0They’re not hard to spot – thirty or so high schoolers huddled together like branded cattle with their bright orange bags and Illini T-shirts. They stare out at the Quad like tourists, amazed at the sheer size of a Big Ten university.

Their parents still cling to their sides, delaying the release into the realm of college life.

This is an everyday scene at the University, which more than 20,242 students have experienced this year in the Visitor Center’s programs for prospective and admitted students.

It’s left to the tour guides to keep this emotional roller coaster ride to a minimum.

They can’t control the student body they encounter during their campus tour. Bob Pusateri, Campus Visitor’s Center tour guide, said that students always seem to find a way to spice things up.

As a joke, one time a friend came up to Pusateri while he was giving a tour and started hitting on him and begging him to go out that night.

“People come up and ask me what I’m doing while I’m on the tour,” Pusateri said.

But most students, he said, are respectful and don’t pay the tours any mind.

The tours run Monday through Friday, with larger groups on specific Saturdays and Junior Visit Days, which were available during the spring semester for the first time this year.

Jennifer Piercy attributes this change to a 14 percent increase from last year’s total attendees.

A typical tour includes a presentation at the Levis Faculty Center. Students then split up into small groups for a campus tour with a student guide.

After going through all the formalities, the guides tell the students the truth about campus and college life.

“It says something about the school when we’ve won more Nobel Prizes than football games,” a guide joked to her group about two years ago.

A parent in the crowd raised her hand.

“Do you know who the football coach’s wife is?” she asked.

The guide did not.

“Well, let me introduce myself,” said Wendy Turner, wife of Ron Turner, head football coach at the time.

She had been on the visit with one of her children, according to tour guide Bob Pusateri, who recalled the story from a tour guide alumna.

On a more recent tour, Pusateri, senior in Engineering, led a group of about 25 prospective students and their parents April 24. First, everyone crammed into an Illinois Street Residence Hall room.

“They were probably the smallest (dorm rooms) I’ve seen,” said Polly Goeckner, one of seven high school juniors touring with Pusateri. “I don’t know how I (would) fit all my stuff in there,” she said.

On her first official University tour, she is like many Illinois high school students who are interested in the University. Not only is the price right for the services provided, according to her father, Bryon Goeckner, but Polly also has Illini heritage in her blood.

Her father, uncles and grandfather are all alumni. When she was younger they went to Illini football games, then grabbed multiple frozen pizzas from their favorite place, Papa Del’s Pizza in Champaign.

“It’s like a gourmet dinner,” Polly said, looking forward to grabbing some on her way home to Edwardsville, Ill.

When the tour paused in front of the Quad, Polly stared out at the masses of students sprawled onto the lawn this warm afternoon.

“If I go here this is probably where I’d be,” Polly said looking across the Quad. “It’s very, very big.”

Stopping for a photo opportunity in front of the Alma Mater, Polly admitted that if she doesn’t end up attending this University, it would be because of the size.

“I’m most nervous about making friends,” she said, fearful of how she’d fit into such a large University.

Her father, Bryon Goeckner, has faith that she will find her way as he did. “There’s so many clubs (here). She’ll find her niche,” he said.

Back in Edwardsville, the musical scene is her niche. Since she was eight-years-old Polly has been singing, dancing and acting.

“Songs can bring out feelings that words can’t describe,” she said.

This May 4-7 she will play Cinderella with Curtains Up Theatre at Southern Illinois University.

She’s developed much maturity through her dedication to these productions, but she still finds ways to keep the high school junior in her alive.

Her car is named Ralph, her two guitars, Benvolio after a peacekeeper in Romeo and Juliet, and the other, Angus.

Inspired by her medieval and ancient world history teacher Keith Baker, Polly named her tennis racket Xerxes after a Persian emperor.

“I establish a bond with things I have to hang out with all the time,” she said of the habit.

While Polly is excited about being able to express her more childish side at college, she’s looking for more of the maturity she’s grown with.

“High school parties are so lame,” she said, “If there’s alcohol everyone’s running around like idiots. If there’s no alcohol everyone’s sitting around like an idiot. I want intelligent conversations and to meet interesting people,” she said.

The University may be the place where she’ll do just that.

“It’s a good school and the price is right,” her dad said. “I think she’d fit in really well here.”