The band of prospective students and their parents express amazement as they approach West Campus. They follow their tour guide up Chapel Drive, as Duke's major landmark emerges in the sky.
"I can see why people like coming here," one mother whispers as the Chapel comes into view. "I love the architecture."
The sight of Duke's grand Gothic structures on a sunny autumn afternoon provides a strong initial impact on a group, but it is the task of a group's backwards-striding tour guide to keep interest high.
"Tours really make the first impression of a school," tour guide and junior Allana Strong said. "We want to put the Duke we know and love out there."
For tour guides like Strong, making such an impression is an art form.
While leading their weekly sessions, the guides are able to skillfully cram information about almost every positive aspect of Duke into a mere hour-and-fifteen-minute time slot.
"It's important that we really put Duke in a positive light," Strong said.
To achieve this goal, the tour guides share some common strategies as they wind through West Campus.
The latest of these strategies is to focus on the abundance of new structures dotting the University's grounds.
Tour guide Jackie August, a sophomore, said she emphasizes fundraising efforts on her tours and wants to show prospective students where the money goes. "By the time you get here, most of it will be completed," she says of the current construction.
After stopping on the Main West Quadrangle to describe the basics of Duke academics, each tour guide beelines to the walkway between three of the school's latest additions: Bostock Library, von der Heyden Pavilion and the Fitzpatrick Center for Interdisciplinary Engineering, Medicine and Applied Sciences.
The prospective students and their parents can admire the new buildings as the guide describes the recently completed Nasher Museum of Art, Rubenstein Hall and Bell Tower Dormitory and notes projects currently underway, such as the West Campus student plaza and the renovations to Perkins Library.
"We are constantly progressing," boasts Strong as her group observes students bustling in and out of the newly opened Mad Hatters Cafe and Bake Shop. "Duke's doing just a terrific job keeping its facilities modern."
Even as they are flooded with positive facts about Duke, visitors-especially parents-raise difficult questions.
"The parents are really inquisitive," August said. "The parents ask more questions than the kids do."
When questions are directed toward some of Duke's weaker points, the tour guides must remain on their toes.
Strong said concerned parents frequently asked her about safety on campus. Her tactic of choice is to draw attention to the improvements Duke has made in this area by pointing out the existence of Safe Rides and blue light phones.
In addition, the well-versed tour guides are able to detract from what many deem as the school's less palatable features by putting a positive spin on their statements.
Strong, for example, jokes that the difficulty of parking on West Campus is a small price to pay for living among beautiful old trees.
August has also mastered the art of diverting attention from flaws while still being honest.
"Obviously, you have to tell the truth," she said.
When presenting what many students agree is a less-than-ideal meal plan for freshmen, August admits the Marketplace is not the most popular on-campus eatery. "Because it's all-you-can-eat, it's obviously not gourmet," she confesses before quickly switching to a more pleasant feature of the dining plan: Merchants on Points.
Tour guides say, however, that they approach their sessions with more than just deflection in mind. They also strive to expand upon the plethora of cliched facts rattled off during tours at every college by presenting the experience of real Duke student through their own personal stories.
"No two tours are going to be the same," August said. "You take the facts, and then you personalize, giving your own opinions."
Meg Eckman, a high school junior from Virginia, recently participated in a campus tour. She said that while her basic questions about dorm rooms, classes and studying abroad were answered, the most memorable part of the tour was her guide's anecdote about constructing benches and burning them after basketball games.
"It's made me want to have a closer look at Duke," Eckman said of the tour.
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