Filling up the entire bottom of MemAud, the Marching 110 blasts out Stand Up and Cheer before we have the parents and students disperse to their respective academic info session.
Once we scurry all the prospective students to their respective locations, it's time for us to relax and recap the first part of our day. Lunch is time to unwind and that's exactly what we do. We know we have to because we've only finished one half of the day.
The second half begins with the Resource Fair inside Grover Center. What exactly is the Resource Fair? Well, it is a huge showcase of information from about 25 different organizations or colleges here at OU. The students and parents walk from one end of Grover Center to the other, gathering information that will hopefully help them in their college decision. For the tour guides, this means walk around, mingle with families and answer any and all questions. It can either be a fun time (if with the right family) or really boring when no one comes and talks to you.
Once the families have had a chance to walk around the tables, minlge, relax and have some popcorn, it's time to do more tours. So if families took a tour in the morning, they are free to leave whenever they like. Those who did not take the morning tour option take this option. So as the tour guides stand outside, the families walk out the south side of Grover Center and find a tour guide and leave. It looks like mass chaos but it's more of a controlled chaos. Once they find their guide, they are on their way.
Once the tour is done...so is the BIG VISIT. It truly is a tiring day that stretches from 8:30am to 3pm. It's up and down in terms of how hard we work the entire day but it definitely is a long day. A complete slideshow of the BIG VISIT is below. Watch and enjoy.
Friday, November 2, 2007
Oh The Places You'll Go (and things you'll hear)
You may not know this but every tour is different. Yes, we show the same things and places and tell the same stories. But it's the groups, weather and other circumstances that make each tour a different experience. In order to illustrate that point, I enlisted the help of my fellow tour guides and asked them about their craziest moment as a Tour Guide. Maybe after reading them, you'll understand why being a Tour Guide is more than simply walking and talking backwards.
COREY: "I was giving a tour to a group of students over the summer and it was a fairly large group so I had to make sure i was projecting for the stragglers in the back to hear me. Throughout the tour a group of three girls (assumedly friends) had been in the front, asking questions, chatting, and walking very close to me. About half way through the tour we were outside and I was yelling and a little spit flew out of my mouth. I looked at the girls and said, "sorry I am talking so loud and I'm really sorry if I accidentally spit." I expected them to back up at that point, but no. One of them instead responded by saying, "Oh, I don't mind if you spit on me." Talk about awkward, that was definitely the most interesting thing ever told to me on a tour."
LOGAN: "One day during a tour my group was terrified I was going to fall over something because I was walking backwards. They decided to point out everything I could possibly fall over so that I wouldn't fall. We began our trek up Morton hill. When we got to the top, they pointed out the poles blocking traffic from going down the hill. We rounded the corner and I ran into the bench sitting outside of the Oasis Cafe. I landed flat on my back staring up at the tour group."
