The Final Countdown Part 2: Visiting Colleges
This is part of a three-part series on Choosing the Right College. In Part 1, I talked about coming up with a list of 15-20 colleges to consider. In this Part 2, I will talk about visiting colleges and narrowing down your list. In part 3, I talk about how to make that final decision once you’ve (hopefully) gotten into a few schools.
After you’ve researched colleges that you think you’re interested in applying to, you should try to visit as many of them as possible. This post should help you get as much as possible out of your college visits.
Preparing for the visit
You don’t need to learn every tidbit of information about colleges you’re going to visit, but you should at least know some information about the college so that you can have questions that tour guides can answer. Look at the course catalogues and any information that the college has sent you, review the colleges website, and talk to any currently enrolled students or alumni you know.
You might want to review sections about the college you’re visiting in books or websites that showcase colleges that I recommended in Researching Potential Colleges such as the Fiske Guide to Colleges or Unigo.
If you’re really concerned about college visits, the College Board sells a book that “informs students on how to get the most from campus visits and helps relieve the stress of college interviews.” This is almost definitely unnecessary, but if you’re really worried about visits and interviews, this book has some useful tips.
When to Visit
Obviously summer is the most convenient time for most seniors, but it’s also the time when most colleges aren’t in session. The only college that I’m aware of that has a good number of students on campus during the summer is Dartmouth. However, if there are some schools that are too far away to visit on a weekend, seeing them in the summer is definitely better than not seeing them at all.
Late August and early September are times when many high school seniors wont be in school, but colleges will be in session. I have to be at college at the end of August, and I never started high school until the middle of September.
Weekends during the fall are also a great time to visit campus. On any non-holiday weekend most students will still be on campus, and even though classes wont be in session, you can still get a good feel for the campus. If possible, I would try to visit both Saturday and Sunday, because I’ve been amazed how different many campuses look between those two days. On Saturday libraries are usually empty and students are outside if the weather’s nice, while on Sunday’s the libraries tend to fill up.
While weekends are the most convenient, there are some important aspects of a college that you wont be able to see during the weekend. If you’re interested in seeing any classes then you almost definitely need to visit during the week.
What to look for during your visit
Every college you visit will offer a tour of what they consider to be the most important places on campus, but you should try to visit other areas of campus on your own if possible. Two of the most important centers of campus will almost always be the cafeteria and library, so try and check both of these places out. If you’re interested in playing a sport in college, you should check out the gym and other athletic facilities. If you’re a musician, look at the performance and rehearsal spaces. If you enjoy acting, look at the facilities of the theatre department.
On every visit you should also try and observe a class that sounds interesting to you. Look at websites of the departments that interest you before you visit and you should be able to find a schedule of classes. Go to the class five minutes early, and tell the professor you’re a prospective student and you’d like to sit in. In the vast majority of cases the professor will happily have you. If you want to be extra careful, you can email the professor before you visit and ask if it’s OK if you sit in on a class.
You should also prepare a list of questions to ask the tour guide. If you’re uncomfortable asking in front of the rest of the group, pull him/her aside after the tour.
If you want a nonbiased opinion, you can pull aside any of the students on campus. Don’t stop people who are hurrying off to class; my advice would be to just sit down next to a nice-looking group of people who are sitting and hanging out on a patch of grass and striking up a conversation. You can learn a lot through these kinds of informal chats. You might even be invited to a party or two!
If you’re interested in a particular extracurricular activity (sports, debate, journalism, etc), I would try to find the student in charge of that particular activity (captain, editor, etc) or the faculty advisor, and speak with them. It’ll give you a contact at the school and will help you find out more about the school.
After you visit
Once you get home from a college visit, you should email a short thank you letter to any faculty or admissions officers that you talked to for more than five minutes. You should also write down your thoughts on the college while it’s still fresh in your mind. This can either be a few notes on a postit, or if you’re more organized, you can make an excel spreadsheet in which you have categories by which to rank colleges, and then rate them after each visit. Example categories could include how appealing the campus is, how nice the students are, how enthusiastic they are about their school, academic facilities, extracurricular activities, etc.
Long story short
Honestly, this is the least stressful part of the college process. Most college campuses are beautiful and are great places to have fun. If anything, visiting colleges should reduce the stress of the rest of the college process, not add to it.
Read Part 1 of this series, which gives advice on coming up with an intial list of colleges to consider. Part 3 talks about how to make the final decision on which school to attend.
Related posts:
