Touring Campus Affecting Admission?

Applying to College
1

<p>I'm going to visit UIUC tomorrow and my dad starts giving me this lecture today about how I should wear a shirt and tie all day in order to make a good first impression with the business school and the university in general.</p>

<p>I started arguing with him because I was pretty sure that prospective student tours are just run by elected officials on campus, and there's almost no way that they would end up communicating with admissions office people. I really can't imagine any realistic way that my impressions on a day-long tour could have any impact on my admissions next year (especially at such a big public school like that).</p>

<p>My dad and I are both new to the college admissions process, so the argument was pretty futile as neither of us had facts to back up our assumptions. So can anyone offer any insight as to who might be correct?</p>

<p>In a more broad scope, if dressing up won't cut it, then what CAN you do on a tour that might give you an edge in admissions (if anything)? Does it depend on the size of the school (in other words, the connectedness of the school's staff)?</p>

2

<p>Admissions sessions usually last a couple of hours. The first part is often spent in a room where admissions staff give a presentation and take questions. Then students lead tours of the campus. Unless you actually have an interview set up with an admissions rep, there’s no need to dress up. And even then, a tie is OK, but most kids dress more informally (eg. khakis and a button down shirt for guys).</p>

<p>Taking a tour can help to show interest in a school, but many schools don’t keep track or care about students showing interest. A few schools like Emory and WUSTL do like students who show demonstrated interest; in general, large publics and some of the very selective privates tend not to care. The main purpose of touring is to get more familiar with a school and see if it suits your needs. There usually is not an opportunity to actually affect your admissions results during the admissions session or tour.</p>

3

<p>We visited a ton of campuses. I really can’t recall anybody wearing a shirt and tie, although there probably were a handful of kids dressed that way.</p>

<p>Most kids were dressed the same way they might dress for a day of high school. Lots of blue jeans, polo shirts, some t-shirts, some khakis, a few open-neck button-downs, lots of windbreakers, sweatshirts, flip-flops, shorts in the summer, nothing fancy on the vast majority of kids.</p>

<p>Some kids schedule admissions interviews for their visit day on campus. Those kids were often dressed a bit nicer. But not always.</p>

<p>The majority of our visits were in the summer (but plenty were during the school year), and most people were wearing very comfortable things like you’d wear on a whirlwind tour of campuses in the summer.</p>

<p>We toured campuses like Vanderbilt, Johns Hopkins, Carnegie Mellon, Rice, Southern Methodist, Texas Christian, and a whole lot of liberal arts campuses, as well as state school campuses. It was the same dress at every one of them.</p>

<p>My son wore polo shirts and jeans to all of them, even the ones where he had admissions interviews. He fit right in. He has so far gained acceptance to each one where he applied. Point being: I don’t think they care a whole lot about dress.</p>

<p>Regarding what you CAN do on a tour for admissions…
As previous poster said, there’s not really an opportunity to affect your admissions results on these big, public days. There are usually lots of people.</p>

<p>If there aren’t lots of people, you might have an opportunity to request an introduction to faculty in your area of interest. We did this on more than one occasion when we were either the only visitors or part of a mere handful of visitors. That was a nice opportunity to get to know the campus better – and for them to know you better.</p>

<p>We usually coordinated ahead of time for an admissions interview while on campus, just for our own convenience (rather than 2 different visits). It’s too late for this visit, but you might want to do that on future visits.</p>

<p>A lot of colleges where son applied DID ask on college apps whether he visited their campus. Lots of his colleges had a laundry list of things that show interest – like campus visit, info session, admissions interview, meet with faculty, etc. He simply had to check whether or not he did those things and sometimes put the date. Like previous poster said, I don’t really think it would be a big deal if he DIDN’T do them, but on the other hand, the fact that he did showed an informed interest in that school. The most important thing is everything else on the application. The way you dress, the things you did on campus – all very small potatoes, I think.</p>

4

<p>Thank you both for answers and more!</p>

5

<p>Agree with the previous posts. On tours, you’re going to spend most of your time with a college student and other prospies. My son followed the casual side of his high school dress code on tours (polo, comfortable slacks, sneakers). He wore the same thing to his on-site interview; some students dressed above that, and some dressed below. At home, when admissions counselors visited his school, he dressed to the nines.</p>

6

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<p>This is true of most students I have seen at most college visits also. Wear whatever looks appropriate for a day at your high school, when you are not dressing down, but also not going way out of your way to dress up.</p>