AMANDA: "I had to give one of those special tours to a group of high school students. Everything was going fine. It was your typical high school tour. Girls were bored and guys were messing around in the back of the group. No one was listening and no one cared but I still gave my tour as if I were presenting to the Queen of England. Nothin but the best. Well, apparently it wasn't enough for these heathens. As we were approaching Ping (and the end of my nerves) something fell from the sky. It was not a speck of blue, or a sprinkle of cloud... No, it was more like a big fat loogie hawked up from the back of the crowd. The little fluid friend found it way to a glorious spot on the tip of my shoe. The words that came out of my mouth a that moment were highly inappropriate- but so was the mound of mucous snuggling up to my ASICS. I swung myself around and shot them the evil eye. Immediately the girls in the front lifted their frail fingers and pointed to the boys in the back, who just then realized the weight of their mistake. I would love to say that I flew back there and took a belt to their behind, or gave them such a piece of my mind that I left them speechless and utterly baffled by my audacity. Regretedly, I did not. Instead, I slowly turned around, wiped the tear from my eye, and continued my tour with such a level of paranoia that I mastered the stairs backward for the sake of never turning my back on them again"
AARON: I was giving a tour in early to mid-March, and it was the type of weather where most people would be a little too cool wearing a t-shirt, but maybe a little too warm wearing more than a long-sleeve shirt. One of the younger sister's (around 9th grade age) of a potential student was wearing a full, heavy winter jacket. I had a visitor group of about 5 families/15 people. My tour was nearing it's end, it was about 10 minutes until 2pm, and we were going to walk into the 2nd floor of the library and then end the tour in Baker. We walk into the 2nd floor entrance, the entrance "hallway" if you will, and because it was a busy day, we stood in the hallway for a minute while I talked about the library. During this week, the heat seemed to be on extremely high in the library, and the vents were streaming hot air around us. Not long into my library description, the girl wearing the winter jacket flops (with a loud thud) onto the metal newspaper canister/holder and drops to the floor. Her parents quickly kneel down to her, and I kneel down (even though I knew I couldn't help in any way). I called 911 and they said they quickly be on their way. Meanwhile, I've got 4 other families standing there traumatized, and not knowing what to do. Luckily I was being shadowed by a rookie that day, and told him to stay with the family of the fainted girl, while I walk the other 4 families around the 2nd floor of Alden, and then drop them off at Baker. The tour ended smoothly (as much as possible), and afterward I walked back to Alden where the ambulance had arrived and the girl was up and moving, sipping on a juice-box. Long story short, the girl hadn't eaten since the day before, didn't drink much liquid that day, and overheated as she was wearing a winter jacket on a day I was wearing a t-shirt. The first, and hopefully last time I have had a girl pass out while on one of my campus tours.
ELLEN: "I gave a tour once with an alum who hadn't been here in a ridiculous amount of years. As I gave the tour he pointed out to my group everything that had changed and what he used to do as a student. When we passed Chubb Hall he told everyone how it had been the former library and then proceeded to tell them all where he and his girlfriend used to go to make out in the general stacks. It was quite the tour."
NATALIE: "I was giving a decent sized tour, during a weekday. I had just given them the library spiel and was now walking them around the 2nd floor of Alden. As I passed through the little hallway between the elevator and stairway doors, my friend saw me giving a tour and decided to tell my tour how awesome Ohio University is, which is fine I don't mind when students give positive remarks about Ohio U during a tour. Anyway, I rounded the corner, but my tour was still in full view of my friend who was about to get on an elevator. She finished telling the group how smart the students who attend this university are then tried to enter the elevator with the doors still closed. I never actually witnessed this and my group said nothing, but I continue to tell all of my tour groups about my brilliant friend who ran into the elevator door after telling a large group of prospective students how smart we college kids are."
And who said being a tour guide was easy? Next post, I'll be going over THE BIG VISIT. For now though, be careful where you walk.
COREY: "I was giving a tour to a group of students over the summer and it was a fairly large group so I had to make sure i was projecting for the stragglers in the back to hear me. Throughout the tour a group of three girls (assumedly friends) had been in the front, asking questions, chatting, and walking very close to me. About half way through the tour we were outside and I was yelling and a little spit flew out of my mouth. I looked at the girls and said, "sorry I am talking so loud and I'm really sorry if I accidentally spit." I expected them to back up at that point, but no. One of them instead responded by saying, "Oh, I don't mind if you spit on me." Talk about awkward, that was definitely the most interesting thing ever told to me on a tour."
LOGAN: "One day during a tour my group was terrified I was going to fall over something because I was walking backwards. They decided to point out everything I could possibly fall over so that I wouldn't fall. We began our trek up Morton hill. When we got to the top, they pointed out the poles blocking traffic from going down the hill. We rounded the corner and I ran into the bench sitting outside of the Oasis Cafe. I landed flat on my back staring up at the tour group."
