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July 30, 2010 4:13 AM

How St. Olaf lost a potential student

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Calebrw via Wikimedia Commons

You can't please everyone

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MPR News helps you turn down the noise and build shared understanding. Turn up your support for this public resource and keep trusted journalism accessible to all.

Here's a blog post I stumbled upon by a parent who just recently finished a campus tour of St. Olaf.

I'm always curious what they and their children think of campuses. In this case, they didn't think much of what they saw:

an overly frank tour guide;
a dark, "horrible" music building with an unimpressive program; and
a "strange" admissions process that allowed only students to talk to the admissions officer.

Don't take this reposting as a knock on St. Olaf. After all, you win some, you lose some in the recruiting game. And if you scroll to the bottom of the post, you'll see the college has found a defender.

So parents and students: What have been your experiences with campus tours? And have you blogged about them?

Dear reader,

Political debates with family or friends can get heated. But what if there was a way to handle them better?

You can learn how to have civil political conversations with our new e-book!

Download our free e-book, Talking Sense: Have Hard Political Conversations, Better, and learn how to talk without the tension.