my problem.. i would think others would have it too

College Search & Selection
1

<p>two words: campus tours.
i've never been on one. i'm going to be a senior this year and soon will be applying to college, yet i've never taken a campus tour.</p>

<p>what's your problem? you are a slacker. campus tours are important! i can here you saying this in your head.</p>

<p>i know. i know more than you know. i have just never had the opportunity to go on one and i won't ever have the opportunity.
my parents are always busy with work. frankly, they don't have time for a social life, so they certainly don't have time to cart me about the country looking at different schools.
two, funds in my family aren't exactly free-flowing. we're by no means poor, but we can't afford take a weekend excursion at odd points in the year either.</p>

<p>it seems to me that this puts me at a severe disadvantage when trying to apply to out of state schools. how can i express fully why i want to go somewhere when i haven't been there?
i don't wish to go to any of my in state schools in north carolina primarily because i feel the need to have new experiences, but also because none of them fit my needs (certain majors and whatnot).
so what am i to do? what am i supposed to say if the college asks me why i want to attend their institution? is it a good enough excuse to say that i haven't been there because my parents are too busy and the funds are not there? probably not.</p>

<p>does anyone have similar problems? it would seem like it..</p>

2

<p>i've only visited one school (Emory), and it sort of helped me get the feel of the school (really rich, extremely preppy, homogenous, jewish--don't worry im jewish so dont think I be hatin', it was just a tad bit overwhelmingly JAP-py).</p>

<p>I think people who don't visit schools shouldn't worry too much. We've got a bunch of resources--review.com, The ******* of the colleges, and fiske--so I think we are set for right now. Just get a general feel for the college; if you are slightly interested put it on your list; if not, never look into the school again.</p>

<p>After you get down to a reasonable list to start off with say 30 schools, check your stats against the schools, and if put them into groups: Reaches, Toss Ups, Probables, Safeties.</p>

<p>Then narrow down your schools again by whatever factors you want to: LAC/University, size, location, price, sports, study abroad, departments, whatev, just DO IT! and do it soon, because time is running out. You wanna get this crap done before school starts, so you only have to concentrate on your retakes, current grades and essays.</p>

<p>Finally whittle your schools down to 5-15 schools and make sure you have a decent ratio, which I think is like 1 R:3 TU:2 P:2 R. This ratio worked for me; it isn't perfect but it will get the job done.</p>

<p>After you apply don't worry until you get your notification letters back. Forgot about the schools that didn't accept you, and concentrate on the ones that did.</p>

<p>Now you have to think about visiting, as this is when it really matters. You want to know the school and be comfortable with the atmosphere. Make the most your visits. That is, if you are able to visit. </p>

<p>If you are unable to visit, then just keep researching the schools hardcore. If you have a high school facebook, message random people from the schools you are looking into and ask if they want to help with getting yourself acquainted with the school. Most of the people I have messages overwhelming want to answer all of my questions. (Gotta luv school spirit.) If you are interested in any activities, majors or programs that the school offers, ask the people you message if they could hook you up with their contact info (either thru facebook or just straight up email).</p>

<p>That's all I got for y'all. Hope it helps.</p>

3

<p>Not every student will be able to visit that's for sure; the cost in time and money can be prohibitive and I'm certain this is well understood by admissions staff. You can find out a great deal about the university from their website and together with their course offering should give you plenty of valid reasons why you'd choose them instead of another.</p>

4

<p>It might be a good idea to visit some nearby schools -- while sort of pretending to yourself that you were considering applying to them -- and seeing what sorts of things influence your view of each campus. What do you look at? What do you care about? Is the physical appearance of the campus important or unimportant to you? Do you care about the friendliness of the students? How about the surrounding community -- does it matter to you? Do you get positive impressions of one kind of campus (say, urban schools) and negative impressions of another kind (say, rural schools)? Are specific facilities on the campus important to you? Do you care about the quality of the gym? The edibility of the food? </p>

<p>Then, once you've figured out what you would be looking for if you could visit those faraway schools, come on CC, visit the threads for those schools, and ask questions like "Is the community where X University is located a nice college town like Chapel Hill?"</p>

5

<p>Wow, sportzajent, that's something I rarely hear, Emory is only half-white, the same-diversity level of every Ivies (sin Dartmouth), Duke, NYU</p>

<h2>And more diverse than the average rate at it counterpart elite schools like Georgetown, Boston College, NYU, Johns Hopkins. I hope you don't have too hard a time finding schools b/c diversity is pretty much downhill from the level you just saw and that was only 1/4 Jewish, lol.</h2>

<p>Sorry, side chat, here, I'm pretty good at working out campus tours, just brought a kid up from NYU, toured him through 6 school in two days, and sent him back all without use of a car once.</p>

<p>By any chance, what is the closest city to you and how far away is it? I'll see if I can work something out for you. One of my useless talents when it comes to college (if college guidance was a higher paying job, I would make it my career ;))</p>

<p>Otherwise, there are alternatives to tours, but really the intent would be for you to just get to one school at comprable or same caliber of the schools you're looking at. That way, you can compare, see what things you may or may not want in a college campus.</p>

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<p>creative, that's just what i felt during my experience at emory. after my tour, i went online to their Hillel's site and it is states that "Thirty percent of the undergraduate population at Emory is Jewish."</p>

7

<p>If it helps I never visited even one of the schools I got into. Its irrelevant at the great majority of schools.</p>

8

<p>And yet you wound up transferring, so maybe it would have helped...</p>

9

<p>Well I know that for time and money reasons, that I only visited two of the 12 colleges I applied to before applications were mailed out and then when I got accepted I visited two more, and I made my decision. So I think it's fine to apply without seeing the school [well not ED], but I would say make sure to get a visit down before choosing to matriculate to said school.</p>

