<p>Hey everyone. As a graduating senior who has been through the college admissions process and the college search, I feel that we should let upcoming high schoolers know about our college search. I'll post mine as soon as more people post. But I can give a quick summary right now.
I started in 10th grade, and finished my college search during last September. I took advantage of the offers, sitting in on classes and visiting dorms at every college I planned to apply to and even some I didn't plan to apply to. In the admissions process, go all out with your college visits.
Here is a basic format, but feel free to embellish.
Year you started visiting AND year you feel is appropriate to start:
Colleges Visited:
Which colleges you applied to:
What you did on your visits:
Anything you wish you had done:
Anything you wish you hadn't done:
Acceptance correlated with visits:
Add more if you feel it is necessary.</p>
<p>Please post people.</p>
<p>Year you started visiting AND year you feel is appropriate to start: Freshman/Sophomore
Colleges Visited: UCBerkeley, UCLA, Stanford, Princeton, Columbia, Yale, Amherst, Harvard
Which colleges you applied to: Ivy league, UCs, USC, UMichigan, Duke, Notre Dame
What you did on your visits: Tours for some. Library. Local town. Local restaurants.
Anything you wish you hadn’t done: N/A
Acceptance correlated with visits: Accepted @ Duke, USC, Notre Dame, UMichigan, UCLA; Waitlisted @ UPenn & Columbia</p>
<p>Year you started visiting AND year you feel is appropriate to start: Beginning of sophomore year</p>
<p>Colleges Visited: UVa, Georgetown, Virginia Tech, Wake Forest, W&L, Vanderbilt, Duke, UNC, William and Mary, Yale, Princeton, Dartmouth, Penn, Harvard, Amherst, Williams.</p>
<p>Which colleges you applied to: Only a junior, but probably all except W&L and W&M.</p>
<p>What you did on your visits: Info session, tour, sometimes eat in a dining hall, explore the campus and surrounding area. Went to a lacrosse game at Duke and watched Penn relays, too.</p>
<p>Anything you wish you had done: Not really.</p>
<p>Anything you wish you hadn’t done: Some of the info sessions were awful (UNC, I’m looking at you.)</p>
<p>Acceptance correlated with visits: Still a junior.</p>
<p>Thanks for posting.
Year you started visiting AND year you feel is appropriate to start: While I started visiting during sophmore year, I wish I had started during freshman year. I would have had mroe time.
Colleges Visited: All the Ivies, Stanford, Georgetown, UMich, Rutgers, MIT, Tufts, Bowdoin, UCBerkeley, UCLA, USC, UChicago, Duke, Emory, Alabama.
Which colleges you applied to: Harvard, Yale, Dartmouth, Stanford, Columbia, Princeton, Georgetown, UMich, Rutgers.
What you did on your visits: Everything. I sat in on classes, took student and admissions tours, visited the surrounding area, talked with students, etc.
Anything you wish you had done: I do wish I had more time at my colleges so I could really study the campus environment.
Anything you wish you hadn’t done: I wish I hadn’t visited some colleges too many times. I visited Princeton and Yale 5 times, and the admissions office knew my name before I applied. I thought it might have hurt me. Twice is good enough.
Acceptance correlated with visits:
Accepted: Yale SCEA (Attending), Harvard, Stanford, Princeton, Georgetown, Rutgers
Waitlisted: Columbia
Rejected: Dartmouth, UMichigan.
Those are my stats, any comments?</p>
<p>Year you started visiting AND year you feel is appropriate to start: Spring break sophomore year IIRC, was about right
Colleges Visited: Carleton, Macalester, Brandeis, Brown, Vassar, Wesleyan, Green Mountain College, Hendrix College, Beloit, Kalamazoo, Bradley University, Grinnell, Cornell College… might be leaving a few out…
Which colleges you applied to: Beloit, Hendrix College, Green Mountain College, Grinnell, Kalamazoo, Agnes Scott, Scripps… KNOW I’m leaving a few out…
What you did on your visits: Visited classes, took the tour, had a meal.
Anything you wish you had done: Applied to Harvard just to see if I could get in.
Anything you wish you hadn’t done: Worried so much. It all worked out okay.
Acceptance correlated with visits: Accepted @ Beloit, Hendrix, Green Mountain, Grinnell, Kalamazoo, Agnes Scott
Denied @ Scripps</p>