We all know what every UR student’s favorite season is — tour season. You’d think they only happen in the spring and summer, but even in the dead of winter there’s a herd of wide-eyed high schoolers and overly-enthusiastic parents blocking your way to class.
Tour season is the best season. I personally enjoy being interrupted from studying in Great Hall by a tour with a very loud and energetic tour guide. The quiet signs outside the doors are just a suggestion, after all. And being stared at by 20 pairs of eyes like I’m a strange, new specimen is certainly not uncomfortable at all.
But the best part about the tours are the types of things the tour guides say to sell the school. One of my favorites is when they boast about our “lack of general education requirements,” and then proceed to explain the fantastic 24 credits’ worth of cluster courses completely irrelevant to our careers that we’re required to take instead. Definitely a selling point if you ask me. Especially being an English major and having to take science courses. As the saying goes, “science is a humanities major’s second love.”
Another super fun thing about tour guides is the way they hype up UR’s dining. When I was a junior in high school and went on my first UR tour, my tour guide told me that the food was prepared like it is at a fancy restaurant. Everything was “really bougie” and they “even had a sushi bar,” she said. Now that I’m a UR student, I can confirm she definitely didn’t lie. The food is so upscale, your stomach won’t be able to handle it.
It’s also super fun to watch the tour guides blindly walk backwards, potential hapless victims to any blue box pole. That must be a requirement for the job. I can imagine the interviewer asking, “And are you good at walking backwards, Sarah?”
In fact, I think we should add even more to tours so potential students can really get the UR experience. For example, they should be taken to the stacks during finals season to see all of the hardworking students studying for their exams that certainly aren’t one coffee away from a mental breakdown – or planning on sleeping there overnight. They should also be taken into the dorm rooms to see the friendly little critters living with students in their suites. After all, if these kids are potential UR material, they should be treated as such.
But even without experiencing all of those other fun aspects of UR, I bet we students can all agree that our tour guides were absolutely right about everything they told us about UR. And that’s the best part about tour season — being able to constantly hear about how wonderful the university you’ve shed blood, sweat, and tears over is.
No matter where you are, the tour guides will always be spitting facts, and the high schoolers will always be watching — and judging — you. Yay, tour season!
