The tour guide program responds to the stress with a subsequent change in its dynamic: summer tour guides are paid.
During the school year, tour guides are a volunteer position, but summer guides are paid from $7 to $10 per tour, depending on how many tours they give in a day. Guides receive the same payment for tours that they give during interim or during one of their off-terms.
The program also adjusts by offering three tour times per day between Monday and Friday rather than two. Each tour slot breaks down to five to six groups lead by as many guides over the summer, as opposed to four to five during the year.
Despite increased activity, summer coordinator Jeremy Warburg '08 said that organizing the summer schedule has not presented major problems.
"It's less hectic since we aren't training any guides," Warburg said.
The Admissions Office employs roughly 100 tour guides in total, with approximately 20 students on staff during the summer. The tour leader application process is always competitive: of the 130 students who applied to be tour guides this past winter and spring, only 60 were hired, according to Assistant Director of Admissions Caroline Kerr.
Guides are asked to take three tour slots a week in the summer, compared to the two tour slots usually expected in the fall, winter and spring.
"It's a considerably different commitment over the summer and interim than it is to give one to two tours a week during the rest of the year," Kerr said.
During the rest of the year, problems have arisen when tour guides do not show up to lead their scheduled tours. Tour guides try to cover for each other because there's "mutual respect and understanding between tour guides," Tyler Frisbee '08 said. Despite this, Frisbee has encountered situations in which she was the only person out of four scheduled guides who showed up. The shortage of guides forces the Admissions Office to send out emergency BlitzMail messages desperately seeking guides to lead tours.
Students faced with conflicts have had much less difficulty finding substitutes this term.
"Every time that I have blitzed out, someone has covered my shift," Alix Toothman '08 said. "I'd say it's easier to get subs in the summer and I'm guessing that it's due to the fact that we get paid."
Ilissa Samplin '08 said that she frequently receives BlitzMail messages from the Admissions Office requesting guides to give special tours to visiting groups.
"No one even replied back in the winter," she said.
Even though there are more tours offered in the summer, the demand for guides is met.
"Now, the special tours are gone in a second because it's an easy way to make an extra eight dollars," Samplin said.
Andrea Palmer '08 said that getting paid is an added bonus. "The payment definitely increases the incentive to do two tours in a day, and to do more in a week than I otherwise would," she said.
While the Admissions Office has considered paying tour guides during the rest of the year, every time the decision comes down against offering monetary compensation.
"We want 'volunteers' so that we get the people who really want to 'sell' Dartmouth and truly love the school," Warburg said. "Those who are in it just for the money are not as likely to be as good guides."
For many prospective students, their tour guide is one of the only members of the Dartmouth community with whom they interact and as a result, that guide can often "make or break" their visit to campus, Kerr said.
Tour guides occasionally must face awkward situations and tricky questions.
"I believe that to make my tours more credible, passers-by should be allowed to confirm or deny what I'm saying," Ben Schwarz '06 said. "So, as I'm under the Rocky arches talking about Greek life at Dartmouth, I ask someone walking by, who I know is in a house, 'Anything you'd like to tell the tour about the Greek system?' His reply: 'Last night, I booted there, there, and there,' pointing to where the tour group was standing."
Tour guides also have to contend with the highly critical comments and negative viewpoints of campus visitors.
"It doesn't help that one of the most recent and visible articles about Dartmouth was on CNN, about [Hanover Police's] raid on AD looking for drugs or child porn," Schwartz said. "Nor is it helpful that every time a national media outlet discusses Dartmouth they have to add an appositive about the College: 'Dartmouth, the school that was the inspiration for Animal House,' or 'Dartmouth, a traditionally conservative stronghold.'"
Tour guides say that the most rewarding aspect of tour guiding is the satisfaction they feel afterwards. "After I give a tour, I just have this adrenaline rush," Samplin said. "I can't explain it, but it puts me in a good mood for the rest of the day."
Toothman said that for most tour guides, leading tours is about sharing Dartmouth with visitors.
"There are still tons of people who apply every year and they do it with the knowledge that the majority of the time is unpaid," she said.
Jenna Sherman '08 agrees.
"I love Dartmouth, and what's more fun than showing off the campus to visitors?" she asked.
