Updates from Derren Brown and the Enigma Crew

For years, parents and high school students have marveled at the ability of campus tour guides to walk backwards while talking (and talking, and talking some more), and, for the most part, not tripping.

Increasingly, though, colleges are telling their guides to turn around and walk forward — to facilitate more natural conversations, as well as to soothe the anxieties of mothers in particular, who tend to worry about their guides falling over curbs or toppling over signs that weren’t there the day before.

There are even consultants advising colleges (sometimes for fees exceeding $10,000), to overhaul their campus tours, not only by rotating their guides 180 degrees but also by encouraging them to throw away their statistics-laden scripts. (One is called, somewhat ominously, TargetX.)

As colleges continue to compete for the most talented students — and, in some cases, the applicants with the deepest pockets — they are making over their tours, the better to make a good first impression.

New York Times (Thanks Fosca)