Editorial: Are college visits useful?

College Search & Selection
1

<p>I originally wrote this for my school's newspaper, but I thought it was relevant here as well... let's just hope that no one from my school actually reads this site. :eek:</p>

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<pre><code>As the end of the year draws closer, eleventh graders take their first tentative steps towards choosing which colleges to apply to in the fall. It is a process fraught with anxiety, indecision, and an overabundance of choices. How, exactly, does one find the best place to spend the next four years of one's life?

Admissions guidebooks advise students to determine what collegiate characteristics suit them best. Rural or urban? Intimate or impersonal? Liberal arts college or research university? Small, large, or medium? Would you like fries with that?

I didn't know, of course, so over spring break I set off on a whirlwind tour of New England in an attempt to figure everything out.

Over the course of eight days, I visited 13 colleges and universities. I went on 11 campus tours and 9.5 information sessions. I amassed several pounds of glossy literature and one promotional pen.

During my travels I met some interesting characters. At one highly selective Massachusetts liberal arts college, our tour guide was a football player and philosophy major, and our admissions representative, a recent graduate, was a former hockey captain and philosophy major. Neither of them knew the first thing about science. Actually, they boasted that the school's open curriculum freed students from taking a single quantitative class, should they so choose.

At another reputable college in Connecticut, one cheerful (and inebriated) fellow ran up to our freshman tour guide offering an open bottle.

Some Kid: Hey, Erik, you forgot your beer!
Tour guide: Uh, that's not mine.
SK: Yes it is! Go ahead, take it!
TG: Dude, it's not my beer.
SK: Wait, you're doing a tour? I'm so sorry!
TG: Yeah, so, people here like to joke around a lot. Moving on...

In my father's immortal words, you only get one chance to make a first impression.

Some realizations were surprising. I discovered, for example, that I preferred the small liberal arts college in rural Vermont to the prestigious Ivy League school with a $13 billion endowment and an 8.6% acceptance rate. (It was with some relief that I removed the latter from my mental list of possibilities. There is an element of masochism in falling in love with a university that rejects nine applicants out of 10; I wasn’t sure I wanted to experience that kind of heartache.)

By the end of the trip I'd come up with an eclectic list of favorites: One small rural liberal arts college with general distribution requirements. One medium-sized urban research university with an open curriculum. One medium-sized rural research university with specific distribution requirements. One Institute in Massachusetts specializing in technology.

Apparently, I have no clear-cut preferences in terms of size, location, or academic focus. I'm not sure what that says about me, except maybe that I'm really indecisive. On some esoteric level, though, each of these very different schools felt right. The admissions guidebooks that I mentioned earlier refer to this as "fit."

So does this mean that college visits are actually helpful? The answer is something like, "well, yes, sort of".

On one hand, an in-person visit provides a sense of identity that the self-conscious viewbooks don’t. In addition to seeing the campus in all its un-Photoshopped glory, you get to try the atmosphere on for size in search of that mythical, ever-elusive “fit.” There’s a self-promotional facet, too: at many colleges a documented record of “shown interest”, including visits, may well give you a boost in the admissions process.

On the other hand, the visits have their limitations. Is it really sensible to judge a college based on a few hours spent on campus? The number of random, subjective factors that can influence a visitor's opinion is staggering: bad weather, an annoying tour guide, the fact that it's the 12th college you’ve visited this week and you'll burst into tears if you hear the word "holistic" one more time…
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<p>The real answer may be somewhere between the two. A visit can be an invaluable tool for evaluating a college, but it shouldn't be the only basis for decision-making. It's important to recognize that a visit is a snapshot of the school, not an absolute representation of it. That said, if your teeth grind and your stomach curls into itself the moment you set foot on campus, you can probably assume it isn’t a good fit for you. Moreover, if you value your sanity, it is probably unadvisable to visit more than 10 colleges in a single week. I am speaking from experience on both counts.</p>

2

<p>Oh, perhaps they can tell you quite a bit. Here's an excerpt from an article from the most recent issue of my alma mater's newspaper:</p>

<p>M"y prefrosh visit to Williams was certainly memorable. I came in late April, just as Spring Fling was in full swing. My host led me to an all-campus party at Dodd, and as we approached, I saw a young Williams woman squatting in the center of the quad. I reflected, as I often do following moments of public urination. What was this place, where women dropped trou without the privacy of a hedge, and parties were school-sponsored? Would I, too, forsake the bathroom for the blacktop? And, most importantly, just who were these people? </p>

<p>“Drunk,” according to one prospective student from Florida, who attended an off-campus toga party this past weekend. “It smelled like hot liquor.” Several other prefrosh were also struck by the campus-wide intoxication. “On Saturday night, every person I talked to was wasted, except for one person who I ended up hanging out with,” said another visitor from New York. While many prefosh may be interested in, as Dean Roseman put it, “alcohol-oriented social activities,” they’re not too keen to watch us death-cup our suitemates."</p>

3

<p>College visits can definitely be helpful, but it's unlikely that you will be able to visit all of the schools you are looking at. Instead you might want to try looking at videos like the DVDs that THE U puts out about colleges. They are really geared towards the students, and they aren't affiliated with any of the colleges, so they aren't trying to impress you, just give you the truth. Check out their website. THEU.com</p>

4

<p>I really think people should visit all the colleges they're thinking of applying to (if they can afford to). My D did this and fell ion love with 1 college, which she applied to ED and was ultimately accepted to. I think this would reduce the number of thoughtless applications filed and reduce all the insanity of the college app process.</p>