<p>Son, a rising HS senior, and I, not quite a senior citizen, are visiting some colleges next week. He knows his major, as well as any 17-yr-old. We'll call ahead to see if there are guided tours and if it's possible to see representatives of a couple departments or, even better, students. </p>
<p>He hasn't applied anywhere yet. Should he prepare a resume? If yes, what, in your humble opinion, must be included, and/or, what must be omitted? </p>
<p>Any other advice regarding summer, prior to application or acceptance, visits? Thanks.</p>
<p>You can’t just call ahead. Go to the websites-- you often have to (or should, to get the most out of a visit) sign up online for tours. You’ll find the tour schedules, interview instructions, etc. You can’t really just show up unless you want to just walk around and take a chance someone can show you around. Organized tours are imo the best way to get initial impressions and information.</p>
<p>For the tour itself, come with questions and maybe a pen and paper for any notes you want to take.</p>
<p>I always carried around a few copies of my resume just in case, but I didn’t use them except in pre planned interview situations. </p>
<p>In terms of meeting with students, the tours are usually student led and if you go during a school day, you can sometimes stop students and ask a few questions (but keep it quick, many students are on their way to their next class). You can also email a professor in your son’s perspective department and discuss different opportunities that major has for you.</p>
<p>Personally, I didn’t even visit any colleges until after I received my final decision by them (I ended up visiting 4 I had been accepted to). But I knew exactly what I was looking for in a school and visiting was just to pick the final one, not to get a taste of what college is like. </p>
<p>If I were you (and your son…), I would visit a few different types of local schools (small, big, public, private, co-ed, etc) and see which type he likes the best. That already narrows it down a lot. Then look at stats, make a list of reaches to safeties he is interested in and go for it! </p>
<p>One last note on the resume: Many applications ask you to list what you have accomplished thus far in life and already having a resume makes it a lot easier to fill in all of that information. So regardless of whether you end up using a resume right now, it’s a good idea to have one already made.</p>
<p>“Call ahead?” Better to look on-line and then sign up for tours and info sessions. Many schools require a pre-visit registration. And if you want credit for “demonstrated interest” at schools this is required you need to do this. Also by looking on line ahead of time you may realize that you need to visit a certain school on a certain day and another on another day. It may also be possible to sign up on line for an inteview.</p>
<p>Go with an open mind and some questions. Wear sneakers so you are comfortable. We never brought a resume and never needed it (I’ve probably visited 20 colleges between my 2 kids.) Definitely go on line and make a plan. Sign up for tours and info sessions. You can’t just show up as it’s not done randomly.</p>
<p>Bring a camera, sometimes the schools meld into one and not everything is pictured on the websites. I took some notes, but I also wrote up visit reports here on CC in the evening!</p>
<p>Hey all, thanks for the quick responses. I’ll definitely go on line today. Scutrules, very good point regarding resumes. May as well have one for general purposes and, if it seems useful to leave one after a college visit, all the better. </p>
<p>This trip is a way for he and I to combine “business” with pleasure. I have a wide variety of institutions to go to, and I hope the result is that he becomes more invested in the process. He is a very good student with good stats and extracurricular activities, but is nonchalant about the search. He would probably fit at lots of places, but he has not actually been to lots of places, and this is just a first step. He plays football so fall semester is too busy to do much.</p>
<p>Besides comfortable walking shoes, make sure you check the weather and have rain jackets/umbrellas and/or hats/sunblock/water bottles as appropriate. Tours can cover a lot of ground and are often mostly outside.</p>
<p>Thank you all. Very useful info. It sounds like a resume or stat sheet is not necessary or even desirable at this stage.</p>
<p>I’ll plan on two a day, already worked it all out and signed up. Guided tours at 9 out of 10. If we get burned out we are flexible and of course I’ll notify in event of canceling.</p>
<p>Tentative schedule below. You’ll note the broad range of institutions. We will learn much and enjoy ourselves. What more could I ask for? I guess I’d ask for admission </p>
<p>Day 1 UCB, U of San Fran
Day 2 Stanford, Santa Clara
Day 3 Cal Poly SLO, UCSB (self-guided)
Day 4 UCLA, USC
Day 5 Caltech, Pomona/Mudd</p>
<p>As you may have picked up, the concept of “leaving a resume” isn’t really something students typically do, that is more of a job search type strategy… however, if your student does have any interviews, it can be a nice way to provide a picture of their accomplishments and interests. I would say that some interviews are evaluative (the school scopes out your kid and whether they would want to admit them), not just informative (for you to ask questions and learn about the school). I personally never trust the “informative only label”… I am pretty sure a kid could do or say something that could get into their admissions record if they really messed up. So if he has interviews, make sure he practices for some common questions and also has a few questions of his own (preferably not questions that could easily be answered with a visit to the website).</p>
<p>Some schools want you to register for the tours at least two weeks ahead; I noticed that trend this year for D2’s visits. That wasn’t really the case five years ago.</p>
<p>Looking at your schedule, two a day for five days straight will be tiring. Your kid will likely be pretty fried by the end. We did two a day occasionally, but they start to run together after a while. And they all start to look/sound the same. By the way, Pomona and Mudd have separate tours (we did both a few months ago), but you may already know that if you have set them all up.</p>
<p>Make sure your son realizes that even the most vibrant campus slows down during the summer and he won’t get a complete sense of what the campus is like when things are in full swing, so that he doesn’t rule out a school he might otherwise like on the ground that there is no one there and nothing is happening.</p>
<p>We had to look at college during the summer also since my D was in a year-round sport. boysx3 is right, the campuses might be a bit quiet-- just be aware of that. </p>
<p>I think with your itinerary you could be fried after a few days. It’s good you’re flexible-- you may need to drop a school or two… Good luck!!</p>
<p>Wow that is quite a schedule. I would advise bringing a notebook and folder for handouts.
