<p>I'm going on a college tour next week (throughout the northeast), and I will be visiting various small liberal arts and some Ivy league schools. If anyone has any tips on how to make these visits effective (come application time), advice would be very much appreciated</p>
<p>Always sign in at Admissions office....You may want to talk to a professor in your interest....or a coach or music teacher....this may help you later on....You don't always need to do the official tour or info session...unless it is a school you are really interested in...eat lunch in the cafeteria, tour the library and fitness facilities...get a general feel....listen to your gut about the type of kids you see...this is YOUR choice of school, NOT your parents or your friends...i used priceline.com to book nice hotels for cheap (3 star plus)...Good luck...and don't try to see more than 2 schools a day unless you are just doing drive thrus...</p>
<p>Depending on how many colleges you are visiting within a certain timespan, it might be a good idea to bring a pencil and paper and take notes b/c after visiting 10 colleges in say a week or 2 they definitely start to blend together. Also taking pictures of each school will help avoid this. I am also visiting colleges next week and i will be in the northeast too, maybe i'll run into you. Good luck with your visits!</p>
<p>Email some of the professors in your area of interest and see if they are around to talk to.</p>
<p>Know plenty about the school, about why you're interested in it. Have questions prepared - but not any you could find the answer to with a quick search of a viewbook - they are a great way to show interest.</p>
<p>Take pictures. Bring a journal. Write down all of your impressions/thoughts/what you did at the end of every college-visiting day. You'll be surprised how much your thoughts change when you get home; it's good to have those first impressions recorded.</p>
<p>This thread has pretty much all the info you need, plus some.</p>