Even with most students away on break, Stanford’s campus is far from quiet during the summer – partly due to the tour guides who chose to remain. As tour guides walk backward and lead listeners through campus, they help promote the University by sharing historical facts about Stanford alongside their own student experiences.
Summer tours attract an especially large number of prospective students, as they coincide with summer break for high school students and precede due dates for college applications in the fall. To accommodate this influx, the visitor center had a core group of seven full-time tour guides who gave tours each day over the summer. An additional three to four part-time guides also assisted with tours at least once a week, according to tour guide and student manager Grant Moore ’25.
For guides like Mary Lee ’26, these tours are not just about showcasing the University’s architecture and grounds; they are about connecting with people and conveying what they feel makes Stanford special. Lee described one of the highlights of her Stanford experience as being surrounded by peers who are “incredibly driven, compassionate and eager to make a difference.”
“I feel there’s no other university like it,” Lee said. “It makes me really excited to meet more people at Stanford every day and feel like they’re going to change the world, and that I’m next to people who are going to make that big difference.”
During the summer, approximately 1,000 students elect to stay on campus — a relatively small number compared to the University’s total student population size of more than 17,000 undergraduate and graduate students. Moore shared his experience living on campus to give summer tours for the first time, observing the difference between bustling common spaces and the otherwise serene, mostly empty campus.
“At the visitor center, it’s crazy busy, interacting with hundreds of people,” he said. “But walking around campus, it’s very quiet. It’s actually very nice.”
Despite the overall quieter student activity, visitors still get a glimpse of campus life during the summer through the personal experiences shared by the tour guides. For many guides, the highlight of the tour is walking down the Row, a residential area on campus where many guides choose to live as upperclassmen.
“My favorite place on the tour is talking about housing because I have loved my residential experience at Stanford,” said Lily Raaka ’24 M.S. ’25, a tour guide and student manager. Raaka said that sharing her housing experiences as a guide allows her to reflect on various stages of her own journey as a student, from living in a freshman dorm to Row houses.
It is these personal experiences that make Stanford tours so special, leaving a lasting impact on prospective students. Tour guide Erin Ye ’26, who is also a managing editor for The Grind, reflected on her favorite tour memories and recalled moments where she felt she made a significant difference.
After one tour, a high school junior approached Ye and mentioned that she initially had not planned on applying to Stanford, but Ye persuaded her to give it a try.
“I try to end my tours with a little bit of my own experience of applying on a whim, and to encourage more people to just not be afraid of the number,” Ye said. “So when I get feedback that people are going to apply, that’s always a good memory.”