Every kind of person who goes on Princeton tours

I happened to be on campus during the month of June working with TigerCall. Just before the summer began, I received an email from Orange Key, Princeton’s tour guide organization, asking me if I would be interested in giving tours of the campus to prospective students and their parents.

Being a broke college student, I decided that two jobs were better than one and I signed up. It has been a lot of fun, and I quickly learned that there are several distinct groups of people that go on tours.

The ones who are a little young

They are underclassmen in high school and are touring because Princeton is a good school that they might want to apply to and they happen to be in the area. Are they maybe a little young for college tours? Sure, but it never hurts to start early.

The ones who are way too young

These kids are 12 years old and should be worrying about what high school they’ll be going to, not their college. It is beyond me why anyone would take an 11-year-old on a campus tour, because they won’t remember anything when they think about the tour in the middle of college applications.

Regular students

These tend to be high school juniors or seniors in the middle of an Eastern Seaboard college road trip. They’ll be applying to colleges soon and this is generally the age at which people tour most colleges.

Regular parents

These are the parents who are there to support their children. Their child wants to apply to Princeton so they are fulfilling their parental role. They would love it if their kid got in (it is Princeton after all) but they don’t have to go here if they don’t want to.

Tiger Parents

These parents are Princeton alumni who are really excited for their child to go here and they can already imagine joint reunions after their kid graduates. They nod along with everything you point out about campus and whisper extra things rather loudly to their children. “Back when I was at Princeton, I lived in that building and we threw huge parties every weekend!” Their children’s excitement can range anywhere from “I’m only here because dad really wanted to go on the tour” to already owning an entire wardrobe of orange and black.

The other Tiger Parents

In many cultures tiger parents – especially tiger moms – are a big thing. A tiger mom is a parent who really drives their child toward success and heavily encourages them to get involved in several extracurricular activities so they can get into Ivy League-caliber institutions. They stand right next to their child on the tour and tell them to write every little thing down:

– “This chapel has been here since 1925.”
– “Write that down, it may be important.”

The siblings

Often younger siblings of prospective students, they don’t really care about upperclass independent work. They just care about how many more minutes they have to walk around this place before they can go to lunch. The only time they are really engaged in the tour is when I give food recommendations.

The school groups

Just a bunch of high schoolers, some want to be there, some don’t. It can honestly go either way. One time, I had a group of about 12 kids, they were pretty obviously basketball players and very obviously did not want to be there. When I mentioned that Princeton doesn’t have official fraternities or sororities on campus, they all looked very upset. I’m pretty sure that was the only part they listened to.

The ones who shouldn’t be there

They are people who should not be on a college tour for whatever reason. They ask odd questions that nobody else would ever think to ask or even care about. One time, there was a 35-year-old man who was alone who joined the group halfway through and left early. While he was with the group, he was asking pretty obscure questions, such as the strength of our Sanskrit department and why certain buildings, which were not on the tour, were named after certain people.

The parents who think you are their ‘orange key’ to Princeton

HAHAHA I love puns. These people think tour guides have some influence in the admissions process, when in fact we have zero influence on the admissions process. They think that if they look really interested and have their child ask several good questions that I’ll put in a good word with the Dean of Admissions. In reality, each tour guide can have up to 1500 people on their tours every week. I have trouble remembering the names of people I met two weeks ago, there is absolutely no way I will remember your child’s name when she applies two years from now.

I typically end these types of articles with a couple of sentences about how much I love giving tours and how cool the other tour guides are, but I like ending with the “orange key” pun because I think it’s hilarious.