At the University of Virginia, initiation rituals and fraternity-like traditions are not limited to the Greek scene.
With a tour guiding program that functions much like a highly-selective student society, Virginia's guides gain a completely different experience than those at Penn.
Unlike Penn's program, which accepted 70 of its 109 applicants for tour guiding positions last semester, Virginia only has 24 openings each semester, according to sophomore Ross Baird. The tour guide added that the group usually sees around 250 applicants.
As part of the volunteer guide service, students must pay dues of about $50 a year. Baird said that the organization throws its own parties and has an initiation, with "many traditions." The "new class" of guides also get assigned big brothers and sisters -- much like in fraternities and sororities.
Within the guide service Baird said there are a number of secret societies, including the "water buffalos," or the members that "can drink the most." Every semester the "water buffalos" tap new members.
The fraternity-like atmosphere that Baird said is pervasive in Virginia's tour guiding group is nearly absent at Penn.
"I think people decide to become a tour guide [at Penn] because of their desire to tell potential freshman about the school, rather than looking to join a selective society," Wharton sophomore and guide Elise Peters said.
Here, students are able to apply to be a tour guide in the first few weeks of both the fall and spring semesters, although there are not a select number of spots for which students are competing.
"We accept as many people as would make good tour guides," said College junior Diana Vining, an executive board member of Kite and Key.
Although there are many guides, the application and training processes are not necessarily simple. After a written application is submitted, an interview is required. If accepted, there are four two-hour training sessions. Trainees must then give two practice tours and lead a tour in front of an actual visiting group, but with a trained tour guide present.
Jodi Buyyounouski, Penn's director of on-campus programs, described tour guiding as "something we take very seriously." Along with bringing in guest speakers -- who inform trainees about facilities, housing and the four undergraduate schools -- this year a speech coach was hired.
Contrary to Penn's large number of tour guides, at Yale students apply in the hopes of obtaining one of only 15 spots that become vacant each year with the graduation of seniors. Officials from the visitors center said they receive around 150 applications each year for the 40-person staff.
In addition to being a paid, non-work-study position, Yale junior and head tour guide Austin Broussard said that Yale receives a lot of applicants because the job is "much more fun. It's better than shelving books at the library."
Only freshman and sophomores are allowed to apply, which adds to the selectivity of the Yale program.
"We like students that will be with us for the next couple of years. Once you get it as a freshman, you stay in it," Broussard said.
Yale's 40 tour guides seem to form an exclusive community. Broussard stressed that there is not an initiation, but new guides go through an "orientation."
After guides are accepted, a party is thrown where "the new guys run around in togas and [get] sprayed with ketchup and mustard," he said.
Although Penn's tour guides do not participate in these types of "orientation" activities, themed parties are thrown for the guides.
These get-togethers give guides "a chance to ... relax and communicate with each other," according to tour guide Jeffrey Salomon, a College sophomore. "It's almost a sense of family."
