College Visits

Tamra Kerns

Choosing Colleges to Visit

You are there for two purposes.
Can you envision yourself fitting in on that specific campus?
Even if you are not interested in that specific campus, how do you feel about a school that size? Or in that setting (urban, college town, etc)? Can you envision living on another campus that is roughly the same size or has the same urban/suburban/rural environment, etc.

If you have an idea of specific schools you want to apply to (or are thinking you’d really like), plan to visit those.
If you are just getting started and aren’t sure about what type of college you might like, mix it up! Visit a variety of schools—big and small, urban and suburban, in-state and out-of-state.
Create a list of schools you want to visit. Save in-state visits for weekends or shorter days off from school and plan to use your longer breaks for those that are a distance away.
Try to choose colleges whose breaks don’t overlap with yours so the campus is alive with students.

Tours fill up quickly, so try to plan as early as possible (at least 4-6 weeks in advance). The Winter Break is a great time to start discussing a plan!
In Google Maps on your laptop, mark each school as a Favorite.
Determine which schools are in a close enough proximity that you might visit them on a several day trip. Look at the best order to visit them to minimize your driving/flying.
Once you have the list of the schools you would like to visit, determine when their tours are available. To do this, search on “XXX University Campus Tour."

You will likely find a student-led walking tour and possibly an admissions presentation.
Sometimes there are separate housing tours.
Sometimes you will see tours for specific colleges on their main campus visit page. If you do NOT, that doesn’t mean that they do not have one, so you should go to the department page that you are interested in visiting and find a contact email and send an email asking if they have a tour or someone you can talk to when you are in town.
Create a quick list showing when all of the tours are for the various schools you will be visiting before starting to schedule. Once you have an idea of which schools you can do on which days, then start to reserve your spots.

Check Out Their Website - Read more about your major, look at the Student Life or Activities section, watch a recorded Information Sessions, or take a quick Virtual Tour. This will help generate questions you want to ask while you are on your tour.
Prepare Your Questions - Refer to the Questions to Ask When Visiting Colleges to create your list of most important questions you want to ask.
Prepare to Take Notes - In your Google folder in the Campus Visit folder is a template for taking notes at each school. This is IMPERATIVE! You WILL forget the details of a specific school after you have visited a few of them. Make a copy in Google Drive of the Template and rename it for each college you will be visiting. Make sure you have Google Docs on your phone and that you can easily navigate to this folder. Then, on the day of your visit, simply take notes directly in the document.

Wear comfortable shoes and take a water bottle!
Make sure your phone is fully charged!
Look around (this is more difficult for summer visits).
What are students wearing? Are they dressed in a way that you’d feel comfortable fitting in?
Are they laughing and talking as they walk between classes?
In the hang out places are they quiet and studying or talking together?
In the various classroom buildings, do you see flyers for clubs that look interesting?
How large are the classrooms? Would you be comfortable learning in them?
Ask if you can walk through the cafeteria (or even eat there!) It’s worth it to see the food selections AND the student vibe!
Ask the tour guide what they like best about their school? Like least?