Your questions, answered

SchoolScoops tours and video chats are different from a traditional admissions office campus tours in a variety of ways. SchoolScoops is not meant to replace admissions office tours; instead, they’re meant to complement them and provide you with a more complete picture of what it’s really like to go to school there.

Admissions office tours provide you with a wealth of interesting information and can be highly beneficial for learning about a school, but you don’t always get the full story since admissions office tours are organized by the school and are essentially sales-scripted pitches. The admission office tour guide works for the school, and their job is to tell you everything that’s great about it so you will apply. You’re just a number in a big group, you don’t get to pick your guide, and everyone gets the same cookie-cutter tour. You get herded around campus and learn a lot of facts, but not necessarily if the school is really a good fit for you.

At SchoolScoops, we believe that choosing the right college is much easier when you can have an honest and open conversation with a student at that school—someone you can identify with and trust. During a private SchoolScoops tour or video chat, you can ask your guide all the big and little personal questions you really want to know, like which freshman dorm should I avoid, is this school too big to get to know my professors, do most students go home on weekends, and what are the reputations of the fraternities and sororities? You won’t get answers to these types of questions on traditional admissions office tours.

Our mission is to empower students to make well-informed college decisions through personalized tours, genuine insights, and meaningful connections.

Guests can browse listings which include details about the Guide’s college experience, qualities, reviews, and available Sessions. Once a Guest finds a suitable Guide, they can select an available date and time and submit a Booking Request by entering their payment information. Guests will not be charged until the Guide accepts their Booking Request and confirms their booking.

What Happens After Submitting a Booking Request?

• The Guide has up to 24 hours to accept or decline the request.
• If the Guide accepts, the Guest will be charged, and the booking is confirmed.
• If the Guide declines, does not respond within 24 hours, or fails to confirm before the booking starts, the request will be canceled, and the Guest will not be charged.

This process ensures that Guests only pay for confirmed sessions while giving Guides time to review and approve requests.

Yes, parents and siblings are allowed to join your tours and video chats. Please inform your guide if they're joining before your booking starts.

For campus tours, you should meet your guide at the location on campus that is listed in your reservation confirmation email and on the SchoolScoops booking confirmation page. This is typically a well-known, central location on campus that provides a good starting point for your tour. We recommend arriving a few minutes before your tour starts.

In certain circumstances you may need to meet your guide at a different location. This should be a public location on or just outside of campus that is easily accessible for your guide. You and your guide should mutually agree on an alternate meeting point.

For video chats, use Google Meet to join the video chat on your desktop or mobile device. Your reservation confirmation will include a button and details on how to join.

If you can’t find your guide on campus, or if your guide does not join your video chat, you should send them a message through the SchoolScoops messaging system. If you have exchanged emails or phone numbers you can also reach them that way.

Guests may cancel an upcoming booking at any time and will receive a full refund if the cancellation occurs 24 hours or more before the scheduled start time. If you cancel a booking within 24 hours of the start time, your payment is non-refundable.

To cancel a booking, log in to your account and click the “My tours” link in the navigation and select the “As guest” tab. Then select the 'Upcoming' tab and choose the booking you need to cancel. Below the 'Tour Summary' panel, you will find the option to cancel your tour. Before proceeding with the cancellation, we highly recommend messaging your guide to see if they can reschedule. Oftentimes guides have flexible schedules and will work with you to find another time that works for both of you.

After your tour or video chat is over, you can review your guide and provide feedback in your SchoolScoops account. You'll receive an email from SchoolScoops containing a link to review your guide. You can also view your past tours and submit reviews from the “My tours” page.

SchoolScoops is always adding new colleges and universities. Please send an email to suggest@schoolscoops.com and let us know what schools we should expand to next.

Before your tour or video chat starts, we recommend doing some research about the school and coming prepared with a list of questions and things you want to learn more about. To help you get started, we've put together this list of topics and questions to help you prepare. You can also message your guide with specific topics or questions you’d like to learn about during your tour.

Feel free to ask your guide any questions you have, big or small, including personal ones that you might not ask on a group tour. Just remember that their answers reflect their own personal opinions.

Any current college student is eligible to be a SchoolScoops guide.

SchoolScoops guides are friendly individuals who genuinely want to share their experiences with prospective students. They are personable, punctual and prepared.

To become a SchoolScoops guide, create an account and click on “Become a guide” in the navigation. Create your listing by sharing a little bit of information about yourself, studies, extracurricular activities and hobbies. Creating your listing is free and only takes a few minutes.

Then, indicate the times you're available and unavailable to host campus tours and video chats. Next, select your preferred payout method and enter your account details. Click here to learn more about hosting on SchoolScoops.

