Newly admitted and prospective students have taken over the
campus.
With acceptance letters in, and statements of intent to register
waiting to be mailed out, April is the biggest month for tours at
UCLA.
This month marks a hectic time for Campus Tours, which handles
walkthroughs for students and parents on a yearly basis.
“We overcompensate in April, and then everything goes back
to normal the rest of the year,” said Dominique Revel, one of
three Campus Tours coordinators.
There are around 205 students and parents to break up into
smaller groups for each tour time during April.
Many of the participants are on spring break this week, making
it the best time to observe campus life before sending out their
SIR.
Admitted students are informed about campus tours on both the
paper and electronic acceptance letters.
On the admission decision site, they are asked to use a link to
make tour reservations in order to get top priority.
“On the paper acceptance letter, (students) are told that
they are guaranteed a tour,” said Venise Borlasa,
co-coordinator for Campus Tours.
This month is the only time admitted students are given
priority, though they can continue to make reservations before or
after April.
Even students who are accepted and guaranteed a spot find
difficulties when making reservations if they do not act
quickly.
“I actually signed up a little bit late, so this was the
only day available during the week,” said Sharukh
Lokhandwala, an admitted applicant.
Lokhandwala said he was pretty sure that he would choose to
attend UCLA but wanted to see the campus anyway.
“Ever since I was a kid I wanted to go here,” he
said.
Some prospective students come for the tour without a
reservation, hoping that someone would cancel.
“(Getting a tour) was actually a matter of luck,”
said Preeti Piplani, a high school junior.
Piplani and her mother travelled from the Bay Area to Los
Angeles to visit the campus.
They had not been able to make reservations due to the heavy
touring activity, but a cancellation was made and they were fit
into the tour.
Groups on tour are sometimes separated based on different
factors.
The prospective and admitted students go on separate tours, with
the only difference being that the admitted students get an
admission presentation.
Also, the group tours usually consist of students while the
individual tours walk both students and their parents through
campus.
Students like Piplani, who are still in high school and come
from an area outside of Los Angeles have their parents with
them.
The groups of parents and applicants are led by student guides
who have received special training.
Training involves having campus administration groups, such as
housing and undergraduate admissions, tell the guides information
they want to give prospective students.
The guides also receive a tour manual on guidelines and
procedures.
“We call it the Bible,” Borlasa said.
The student guides go through a series of steps before being
able to lead a group on their own.
First, they have to shadow a tour group led by an experienced
guide before moving on to doing tag team tours. Then they do their
own tour with an experienced guide shadowing them.
All of the tour guides work under Campus Tours, and follow its
procedures.
Tours that are not affiliated with Campus Tours have also been
taking place on campus.
Housing tours occur consistently throughout the year and
experience an increase in participation similar to that of Campus
Tours.
On housing tours, students and their families are led through
dorm rooms that have been volunteered, in order to see residential
life on campus.
Housing has programs limited only to accepted students, as well
as normal tours which include all prospective students.
Housing also gives tours to students from outside events and
programs, such as College Honors Days, which were held on Tuesday
and Wednesday this week.
College Honors Days are held for accepted students who are
eligible to participate in the honors program.
The program participants went on a tour of both the campus and
housing.
Some UCLA students find it hard to miss the many tours being led
around the campus but have not found them troublesome.
Having prospective students march across students’ paths
is one thing, but being approached by an applicant is another to
some.
“If (prospective students) were to stop and ask me what
it’s like to be a student, I’d think that isn’t
necessary,” said Jose Salgado, a second-year undeclared
student.
Students will continue to deal with the massive amounts of
prospective students trailing across their paths until the end of
April.
Although the population increase may hamper some students, those
who lead the tours see the positive side.
Many of the prospective students on the tours are terrified
about the idea of going to college, said Chelsea Schieder,
fourth-year history student and tour guide.
“You feel like you’re helping someone. When I have
good tours it’s really an amazing feeling,” she
said.