During the course of the summer, more than 4,000 bright-eyed 16- and 17-year-old students will get their first glimpse of the College through Admissions Office tours.
Groups of prospective applicants eagerly gather at McNutt Hall and then are led on a planned route around campus by student tour guides.
Anywhere from 10 to 30 students go on each tour, which last a little more than an hour.
On the tour, high-schoolers get a glimpse of Dartmouth life as they look at Baker Library, dormitories and The Hopkins Center for the Performing Arts.
Officials in the Admissions Office say response to the tours is overwhelmingly positive.
Many prospective students and parents say they like the tours because tour guides are trained not to just rattle-off facts and give Dartmouth history.
"We really try to not be focused on history and just plain facts," Assistant Admissions Director Michele Hernandez said. "We really try to have tour guides try to focus on their own D-plans, their own experiences."
Hernandez, who oversees the tour program, said guides try and tell people "what makes Dartmouth special."
And students on a Monday-afternoon tour said their tour did just that.
"I thought it was good. I learned a lot because I didn't know anything," said Sophia Balme, a soon-to-be high school senior from Katmath Falls, Ore. "I liked going around and seeing all the old buildings and talking about the spirit of the school."
Balme's father, a Yale University graduate, said he was very impressed by the touring process.
"I don't know if Yale has a similar program but it was very informative over the short period of the tour," he said. "It gives one a pretty good feeling for whether or not they want to matriculate here."
"It was very, very helpful," he continued. "Obviously it was very helpful for Sophia."
Balme's tour group was quiet during its 70-minute tour, asking questions only about the libraries and the dining halls.
When the tour guide got to Webster Avenue &emdash; where the majority of the College's Greek houses are located &emdash; and asked if there were any questions, there was silence.
"Easy tour," the guide joked.
The Admissions Office is constantly working with the tour guides, trying to find guides who can sell the school by being informative and entertaining.
Tour guides apply for their positions in Winter term. Hernandez said the College accepts about 50 percent of the applicants. Tour guides have a two-hour training session and also must go on a tour before they start giving tours.
Hernandez said the tour guide program has improved immensely since she was giving tours in the late 1980s.
"We've gotten a lot more selective," she said. "We're able to pick who we want to represent the Admissions Office … [Today's tour guides] are a lot more prepared. Before they said, 'Go out there and give a tour.' It was a lot more free-form."
Now, tour guides have two or three information sessions a term, to brush up on changes and current issues at the College.
While Hernandez said most of the feedback to the tours is extremely positive, there are some complaints. The most common complaint is that tours do not go into a dormitory room, she said.
Natlie Swetye, a possible member of the Class of 1999, said she wished there was more of an emphasis on social life on the tour.
"It was really good, but I would have liked to see more dorms and learn more about student life," she said. "It had a lot about academics but not a lot about student life."
Hernandez said it is difficult to show students dorms because each dorm is unique and it is hard to cram a 15-member tour group into a dorm.
Mira Lee '95, a senior interviewer who oversees the tour guides, said she often gets asked about the College's social scene when giving tours.
She said the tours help attract students to the College.
"It's difficult enough to get students to come all the way up here … but students who are up here end up loving it so much," she said.
She said the hardest question anyone ever asked her on a tour was about race and gender relations at the College.
"There's never a right answer and you never know what their reaction is going to be," she said.
Director of Admissions and Financial Aid Karl Furstenberg said the tour guides are told to focus more on academic issues. He said in the past, tour guides would talk too much about Dartmouth social life and the Admissions Office is "shifting the balance a little bit."
He said the tour guide process has not changed that much in recent years.
"I think they have been similar in their basic approach," he said. "We work more with the tour guides … In general we get really positive responses to the tours. That's encouraging."
