Visiting a Campus

I hope you had a nice weekend. It may seem stupid to many of you, but I love when we set the clocks back an hour and enjoy the "extra" hour of sleep so that was definitely a plus for my weekend - along with a great weekend spending time with my family. Now, it is time to get back to the grind and start looking ahead.

As you look to the coming week, I am sure you are excited that we only have a 4 day week of school. With parent/ teacher conferences on Monday and Thursday evening, Friday is an off day. I hope to be able to make really good use of those extra hours preparing for the career fair. Don't forget, as I mentioned in a previous post, I need volunteers to help on Thursday, November 18th after school any time between 3:30 and 9:30pm and Friday morning, November 19th starting at 6:45am. If you are willing and able to help, please stop by my office to add your name to a time slot.

For those of you who will be using the day off to make a visit to a college campus, I wanted to provide you with some additional information and views on college visits. As I mentioned in this previous post, making visits to a college campus allows students to get an idea of whether or not this campus is a school you can imagine yourself on for the next 4 years of your life. It is a great opportunity to think about what you are looking for in a school and how the college campus and the students/ faculty on the campus fit into your plan.

Don't forget to take a picture on every college campus that you step foot on - even if it is a school you are not seriously considering for your future. We would love to see the pictures, plus, every interaction you have with a college shapes your views on what you are looking for in the future.

Try not to let weather sway you too much on your view of a school - remember, it won't always be the perfectly beautiful, sunny day you might experience during one visit nor will it always be the terribly dreary, rainy day you are forced to endure on another campus visit.

Colleges also know that the qualify of the tour guide you end up with influences your view of their school and they try to manage that accordingly, but if you end up with a guide that is or isn't ideal, try to make your opinion about the school separate from your opinion of the tour guide.

Here are some additional articles that might be helpful to you if you are preparing for college visits:

Don’t Wear One College’s Sweatshirt When Visiting a Rival Campus, and Other Tour Tips

Ask your tour guide about Campus “Traditions”

36 Questions to Ask on a College Visit

College Visits – 8 things you must do

College Visit – 31 things you need to ask

I'm looking forward to seeing you all this week!