Preparing for college visits
September and October are popular months for juniors and seniors to visit colleges. Many high schools will excuse students for a certain number of college visit days. If you’re going to physically visit colleges, which I strongly recommend before enrolling at any school, here are my top five suggestions for preparing for these visits:
1. Find out who your regional admissions counselor is. Most colleges and universities have a member of their admissions team designated for your region of the country. This is the person who’ll be your strongest advocate when it comes time for the admissions committee to review your application. It’s great if you can get to know this person a little bit—by email, Zoom, or in person.
2. Participate in an on-campus tour, information session, or open house. This will give you a good sense of what the college believes its own strengths and selling points are.
3. If available, schedule a personal interview. Especially since the COVID-19 pandemic started, many colleges have moved away from doing in-person admissions interviews. But some schools still do them, either in person or via Zoom. If this is an option, do it! It’s a great way to learn more about the school, and it will almost certainly make your application stand out (in a good way).
4. Leave time for exploration. Take a self-guided tour of the campus. This is a good way to visit the studio art spaces if that is an interest of yours, and it’s also nice to sample the food at the school cafeteria or check out the library. You’ll learn more about the school from this informal walking tour beyond what you were able to experience as part of an official tour.
5. Visit multiple schools. Ideally, visit different kinds of schools. Visit both large and small schools. Both highly selective schools and less selective schools. Private liberal arts colleges and state universities. Through your multiple school visits, you’ll develop a sense of what kind of school feels most like the kind of place you want to spend the next four years.
If you’re looking for support with any aspect of your college process, please use the contact form on my website to schedule a free one-hour consultation!
