College Visit Tips

There are particular types of colleges in every state. There are the large, public universities, the small to mid-sized privates, highly selective colleges and various combinations of each of those. There are urban campuses, suburban campuses and rural campuses again, in every state. What I am getting at is if you have no idea what you want, stay close to home and try out a few different schools before you travel too far. Once you start to narrow down what you like about these different types, then start expanding your range away from home.

Regardless of where you are visiting, here are some tips and questions to get the most out of your time on campus.

·               Take the official tour and attend the presentation (sign up online ahead of time)
·         Eat in one of the cafeterias
·         Arrive EARLY as parking is usually not close to where you are meeting
·         Meet with an advisor in your major if they are available
·         If you don’t have a major, ask about how they advise their undecided students
·         Look at the students walking around; are they in groups talking or by themselves
·         Ask what the largest classes on campus are and how many of those you may have
·         Check out the surrounding area outside of the campus to see what there is to do
·         Don’t eliminate a college too quickly until you give it time to process
·         Take notes and pictures because if you visit a few in a week they may get mixed up in your head
·         Fit is a combination of things, just not how pretty the campus is so keep in mind, cost, distance,           class size major and career advising and placement

If you are going to drive for more than an hour you should probably try to visit more than one college. Pull up Google maps and type in universities OR colleges and a list in the area you are searching will pop up. Have fun road tripping!

College Board has a good page of ideas about the college visit as well and you can see it here.