Potential students tour IU, learn about campus

While most IU students return home for summer vacation, high school students explore their academic possibilities at IU and other colleges.\nSenior Caitlin Coar, a student tour guide of about two years, teaches possible future students about academia and student life at IU. She said taking a tour is the best thing future students can do if they are considering attending IU.\n“I never had a tour when I first got here,” she said. “I had no idea how many things are here. I didn’t know that there are over 600 activities I could take part in or that I could be a student teacher.”\nCoar said tour guides receive a notebook full of general information about the campus during training sessions, but the tours are completely unscripted. She said each guide tells his or her own personal stories about IU, and Coar recalled nothing but happy memories during her college career.\n“I became a tour guide because of my experience here,” she said. “I found my place at IU, and I want to help people find their place, too.” \nCoar led a group of about 17 high school students and parents May 20. \nAs she showed the group the Musical Arts Center on Jordan Avenue, she also made the group note the Read Center across the street. Coar told the group about dorm security and how no one can go inside the buildings or dorm floors without a key. Mothers Akiko Cotton and Karin Parrott, both from Fishers, Ind., both sighed in relief. They said the information was good to know.\n“I was wondering about security,” Cotton said. “Events like Virginia Tech don’t happen so often, but you want to ask about security.”\nCoar took the group through the Indiana Memorial Union to the front of the building, where she warned about the costs of parking tickets, noting some cars parked in yellow zones. This reminded IU alumna Patty Olson from Indianapolis about the difficulties of keeping a car on campus and how she doesn’t want her daughter to have one.\n“I’m glad (Coar) mentioned the parking tickets,” Olson said. “I keep warning my daughter about them, but she still wants to take her car.”\nMost of the students appreciated Coar’s interaction with them and how she personalized their experience. Coar left no questions unanswered.\n“It’s hard to know the questions you want to ask before you get here,” said Angela West from Gary, Ind. “But I didn’t have much to ask.”\nHigh school junior Siera Thomas, who came with West, said her questions about student life were pretty much answered.\n“I liked hearing about the dorms and how to get around campus,” she said.\nMost students and parents plan to explore other colleges, but Cotton’s daughter, Grace, a high school junior, said the tour influenced her a little, and she plans to attend IU.\n“I will most likely go here,” she said, “assuming I get accepted.”