Visiting college campuses - near and far, big and small (and somewhere in between), urban, suburban and rural, will help you to start to develop a sense for what you can find at all colleges and what will fit best for you. For most of my students over the years, what they have quickly realized after about 3 college visits is what they do NOT like as much and they can then use that information to help narrow down their interests and perhaps find other similar schools to explore.
What should you ask on a college visit?
You will want to ask questions as you tour the school. (We have a lengthy list of question ideas for you on the Counselor website.) After each visit, review the list to see if there are any other questions you might want to add. Remember, you are visiting campuses to get a feeling for the atmosphere of each place – something you can’t get from a brochure or website.
When can you make your visit?
Anytime! Students often schedule visits to colleges on times when it fits with their parents schedule. You are allowed to miss school for college visits - it is an excused absence, but please be sure to still have your parents contact the attendance office.
While you can make visits at any time, I encourage you to try to select days when you know you will have a positive experience. There are many colleges that will host a major specific day and those days often include lots of unique experiences in that field of study including meeting professors, talking to students, seeing their projects, etc. You also want to maximize the positive experience of going on the visit by not creating problems with your high school schedule and commitments. For example, if you know that you have a game and therefore have to be in school for at least half the day, then that is probably not the best day to try to squeeze in a college visit. You also know that there tend to be a lot of tests, quizzes and projects on the last day of the semester, so I encourage you to avoid that day as well.
Other great days for all students to make college visits would be the days that we have off in Worthington, but the colleges will likely still be in session. For example, next week, Tuesday, November 5th, students are off because it is election day, but college campuses will still be in session making it a great day to visit.
How should I set up the visit?
The student should be the one who communicates with the college - not the parent! Remember, you are the one who is going to college - not your mom or dad. You are trying to show the college that you are mature, responsible and ready for the college opportunities and that begins with having the ability to communicate effectively with the admissions office.
Some colleges have online visit registration options and others only take reservations by phone. You will definitely want to sign up for the visits in advance!
Should I attend on a "major specific" day?
As I mentioned in an earlier question, there are many colleges that will host special recruitment days for students looking at a particular major. For example, there may be an engineering day, a nursing day, a communications day, etc. These are GREAT opportunities for students to consider visiting the campus - not only for those of you who have made up your mind that you are interested in a particular field, but also for those students who think they might like to study that field. So, for example, if I think I might want to study something connected to business, but don't know any more than that going to the college's business day can be a great learning opportunity for me to gain insight into the different aspects available within that major and that college. If you attend you might walk away excited about a particular opportunity or section of business or you may leave realizing you thought it seemed terrible and that would still give you the information to help you know that this is not the best job field for your future.
What else should I keep in mind?
- Pay attention to the details around you to learn all that there is to know about the college.
- Remember, a lot of outside factors can influence the quality of the visit positively or negatively. For example, the weather… if it is a gorgeous sunny day with perfect temperatures you may think it is the most beautiful school and if it cold, rainy, or dreary you may think it is miserable, but try to remember that the weather changes from day to day and judge the school without being overly influenced by the weather. (Please also remember that if you are traveling to areas in different climates than Ohio that weather may truly be an appropriate factor to consider, so I am not making a blanket statement to always ignore the weather.)
- Tour guides also form a huge impression of the school that you visit. Most colleges know that and will try to find outgoing, positive, energetic students to take you through the campus. Ideally the guides will try to get to know something about you or your interests to help point those aspects of the school out to you, but the reality is the students serving as tour guides are not always great and, let’s be honest here, we all have bad days so even some of the good tour guides can have off days where they won’t be impressive on the visit. I know it can be hard, but try to separate the guide from the school.
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