AMANDA: "I had to give one of those special tours to a group of high school students. Everything was going fine. It was your typical high school tour. Girls were bored and guys were messing around in the back of the group. No one was listening and no one cared but I still gave my tour as if I were presenting to the Queen of England. Nothin but the best. Well, apparently it wasn't enough for these heathens. As we were approaching Ping (and the end of my nerves) something fell from the sky. It was not a speck of blue, or a sprinkle of cloud... No, it was more like a big fat loogie hawked up from the back of the crowd. The little fluid friend found it way to a glorious spot on the tip of my shoe. The words that came out of my mouth a that moment were highly inappropriate- but so was the mound of mucous snuggling up to my ASICS. I swung myself around and shot them the evil eye. Immediately the girls in the front lifted their frail fingers and pointed to the boys in the back, who just then realized the weight of their mistake. I would love to say that I flew back there and took a belt to their behind, or gave them such a piece of my mind that I left them speechless and utterly baffled by my audacity. Regretedly, I did not. Instead, I slowly turned around, wiped the tear from my eye, and continued my tour with such a level of paranoia that I mastered the stairs backward for the sake of never turning my back on them again"
AARON: I was giving a tour in early to mid-March, and it was the type of weather where most people would be a little too cool wearing a t-shirt, but maybe a little too warm wearing more than a long-sleeve shirt. One of the younger sister's (around 9th grade age) of a potential student was wearing a full, heavy winter jacket. I had a visitor group of about 5 families/15 people. My tour was nearing it's end, it was about 10 minutes until 2pm, and we were going to walk into the 2nd floor of the library and then end the tour in Baker. We walk into the 2nd floor entrance, the entrance "hallway" if you will, and because it was a busy day, we stood in the hallway for a minute while I talked about the library. During this week, the heat seemed to be on extremely high in the library, and the vents were streaming hot air around us. Not long into my library description, the girl wearing the winter jacket flops (with a loud thud) onto the metal newspaper canister/holder and drops to the floor. Her parents quickly kneel down to her, and I kneel down (even though I knew I couldn't help in any way). I called 911 and they said they quickly be on their way. Meanwhile, I've got 4 other families standing there traumatized, and not knowing what to do. Luckily I was being shadowed by a rookie that day, and told him to stay with the family of the fainted girl, while I walk the other 4 families around the 2nd floor of Alden, and then drop them off at Baker. The tour ended smoothly (as much as possible), and afterward I walked back to Alden where the ambulance had arrived and the girl was up and moving, sipping on a juice-box. Long story short, the girl hadn't eaten since the day before, didn't drink much liquid that day, and overheated as she was wearing a winter jacket on a day I was wearing a t-shirt. The first, and hopefully last time I have had a girl pass out while on one of my campus tours.ELLEN: "I gave a tour once with an alum who hadn't been here in a ridiculous amount of years. As I gave the tour he pointed out to my group everything that had changed and what he used to do as a student. When we passed Chubb Hall he told everyone how it had been the former library and then proceeded to tell them all where he and his girlfriend used to go to make out in the general stacks. It was quite the tour."
NATALIE: "I was giving a decent sized tour, during a weekday. I had just given them the library spiel and was now walking them around the 2nd floor of Alden. As I passed through the little hallway between the elevator and stairway doors, my friend saw me giving a tour and decided to tell my tour how awesome Ohio University is, which is fine I don't mind when students give positive remarks about Ohio U during a tour. Anyway, I rounded the corner, but my tour was still in full view of my friend who was about to get on an elevator. She finished telling the group how smart the students who attend this university are then tried to enter the elevator with the doors still closed. I never actually witnessed this and my group said nothing, but I continue to tell all of my tour groups about my brilliant friend who ran into the elevator door after telling a large group of prospective students how smart we college kids are."
And who said being a tour guide was easy? Next post, I'll be going over THE BIG VISIT. For now though, be careful where you walk.