A camera, and wear comfortable clothes and shoes as you will do a lot of walking!</p>
<p>Create some kind of one page short answer or checklist template that you can fill out pretty quickly after each school visit. Make as many copies of this blank form as you have schools to visit. Include what what you liked, the name of your tour guide, specifics about your impressions of that particular school, name of an interviewer if you are able to talk with someone in admissions, anything that struck you about why this would be a good place for you, etc. </p>
<p>Months from now when you need to sit down and write that short essay on the supplement about “Why are you interested in XYZ U?” you can pull up some information.</p>
<p>Taking 10 or 15 minutes to do this right after you tour will be invaluable. Schools tend to blur together when you’ve seen lots of them in a short period of time, and memory fades. </p>
<p>Write down any negatives, too. Those impressions may be useful when it’s time to decide where to revisit after those acceptances come in, and you have to make a decision.</p>
<p>Dress for the weather! When we visited Ohio state last year it was pouring and I was very lucky to have an extra pair of flip flops in the car. Wasn’t that comfortable but better than soaking tennis shoes - (which you definitely want to wear unless it is pouring)</p>
<p>Go online and sign up for tours and call admissions to schedule interviews of needed. All the advice given above is good. :)</p>
<p>And have fun! A warning: after about 3 visits it all starts to feel the same…</p>
<p>I appreciate the input. Our schedule was waaaay ambitious and I scaled back. The only double day is Santa Clara and Stanford. Besides those two we have scheduled tours at Cal and Cal Poly, an interview at Mudd, and a request for an interview at Pomona. If son is still into big schools we’ll drop in at a subset of {USC, UCLA, UCSB}. Schedule got kinda messed up so we’ll see about Caltech. Obviously these are mostly “reach” but all are within his reach. </p>
<p>Jane, a template: great idea, will do it. </p>
<p>Summer is not fall or spring: very true. Camera and notebook: got it, thanks. Resume: thinkin’ about it, muchas gracias.</p>
<p>Not sure where I found it, but somewhere online (maybe at the Caltech website?) I found a self guided CalTech tour. We rolled into Pasadena on a Sunday night, and strolled the campus following those few printed internet pages in the evening. Then did Pomona and Mudd the next day. I liked the Mudd tour. One of their first assignments there is to make a hammer. :)</p>
<p>You don’t mention your son’s scores/GPA info, but something to think about is that it is really a lot more important to spend time finding matches and a safety or two that he is excited about than visiting a lot of schools that may be beyond his admissions reach. It takes more digging and looking to find those, but you don’t want to end up at the end of the admissions cycle with admissions only to a few schools that he is not thrilled about. Don’t get me wrong, I think it is a lot of fun to visit reaches. But we learned with D1 that we should have spent more time on the matches. She ended up with a great result, but it was more a result of chance than I like to admit. Our search for D2 has had a stronger focus on the match/safety schools (especially those likely to give her merit aid).</p>
<p>I thought Caltech tour was well worth doing - it really gave you the sense of the place. I knew it quite well as dh was a grad student there, but it was new to my two kids. Both loved it, though only one had a chance there as the other is sooo not a science geek. BTW Caltech’s cafe [Chandler</a> :: Caltech Dining Services](<a href=“http://dining.caltech.edu/units/chandler/]Chandler”>http://dining.caltech.edu/units/chandler/) had really good food. The boys raved about the pizza and I had a really nice salmon grilled to order. There are lots of good safety options for a techie kid, but I do agree that it’s a good idea to check them out sooner rather than later.</p>
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