A Guide to Visiting Colleges

futurecristinayang:

As you start researching colleges and looking into schools to apply to, you’re most likely going to try to visit a few to get a feel for the campus. Read on for tips to make the most of your college visits.

BEFORE YOUR VISIT

• Research colleges: I know its tempting to visit all 20 schools on your list but not only is it impractical, its a waste of your time. Instead figure out your very top school(s) that you desperately want to get into and put those on your list (Ideally this should not be more than 2-3 schools). Next find the schools you have some interest in but you’re going to need a little more information before you decide. Lastly, add a few safeties and matches to your list to balance it out. 
  
• Variety: Once you have your list, look it over and see what kind of schools you have. Do you have public schools as well as private schools? Do you have urban schools as well as rural schools? Safeties and reaches? I know its tempting to just visit the ones you think you’re gonna like but be sure to add some variety so you can get a feel for all sorts of colleges. Then after you visit, you can make your decision on whether you want to go public/private, urban/rural, etc. 
  
• Pick out Dates: Look at your own schedule and figure when you want to visit. Do you want to visit multiple schools in one trip? If so you’re going to need enough time to travel to and from so summertime would be ideal. Do you want to visit one school at a time throughout the year? If so you shouldn’t need more than a weekend to do so. Check the university’s website to find timing and make sure you register for whatever session that you will be attending for!
  
• Create folders: If you’re only visiting a few schools you might not want to bother doing this but when I visited colleges, I went on a roadtrip and visited 6 so I needed a way to organize myself. What I ended up doing was creating a folder for each school I would visit so that while I was on campus, I could put all the flyers and papers they handed out into one neat little place. Below you can see my folders for Columbia, Princeton, NYU, Hopkins, WASHU, and UPenn. 

• Information sheets: Along with the folders, I made this little visit sheet and put a copy in each folder. This ended up being extremely useful as I could tell what information I already had and what information I still needed to find out. It was an excellent way to make sure I found our everything I needed to know about each school. If you would like me to email this to you, just send me a message and I’d be happy to do so!

Questions: Before you leave for your visits, sit down and write down all the questions you have about the school no matter how small. Being on campus is the best time to get these questions answered by admissions officers or even students.

DURING YOUR VISIT

• Admissions Session: This is usually the first part of your visit and the best time for you to fill out your info sheet with basic information on the school. This is also the time to ask any questions you may have regarding the admissions process for that specific school
  
• Campus Visit: Immediately following your admissions session will be a campus tour usually led by a current student. While touring the campus, pay attention to your surroundings and see how you like it. Can you picture yourself here for the next four years? At the end of the tour, ask your tour guide any questions you have regarding life on campus and classes. If  possible, get their contact information! It never hurts to have a friend on campus. 
  
• Explore: Typically after campus tour, most people will leave, however, if you have the time I highly encourage you to stay and spend some time in the area. Whether its having lunch in the city or strolling through the neighborhood, try to see if you would enjoy the area enough to live there for your college years. 
  
• Flyers: If you see any pamphlets and flyers on campus, grab them and add to your folder! I know it may seem ridiculous to stock up on those papers but you never know when you (or a friend) might need that information. 
  

• Make Friends: No seriously, make some friends on the campus! Whether its a professor or a student just find someone who can help you find out more about the school and figure out if its right for you even after you go home. I have made it point to know someone at every single one of my schools and it has proven to be invaluable.

AFTER YOUR VISIT

After your visit is over and you’ve returned home, it’s time for you to make some decisions. You should have a good idea of whether or not you are still genuinely interested in the schools you visited so start by going through your list and removing any that you’ve lost interest in after the campus visit. Start doing more research and narrow down your list to the schools you want to apply to.

Hope that was helpful! I will post my outline sheet as soon as I get ahold of it (its on my old laptop ;/)

-Ramya // futurecristinayang