When a Guest submits a Booking Request, you will receive a notification to review the details and decide whether to accept or decline the request.

What Happens When You Receive a Booking Request?

• You have up to 24 hours or until the booking begins to review and respond to the Booking Request, whichever comes first.
• If you accept the Booking Request, the Guest’s payment will be processed, and the booking will be confirmed.
• If you decline or do not respond within 24 hours, the Booking Request will be canceled, and the Guest will not be charged. If you consistently do not respond to Booking Requests your account may be suspended.

To provide the best experience for Guests, try to respond as soon as possible. If you are unavailable for a requested time, you should message the Guest to find an alternative time before declining.

Guides earn $40 for each tour and video chat they host. All tours and video chats should last one hour. Your payout will be automatically sent to your bank account 7 days after your tour concludes. If you have any questions about payouts, please contact help@schoolscoops.com.

For campus tours, you should meet your guest at the location on campus that is listed in your reservation confirmation email and on the SchoolScoops booking confirmation page. This is typically a well-known, central location on campus that provides a good starting point for your tour. We recommend arriving a few minutes before your tour starts.

In certain circumstances you may need to meet your guest at a different location. This should be a public location on or just outside of campus that is easily accessible for your guest. You and your guest should mutually agree on an alternate meeting point.

For video chats, use Google Meet to join the video chat on your desktop or mobile device. Your reservation confirmation will include a button and details on how to join.

If you can’t find your guest on campus, or if your guest does not join your video chat, you should send them a message through the SchoolScoops messaging system. If you have exchanged emails or phone numbers you can also reach them that way.

To cancel a hosting job, log in to your account and click the “My tours” link in the navigation and select the “As guide” tab. Then select the “Upcoming” tab and choose the booking you need to cancel. Below the 'Tour summary' panel, you will find the option to cancel your tour. Before canceling, we highly recommend messaging your guest to see if they can reschedule. Oftentimes guests have flexible schedules and will work with you to find another time that works for both of you.

If you cancel a hosting job, your guest will receive a full refund, and you will not be paid. Do not cancel too many hosting jobs or your listing’s position on the search page may be negatively affected. If you consistently cancel hosting jobs, your account may be suspended. Make sure to keep your calendar availability updated to avoid canceling too many hosting jobs.

To update your availability, log in to your account and click on “Manage listing”. Then, select “Manage availability”. Click “Edit availability” to update your weekly schedule. If you need to update your availability on a specific day(s) (ex: Springs Break, Finals Week, Etc.) click “Add an availability exception”.

SchoolScoops is always adding new colleges and universities. Please send an email to suggest@schoolscoops.com and let us know what schools we should expand to next.

Before hosting jobs, think back to when you were applying to colleges and what you would have wanted to know and the questions you had. To help you get started, we've put together this list of topics and questions to help you prepare. Review your guest's messages to see if there is anything specific they want to learn on their tour.

Guests may cancel an upcoming booking at any time and will receive a full refund if the cancellation occurs 24 hours or more before the scheduled start time. If you cancel a booking within 24 hours of the start time, your payment is non-refundable. Cancellation deadlines for receiving refund are measured from the tour start time for the listing in its local time zone.

To cancel your booking, log in to your account and click the “My tours” link in the navigation and select the “As guest” tab. Then select the 'Upcoming' tab and choose the booking you need to cancel. Below the 'Tour summary' panel, you will see the option to cancel your booking. Before proceeding with the cancellation, we highly recommend messaging your guide to see if they can reschedule. Oftentimes guides have flexible schedules and will work with you to find another time.

As a guide, you can cancel a hosting job at any time. However, if you cancel, your guest will receive a full refund, and you will not be paid.

To cancel a hosting job, log in to your account and click the “My tours” link in the navigation and select the “As guide” tab. Then select the “Upcoming” tab and choose the hosting job you need to cancel. Below the 'Tour summary' panel, you will find the option to cancel your hosting job. Before canceling, we highly recommend messaging your guest to see if they can reschedule. Oftentimes guests have flexible schedules and will work with you to find another time that works for both of you.

Do not cancel too many hosting jobs or your listing’s position on the search page may be negatively affected. If you consistently cancel hosting jobs, your account may be suspended. Keep your calendar availability updated to avoid canceling too many hosting jobs.

Refunds are processed by SchoolScoops immediately and typically takes 7-10 business days for your bank to process. If you have not received your refund after 10 business days please contact us at help@schoolscoops.com.

SchoolScoops accepts all major credit and debit cards.

SchoolScoops uses Stripe to process payments. Stripe is certified as a Level 1 Service Provider, which is the highest level of certification for payment processors. Stripe complies with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI-DSS), a set of security standards established by major card brands like Visa, Mastercard, and American Express.