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<p>so everyone's advice was actually overwhelmingly helpful, so i feel the need to reply to each post.</p>

<p>sportzajent, it's like you read my mind that i'm also not exactly sure where i'm applying. i'll try to put some of your narrowing down techniques to use.</p>

<p>natmicstef, thanks for your common logic and making me realize i have almost all the information i could ever need on the internet.</p>

<p>marian, you know, you make a good point and i feel dumb for not looking at in-state campus tours that way. perhaps if i get the chance i'll try to take one if an out of state one stays impossible.</p>

<p>cre8tive1, thanks for your willingness to help. the closest city i live to is raleigh which is an hour away. i don't believe that could be at all helpful in planning tours since i've been on the campuses of universities like duke, unc, nc state, etc., i've never taken a tour, but i know what those colleges are like nonetheless. sadly, none of them are to my liking. but you obviously know more about colleges than i do so feel free to try to figure something out.</p>

<p>slipper1234, "If it helps I never visited even one of the schools I got into. Its irrelevant at the great majority of schools." that's good to know actually.</p>

<p>Tonyt88, visiting colleges after you get accepted actually makes much more sense to me than while you're applying. though i can see your reasoning for not applying ED, would you also advise against applying non-binding EA to a college you haven't visited?</p>

<p>thanks everyone again for all your help. i feel kind of lame for posting this way, but if i didn't i would feel like i didn't show how your comments were fully appreciated.
hah, i really am lame.
but serious too.</p>

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<p>If you've visited all of those schools, then it my be good to assess what you did and didn't like about the schools. Which did you like the most and what changes would you make to that camps to tailor it to your liking? That might help quite a bit in figuring out what other colleges may be up your alley.</p>

<p>It's seems if you weren't a fan of those that you might want to try Elon Unversity, the closest I could think of, that or Wake Forest + Guilford. But that is all irrelevant and useless if you don't know in what areas your were dissatisfied with Duke, UNC-Chapel Hill, NC State, NC Central?</p>

12

<p>it's as if i know why i don't like my in-state schools, but i can't exactly put a finger on it?</p>

<p>duke for example. one of the first turn offs is that it's in the less-than-great town of durham-- high crime rates and whatnot. i also suppose it's too school spirited and/or jock orienieted? i also don't mesh well with the majority of the people there.</p>

<p>my sister went to nc state, but the major turn off with it is that a lot of people from my high school go there and that's exactly what i want to get away from. </p>

<p>unc chapel hill is probably my last choice of anywhere to go to college. first, unlike everyone else it seems like, i pretty much despise the quaint little college town feel of it. i grew up rooting against their athletic teams (they've also got the duke-esque spirit/jock problem) and the air with which most of the students carry themselves there is not my style either.</p>

<p>nc central is just in general not a very good school and doesn't offer many opportunities. i believe it's also in durham? i just really don't like durham much.</p>

<p>elon is out in the middle of nowhere, and from what i've read the majority of student population is overtly preppy, which is far too much like high school.</p>

<p>wake forest has a similar jock/prep problem/spirit problem.</p>

<p>then there's ecu and uncw which are notorious party schools and therefore out of the equation.</p>

<p>or the 5 bajillion other unc schools and appalachian. my main problem with them is that they don't offer majors i'm interested in.</p>

<p>honestly, i don't know much about guilford so i don't have any comments either way.</p>

<p>and this is just what i can verbally express. i think i might just be hard to please..</p>

13

<p>So really you seem to want a liberal, low-key/non-preppy, strong academics, liberal college...low key as it be, you don't want the small town college feel of it.</p>

<p>Really, it seems like Guilford may be up your ally. You're giving off the image that you want a student body similar to that of Brown, and Guilford is the closest thing I can give you to that. The school is not cliquish in any sort, athetics do not dominate, a rare left-wing campus in Greensboro, very beautiful. </p>

<p>It couldn't be that hard for you to get out to Greensboro, could it?</p>

<p>Curious, what is your intended major?</p>

<p><em>EDIT - SCRATCH THAT - FOUND IT</em></p>

<p>Give me a few and I'll see what I can do for ya...</p>

14

<p>Wow, epidemic, all of what you want somehow leads back to Duke and only Duke in NC. Have you considered touring though, I'm not sure if your image of the school is a back lot image or if you're really getting the full picture of the school. </p>

<p>Besides big name universities, Northwestern and Johns Hopkins come to mind for what you want... there are many liberal arts college that may be up your ally. I think a visit to Guilford may gauge what the possiblities for a LAC are.</p>

15

<p>We are on the same boat, you and I. </p>

<p>I also can't visit colleges so I am just trying to research as much as I can. Reading through CC and its new College Visits thing, and checking out the "Student Says" on review.com. </p>

<p>By they way, how accurate are those "Student Says" anyways?</p>

<p>I keep fearing I'll go to a school that turns out to be a suitcase college with no social life or anything. That would be the worst thing for me..</p>

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<p>Columbia2007, the other side is I got rejected from every school I visited. AND I did visit my choices when I got in for "accepted students days." The point is you don't know where you will get into so apply to a bunch of good fits and see where you want to go once you get in. I do agree visiting is very important, but if you can't it isn't the end of the world.</p>

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<p>Also check out <a href="http://www.theu.com%5B/url%5D"&gt;www.theu.com&lt;/a> for reviews by students. It is subjective of course but quite interesting nevertheless.</p>

<p>Oh, and epidemic; thank you for the individual reponses to everyone's post..nice thing to do.</p>

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<p>you should check out theU.com. Great way to "tour" a campus without spending lots of money.</p>