<p>Hi All! What are some of your best recommendations for campus visits? What are some things that you think would have made the process easier/what worked best for you?</p>
<p>I always made it a point to have a fun dinner or late lunch after each visit because the time you spend with a high school senior is so valuable and becomes in short supply! Each visit was a precious memory even if we didn’t care for the school.</p>
<p>Don’t go to more than one school per day. Always do the info session, the tour, and have the student sit in on a class. Eat in the student center if possible. Don’t put TOO much weight on the impression made by the tour guide if you can help it: it is just one person.</p>
<p>Plan ahead. Weeks in advance, email or call the department you are interested in and ask about attending class, meeting a prof and/or touring the dept. Most departments will be happy to help you. if you call well in advance. .</p>
<p>As an applicant, keep a journal of details on why you like a school. It may come in handy when you write your application essays. If you really like something, jot it down even if it seems trivial. As a parent, ask you’re kid why he liked the school and take notes for future reference.</p>
<p>A lot of supplemental essay prompts will ask: Why you do want to come here. The more concrete, specific and colorful your reasons and examples the better. Notes help when you’re writing an essay many months after your visit.</p>
<p>One son had a list of colleges he wanted to visit during spring break of his junior year. He and my husband registered for tours and did a big looping drive for several days. They visited four campuses. He saw another, instate, university several times on different visits. He never visited more than half of the colleges he applied to. They were scattered all over the country, and we figured we could decide whether or not to visit them if he was accepted. (The university he was the most interested in attending tracked “interest”. He was sure to register for an official tour there. In registering for a tour, he created an account, which became linked to the eventual application. That is the university he is now attending.). In all he visited five universities, applied to 12, was accepted at 8. </p>
<p>The other son visited five colleges, all at different times during the spring, summer and fall of junior-senior year. One of them he didn’t like after visiting, and didn’t apply there, but added an application to a school he had never visited. He visited five, applied to five, accepted at five.</p>
<p>My daughter is a junior, and is linking college visits with interest in playing a sport in college. She will visit seven schools by the end of this summer, most of them more than once. </p>
<p>We unofficially visited quite a few other colleges with all three kids during sports tournaments over the years.</p>
<p>^ Seconding the journal suggestion. Offer to do the driving when you leave a school so that your student has time to write down all their impressions. Have them write down anything that struck them, no matter how insignificant it might seem. That way later when you’re trying to differentiate between schools you can use your notes to jog your memories. On another thread a poster told a story about their child, who was admitted to their first choice after visiting multiple schools. When she turned up on campus for orientation she realized she had misremembered the schools and had applied to the wrong one!</p>
<p>Go on a regular day when class is in session. I would avoid going during homecoming, for example, when everything seems fun. I would also avoid visiting in the summer, because a school doesn’t have the same feel then. Aside from the formal tour, go have lunch, or hang out, where students are (student union, etc.) to get a feel for the school’s vibe/feel. Try to see some dorms. </p>
<p>I liked the tours, but the information sessions seemed to be all the same. </p>
<p>I created a spreadsheet that had the dates (including deadlines for requesting tours, interviews, etc.), times, location, interesting classes to attend, profs to visit, etc., and space for notes afterward. Definitely second planning ahead, e.g., having student inquire about sitting in on specific classes, and writing down impressions ASAP while they’re still fresh. Also, if two schools are close together, you can fit in two visits in one day provided you don’t necessarily want to sit in on classes at both. Enjoy walking around campus and strike up conversations with students at the bookstore, snack shop, or museum about their experiences. Those kids might provide more info that you’ll get from crowded info sessions. If you’ve time, student overnights can be real eye-openers. And finally, have some fun on the visits - schedule some down time, perhaps a local attraction that’s of interest.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>Thanks, everyone! I have heard of a company that you can hire to coordinate visits/travel/activity for you in certain regions. Do you think that’s a worthwhile investment? </p>
<p>Try to go when the weather is nice. Common sense, I know but we went to several tours :
- over 90s temp. in August
- below 30 temp in November, cold wind etc.
- Super high Pollen count during the middle of Spring.
