Description: Watch an Informational Video on What to Do on Your College Tour. College Admissions Consulting from Ivy Coach.
Transcription: Tour Guide: Hello potential applicant. Welcome to your college tour.

Student: Hello the tour guide.

Tour Guide: I would like to go over with you a few key things you should be doing on your college tour while I am walking backwards. These tips will prove helpful to you as you complete your application to my college.

Student: I thought I was just here to soak in the sun and look at hot college boys.

Tour Guide: That would be your first mistake. You should absolutely observe the students on campus. See if you think you would like going here. See if they are smiling. See if they are happy. If you’d only be happy at a school with cute boys, it’s a factor you should consider because happiness matters. But in addition to observing students, you should also be taking notes because information I tell you on your college tour can prove beneficial when you are writing your Why You Want to Go to My College essay.

Student: You want me to take notes in my pretty pink dress?

Tour Guide: Yes. In your pretty pink dress. On your college essay, the game is writing about specifics, not generalities that are true of any college like the campus is stunning and the class sizes are small. So if I happen to say on my tour that many of our a cappella groups perform together late at night in a tradition know as “Arch Sings” and you intend to join an a cappella group at my college, it’s important to refer to Arch Sings in your essay. If I happen to discuss a men’s ski team tradition in which the team makes an annual pilgrimage to Loon Mountain in an RV in April and skis across a 150-foot long slush pool and you’d like to ski at my college, write it down.

Student: That boy is cute. Is he a hockey player?

Tour Guide: You are some detective, Watson. Was it the hockey stick and skates that gave it away? Anyhow, you should also ask questions on your college tour. If you’re interested in an activity and I don’t discuss it, then you may not have all the information you need to write your college essay.

Student: But I’m shy, the tour guide. It’s embarrassing to ask questions. People will think I’m a total loser.

Tour Guide: If you’re too embarrassed, your parents should ask the question.

Student: Yeah right, the tour guide. My mom is not allowed to talk on college tours. It’s the rule. That would be way more embarrassing than even me talking.

Tour Guide: I see. What if you created a magical world of make-believe and pretended another parent on the tour was your parent and you made believe you didn’t know your parent. What if you put on your sunglasses so no one could see you? It could be your cloak of invisibility. Then, would your mom be able to ask all the questions she wanted?

Student: I guess that would be OK.

Tour Guide: I’m glad that we’ve come up with a solution to this most complicated of predicaments. I feel as if we’ve accomplished something most wonderful today.

Student: You’re a weird dude, the tour guide. Want to go out sometime?

Tour Guide: Visit Ivy Coach at TheIvyCoach.com. That’s www.theivycoach.com