Yale Daily News

I find all of this just a little upsetting - these stories are presented as facts and are often received as such. I've told that story about Vanderbilt a dozen times, and now I feel a bit like a liar and a bit like a fool. I now find myself doubting anything that a tour guide has ever told me about Yale. Did artisans really figure out a way to chip glass panes in the shape of a Y and continue doing so on purpose (explaining the y-shaped window cracks all over campus)? Was the special translucent stone for Beinecke really flown in all the way from Italy? Did the architect for SML really want to build Yale a cathedral but had to settle for building a cathedral of knowledge instead? Was the artist of the painting in SML behind the circulation desk really a communist who snuck in that hammer and sickle? Did Yale's founders really name the school after Elihu Yale on the supposition that a donation would be made only to find out months later that no donation would be made? Did Maya Lin really design the women's table to commemorate Yale's admission of women? Was Yale really a leader in allowing women equal access to education? Do freshmen really live together on old campus? Are Yale students actually happy? See the problem yet?

I've tagged along on many tours even after coming to Yale just to learn more about my beloved school. How much of what I "know" is actually false? It's a little sickening, to tell the truth. If guides develop a reputation for "embellishment" (read: outright lies), how is anyone supposed to trust them when they talk about how fantastic Yale life is or how stimulating Yale's intellectual atmosphere is? I can't believe they're even suggesting that Yale's dorms have cooling systems. This has really gone too far. It's not just the boy who cried wolf all over again, it's also just downright unethical.

Please just start saying "rumor has it" when that's appropriate. Sheesh.

Yale's tours are completely off-target. Their biggest fault, however, is not that they tend to embellish historical facts--it is that they talk too much about Yale's history, traditions, and useless anecdotes and too little about academics and student life.

Also, the tour guides love throwing around dollar amounts--Yale is spending $100 million on this building, $20 million on that building. Useless.

My family was appalled by the pretension exhibited by the guides during my visit, and we learned almost no information during the tour that was useful in making an intelligent college decision.

Tone it down a notch, tour guides.

Please, it's "crew" or "rowing team." "Crew team" is redundant as a crew and a team are essentially the same. How would "American Medical Association Society" or "Massachusetts Medical Society Association" sound? So, from now on it's either the "Yale Crew" or the "Yale Rowing Team."

Hardly surprising given Yale's dificulty distinguishing fact from fiction, ie Bush,Korean degree scandal, read my lips, no we are not making these changes to compete with Harvardm(financial aid)

the girl who wrote this article is a member of the yale womens CREW TEAM.

The only thing worse than the fibs told by the tour guides is the phony jollity peddled during "Bulldog Days."

My goodness. Some of you who have posted need to calm down a bit. I agree, some of the stories told on tours are a bit over the top, which is probably why my tourguide told it with a slight smirk, acknowledging his audience's skepticism. I went on the tour to learn about student life, a bit of history, and have some fun. If you are going on a tour to find primary sources for your history dissertation, maybe you need to rethink yourself a bit.

There are so many true stories that outshine these pointless fish tales. Clearly the tour guides are just doing this to cure their own boredom or (try to) impress visitors with their creativity. It doesn't serve Yale or the prospectives well.

Ummm... these comments are a little intense/way too focused on the details. Most college tours are crammed with "useless" anecdotes. If you want to learn about the specifics of a certain program or student life... ask! The tour guides definitely leave time open for questions so use it wisely. And chill, everything works out in the end.

I agree that the info is useless and silly, but that's not the point. The problem is that it is also false. Lies have no place in tours to learn about a college. Find new silly stories - ones that are true.

As a former tourguide, I can attest that almost everything in the tour is a lie. I quit the tourguides because I refused to peddle their worthless baloney.

If the tourguides had half a brain, they would realize that the amount of true historical information about Yale and New Haven could fill up several Ken Burns documentaries. Stop peddling meaningless, trashy stories and use some of it.

Also, if you want to design a tour route that makes more sense, start by talking about the churches on the New Haven Green and development of New Haven, which is directly linked to the development of Yale. Tie in Yale's art museums and discuss the residential college system in more detail. Most importantly, stop telling lies and spouting completely inaccurate facts and figures about the campus, history, student demographic, surrounding town, and/or building costs.

That she is a rower makes it that much worse. cox'n is entirely right, it is a redundancy to say crew team. A boat has a crew, a rowing team rows, a crew rows a boat.