Salad as a tour metaphor

Today I will use this salad as a metaphor.

This salad was my dinner last night. It’s piled high with baby corn and chickpeas (my favorites). It also has some spinach mixed in to the lettuce I had to eat around (something can kill me in large enough quantities). It’s on an ugly, yet allegedly eco friendly plate. I ate it at 6:30 last night with some chicken (that was very good) and rice (that was supposed to be with a hint of lime, but actually tasted like it was boiled in Sprite).

This salad is a metaphor for all of the questions you should ask when you’re touring or visiting a school.

There are the general questions that you should ask, but oftentimes you won’t get a straight answer out of your tour guide (if you recall, they’re trained by the schools to make the school appealing to you). Or you won’t get an entirely truthful answer out of the tour guide. So here are some questions to ask that aren’t so easily spun.

Is the meal plan required? Are you on the meal plan? - Ask this instead of how’s the food? They’re going to tell you the food is fine. But if they aren’t on the meal plan, that will tell you a lot more. They might preface it by saying “oh I live off campus,” but places the food is really good they’d probably get a small meal plan for lunch and an occasional dinner with on campus friends. If the meal plan is required, ask them how many meals a week they eat on campus, another tell if it’s less than 2 a day.

Salad as a metaphor: I eat salad several meals a week (by choice usually, I love salad), and this salad was eaten because I hadn’t used nearly enough of my 10 meals that week (minimum amount a sophomore is allowed to have at my school). 

What is your pet peeve about the school? Ask this instead of what is the schools biggest weakness. You know from any interview you’ve ever had that you have to turn your weakness into a strength. A pet peeve is something that really annoys you, and it’s much harder to spin that into a positive.
This will probably be something little and inconsequential, but will give you a real negative about the school instead of a fake one.

Salad as a metaphor: Remember how I said there was hidden spinach? I am (probably the only one in the world who is) allergic to spinach. And I write a comment card about every other week telling the dining hall at my school to stop mixing the romaine and spinach lettuce together. But it’s cheaper and easier to top off a half full bowl of romaine with spinach, so they keep doing it. That is a real pet peeve about my school; the dining services aren’t accommodating to anything rarer gluten or a nut allergy.

How many small classes have you had? Ask this instead of how big are the classes?
Many schools pride themselves on small class size, and yet there are a lot of ways to fudge the numbers to make it look like there are more small classes than there really are. If a school says half of their classes are “15 or under” that means that the other half could all be hundred person lectures. You’d be in a lot more hundred-person lectures even with those numbers. This question is easier to get an idea of the reality, because they might have taken their 20 person freshman seminar, but maybe they won’t get to take another small class until senior year.

Salad as a metaphor: Salad is often my go-to because I hate waiting on lines. I would have gotten stir-fry, but the line was 10 minutes of waiting. Though the option was there, I wasn’t going to be able to take advantage of it until I had the timing right.

How did you meet your friends? Instead of what should I expect freshman year.

I really like asking this question because it will give you a really good idea of the type of environment the school is. Some schools have freshman halls or freshman dorms get really close, while others have a freshman lecture or orientation group that facilitate friendships. Class friendships can say a lot about the environment at a school and how people can learn cooperatively. Some schools have really strong clubs and teams that become like families. If a school is really Greek, you might want to see if people have a lot of friendships outside of their fraternity or sorority. I love this question because they’re not going to lie to you, and it will probably spring board into a different type of conversation.

Salad as a metaphor: I had this salad while eating dinner with two of my friends. One was a girl I met this year in a singing group, and another was a girl whose life and mine overlapped quite a lot (same singing group, freshman seminar, same sorority).

They teased the crap out of me about the quantities of baby corn I put on the salad, but they know that this was actually me using restraint, because we became very close while having twice-weekly dinners for the singing group we’re all in.

What have been some improvements your school has made in the last year? Instead of what is the school doing for the future?

This is a good question because it allows the tour guide to brag about the school, which is always good. They might mention some renovations or additions to campus. They may talk about how the school has made eco-friendly strides, or how the physics department has just gotten some great new equipment, or… anything.

Salad as a metaphor: The salad I had was on a new eco-friendly plate. While they’re not as cheerful as the old colors they used to use, I appreciate the strides my school is making to be green.

You may come up with other standard questions that you ask while touring, but I think those are a few great ones that tell you more than “what was your SAT score?”

Happy searching ladies and gentlemen.