We've hit a season of our lives that involves doing campus tours at colleges. Exciting and nerve-wracking and sometimes exhausting depending on the size of the campus.
Needless to say we've met a lot of tour guides in the past year. And I'm re-thinking some of my routine from when I gave tours 25+ years ago.
Our very first tour was on a bitter cold day in January on the shores of one of the great lakes. Despite weather and what turned out not to be the right school for our kid we did have the best tour guide ever.
Shruthi* was a gem! Enthusiastic, loud enough to hear from the back of the group and interesting. The kind of kid every parent would want as a roommate for their kid. She even sent a postcard a week later thanking us for taking her tour. And wow, that kid could walk backwards like no one's business. Very impressive.
As a result we've developed the Shruthi scale in evaluating college tour guides. You knew this was coming. We love our rubrics at BA31. The Shruthi scale is a complicated and somewhat subjective grading system, but there are obvious differences between the Shruthis and the non-Shruthis.
We've visited nine colleges and have only had two tour guides who have come close to being Shurthi worthy. Mr. Monkey who did one of our tours (he was an animal behavior major!) came the closest by far with a solid nine on the Shruthi scale. And Randall was a solid 8.5 -- that kid knew everyone on a big campus! We only had one tour guide who made us all think to ourselves "well, he's no Shruthi."
So, now I wonder how many of the kids and families I gave tours to actually attended my college? And I wonder where I would have fallen on the Shruthi scale? I think I'll start walking the dog backwards to see if I've still got it.
And Shruthi if you're one of our 700 readers thanks for a great tour!
* I have no idea how this name is spelled, but it was pronounced Shroo The, with a long e like bee.
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