I have 10 schools I am applying to, and out of the 10 I chose to only visit 5. The other half were much farther away so I made it my mission to at least visit the schools that were closest to me. Out of these 5 schools, I visited 2 so far. In both of which, I attended an information session and a tour. However, things in my life have grown to become extremely hectic and complicated and it’ll be difficult for me to visit the rest of these colleges and get all of my work back at home done. How important is it to visit colleges before I actually apply to them? Will not visiting hurt my chances of admission? I’m just struggling with trying to decide whether or not I should visit these colleges at the risk of falling behind everything I need to take care of. Is it really necessary or 110% a crucial factor? Or can I just take virtual tours online if the school offers them? If it helps, the schools I’m applying to are:
-CUNY Queens College
-Syracuse University
-Skidmore College
-Brandeis University
-Wesleyan University
-SUNY Binghamton University
-Hamilton College
-Vanderbilt University
-Dartmouth College
-Brown University
Thank You!
Some schools let you know (Common Data Set) that they consider showing interest to be important. Others say they don’t consider it. It stands to reason that even those that say they don’t factor it in officially may view a candidate who shows evidence they want to attend preferable over those that seem to show no interest.Also, some that say they don’t consider interest may. Even for those that are explicit about wanting candidates to “show interest” you can do that in other ways besides visiting.
-go to local college fairs. Some colleges have adcons who travel to target communities and put on a pony show-go to the ones including schools you are interested in. Make it a point to talk with the rep from the colleges you are interested in. If you you find out the date in advance, you can also ask admissions if you can arrange a more private meeting with the rep.
-Find out the name of a local/regional rep for the colleges you are interested and try to arrange a meeting.
-Adcons make the rounds to high schools. Be sure to go when the rep is coming to your school.
-inform admissions about your interest but also explain the impediments to visiting. If the school is quite close, the excuse wont’ be compelling. So arrange to go to the close ones.
-if you get invitations to local gatherings for that college, go to them. If there are fb Events, register for them. Max out on all other ways to show interest to compensate for the fact you can’t visit.
-one I never considered-make sure to visit the computer portals that you set up. Some schools appear to count clicks!