Don't Touch The Shiny Shoe: Confessions of a Harvard Tour Guide

My summer of (unpaid) theatrical fun comes equipped with quite the day job. 6 days a week, I am your friendly undergraduate admissions tour guide and info session gal at "a school in Boston". :) After a short while on the job, I have to say I adore this gig. I get to meet people from all over, I get to rehash historical anecdotes about the college (I love me some factoidal history), and I get to walk off my one-meal-a-day (ah the life of a college student withuot a mealplan). I do have some interesting stories (none of which I plan to post with any sort of specificity, I can't imagine THAT would end well), but mostly some kind of neat observations about the college search in general, and the idea of "Harvard" in particular.

I remember being so incredibly focused on my college search to the point of lost perspective. Everybody gets to this point (especially parents), and it is not surprising to see this at tours and sessions. It reminds me how glad I am to be on the other side of that particular process. People are usually tired in Boston area admission tours... they've done a dozen of the same stupid session at every college they could think of in the area. (There are, according to my packet o' info, over 80 colleges in the Greater Boston area). Anyway, its a good idea not to lose perspective to the point of rudeness. Do I have any say in if you get in or not? Nope. But, don't be mean.

Also, personal info. Come on, you do NOT need to know my SAT scores. You don't need to know how many hours of community service I did each week in high school. You REALLY don't need to know my ethnic background (I hope you read this, ma'am; that was outta line). Ask me how this place feels. Ask me about the professors (I really HAVE met them :). Something interesting, and unexpected, at least for me, is that people often come to Harvard with something to prove. They don't WANT to hear that this place is a wonderful community filled with passion, and happiness and intersting (not mean/snooty) people. They want to hear that we're mean. That the campus and it environs are terrible. That we don't ever have fun. That we get a subpar education with little academic advising and few opportunities outside of large, faceless lecture halls. Any evidence to the contrary is met, not with surprise or delight, but with disdain and disbelief. They pay me to show you around a campus I care about very deeply. They don't pay me to lie to you. Promise. Stick around, ask students other than me what their experiences are. Stop reading books written by ex so-and-so's at the college (who left for a reason, my dears) about how overrated this place is. Or just stop trying to ruin my day.

I'd have to say a huge majority of the tours are excited, interested prospective students and their families who come with misconceptions and (hopefully) leave with a better understanding of a place that is very different (but equally as wonderful, if not more so) than its formidable reputation. Some, however, display a visceral anger upon hearing my love of the place. Some people just don't want to lose that image in their heads of a WASP-y overrated prep school without any fun. It's cool, I guess. Just remember. I'm 19 years old. I do not sit in on the admissions committee. I don't have any say in what a bunch of (in my humble opinion) idiots harp on in some books or articles. I'm just here as a student. A contented student. And one who wears her crimson with pride. So, please: Come to the yard. Look around. Make yourself at home, and come with an open mind. Please. And also, don't rub the lucky shoe on the John Harvard statue. There ARE reasons the undergrads giggle so much when you do that.

'til next time,
rachy