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
The Tour Guide Basics
Around 20,000 students go to Ohio University...and most of them have one thing in common: they took a tour of the university by way of a tour guide.
I have been a tour guide now for 3+ years and have loved every second of it. Interacting with families, walking around campus and talking about the school I have grown to love.
But being a campus tour guide isn't easy. It takes a great knowledge of this university so that no question is left unanswered. That's why there is extensive training for all the tour guides, ranging from knowing how many campus organizations there are on campus to knowing all the ins and outs of the library. If we ever forget anything though. tour guides do have a great resource. For lack of a better name, it is simply called "The Book".
"The Book" has all the information on every major, every organization, every building, etc...It's pretty cool.
Another thing all tour guides need is awareness. This job is physically demanding already, thanks to the wonderful hills here in Athens. Then, doing it all while walking backwards makes it tougher. That's why every tour guide needs to be aware of their surroundings. For some, that means light posts and street signs. For others, that means puddles, curbs and people. The weather can complicate things as well. The last thing any tour guide wants is to have a car splash their group when walking along a sidewalk.
The final thing is the ability is to think quick and say things with a smile. Yes, knowing all the information is great but can you answer questions on a dime and always talk about OU in a positive light? This is where the best tour guides make their money. This week may be the toughest week of questions because of a certain Halloween celebration in the area. You might have heard of it. Anyways, questions can range from anything from best meal plans to smoke detectors to the amount of squirrels. It is these questions that really make the job fun for everyone.
So what is like to take a tour here at OU? Well, here's a slideshow of a typical tour. In person, it takes about an hour long. On a picture slideshow, it might take you 3 minutes. Of course, you don't get all the jokes, stories and squirrels that you would if really took a visit...but you at least get an idea of the route.
Next week, I'll post on the best stories from tour guides. We've seen a lot and heard a lot...and trust me, there is some funny stuff. After that, I'll blog about what we like to call "The Big Visit". So make sure you check in next week...and if you happen to stumble upon a Tour Guide, don't bother them for too long. They've got a very important job to do.
I have been a tour guide now for 3+ years and have loved every second of it. Interacting with families, walking around campus and talking about the school I have grown to love.
But being a campus tour guide isn't easy. It takes a great knowledge of this university so that no question is left unanswered. That's why there is extensive training for all the tour guides, ranging from knowing how many campus organizations there are on campus to knowing all the ins and outs of the library. If we ever forget anything though. tour guides do have a great resource. For lack of a better name, it is simply called "The Book".
"The Book" has all the information on every major, every organization, every building, etc...It's pretty cool.
Another thing all tour guides need is awareness. This job is physically demanding already, thanks to the wonderful hills here in Athens. Then, doing it all while walking backwards makes it tougher. That's why every tour guide needs to be aware of their surroundings. For some, that means light posts and street signs. For others, that means puddles, curbs and people. The weather can complicate things as well. The last thing any tour guide wants is to have a car splash their group when walking along a sidewalk.
The final thing is the ability is to think quick and say things with a smile. Yes, knowing all the information is great but can you answer questions on a dime and always talk about OU in a positive light? This is where the best tour guides make their money. This week may be the toughest week of questions because of a certain Halloween celebration in the area. You might have heard of it. Anyways, questions can range from anything from best meal plans to smoke detectors to the amount of squirrels. It is these questions that really make the job fun for everyone.
So what is like to take a tour here at OU? Well, here's a slideshow of a typical tour. In person, it takes about an hour long. On a picture slideshow, it might take you 3 minutes. Of course, you don't get all the jokes, stories and squirrels that you would if really took a visit...but you at least get an idea of the route.
Next week, I'll post on the best stories from tour guides. We've seen a lot and heard a lot...and trust me, there is some funny stuff. After that, I'll blog about what we like to call "The Big Visit". So make sure you check in next week...and if you happen to stumble upon a Tour Guide, don't bother them for too long. They've got a very important job to do.
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