<p>I am a Junior currently trying to figure out what colleges to visit. Some of the ones I have in mind so far are MIT, Carnegie Mellon, and Princeton. But does visiting colleges have any effect on the admissions process? I mean, do the colleges have a record of who has visited and who hasn't? And if so, how do they factor into the actual admissions process?</p>
<p>Visiting colleges should have no effect on the admissions process. I’m pretty sure some colleges allow you to interview before you actually apply & they keep that on file for your application, but I don’t know if any of these schools do so.
If you aren’t interviewing, just touring a campus will have no effect on the admissions process. </p>
<p>That being said, you should definitely still tour the campuses. I toured a college and decided it definitely wasn’t for me- the way it was laid out & everything, I felt trapped in the gated campus. When I toured NYU, on the other hand, I loved that there was no campus and it cemented my thought that it was the school for me. Now I’m getting ready to apply ED to NYU!</p>
<p>Basically, no it won’t impact your chances, but it’s worth doing anyway.</p>
<p>They do keep records. I don’t really know if JUST visiting makes an impact, but you definitely have to show the schools that you’re interested in them! That means maybe go for an interview… request information… sign up for their mailing list… if you talk to an admissions counselor, send them a follow-up “thank you” note… etc.</p>
<p>It won’t matter for MIT and caltech , but Carnegie mellon specifically states that they consider ‘demonstrated interest’ and college visits.</p>
<p>Oh, yeah, sorry if my post made it sound like showing interest doesn’t matter at all- it does, but you can achieve the same thing by, as termah said, requesting information, joining mailing lists, chatting with an admissions counselor through email, etc. Sometimes colleges have online open houses that you could attend. </p>
<p>I live in Japan so I haven’t been able to do a lot of college tours, but for the ones that keep track I’m sure to request info, join mailing lists, and show them on sites like ***** that I’m interested.</p>
<p>I’m not allowed to say z* i* n* c* h* ?
huh…</p>
<p>At MIT and Princeton it won’t matter but at schools a tier or more below that, they usually do track interest. I have heard that it can be held against you if you are within driving distance and do not have a recorded visit. If you are going to select schools by how they view demonstrated interest, then you will have to review each school since some will care and others don’t.</p>
<p>Oh okay, thanks guys. I’m definitely going to do an interview for schools like MIT and Princeton, I was just wondering how official college visits were. I’ll still probably visit them, but it’s nice to know a little more info about the whole process, so thanks :)</p>
<p>There’s a place to leave your info and they do track interest, but with schools like MIT it probably doesn’t matter much.</p>
<p>Visit some safeties and matches too! Dont only visit your reach schools.</p>
<p>
IMO visits should be undertaken to learn more about the schools and not to gain favor from the admissions department. Ironically the two school you mentioned are similar at some top level description … northeast, similar test school/GPA profiles, very-very highly ranked. However on the ground they are very-very different schools and I would guess very few students love both places after visiting both … if you love one the other probably does not create the same impression.</p>
<p>PS - MIT is a pretty unique place that I recommend anyone applying to visit … most people have a pretty strong reaction to MIT … either for or against but some reaction.</p>