- went on a tour on freshmen move-in day ! ( we were traveling out of state /visiting family that day & just didn’t know.</p>
<p>I suppose many college visits tips are also applicable to college visits made as prospective graduate students…</p>
<p>Even if your kid’s not yet interviewing have them spend some real time on the colleges’ websites before you go. It will help them zero in on what they are interested in seeing on campus and may even result in dropping a school or two from the list.</p>
<p>Buy a portable accordion file. Create sections for interviewing, essay writing, testing, general stuff (FA info, Naviance lists, etc.), and one for each school on your student’s list. As you gather materials and take notes you can throw throw them in the appropriate section of the file. That way you won’t be searching through a pile later. Take the accordion file in the car with you.</p>
<p>If you’re doing the grand tour by car have your teen download some music he or she thinks you’ll both like. It’s a fun way to learn a little more about your kid and will cut down on the number of times you or s/he has to turn off the radio before your ears start bleeding.</p>
<p>Google maps is your friend. Make sure you’ve factored in time to drive around town, find the admissions parking and walk to the admissions office. You won’t want your kid to be sweaty and frantic when you arrive for your tour.</p>
<p>Make your overnight stops as close as possible to your morning visit school. That way if you quickly realize you hate a school you won’t have to stick around town all afternoon. You can continue to next day’s stop and get an early opportunity to walk around campus.</p>
<p>Allow for silence in the car. Your kid may rather sleep that dissect the advantages of the German department in school A vs. school B. Don’t worry, they’re still absorbing quite a lot. Try innocuous, off topic questions like, “What’d you think of the music in the cafe?” Your kid may be too overloaded to discuss anything more weighty.</p>
<p>A secret I learned from a psychologist/consultant-teens’ reaction to stress is often to shut down. If your kid’s sleeping, it may not be because they’re disengaged, it may be because they’re too stressed out to deal with college questions. Or then again perhaps they’re exhausted from staying up all night be fore you left playing Call of Duty. You make the call. :)</p>
<p>Try to get a copy of the campus map off the web before visiting, and become somewhat familiar with the campus layout. I was rather surprised how many schools we visited didn’t provide useable campus maps (or else we were just not able to find them in the materials we handed–but we did look). Some of the maps were rather partial and didn’t show areas we were interested in.</p>
<p>Eat in the dining hall! Yes, it’s fun to check out local restaurants, but nothing gives you better insight into the community and daily life than the dining hall. It’s also a good way to meet students who aren’t paid marketers for the admissions office.</p>
<p>Three things I’ve encouraged my kids to do:</p>
<p>1) Grab a copy of the school newspaper to read later on.
2) Pay attention to the flyers on the bulletin boards and bedsheet banners in the student union.
3) Take a look at the what’s on the walls in the building that houses what would be “your” department if enrolled.</p>
<p>The first two will give you a sense of what the campus is like and what students do/care about outside of class. The third frequently feature undergraduate and faculty research, study abroad info, or even profiles of recent graduates. You can sometimes learn a lot about how that school approaches a major just by looking around in the building. </p>
<p>1). Stay as close to campus as possible. Some have programs that allow you to stay in the dorms.
2). Attend a class.
3). Eat at the student eating areas.
4). Attend a student activity. I especially enjoyed the film festivals. Also good are athletic events outside the usual football, basketball.
5). Spring for a tshirt or hoodie (parents too!).
6). Be a tourist. Visit whatever attractions/downtown areas, etc are around.
7). Try to engage the students you meet. Just say you are thinking about applying most are very nice and will talk to you. </p>
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<p>Absolutely not. It really isn’t that complicated.</p>
<p>We also never made spreadsheets, kept accordion files, or took notes of any kind. Not that those aren’t good ideas, if you like to work that way. :)</p>
<p>One thing I try to do on campus visits is speak with “random” students. For example, we were in the town close to a school, and it was pretty obvious there was a student at the next table. He (and his parents) and many others were happy to talk to us, and they were all very enthusiastic about the school. We walked into the business building of a campus, and two students were milling about. They talked to us for a few minutes also. I feel like the random conversations help almost as much as the students that get paid to represent the school.</p>
<p>We always would chat after the visit about what they liked best and least about the visit. We were never as organized as some with making spreadsheets although I think it’s a great idea because colleges really did start to blend together. I second eating in the school cafeteria. We tried to visit a mix of schools. My older son in particular was sure he wanted to be in a city at a large school but ended up at a small LAC in a large-ish town - who knew? For us too, if we could we tried to visit the disabilities office (and for sure once they were accepted) just to be sure their accommodations could be met. I’m probably crazy but I really enjoyed the visits and having each boy all to myself (or ourselves). It was a fun time.</p>