The University of Iowa is a public research university in Iowa City, Iowa with 32,948 students. Sabrina Tapps Fee is Assistant Director, Outreach & Recruitment, Campus Tour Program at Iowa.
Loyola Marymount is a private research university in Los Angeles with 9,695 students. Christopher Kwan is an Admission Counselor at LMU.
How large is your team and how many will you hire this semester/year?
Sabrina Tapps Fee (Iowa): At Iowa, we have a couple factions of student help. Our volunteer organization, STAR, Students to Assist Recruitment, has roughly 150 students that help with large visit days and some off campus communication.
Our campus tour guides are approximately 70 strong. We also have roughly 20 students that live in the residence halls and assist with providing residence hall tours.
We tend to hire around 10-15 in the fall semesters with the spring being bigger, but somewhat based on the number of seniors we lose to graduation. It usually tends to be around 25-30 each spring.
Christopher Kwan (LMU): At LMU, we have two different teams of students who work with the visit side of Undergraduate Admission.
We have our volunteer Ambassador program – this group is usually 60-100 students. Students are nominated for this group through the file review process by their admission counselor. These students help mainly with larger recruitment and yield events.
We have our campus tour guide program – this group fluctuates depending on the number of students who are abroad and also with our replacement policy regarding graduating students. In the fall we typically have around 50 tour guides. In the spring we usually up this to 60 or so. Within this tour program we have students who are trained to give tours in the 5 different colleges that we have at LMU.
This fall I was able to hire 12 students to help with tours; this upcoming spring I will be hiring an additional 30 or so tour guides. This is because I have a graduating class of 32 students. In addition I will have 10 tour guides studying abroad.
How do you conduct your interviews?
Sabrina Tapps Fee (Iowa): For our campus tour guides, we currently hire twice a year. A big group in the spring semester with a smaller hiring group in the fall to back fill any that are lost over the summer. Our campus tour guides go through a two interview process with the first being a 3-5 minute presentation to a group of applicants and current tour guides. The topic can be of their choice but has to be based on “if you could tell people about one thing on campus that has impacted you, what would it be?” After their presentation, they are asked a few questions as follow-up about their topic, and general knowledge of campus.
The second interview is with myself and one of our senior student coordinators (I have three). We go through some of the below questions and ask about their experiences on campus. We really look for how they carry themselves. We know they don’t know everything on campus, and they won’t know how to handle every situation, but we look for an openness to learning more or desire to be engaged on campus.
Since our tours are more story-based, they have to have a foundation for us to build on with the program.
Christopher Kwan (LMU): For our campus tour guides, we currently hire three times a year. A large group in the spring semester, typically 2 – 3 tour guides in the summer, and a smaller group in the fall to cover any students who decide to take time off from tour guiding, go abroad or leave the program.
Our tour guides go through a three step interview process. All current tour guides who are involved in the interview process are required to meet with me prior to the interview in order for them to understand the type of student we’re looking for as a tour guide, but to also know the priorities that we have this hiring cycle.
As a professional staff member, I am not involved in the first two steps of the interview. I intentionally removed myself from that conversation in order to allow my tour guides to see who they would like to join the team that they’re in, or what their legacy will be with the tour guide program. I only meet with applicants during the last stage interview.
The first step is a 1-hour long group interview. For the group interviews – we typically place them in groups of 3-5 students with four current tour guides conducting the interview. The group interviewers evaluate their general knowledge of campus, their public speaking, and also their improvisation skills.
The second part of the interview process involves a three to four minute presentation on a department, organization, club or experience that LMU has. The only stipulation is that they can not talk about something that they’re currently involved in or studying. This presentation is given to only current tour guides. All applicants have to wait outside while this takes place. After their presentation, there typically is time for a minute of Q&A regarding their presentation topic.
The third part of the interview process takes place usually a week or so after the first two steps. This part is only offered to students who have fulfilled one of two criteria. That they get an average score of 80% or higher for the first two parts of their interview; or that they impressed the tour guides significantly enough that they warrant another look (even if they didn’t do so well the first time round)
The third part of the interview is an individual interview with me. I do open it to my student coordinators if they missed the first two sections – I have three coordinators. In this round, I typically follow up on some of the points they made in the first and second round. I ask about why they chose the topic for their second round. In addition to this, I ask questions designed to get a sense of WHY they want to be a tour guide, if they’re a great fit for our program, and if they’re open to learning new things about our campus. In addition to this, we go through their schedule to determine how many shifts/touts they’d be able to complete each semester, etc. Typically only 30% of the applicants make it to the third part of the interview.
What are some general questions you ask interviewees?
Sabrina Tapps Fee (Iowa):
- Why did you choose to attend IOWA? What was the moment you realized this was where you wanted to go?
- Why do you want to be a tour guide?
- While everyone can say “you should come here”, why do you think a tour guide needs to understand the importance of that statement and how it is different for everyone who visits?
- Being that you have been here for “x” semesters, what is one piece of advice you wish someone would have told you? What piece of advice do you wish someone would have told your parents?
- It can be hard to show the diversity of campus on a tour. What resources or experiences would you share with students and families to show it is valued and appreciated on campus.
- Research shows the campus visit is an important part of the college choice. Why do you think that is and how would you look to impact visitors while on tours?
- We always end with “you have chosen to return to campus for “x” semesters, what makes you stay at Iowa?
Christopher Kwan (LMU):
- Why did you choose LMU?
- Why do you want to be a tour guide?
- As a high school student, you might have gone on a few campus tours of your own. Thinking back to those experiences… what attributes do you think make a good tour guide? What was your best tour – why was it so good?
- As a college student, there are things you wish you could share with families about the college process – what are some things you would want someone in their junior or senior year of high school to know about the college search process?
- Talk to me about diversity. What is LMU doing regarding diversity in the forms of initiatives, programs, organizations. How would you articulate this to a family?
- As a Jesuit university, our Jesuit identity is important to who we are. In your own words – who are the Jesuits, what is LMU’s mission? How would you explain our Jesuit identity, values and mission to students of different beliefs and backgrounds?
- Why should I not hire you as a tour guide?
- What prior public speaking experience do you have?
Do you have your interviewees address any “situational” questions?
Sabrina Tapps Fee (Iowa): We will often address these three situations:
- A students asks you about parties and what there is to do for fun, what would you say?
- A parent is bringing up topics they have “heard about”, how do you respond, are there resources to bring up?
- I heard if you are not a fan of football, you will be an outcast, is that true?
Christopher Kwan (LMU): We follow up with a few situational questions.
- A family brings up the topic of marijuana being legal in California. What is LMU’s stance on marijuana?
- A student wants to learn more about the party scene, how would you describe the LMU party culture?
