<p>I'm currently a rising senior and I'll be visiting many colleges in the next month (U of I, UChicago, Northwester, etc.). Any tips on what I should do before, during, and after? Thanks.</p>
<p>In my opinion it’s only worth it if you get to spend one-on-one time with students and ask about their experiences. The other things you do (visiting classes, walking around the campus, going on tours) are not all that helpful.</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Classes: at every school some classes are good and some are bad. I winced whenever I saw a prefrosh walk into Intro to Algorithms. If you go to one class you will probably get a skewed impression of the overall teaching quality. And you will probably not understand it because you missed all the previous classes.</p></li>
<li><p>Campus tours: if they talk about the history of the school that is kind of useless. If they talk about student life, that is more useful, but it only scratches the surface. I would try to talk to the tour guide afterwards and ask him questions about his experience. As a tour guide I always loved when people did this.</p></li>
<li><p>Walking around the campus: completely useless, in two months you will forget how much you loved or hated the campus architecture.</p></li>
<li><p>Walking around the city: you will probably spend most of your time on campus anyway, especially if you don’t have a car.</p></li>
<li><p>Admissions presentations/conversation with admissions reps: Well at least they will tell you some facts and numbers about the school, and it is useful to know the basic stats. So this part is worthwhile.</p></li>
</ul>